NCH (free) audio live streaming recording software

[bloke]

> I'm a computer ignoramus.
> Though I own a (long time ago: considered "sophisticated", at that time) DAT recorder, and a (more modern-era, and considered "pretty darn good for budget stuff") portable digital recorder, I hardly know sh-- about how to use any post-analog recording devices...so I'm a recording ignoramus as well. (Old guys don't like learning new stuff...particularly when new stuff - so quickly - becomes old stuff.)
> I am (well...) sorta proud of a performance that I did (last Saturday, at the hall in downtown Memphis) of the Overture and Wedding March from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream suite of incidental music.
> The performance is going to be streamed on the local classical music FM radio station at 8 PM on Friday night.
> I just googled something like "free record audio streaming software" and was sent to NCH. Reviews rate it as very good, and Norton told me it is safe, so I downloaded it.
> I just tested it on a radio station (as the same radio station that is going to broadcast it).
> It did great (perfect) the first time...click to start / click to stop...just as simple as using imgur for pictures.
> I've asked the Orchestra for recordings of the performances of those two pieces from that suite - and they'll very likely grant my request, but I'm also going to DIGITALLY (NOT some rigged B.S. from the earphone jack) record the radio station's digital broadcast.
> Though likely compressed, it will sound plenty good enough for me. (I'm sort-of a compressed type of guy.)
> I have NO idea whether any other software (other than NCH) will play what NCH records...but at LEAST, I'll have SOMETHING...

[Mary Ann]

Does that go through the sound card?

[bloke]

I’m so ignorant, that all I know is that I tested it - and it worked.

Does that go through the sound card?

[peterbas]

...

[bloke]

I will look… Thank you… But there may be only one quality level, because I picked the free version.

It’s always been difficult for me to discern different sampling levels in digital recordings, because they all sound digital, and none of them really sound like I’m listening to live music… Plus they all come through speakers and headphones, so…

[peterbas]

?

[bloke]

The strategy was/is to locate a free program, whereby I could pull the broadcast stream off the computer in some digital form - rather than some BS/rigged digital-to-analog-back-to-digital type of jake-leg improvised recording.
Again, the symphony orchestra is in possession of the original very highly-sampled digital recording - that was made by a very good recording engineer (formally one of the Ardent Studios engineers).
As a reminder, the orchestra is probably going to give me a copy of that high-sampled recording, but I just wanted to be able to get “something” – and without paying for it – just in case I’m not able to get approval from the orchestra for them to give me those files.
Finally - as just one more reminder, I’m recording off of a broadcast, and broadcasts of recordings are never the quality of the actual recordings themselves, so to upgrade my sampling ability seems (to me to be) somewhat moot.

I'm not saying you can hear a difference, but you can never go from a low to a high quality and since data storage is very cheap today there is no reason to go for low quality.

Live music is of course live, almost impossible to simulate that in a small room at home.

[bloke]

This Mendelssohn – which I believe will be broadcast around 8:10 PM tonight, CST - is what I’m going to try to record (overture and wedding march).
Unapologetically, I’m pleased with the way I played them, and would like to have a copy of a recording of the performance.
(If any of you play the flute - or are married to a flautist, the principal flute in this orchestra is a flute god.)
INFO:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... eed_mobile

[Three Valves]

That's cool, I didn't know you sat in with the MSO.

I'll see if I can stream it tonight.

I could use some classing up!!

[bloke]

My really good friend has been holding down the tuba chair since the late 1960s - when I was entering junior high school. I’m not sure if very many people - other than me - have ever subbed for him, since the early/mid 1970s.
I keep his tubas working, and he keeps my piano tuned. He is also a very highly respected parliamentarian, as well as a pretty darn good mechanic. Also, if it weren’t for him, I would have never had any real experience playing in a full-blown brass choir.

That's cool, I didn't know you sat in with the MSO.

I'll see if I can stream it tonight.

I could use some classing up!!

[peterbas]

...

[bloke]

The strategy was/is to locate a free program, whereby I could pull the broadcast stream off the computer in some digital form - rather than some BS/rigged digital-to-analog-back-to-digital type of jake-leg improvised recording.
Again, the symphony orchestra is in possession of the original very highly-sampled digital recording - that was made by a very good recording engineer (formally one of the Ardent Studios engineers).
As a reminder, the orchestra is probably going to give me a copy of that high-sampled recording, but I just wanted to be able to get “something” – and without paying for it – just in case I’m not able to get approval from the orchestra for them to give me those files.
Finally - as just one more reminder, I’m recording off of a broadcast, and broadcasts of recordings are never the quality of the actual recordings themselves, so to upgrade my sampling ability seems (to me to be) somewhat moot.

I'm not saying you can hear a difference, but you can never go from a low to a high quality and since data storage is very cheap today there is no reason to go for low quality.

Live music is of course live, almost impossible to simulate that in a small room at home.

