[ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop

  • From: "Mike C" <m_dsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:43:41 -0400

I too agree with Brian, those ground lift plugs are dangerous, your better off to spend the money wisely on a power conditionar, or power that is dedicated to filtering out hums, and unwanted noise. I think personally those ground lift plugs should be band in todays standards. I can't believe companies actually celling those things knowing the fact that they are harmfull in the long run. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Phil Muir" <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 5:00 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop
Yup, agree with Bryan on this. Quite a few musicians were fried in this way 
back in the 70's.  Alex hardy comes to mind.  Don't do it!



Regards, Phil Muir
Accessibility Training
Telephone: US (615) 713-2021
UK+44-1747-821-794
Mobile: UK +44-7968-136-246
E-mail:
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
URL:
www.accessibilitytraining.co.uk/ <http://www.accessibilitytraining.co.uk/>


-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tim Burgess
Sent: 21 October 2009 09:44
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop


Absolutely agree with Bryan on this one - you only get the chance to be
wrong once and then you're toast - charred and giving off smoke  Don't go
there..

Best wishes.

Tim Burgess
Raised Bar Ltd
Phone:  +44 (0)1827 719822
Mobile:  07989 486976
Web:  http://www.raisedbar.net
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atherstone-United-Kingdom/Raised-Bar-Ltd/12023
4896800

Don't forget to vote for improved access to music and music technology at

http://www.raisedbar.net/petition.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Bryan Smart
Sent: 21 October 2009 03:11
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop

Hahaha, Dave.

Can we write that on your tombstone?
Listen, it has nothing to do with whether I "like it" or not. You can paint 
your laptop pink and purple and cover it with Hannah Montana stickers for
all that me "liking it" has to do with anything. Its not the Bryan Smart
certification of approval you're dealing with here, but your life. Just
because you *can* touch something at this moment, without your body
completing an electrical circuit, or completing one that kills you, doesn't mean that something is safe with the safety features bypassed. Maybe all is 
fine until that day when you reach over to touch a guitar amp or powered
mixer, and the electrons, being trapped in the chassy since there is no
ground, discover in an instant that your body, via your arm and chest, is
the shortest path to ground. I really do mean it when I say that you won't
have enough time to know that you're dead. Most computer gear is low volts
and high amps. Were I to come in direct contact with the electrical bus in
my little netbook, for example, I'd find 30 times the electrical power in
amps, at any given moment, required to kill me.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Dave Carlson
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:11 PM
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop

Brian,

Like it or not, it works.

Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Smart" <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 23:10
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop


Lifting the ground pin will only eliminate a 50hz or 60hz hum caused by
equipment that is out of alternating phase with another piece of equipment
that you're monitoring. Besides, its dangerous, and I can't believe how many 

people keep suggesting this to people on lists, as if grounding pins are
silly unnecessary annoyances on high voltage equipment. When you hear hum,
it means that you have an electrical problem. You can ignore the problem,
and live with the hum, but defeating the safety features in order to remove 
the hum is foolish. Odds are that your electrical problem, now without the
silly safeties to get in your way, could end up hurting or killing you if
you accidentally touch the right combination of equipment and create a fatal
circuit with your body. Those ground plug lifting adaptors are no problem on 

little devices that pull fractional amounts of power, but laptops, towers,
audio gear, etc can pull between 100 to 1000 watts or more, and it is just
not safe to do that!
Having said that, you probably don't have a hum. You probably have a digital 

chirping sound. If you listen closely, you'll notice that the sound of the
chirping changes when the computer is doing something like loading web pages 

and opening programs.

A lot of laptops do this. It is a combination of poor electrical circuitry
and a cheap USB sound card. The digital chirp that you're hearing is
cross-talk from a poorly shielded electrical bus inside the laptop. Some USB
sound devices have canceling circuitry that partially eliminates this chirp, 

but the only real way to get rid of it is to not run the sound card off of
the laptop's power. That means buying a higher quality interface with better 

canceling circuitry, or, better still, buying an interface with its own
power cord. An interface with its own power cord has its own internal
transformer and power bus, and won't be as affected by the cross-talk from
the laptop's leaky power bus.

If it turns out that you do have a power problem, then get a power
conditioner. If you can't afford a power conditioner, then get an
uninterruptable power supply from an office supply place. UPSes are cheap,
and do a fairly good job at cleaning up the alternating current's waveform
for the price that you pay.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Mark Dew
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:11 PM
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop

Steve, here's the deal.
We figured out if she unplugs the wall power supply from the laptop, the
static sound is gone.
Clear as a bell.
When she plugs the power supply back in, the sound returns.
So maybe that ground loop you spoke of a few days ago might be the answer.

Mark

At 05:17 PM 10/19/2009 +0100, you wrote:

Hi Mark,

Have you tried charging up the laptop and recording without the mains
adapter plugged in?

I use a laptop for my Studio computer and it works better without the
mains adapter.
This maybe worth a try.

Steve W
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Dew" <jmkeybd1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 12:45 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop




Gord, I'll check with her and let you know.
She just said it's a usb sound card.
Steve, it's hard to tell, I think it's just a frying sound.
I think maybe the sound card is just bad.
What would you folks recamend for the laptop?
She's using a Mackie mixer, with a sm-58 shure mic.
She's just doing simple work, recording vocals along with an audio
file.

Mark


At 04:28 PM 10/18/2009 -0400, you wrote:

The mic in may be only mono.  Also, you really don't want to use the
laptop's onboard sound for recording audio.  What usb interface does
she have?
Gord
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Dew" <jmkeybd1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 12:55 PM
Subject: [ddots-l] Recording with laptop



Hello folks.
Here's the problem.
I have a friend who has just a laptop and a mackie 8 channel mixer.
She has only a mic input on the laptop.
The audio siggnel is too hot.
She did perchased a u s b sound card that has a line in jack.
When she records using the line in there is a static sound she
can't get rid of.
I believe the sound card is bad.
The mic input on the laptop itself is ok, except too hot.
My question is, is there such a thing as an audio cable that would
restrict the audio level?
I had her to turn down the mic input on the laptop but with no results. 
Any ideas would be welcome.

Cheers!

Mark





PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the
immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq




PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the
immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq



PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the
immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq





PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately
following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq



PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately
following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq

PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=subscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode,
click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subjectzq or
send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
faq

PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode,
click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or
send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
faq

PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=subscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode,
click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subjectzq or
send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
faq


PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode,
click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or
send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
faq


PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode,
click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or
send a message, to
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
faq




PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
To leave the list, click on the immediately following link:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe
If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and in the Subject line type
unsubscribe
For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: 
ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or
send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
and in the Subject line type
faq

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. ddots-l
  3. Archive
  4. 10-2009