First things first
1) First thing you need to do is plug your equipment together. Use the REC or Tape output on the mixer as this has a constant volume not affected by the main volume or booth volume controls.
2) Use good quality cables. The better the cable the more detailed the recording will be.
3) Don't equalize it to much - start off with everything at 0 for bass mid and treble as the recording will sound different on different systems and even though you like extra bass not everyone does.
4) Set the recording level. Most mixers have rows of LEDs or dials to show the volume of each channel. Use the gain control to keep these just below the RED on the mixer and check the volume of each new track to make sure you keep a constant level throughout the recording. Then play a track in the middle somewhere and check the sound recording equipment does not go into the red or whatever signifies that the input level is too high - if it does adjust whatever controls it has to get it to the right level. Baring all that in mind you also don't want to have the recording to quiet so as a rule keep it just below the RED or just below 0db that way you won't get clipping and the recording won't be distorted.
5) Keep the recording equipment level and on a firm surface.
6) Watch the time. Some recorders will only record for a certain amount of time so plan your set and keep track of time
Right, now that's out of the way let's get on to the formats
Cassette Tape
Its and old favorite which is past its time now. Only use it if you have no alternative. The recordings can be good if you use good NEW tapes and keep the heads clean but you will always get a bit of hiss and lack of detail. But it's almost old enough to be cool and retro if nothing else.
Minidisc
Very popular with DJs for several reasons.
1) They can be very portable and easy to use
2) They are inherently shock resistant
3) If you record a mixed set you can then go back through it and put in track numbers without causing gaps in the mix. You can even edit out the start or end of the mix on the unit its self
Minidisc is a compressed digital format so gives good quality recordings. It uses Sony's ATRAC or Adaptive Transform Acoustic Codec to compress the music so you can get around 80 mins in stereo or 160 mins in mono. The ATRAC system compresses the sound by leaving out some of the detail in frequencies the human ear is not good at hearing and keeping the detail high in the rest of it which results in a nice smooth sound but with list of punch.
CD-R
Stand alone CD recorders have been around for quite some time now and are good because nearly everyone has a CD player and they are easy to duplicate on a modern PC. The only drawback is it is not as easy as minidisk to edit without extra equipment or software. CDs record for up to 80 mins at 16bit and 41khz which is pretty good considering its 80s technology.
Portable MP3/WMA/WAV recorders
These are the next generation of recorders which record to flash media or hard disk. Their advantages are
1) Small and portable
2) Easy to upload to PC
3) Recording time is only limited to how much storage you have. Meaning you could record a 6hr set in one go.
Most of them record to MP3/4 which is prone to digital artifacts some record to wma which is supposed to be better but if you have the space it is best to record un compressed in something like WAV. Always record at the highest quality you can store.
Laptop or PC
Most people these days own a laptop or desktop pc/apple so is a good choice the main advantages of using a computer are
1) Very versatile and so can record in many formats
2) Vast recording capacity as long as you have lots of hard drive space
3) Easy to edit and record on to cd
Obviously they are not as portable ( but can be, I use a samsung Q1 which weighs less than a kilo) and if you use the onboard sound card the sound is not always great. I recommend an external sound device for use with a laptop. Creative labs and a few other companies sell decent 24bit 96 KHz equipment for less than 40 pounds. You will also need some software to record your sets, Audacity is a free piece of software that springs to mind
I hope you have found this useful and if you can think of anything I have missed just email it in to
JFunk.org
Recording your work
There are many ways to record your work and many pitfalls to overcome. I understand that there are literally hundreds of ways of recording from wax cylinders to DAT and beyond but I will try to go through the major ones you will find, but first I will go through a couple of points that are common to all.