And the only thing I wanted to say is that the default mp3 settings isn't for the best quality, probably 192 but 320 is possible.
Is the pro recording with or without video feed?

no video...
If I host it (secret URL) on youtube (or whatever), I'll probably attach it to a picture of Lurch, in order to convert it to a youtube-compatible mp4.

I just increased the bitrate up to 320, and (though wav is supposedly better) changed it from wav to MP3, just because its more commonly used.

Thnx...whether-or-not I made the best choices.

[Three Valves]

Are we done with the NPR crap yet??

Maybe Memphis is 1hr behind??

[bloke]

It's absolutely abominable...the endless propagation of nonsense...as as if it's sense

Are we done with the NPR crap yet??

Maybe Memphis is 1hr behind??

[Three Valves]

All you wrong voting TN dopes do not deserve their magnanimity!!

On now…

[bloke]

The radio station's internet stream sounds fuzzy/blurry/foggy to me.
There was a facebook live-stream of part of the dress rehearsal, and the fidelity was better.

EDIT:

@peterbas

The fidelity of MY recording of the radio station's stream is FAR SUPERIOR to the actual stream itself...(?!?!)

[Three Valves]

After the conductor shut up, I had to listen to the stream thru my iPad and BT to an external speaker. Sounded good!!

[bloke]

yeah…He decided to quote some lines from the play. With a microphone, he very briefly spoke about the composition, how Mendelssohn wrote the overture early in his life and the rest of the music late in his life, and how these four pieces - selected from the nine pieces of incidental music - form a nice equivalent of a “symphony”. He then turned the microphone off, and recited those lines from the play itself.

Oddly, playing the recordings through my phone with headphones (versus the laptop) offers me the best fidelity, as far as audibly separating out all the instruments is concerned.

LARGER POINT:
This experience really got me to thinking as to where the appropriate spot is for the tuba to sit in a symphony orchestra. Always sitting next to the bass trombone, there’s that constant loud racket in the tuba players ear that – frankly – makes it difficult for the tuba player to hear themselves play.
Nestled at the end of the horn section and behind the bassoons and clarinets, this places the tuba in the middle of alto voiced wind instrument harmony, and much closer to the first violins…as it is they (vlns) who are really playing the parts that really matter all the time.
I might even go so far as to say that it benefits the alto voiced wind instruments as much as it does the tuba.
As far as “matching the bass trombone“, screw that. The bass trombone (and nearly everyone of them are really nice guys, but…) is rarely all that interested in matching the tuba, but seems to always assume that the tuba player is obligated to match them.

[Doc]

As far as “matching the bass trombone“, screw that. The bass trombone (and nearly everyone of them are really nice guys, but…) is rarely all that interested in matching the tuba, but seems to always assume that the tuba player is obligated to match them.

Back when I did such things, I was blessed to work with a couple of bass bones (one in particular) who were intent on working together with me to achieve that Jacobs/Kleinhammer singularity of sound. No give or take - just achieve one voice in all the appropriate places. The one guy and I got hired together as a pair for various gigs many times because of it. I know this because the leaders always made it known they liked what we did individually, bit especially together. I later realized I was quite fortunate. And today, whenever I hear this done well either live or in recordings, it warms the cockles of my heart… right here under my pack of cigarettes . (Joking aside, I really do love that sound )

I never got to sit outside of the low brass, but I can think of a couple of times it might have been a real advantage (Meistersinger, anyone?).

I missed the broadcast. How did the recording come out?

[bloke]

As far as “matching the bass trombone“, screw that. The bass trombone (and nearly everyone of them are really nice guys, but…) is rarely all that interested in matching the tuba, but seems to always assume that the tuba player is obligated to match them.

Back when I did such things, I was blessed to work with a couple of bass bones (one in particular) who were intent on working together with me to achieve that Jacobs/Kleinhammer singularity of sound. No give or take - just achieve one voice in all the appropriate places. The one guy and I got hired together as a pair for various gigs many times because of it. I know this because the leaders always made it known they liked what we did individually, bit especially together. I later realized I was quite fortunate. And today, whenever I hear this done well either live or in recordings, it warms the cockles of my heart… right here under my pack of cigarettes . (Joking aside, I really do love that sound )

I never got to sit outside of the low brass, but I can think of a couple of times it might have been a real advantage (Meistersinger, anyone?).

I missed the broadcast. How did the recording come out?

The files (separated digital recordings of the two suite movements) are small enough to email to anyone (whether patronizing friend, neutrally-curious, or would-love-to-find-fault foe) who might be interested in auditing them.
I don't wish to publish them (ie. upload/web-host), because I just don't feel that I have permission to do so.

TO YOUR "SEATING" COMMENT:
To my ears, the (often: unison) tuba/bass trombone - in the Wedding March - seems to line up very nicely, and in most all aspects (balance/style/note-lengths/timing/etc.) ...and we were probably sitting thirty feet apart from each other.