Recording Audio help

Hi I have a Dell vostro1500 laptop I have vista basic on it.

I write Poetry and for the first time in years am recording myself. I have a
headset that I am using. As this is a project of mine I dont want to spend
louds of money on special equipment.

The problem is when Im using the inbuilt sound recorder the background noise
of the computer is on the recording. To help I unplugged the mains when
recording. That cut out the buzz. But I still get slight noise from the
computer. Its not a cd spinning or anything like that. When I am recording it
is the only prgram I have run ning everything else is off.

I dont know what else to do. Does anyone have any cheap alternatives? Or
suggestions? Is this problem always going to be unless I download something?
Any help would be appreciated. and thank you in advance.

"Johnny B. Safe" <JohnnyBSafe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:64B20110-EBAA-4179-9390-E8DFD74EA21D@microsoft.com...
> Hi I have a Dell vostro1500 laptop I have vista basic on it.
>
> I write Poetry and for the first time in years am recording myself. I have
> a
> headset that I am using. As this is a project of mine I dont want to spend
> louds of money on special equipment.
>
> The problem is when Im using the inbuilt sound recorder the background
> noise
> of the computer is on the recording. To help I unplugged the mains when
> recording. That cut out the buzz. But I still get slight noise from the
> computer. Its not a cd spinning or anything like that. When I am recording
> it
> is the only prgram I have run ning everything else is off.
>
> I dont know what else to do. Does anyone have any cheap alternatives? Or
> suggestions? Is this problem always going to be unless I download
> something?
> Any help would be appreciated. and thank you in advance.
>

It sounds as if you might be expecting just a little too much from a laptop
and microphone. From your other post it seems that the noises are within the
computer rather than travelling through the air.There's quite a lot that you
can do but it's a bit of trial and error. First off, go to control panel,
Sound and Manage audio devices. On the recording tab find your microphone
and select its properties. You'll probably find controls for Levels and
Enhancement. Experiment with them a bit. For instance, on mine I have a
Noise Suppression check box. Remember, you may have to restart every time
you make a change. Next, lets try to stop those noises in the computer. If
you have an air duster blow out any vents so that the computer runs as cool
as possible, and maybe the processor fan does not come off. Look at all the
background processes that might be running like antivirus, indexing and a
network connection. Disable as much as you can. The other thing you can do,
of course, is to talk as loudly as possible, drowning the computer noises.

I'm not sure if that will help you or not. PCs are fine for recording things
like answerphone messages but I've never got, or even tried to get, high
quality voice recording from a PC. If it's not important that your voice is
on the tape, you might consider text to voice conversion. There's some quite
good software out there but freeware ones usually add adverts, but they can
be edited off.

Paul


>

Thanks Paul. I am grateful and your right. I have done a couple of those
things. I will try the others makes perfect sence to me. At least I know its
not just me. If worse comes to worse I wil try and get some dictophone that
converts to upload to my laptop. Things have changed alot. so I will look
into it. Again thank you for be honest and helpfull. If you know of any good
ways to record voice and be able to easily transfer to pc would be great. or
any one seeing this thread.

thanks again

Johnny

"pg123" wrote:

> "Johnny B. Safe" <JohnnyBSafe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:64B20110-EBAA-4179-9390-E8DFD74EA21D@microsoft.com...
> > Hi I have a Dell vostro1500 laptop I have vista basic on it.
> >
> > I write Poetry and for the first time in years am recording myself. I have
> > a
> > headset that I am using. As this is a project of mine I dont want to spend
> > louds of money on special equipment.
> >
> > The problem is when Im using the inbuilt sound recorder the background
> > noise
> > of the computer is on the recording. To help I unplugged the mains when
> > recording. That cut out the buzz. But I still get slight noise from the
> > computer. Its not a cd spinning or anything like that. When I am recording
> > it
> > is the only prgram I have run ning everything else is off.
> >
> > I dont know what else to do. Does anyone have any cheap alternatives? Or
> > suggestions? Is this problem always going to be unless I download
> > something?
> > Any help would be appreciated. and thank you in advance.
> >
>
> It sounds as if you might be expecting just a little too much from a laptop
> and microphone. From your other post it seems that the noises are within the
> computer rather than travelling through the air.There's quite a lot that you
> can do but it's a bit of trial and error. First off, go to control panel,
> Sound and Manage audio devices. On the recording tab find your microphone
> and select its properties. You'll probably find controls for Levels and
> Enhancement. Experiment with them a bit. For instance, on mine I have a
> Noise Suppression check box. Remember, you may have to restart every time
> you make a change. Next, lets try to stop those noises in the computer. If
> you have an air duster blow out any vents so that the computer runs as cool
> as possible, and maybe the processor fan does not come off. Look at all the
> background processes that might be running like antivirus, indexing and a
> network connection. Disable as much as you can. The other thing you can do,
> of course, is to talk as loudly as possible, drowning the computer noises.
>
> I'm not sure if that will help you or not. PCs are fine for recording things
> like answerphone messages but I've never got, or even tried to get, high
> quality voice recording from a PC. If it's not important that your voice is
> on the tape, you might consider text to voice conversion. There's some quite
> good software out there but freeware ones usually add adverts, but they can
> be edited off.
>
> Paul
>
>
> >
>
>