[rescue] cassette?

[Don Y]

Ethan O'Toole wrote:
>> That was the point of my question.  I have several different
>> machines available to choose from.  Each has different audio
>> hardware -- and also different levels of fan noise, etc.
>> (e.g., laptop runs the CPU fan based on CPU temperature
>> so it is an intermittent noise... which might be better or worse
>> than a "steady state" noise source; some of the servers
>> are so damn noisey that you can't hear yourself *think*
>> when they are on -- so adding audio hardware to them is
>> foolish).
> 
> Do you have a SGI Indy laying around? They have very nice sound hardware,
> and are pretty quiet (the disk would be the loudest part).

Indy is the red or the *blue* one?  I think I have a blue SGI
box... I had problems trying to get it to boot (headless).
Heard the tones on power up but couldn't figure out how to
get a serial console running...  :-(

I also have the VW320 which *seems* to have good audio...
but loud fan(s).

An assortment of SPARC boxen... SS5, SS20, U1, etc. but I
think they all want to run Solaris to make proper use of
their audio hardware.

And, a GUS MAX and a GUS PnP which are good for *playing*
sounds but no idea how good they are at recording.

Plus laptops with dubious "consumerish" audio...  :-(

Anything else is not intended for use with audio (servers)

>> But radio listeners can tolerate some level of background noise
>> in the broadcast.  And, "real world" noise (vs. electrical
>> noise -- and fans) is much more natural/acceptable.
> 
> You would think.... I can't believe the amount of trouble they go thru for
> proper sound quality when the output is an AM transmitter. Many of the

Yeah, get a SPARK GAP and drive it with a couple of KV... :>

> stations have really good audio chains. The sound cards are like $2000 a
> pop alone, because the sound quality of consumer audio cards isn't good
> enough. It's wierd.
> 
>> I need some speech samples for a speech synthesizer
>> (diphone based) so noise and extraneous "sounds" can severely
>> impact the quality of speech -- since the noise would be
>> tagged to particular "word parts" (diphones) and repeated
>> each time that diphone was used to build a speech sound.
>> (i.e. annoying if every "k" sound had a burst of fan noise
>> in it, etc)
> 
> Gotcha.... I think with a proper mic you could do fine.

I suspect its going to be the sort of thing that I "do it"
and then, after the fact (after processing all of the diphones,
etc.), discover that it's not good enough (for any of a variety
of reasons, many of which are probably NOT related to the
hardware/software but, rather, failing to keep a consistent
"tone of voice" when recording the samples).  Unfortunately,
I am not big on patience for these sorts of things.  :-(
And, if I impose on other people to undertake the same
process (as they may have "better" voices), then it becomes
a big imposition if you have to tell them you need a "do over".
Hence the push to figure out what I need "up front".

> Now the sound card, there are lots of options for those from consumer
> Creative Labs to the more professional MOTU, MIO and all the other pro
> cards and external firewire / usb interfaces.