Recording from the Silent Brass mute system

[James Yelland]

A question for technically minded people (of which I am not one): is it possible to record from a Silent Brass system onto a recordable minidisc player? (You can tell I know nothing about them, can't you?)

If the answer is no, any other thoughts on how you could record from Silent Brass?

Thanks.

 

[TheMusicMan]

Hey James

I haven't used the Silent Brass system, but I am guessing that there is a method of getting the sound picked up from the mute into a set of headphones yeah..?

Well, if this is the case, depending on what you want to do you could feed the headphones out from the silent brass into a mixer, then from there you would send one of the mixer outputs to a MidiDisc/PC Soundcard, whilst having the headphones connected. You would then be able to record whilst playing AND add other imputs i.e. a CD player thus allowing you to record yourself playing along with it...!

Not sure about your budget, but you can pick up a relatively low cost mixer like this one for around £40.00

You can then do as I suggest above... :wink:

PM or email if you want more information.

 

[James Yelland]

Hey Mr Music Man (!!)

Crikey!!! All this complicated technology!! Actually, all I wanted to do was play duets with myself (oo-err missus) by recording myself once, then playing along. But thanks for the suggestion anyway - it's the best one yet

 

[JRobertS]

I'm not sure about the new Silent Brass systems, but the old ones have an "AUX IN" and a "LINE OUT", in addition to the headphone socket. This means that you can plug a CD player into the "AUX IN", a minidisc player into the "LINE OUT" and the headphones into the normal headphone socket and record yourself playing along to a CD without having to spend a lot of money on a mixer.

Regards,
Jason

 

[Boneman]

It is very easy to record from the silent mute - you simply take the lead from the headphones socket and plug it into a recording device (you wil need a lead with a plug on both ends - these you can get for a couple of quid).

You only then simply need to record - i.e. if it is a tape player plug the lead one oend in the headphone socket of the silent brass (turn it on as normal) and the other end into the MIC socket and press the record button.

I have recorded myself onto my PC - however on listening back I did wish I hadn't! Up to that point I thought I had a nice sound! (and didn't realise my tuning was abysmall!)

 

[James Yelland]

It is very easy to record from the silent mute - you simply take the lead from the headphones socket and plug it into a recording device (you wil need a lead with a plug on both ends - these you can get for a couple of quid).

You only then simply need to record - i.e. if it is a tape player plug the lead one oend in the headphone socket of the silent brass (turn it on as normal) and the other end into the MIC socket and press the record button.

I have recorded myself onto my PC - however on listening back I did wish I hadn't! Up to that point I thought I had a nice sound! (and didn't realise my tuning was abysmall!)

Boneman, thanks for that. To refine my question, though, (because I don't really understand how minidisc players/recorders work) - would this work using a minidisc player/recorder? Would the recorded files be so massive that you could only get a couple of minutes-worth of playing onto a disc? Are there any issues regarding the technical specifications of the cable? I ask this last question because when I bought a new (cheap) pair of headphones for the Silent Brass, they didn't work, and I think this was because they were designed for use with personal CD/tape players, and the impedance/resistance/some other technical term wasn't suitable?

As you can see, I am totally at sea with technology so you will have to forgive me if all this is plainly obvious to everyone else!

 

[CaharleyFarley]

A question for technically minded people (of which I am not one): is it possible to record from a Silent Brass system onto a recordable minidisc player? (You can tell I know nothing about them, can't you?)

If the answer is no, any other thoughts on how you could record from Silent Brass?

Thanks.

I bought a lead from Maplins (cost 99p) and conected it from the headphone/output of the "Personal Studio" to the Mic socket on my PC. I recorded myself using the "Sound Recorder" on Windows 98.

The sound quality was exactly as you hear through the headphones when using the Silent Brass system.

..........oh, and my intonation was ok....thank God :wink:

The next step would be to connect a CD player to the Aux In on the S Brass - then record oneself playing along.

 

[TheMusicMan]

Another suggestion..

Take the output of the Silent Brass into the Line in or Mic of your PC Sound Card - then use a freely available sequencer to record as many tracks of your playing as you like.

Doing this - you could end up playing all four parts of a quartet, all band parts on a cornet... now that would be interesting eh!

The world is your oyster really... again James... do contact me if you want specific help.

 

[CaharleyFarley]

You have got me wondering now Music Man......

a) What is a sequencer? I noticed that the Sound Recorder with Windows 98 allows you to introduce another track previously saved - is this the same sort of thing?

b) This next bit is VERY confusing! I thought it would be good to record myself playing along to a CD. So....I put the CD into a separate CD player; conected CD Player to S Brass (Aux In Socket); connected Mute to SB; took a lead from headphone socket of SB to PC Mic socket; plugged headphones into PC. Started CD player and Sound Recorder - it didn't work.

 

[TheMusicMan]

Hi CharleyF...

Question 1 - What is a sequencer:
Well, you sort of answer the question quite well there yourself. Yes this is the sort of thing it is. However, with a full featured software sequencer you can record up to 16 tracks of audio or midi and mix them down to a single channel. You can apply specific effects to each seperate channel (called IFX - Insert Effects) or to the entire mix (called MFX - Master Effects) - such as reverb, delay, flanger etc... you can therefore create some great 16 track mixes. You can then mix down the final 16 track mix to a single audio and load that in as a single track... then add another 15... et al...

These applications come from being free right up to thousands of pounds. An excellent free one (and is also on the cover CD of ComputerMusic) is available for download at http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2004/Kristal-Audio-Engine.html

Question 2
I think what the problem is there is that you need a full duplex soundcard in your PC. The SB should be able to handle this but it's your soundcard that I think can't. You were trying to record and play at the same time. Full duplex (at least I think thats the correct term) means that your soundcard can record AND play at the same time. Most bog-standard PC soundcards cannot do this. You need either something like an internal or External (USB) Soundblaster card. I have an external one that works great.

So, your issue was that when you put the output of SB to the PC mic or PC line-in AND the headphones from PC as well, it won't do both at the same time.

You can achieve this though with something like the mixer I illustrated in my first post in this thread. Feed the headphones from SB to one of the mixer inputs, the CD Player to another mixer input, the REC Out from Mixer to PC Mic/line-in, use the mixer headphones and you're away.

I tell you what - it's great fun when you have all this set up. I recorded myself playing Ct along with a keys track I pre-recorded on my synth...

http://www.burnsworld.co.uk/music/lazy.mp3

Fire away with more of these questions if you want - I love 'em ...

 

[CaharleyFarley]

Many thanks for that information MusicMan - I will be downloading that software.

 

[TheMusicMan]

Many thanks for that information MusicMan - I will be downloading that software.

Hey CF - You are very welcome...

I have a copy of it from the CD that came with a recent edition of Computer Music and I must say that for a free audio sequencer - it is excellent. It doesn't handle MIDI, but with the SB system you won't need that function.

It even comes with several IFX and MFX modules such as Reverb, Delay and Chorus that as I said, you can apply to individual tracks or the master track. One condition though - post what you come up with yeah... I did...