Steele was kind enough to make up a bit of a "primer" for all the n00bs who keep asking about what's required to record their mixes to their computer.



*Edit* > Part 2 is now up!



Big ups to Steele for making it and yours truly for hosting it.



Download Part 1 - Hardware



Download Part 2 - Software (Windows Config)

Hey Steele,

This is a great guide for a sound noob like myself. I never really get into the sound recording/sound engineering, as there was always some sound engineer to do that during the events that I played. But with this guide, I feel a step closer

Thanks and great initiative.

Hey Man,
That tutorial was really helpfull as I had no knowledge of how to record my mixes. That is exactly what a newbie needs. It was awesome how you broke things down step by step.

Thank You!

Steele has created part 2 - the Windows Config portion. Thanks for the hard work Steele!

looks great Steele! now where's Mac one

Seriously though nice job

/me knows nothing about mac.

YOU write it.

-r-

*bump* - Pulse - sticky this.

-r-

RYAN, thanks very much for your guide!!! I got recording to happen on my new Qosmio Laptop and am really thrilled and eternally greatful.

I one question, the guide says record on 16 bit, cause we don't need more than this ... can someone please elaborate? For example If I play out an MP3 Track at 320 Kbps from mixer and record that track in audacity, and then play both, will they both be identical? I mean for test purposes I recorded a Track and compared it with the original by playback.

The orginal track was orignally is was an MP3 320 KBPS but converted to Audio Format for playback on CDJ1000 MK2. The original has more punch than the re-recorded one. I am sure that is expected, but just wanted to understand tow things ...

How can we go to the original, what all will be needed. Will quality improve by using resolution of 32 Bit for recording?

Good - MP3 @ 320K
Better - 16bit / 44kHz CD audio
Best - 24bit / 96kHz DVD audio

I think the "punch" you're experiencing is purely psycho-acoustic.

Also what you're referring to in regards to 320kbps and 16 bit are two different things.

320kbps is the BITRATE at which the song is recorded - as in, the number of bits of data required to describe 1 second of audio data (in this case, 320 kilobits or 320 000 bits).

16-bit is the BIT DEPTH - the number of possible levels used to describe 1 sample of audio. This refers to the dynamic range, or (and I know I'll get shot for this simple but slightly incorrect definition) how loud something can POSSIBLY be in digital terms.

The reason I said you don't need more than 16-bit for recording is because chances are you're not recording to DVD and chances are you're going to downgrade to MP3 anyway. Even if you burn your mix onto CD, the extra bit depth isn't required because whatever program you're using to burn will downsample to 16-bit because that's the maximum that a CD can handle. Also, chances are your sources aren't any better than 16-bit (and a CDJ can't play back anything more than 16-bit, although the DVJ can) so you're probably not going to be losing much.

I suppose you COULD record at 24/96 if you wanted, then downsample anyway, just to make sure you're getting EVERY possible bit of data, but I don't worry about it and have never noticed anything wrong with 16/44. The audiophiles in here might, however.

-r-

1 bit = 0
2 bits = 00
4 bits = 0000
8 bits = 00000000
16 bits = 0000000000000000
24 bits = 000000000000000000000000

Each character has an on or off position, 1 or 0. Binary counting...

1 bit is a maximum "number" of 1
2 bits has a maximum of 3
4 bits has a maximum of 15
8 bits gives a maximum of 255
16 bits gives you a maximum of 65,535.
24 bits gives you a maximum of 16,777,215

All bit ranges are technically "plus one" since you count zero as a position; a 2 bit system values are 0, 1, 2 and 3... that's 4 positions.

A 24 bit system gives you 256 times the resolution of a 16 bit system.

Let's say you're recording audio at 96kHz, that means every second your recorder "samples" the audio 96,000 times. That's great but how "defined" is each sample of audio?

When you are recording a waveform and you have a 1 bit system, you have all or nothing; either full volume or completely dead. If you recorded using a 2 bit system, you have 4 volume positions; zero, 33.3%, 66.6% or 100%. Think now what you can do with a 24bit system; the resolution is infinitely more accurate (well, 5.5 million times better than a 2 bit system).

Recording at a better rate than what you will need is good but there are downsides with downsampling (which I won't get into because obviously the basics of bitrates are still a bit too complex).

OK, i agree and thought so too. When I said bits, I was only meaning to ask if there'something I need to do. The punch is definitely not pshyco-acoustic. I cued up the original track and the recorded track to the same beat. Burned them on two CD and released both tracks together. Then with the crossfade I checked back and forth there is a "slight" difference and the Punch is definitely better. I was thinking maybe better cables (gold plated) or digital cables or something I need to study further if and when we look at getting near the original. Will the quality of recording be the same using Line-In and Windows+Audacity and say with USD Edirol Soundcard+Audacity or a more professional recording software. I am only looking to be pointed in the right direction, will do some more looking up as I learn and grow from you guys. BUT YES, thanks very much, for now this works like a dream ... thanks again all and cheers.

Software in this case makes absolutely no difference - it's all in the hardware. So yes, ESPECIALLY on a laptop soundcard, the hardware will make a HUGE difference - an external card will ALWAYS sound better than an internal one.

-r-

Thanks Ryan, I'll be looking to get an external soundacard for me sometime real soon. Thanks a million.

Yeah... thanks a lot for your work Steele. Really great reading! - i am looking very forward to part 3!

Also a big thank to Pulse for hosting it!

lol - should point out here, that Steele = me. I changed my name just before the forum migration.

Glad everyone's finding this useful - that's why I wrote it after all.

-r-

this might be a dumb question or not.,..

CDR's have 80mins/700mb of space, if my recording is over 80 mins, does that mean I would need to edit my project down?

can I fit a longer mix on the disc? how?

Yeah if you're >80mins (actually I think it's 79:57 or something, not quite 80) it won't fit, hence the term "80 min CD's"

There exists some 90 minute blanks but I'm not sure on their performance (nor the ability for "every" CD player out there to play them, or even burner's ability to burn them).

So, a couple of suggestions:

1) MP3 your mix and throw it on the CD - your 90 minute (say) mix in MP3 will take up at most 180 mb (if you use 320kbps MP3 encoding) so there's plenty of room on a 700 mb CD for that. If you have an MP3-capable CD player, you're golden. If not - well you're hooped until step 2).

2) Cut your mix into shorter segments or just chop off the end and throw it on the CD.

Good luck.

-r-

There is such a thing as "overburn" but it's seriously better to edit your mix down to under 80 minutes to avoid the need for overburning.

Besides the fact that overburning is unpredictable - you never know how much you're gonna get on a given CD.

-r-