How can Don record a video chat? Leo says it depends on the service. Most should have the ability to record built-in. So hunt around. Skype does, for sure. Remember though, each state has its own laws about securing permission, but it's just plain polite to ask. California, for instance, is a 2 party state, which means both have to give permission.
Scott joins Rich to talk about an issue connecting a tape deck to a modern AV receiver with no tape in/tape out option. Scott says older receivers had that feature to record and playback certain AV signals. But that went away about 20 years ago. No receiver that Scott knows supports that anymore. With modern streaming, nobody really records anymore. But with certain receivers, including the Marantz NR1509, you can still record it. Look for a preamp out or pre-out port.
Jake's friend wants to get into music recording and is looking for a good USB microphone. Their budget is between $100 and $200. Leo says there's a lot of choices in that price range. Blue is best known for this category. The Blue Yeti is the top dog. He should avoid the Snowball, though. It has no headroom. Audio Technica's ATR2100 is very nice as well.
Shane wants to create podcasts while out in the field. Leo says that Zoom recorders are a great choice for that. They make some great recorders including the H1n and H4n. All are great for recording audio. But the best is the Behringer XAir 18 mixer. It works with an iPad that records all the tracks.
Rich is an audiobook narrator and he just finished building his own vocal booth to record his audio files. But since the booth is so small, he wants to have his laptop on the outside with a monitor connected and a monitor on the inside. WIll an HDMI splitter do the job with a 2012 MacBook Air? Leo says that a splitter can degrade the image quality. The Air also has a mini display port, so he'd need an adapter for HDMI. They're pretty cheap. The Air won't really have an issue with the splitter.
James is looking to get a Chromebook, but he's thinking that as a musician, he may need a Windows machine. Are there online ways around it? Leo says that there are online resources to record audio. Leo says that Chromebooks are great for most people, but it may not be for everything he does. Leo says that before he buys, he should try using nothing but the Chrome browser exclusively for a few days and see if there's extensions that can do what he wants. Leo's guessing that for recording music, the Chromebook may be lacking and he would need a full OS like Windows.
Danny wants to know how he can capture streaming audio on his computer. Leo says Replay Radio by Applian is a good option. It'll take all those streams and save them like a DVR.
Shannon is a southern gospel singer and they sing in 4 track harmony. He's looking for good software that can balance the volume and gain when recording separately during a live performance. Leo says that all recording software has that capability, and he can always use hardware to do it with a Telos compression/expansion module. It also protects against popping and clipping. Audacity is free and he could find a plugin for it that can work. It's available on all platforms, too.
Sigmund recently had heart surgery and they replaced one of his heart valves. It 'ticks' rather loudly, though. Leo says that Dr. Mom says it's not unusual for mechanical heart valves to have an audible ticking noise. Leo says that some mics, mostly condenser mics, are very sensitive and can pick up the faintest of sounds. That's why most studios use dynamic mics. They don't pick up a lot of external sounds. But condenser mics can be tuned to not pick up that. Sigmund should find that in his Yeti settings. He can also "declick" the audio recording through recording software.
Roger would like to get into voiceover work and wants to know what equipment he needs that is high quality, but affordable. Leo says that breaking into voiceover is a challenge, but it's easy enough to build your own sound studio. Many work out of their house thanks to high speed internet and ISDN telephone lines. But the ISDN line can be expensive, so it's better just to record at home and then upload.
