Sound recorder help
 

My plan at the moment is to resurrect the musical aspect of Sycamore as a spoken-word project. I figure I can record directly onto the computer, edit the tracks, burn CDs, and sell them to Cellar Dwellars for a discount.

The primary obstacle is the Sound Recorder itself, as it only gives a 60-second limit on recording a file. I could always splice pieces together, but that's a pain in the ass. So, my questions are:

1) Is there a way to change the limit on the sound recorder's recording time?

And if not,

2) Does anyone know of any good yet inexpensive recording software?

Total Recorder :D

bm, do you use it? Is it any good?

TotalRecorder is AWESOME. It will pull sound from any application you're running or from the Line In/Mic jacks of your sound card, stop recording when the sound level drops to 0% (long pauses, end of an album, etc.), allow you to trim the clipped sound down to whatever portion you want, and save it directly to a .wav or .mp3 file.

It's the only elegant solution I've found for capturing ShoutCast streams, and it's cheap to register.

I've used it to record RealAudio stuff. It does a pretty good job. But I haven't really compared it to anything else. I do know that Nero Burning and Roxio Easy CD Creator both come with audio recording apps... I used the Easy CD one to take some stuff off an LP once. So you might try that first if you have either one of those programs.

I haven't used it in a while. But everybody I know who does PC sound recording uses it and thinks it's the shiznit.

Total Recorder isn't entirely appropriate; it's a tool for capturing the audio from apps that don't really want to let it out, like Real Audio. You're looking for a sound production app where you can record, edit, and mix. WaveLab and Sound Forge are the canonical high-end apps, but Cool Edit is much more affordable. However, they were just bought by Adobe, so the price may start going up.

It appears They agree with you.;)

Since I'm assuming that Syc will soon settle on the application he will be using for his recording project, I would also like to drop a piece of advice along technical lines, here.

Never underestimate the value of a good quality microphone. For decent results in recording both music and spoken word, you really, really ought to have a condensor mic. There are some very reasonably priced units out there these days...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...base_id/101887

This link leads to the lowest price battery-powered condensor mic around. I've read several good things about it for artists on a budget.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=41466

The second link will show you the mic I'm most familiar with...the Equitek CAD E-100. I've been using this mic for about five years now, and it is an excellent buy.

Both these mics have the advantage of being battery powered, meaning you do not need phantom power to use them (condensor mics require power, unlike dynamic mics).

There are numerous other considerations to get a good quality project, but this is a very good place to start.

I like Silent Bob. It does a fairly good job of recording from the line in. I've copied over some cassettes and made CD's and MP3's from them with fairly good results. I used Audacity to clean up some Bill Cosby tapes my brother loaned me. It did a great job of making it presentable.

Oh yeah. These programs are free and/ or open source.

Try SoundForge
 

Been using it for a long time to record music off the net, re-mix CDs, etc.

It ain't cheep (US$80) but it is really excellent.

Sonic Foundry

How about Audacity? It's free, easy to use, and it doesn't have 1000 obscure options that you'll never figure out. You'll need 'Lame' if you want Audacity to save your recordings in mp3 format. You can download that here.

The Actual Retail Price of Sound Forge is more like $350!

I'm going to play with Steinberg Cubase for a bit, to see what it can do, and what I can do.

Look for the debut Sycamore CD in early '04. :)