Simple recording setup

[Onomatopoeic]

I want to record some hard drives.

I have an Athlon running Win 2000 with a Sound Blaster Vibra 128 in it, and figure that should be ample unto the task.

I used to have a pair of stage/studio quality low-impedence microphones: a Shure SM57 and an Audio Technica.

But I'm not sure if they are the right sort of microphone to use with a sound card anyway.

Software. Is the stuff that comes with a Sound Blaster good enough? Or should I get something else?

I don't particularly want to spend any money on this project, but will if I have to.

Well Tannin, I must've missed this topic during one of my recent hiatuses, but anyway...

First of all, it's VERY good that you have a pair of decent microphones -- the Shure SM57 (a general all-around dynamic microphone, but primarily a heavy duty instrument and vocal microphone) will be enough for the job. A good condensor microphone would be a bit better since they can pickup more nuances and high frequencies, but a SM57 should be able to record just about all the audible noise of a hard drive.

The least expensive way to interface your balanced / low-impedance microphones to your high-impedance / unbalanced sound card is to buy a commonly-available transformer (cost is about US$15) that will plug into your low-impedance microphone cable -- which will also convert your XLR connector to a 1/4-inch male RCA tip+sleeve connector. From this you will need a 1/4-inch female RCA - to - male mini connector convertor so that you can plug this all into your soundcard.

The bad thing here is that the Creative SB-128, like ALL of their soundcards, has fairly poor noise floor characteristics. Getting a low noise original sound file (WAV) will be a very important first step in producing a final product, as the second step will be to dynamically compress the audio signal to listenable levels (narrow dynamic range). I believe the cheapest software capable of audio compression (and other important features such as frequency band equalising) will be Goldwave, which goes for US$40 downloaded, at:

http://www.goldwave.com/

I don't personally use Goldwave, instead I use Sonic Foundry Sound Forge (about $300) for such chores, but I know Goldwave comes close to what you can do with Sound Forge for a fraction of the price and dynamic compression is certainly one of the things you can do with Goldwave. There is a "cheap" version of Sound Forge for about US$70.

By the way, my soundcard has low-impedance inputs and outputs -- bunches of them! -- so, no need to convert anything for me.

 

[Cliptin]

Bang Pow Zoom Bam Clank

Is this the sound your hard drive makes?

 

[Sol]

Actually I think there is a "Free" version of soundforge for about 30 days or so, can't see the job taking longer than that.
You should be able to get it here

 

[Onomatopoeic]

Bang Pow Zoom Bam Clank

Is this the sound your hard drive makes?

No, those are just onomatopoecisms which are remotely related to stomasonics.


NEXT QUESTION!

 

[Onomatopoeic]

Actually I think there is a "Free" version of soundforge for about 30 days or so, can't see the job taking longer than that.
You should be able to get it here

There was a Sound Forge "SE" that was around for a while -- may even still be -- that you could buy at various music stores for US$10 or US$20 on just a CD-ROM (no book). I never saw this for sale except at music stores (guitars, keyboards, drums, etc). It wouldn't accept the various pricey Sonic Foundry plug-ins, but it did all the basics. Sound Forge XP was around then as well.