Greg Winterflood wrote:
> --- In Doug Von Gausig <>
> wrote:
>
> Don
>
> Somewhere in this thread you mentioned that you were recording the
> sparrows directly to your HardDrive.
>
> I tried that today but only ended up with a heap of electrical
> noise. I have an ASUS L1400 Laptop with enough grunt to handle the
> task so took it into the field (ie my backyard) and plugged the
> Audio-Technica shotgun - via an XLR to 3.5mm mono input jack - into
> the PC.
>
> Despite running the PC on batteries (to avoid our 50Hz 240V AC power
> supply hum) all I got was electrical noise on the recording.
>
> My guess is that the RF form the PC is sliming its way into the mike
> cable; but I'm not sure.
>
> I understand that the XLR is balanced input and that converting it
> to a mono 3.5mm jack might cause problems but was wondering what
> your set-up is?
>
> Have PC - will not need tape or MD - Greg.
> AS,NT,Oz
A laptop makes a very awkward field recorder. And a darned expensive
one. Usually you have to get into a outboard mic pre as a minimum. And
should not attempt to move around while recording. Don't dump your field
recorder. I have several laptops around here, still need a field
recorder. I've used laptops in the field, though not for recording. In
my case I left tape over 7 years ago and use MD.
Hard to tell at a distance the cause of your immediate problem. I doubt
the problem is the conversion of balanced to unbalanced. Unless it's
wired wrong. Signal hot (pin 2 of the XLR) goes to the tip of the plug,
Signal cold (pin 3 of the XLR) goes to sleeve. It may or may not be ok
to connect shield (pin 1 of the XLR) to the sleeve too. You might also
run into problems if your laptop has a stereo input and you are plugging
in mono. In that case use a stereo plug and send signal hot to both tip
and ring. My guess is you are going to need a proper mic pre.
Walt
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