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Posts: 533
Joined: Jul. 16 2003
From: Toronto, ON, Canada
Recording Lessons
Hi,
Does anyone have familiarity with how to record lessons with their teachers? I'm looking to buying a portable recording device for this purpose. I was thinking about a voice recorder, but what do you say? Digital or Cassette? (not sure I can afford a minidisc) Also, it would be nice to be able to archive on my computer all the lessons. Also, I'm worried about quality. Something that passably captured the frequency range of a guitar would be ultimate. Much obliged.
Unfortunatly a minidisc would be the best way. A dictaphone would get too bad in quality i think. a mp3 player could aslo do the job. but MD would make best quality.
_____________________________
This is hard stuff! Don't give up... And don't make it a race. Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.
Now say I compromised and just got a voice recorder... Would that be sufficient to hear our voices clearly enough or do you think the music would muddle things up?
Hey man, recording your lessons is great you'll see that you missed a lot of things in a regular class and with recorded material you can just sit and analyse, you'll get a 100% of your teacher. I had two experiences with teachers who let me record their classes, the last class I had with one of them was recorded with a video cam, the class was about all we had seen with him as my teacher, I asked anything I wanted!...it was awesome because I actually catch a lot of things I didn't at first in the actual class. My second experience was with a teacher I had via web videos, he asked me what I wanted to work on and that was the first half hour of the video, then the other half he'd put what he thought I should learn. I still have those videos because he also played some nice tunes in between. The thing is you should make a record of the class in a format you'd like to see and/or hear later you know, I couldn't imagine those same classes with a 8bit/12000 recorder, the fact that you may have to decipher some things is just too annoying. I would do it with a digital video cam and a 1Gig pendrive and would make the videos smaller for storage if there's too many classes..., mp3 format is really good also but seeing the guitar adds a whole other dimension to it. Cheers.
Hmm... good advice, but I just can't afford anything like this, and I think it would be an awkward imposition to film my teacher in this case. But this has been very helpful, Carlos and Henrik. Thanks brothers!
Does anyone have familiarity with how to record lessons with their teachers? I'm looking to buying a portable recording device for this purpose. I was thinking about a voice recorder, but what do you say? Digital or Cassette? (not sure I can afford a minidisc) Also, it would be nice to be able to archive on my computer all the lessons. Also, I'm worried about quality. Something that passably captured the frequency range of a guitar would be ultimate. Much obliged.
-Conrad
MD would be best as they have a wide recording range and high quality - you should be able to pick up a cheap one on ebay. Unless it's one of the newer ones, you'd have to convert whatever you record to digital file format (eg mp3) in real time. But not too much of a pain (unless you have hours and hours of lessons). Voice recorders are pretty good these days - and can record onto flash memory. Eg Sony make some which record onto memory stick and can be downloaded onto a computer (and then converted to mp3 from Sony's own format). Frequency range of the high end models is fine for your purposes - (you probably want 16Khz as a minimum sampling frequency). Although, they are not that cheap new - maybe try ebay.
yes it´s in sweden (Gothenburg) Ellen is a swedish Jazz/blues singer. She´s been singing flamenco for 10 years i think. She´s a student of Najarito de Triana.
_____________________________
This is hard stuff! Don't give up... And don't make it a race. Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.
I'm in the same boat I don't know which to buy, the M-Audio MicroTrack or a Minidisc recorder. Does anyone have preference? Why?
Todd,
I think it's all in what you are after (and able to afford). The M Audio unit records at a true professional level, but at a higher cost. The downside to the Micro Track is having to buy an additional larger memory chip. By the time you are done with the Micro Track you will be close to 500 bucks.
I have a Micro Track and highly recommend it. If you can afford it, go that route.
There is a guy named Ruben Diaz, not sure if you've heard of him. He was a bit of a mystery to me for a while, but the story goes that he studied with Paco in the Yucatan. He is an incredible player, and one of few who are lucky to have studied with the king. God knows why he's in Toronto. I begin Wednesday with him, and I hope to return to Miguel for some fun soon, too.
What about you? You are still with Benji, no? How is he treating you? What are you learning? I have to see that guy. He's my buddy, but he lives across town.
Ruben Diaz... hmmm, have not heard of him. Do tell me how it goes. What's his rate and where does he teach?
I haven't seen Ben for two weeks. He was gigging this weekend, and the week before we couldn't meet. I'm quite behind, and I feel horrible. Having such long breaks between lessons are not helpful! The lessons themselves are quite useful - I'm still hammering down some of the basics, and Ben is very accomodating and generous with his kindness. We're due to meet this weekend. With the lessons, we're doing Moraito's buleria and sevillanas from (Morao y Oro, sp.?). On my own, I'm working on Chicuelo's tangos from Encuentro.
Surprised you remembered my name I guess I'll have to start signing with it.
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I guess I'll have to start signing with it. 
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