About Audio Recording (2) Digital audio recording equipments

What type of recording you want to do? This article will explain the basic equipments you need for recording audio on computer.

Recording studio is a professional recording venue using various equipments like sound mixing desk, professional sound card, condenser microphone, monitor speaker and more to record movies, songs, music, etc. It is a pretty good recording environment for those who have special requirements in recording like singers and bands. Of course, the charge of the recording studio is also expensive.

Generally speaking, most people take recording for personal entertainment such as recording online music, recording voice, recording VoIP calls, recording tapes into digital files, etc. In this occasion, you can easily record the sound at home on your own if you have the appropriate recording equipments. Here I'd like to introduce some essential hardwares for primary audio recording on computer.

Part one: Sound card for recording

I believe this word is not strange to most of you. When we play sound on our computer, the sound card plays an important role. Sound card is a hardware to realize the conversion between acoustic and digital signal. It is the most fundamental part of multimedia technology. In the other words, it is an internal computer expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer program.

How to choose a sound card for recording?

Have you ever found that the recorded sound is different from your voice? That properly caused by the sound card. Actually, most internal sound cards of computers perform pretty well in home recording. Some people who want to record the sound in a better quality, then the following advices should be taken in to consideration.

The main thing is the converters used in the sound card. Most professional cards use the converters made by AKM.
The next is the analog circuitry before and after the ad and da converters this includes built-in pre amps.
If the sound card is rate locked.
How much are you willing to spend on recording? Even if you purchase the best sound card if you only own cheap microphones, the sound card would hardly be fully utilized.

Sound card interface:

Commonly, there are three jacks on a sound card: mic, line in and line out.

Mic in recording. Just connect microphone to computer via "Mic In" port, you can record your voice at ease.
Line in recording. External audio equipment's output line always accesses the sound card via the "line in" jack so that you can record the sound from player, radio, VCR, etc.
Line out recording. Speaker, headset and other processing equipments can connect via the "Line out" jack. It commonly used in recording music from computer to magnetic tape.

Part two: Microphone for recording

Microphone is another important tool for home recording. Although there are variety of microphones on the market, they are commonly divided into two categories:condenser microphone and dynamic microphone.

Condenser microphone:

Condenser microphone is usually used in a professional recording studio because it can pick up more wide frequency range compared with others. In the other words, you can get the perfect real tone even you are not closed to the sound source during recording. Moreover, it owns many other advantages like high sensitivity, fast transient response, low handling noise, etc.

Dynamic microphone:

The main characteristic of dynamic microphone is the good sound quality and do not need the power supply. As household microphone, dynamic microphone is the best choice. Since it can record high frequency sound and keep the sound perfectly in proximity to the sound source, therefore, it is the best choice for electricity box guitar, bass drum, snare drum, etc.

How to choose a right microphone?

Most people think that the more expensive microphone the better. Actually, it is not exactly correct. According to your own situation, the practical one is the best. For chatting on line, the headset can be enough. If you want to perform better in recording songs, then you'd better to choose a professional microphone. Take these factors into consideration before purchasing:

Look at the microphone to see the specific range of sound acquisition. Choose the proper range of sound.
Excellent sensitivity can feel very weak acoustic and output the most clear sound.
The The ideal frequency response curve is a horizontal line representing the output signal can present the original sound characteristics in truth.

The location of microphone and sound source and the recording environment can also effect the sound quality. Anyway, make an easy test on microphone before purchasing is very necessary.