Recording Sound bites to Computer

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:37 am

What sort of equipment/programs are necessary to record onto the computer and be able to upload them to the forum.Is there a basic microphone to software program that will give reasonable results or is it all Hi-tech and too expensive?

John Maddison · Post by **John Maddison** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:24 am

G'day Micheal
A bit of free open-source software that is fairly easy to get the hang of is Audacity, to download it click here. People all round the planet are using Audacity to make podcasts. The Audacity site has some pretty good web-based tutorials - click here. As long as you've got a half-decent microphone to plug into your PC it should record a reasonable sound.

One thing to remember is if you want to use Audacity to export MP3's of your finished projects you'll need to load a thing called a LAME encoder (plug-in), it's a .dll extension file that makes audacity MP3-ready, otherwise the alternative is to export as a WAV file, which is larger in size.

Happy to demo Audacity when you're over here for Playmakers!! .... or, I can feel a new forum tutorial coming on

.

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:32 am

I can feel a new forum tutorial coming on Confused

John,

I would value that as I have downloaded Audacity and battled with it to no avail,

hilo_kawika · Post by **hilo_kawika** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:48 pm

I would also promote the use of Audacity for sound recording and editing. There IS a bit of a learning curve, but once you get past that it's quite wonderful.

I was quite happy with using it for a non-lutherie project wherein I had recorded several hours worth of bird calls/songs with background noise and recording hiss. Very tiresome. But the various editing functions allowed me to create quite clean and serviceable files for bird identification:

http://www.ukuleles.com/SaddleRoadBirdi ... dhowto.htm

I'm sure it would be great for instrument soundbites as well.

David
www.ukuleles.com

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:29 pm

If you're on a Mac, then Garage Band is a great recording program. Just have to find a microphone that you can plug into a USB slot. I've tried using the built in microphone, and while it pick up sounds, it's by no means Hi-Fidelity.

Robbie O'Brien · Post by **Robbie O'Brien** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:57 am

This is something that also interests me. Quite often I get requests for soundbites of my guitars and I always politely decline. I just don't know where or how to get started and don't want to invest a ton of money into equipment or software. Time is also at a premium for me.

DarwinStrings · Post by **DarwinStrings** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:02 am

I use a studio called "ACID Pro 4.0" it works well but its maybe 5 -6 years old. I picked it up on P to P software and imagine it is still floating around. I don't know "Audacity" but I imagine it is similar and may be more convenient. Acid comes with a Wave to Mp3 converter and you can record as many tracks as your CPU can deal with, even more if you record say 6 tracks then merge them as 1 you create more space for even more tracks. A good sound card helps but just your onboard sound will do the job and if you're not to bent on studio sound then a $20 mic/headphones will do the job. PM me and I'll see if I can help you with it if you're interested.

Jim

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:23 pm

Thanks John,I downloaded the program and found a headset with microphone and spent 1/2 hour and it works.Great info.Haven't worked out how and where to post the soundbites to the forum pages yet but that's propably a good thing until I learn to play the little buggers a bit better.javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Another new thing for the day -added smiley face.What a learning curve!
javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
javascript:emoticon(':git')

ozziebluesman · Post by **ozziebluesman** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:24 pm

G'day Michael. Set yourself up a myspace site. Make sure it is in the musical section. You can then upload your uke mp3s soundbites. Have a look at my site www.myspace.com/ozziebluesman cost absolutely nothing.

Cheers

Alan

John Maddison · Post by **John Maddison** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:27 am

G'day Micheal

Glad you're getting into it, Audacity is a fun bit of multi-track recording software to be played with, and like everything else lutherie - the more you muck around with it the better you'll get!

Have thought about putting up a tutorial, but with so much stuff on the web (Google - Audacity Tutorials ... 317,000 hits!) ... why re-invent the wheel

.

One of the better online tutorials to advance your skills is on a UK based (electric) guitar web community called Blind Summit, where they've put together a series of screen shots that step you through the basics of recording and/or importing audio files. Read more >>.

Allen Mc makes a good point regarding USB microphones, whether it's a PC or MAC that people are using these 'plug & play' devices are easily 'seen' by a computer and take all the guesswork out of configuring your sound card. David's link is also a beauty, and the option of recording to a MiniDisk recorder or similar 'Walkman'-style MP3 recorder (for around $AUD60) is a convenient option if you don't want the hassle of recording to a computer - although the latter generally record as a larger-sized WAV file, which CAN be imported (Project >> Import Audio) into Audacity and then re-exported as an MP3. Importantly - make sure you COPY the file off your gadget and onto your hard drive somewhere ... in my experience Audacity doesn't import directly from a portable recording device.

While pictures can be uploaded, unfortunately the ANZLF site's phpBB platform doesn't appear to support uploads of MP3 files, so Alan's suggestion of uploading your sounds to a MySpace type site makes a lot of good sense; then ... just set up a hyperlink ('URL') from this forum to wherever you've parked your sound bites. With your own woodworking site, Micheal, you could build yourself another page there for publishing your sound files.

Once that's done, you can simply paste the whole web address into the forum editor's message body, or get real fancy and set up this code: [url=the full web address]some descriptive text[/url].

Geez mate, you've already mastered Pictures and Smileys, so why not have a go at hyperlinks!!

Lookin' forward to hearing some sweet uke sounds. Cheers!

John Maddison · Post by **John Maddison** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:06 am

USB Microphones

Here's an example of an affordable USB Mic by Logitech:

Found at this website.

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:08 am

highly recommend Zoom H2 recorder, about $350 now.

light, great mics, absolutely noiseless recording and you download straight into computer. Also will work as USB microphone.

can recorde directly as MP3, or WAV for best quality

John Maddison · Post by **John Maddison** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:02 am

Yeah, Matthew, the makers of Zoom H2 have brought digital recording into a whole new realm

... it has 4 built-in mics for 360 degree pick-up, and comes with a 512MB standard SD memory card, expandable to 4GB ... that's a LOT of MP3 sound bites!

It's even got an on-board guitar tuner. This website has 'em at $359.
_________________________________________________________

At the budget end of the scale there are gadgets like the 2GB Sony 'memory-stick' style NWZ-135F digital music Walkman with a built-in microphone at around $60 (even has an FM tuner in it!) ...

Available through Harvey Norman, Retravision etc.

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 12:49 pm

sound recorded from 20 meters away on a Zoom H2:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=uM77_pSD6qE

Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Recording Sound bites to Computer

Recording Sound bites to Computer

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