Whadayathink of this piano sound?

[Kent Swafford]

Here is exactly what I use, if anyone is interested:

Apple iPod Nano 2nd generation (still available from Apple as refurbs):
http://tinyurl.com/ypzgfa

It appears that a third generation iPod Nano can be made to work with  
the iTalk Pro, but isn't fully compatible. iPhones and the iPod Touch  
apparently do not work at all.  I wouldn't use an iPod model that has  
a hard drive, because of the mechanical noise.

iTalk Pro:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italkpro

Sony Stereo Mic:
http://tinyurl.com/yukbup

There are a couple "secrets" to making this work. You must do the  
recording with close miking and with the iTalk set to low gain. The  
gain of the resulting recording will at first sound too low, but  
setting the gain for a close-miked piano is problematic under the best  
of circumstances, which this is not; it _needs_ to be low gain. The  
second "secret" is to use audio editing software to "normalize" the  
recording, which can automatically bring the gain up. (This could have  
been the artifact that Stéphane was hearing.) On Mac I use  
SoundStudio; I don't know how to do this on Windows. It's all  
obviously a kludge but the results speak for themselves.

Kent


On Nov 30, 2007, at 3:57 PM, Stéphane Collin wrote:

> Hi Kent.
>
> I'm completely overwhelmed to see what you can do with a nano iPod  
> and Sony
> mass market mikes.  We live in a wonderful time, don't we ?
> Just curious about why I'm the only one hearing saturation on high  
> volume.
> And no, it is not my sound system that sucks (it doesn't).
> Also curious to see people hear difference between mp3 320 kbs and  
> lossless.
> There is a true concept of self sustaining subjectivity which calls,  
> for
> example, you to prefer a gear that costs much over one that doesn't
> (foreseen that you bought it).
> I already have an iPod, and now, I go buy Sony mikes that fit it.
> Thanks.
>
> Stéphane Collin
>
>
>