[HANASHIR:12711] sound recorder tips

[SELINGER <SELINGER...>]

More tips for using Sound Recorder on a Windows PC.

Sound Recorder is a simple recording tool with only limited capability,
but it's extremely useful for making  quick low-fi recordings that can be
easily shared via email or posted on a web page. It also has the 
advantage that it is already installed and available on every windows PC. 
You need a sound card and a microphone of some kind, but these are 
standard equipment on PC's and have been for some years now.

Sound Recorder records .wav files which tend to be very large, so make 
sure you have plenty of disk space available.

On my windows ME machine, I find Sound Recorder under Start -> Programs ->
Accessories -> Entertainment. You may find it under other another category
on your system. 

To record, click the red button, just like on a cassette recorder. Here
are tips and tricks for recording songs: 

1. We already talked about the trick to get around the default time limit:
record some dead air, then copy and paste the sound file repeatedly until
it's long enough for the song you'd like to record. 

2. Save the long blank sound file under a name like long.wav. (Next time
you want to record a song you can open this and record over it, so you'll
be able to skip step 1.)

3. Go back to the start of the file and record your song. Save it under a 
new name, e.g. hinei_mah_tov_1.wav.

4. Try adding echo for that lovely "singing in the shower" sound effect. 
Check to make sure you like the result before you re-save the file. 

5. Carefully position the cursor and use edit commands "delete before
current position" and "delete after current position" to trim any excess
time before/after the song. To be safe, keep an extra back-up copy of the
original sound file in case your sound editing doesn't come out right. 

6. Conversion to mp3 involves a lot of mouse-clicks but isn't hard. Select
"save as", then click the button that says "change." For format, select
MPEG Layer 3 (that's what mp3 stands for.) Under attributes, select

    32 kBit/s, 24,000 Hz, Mono 

(You can try some of the other choices to trade off between sound quality 
and file size. However if you record with a single microphone there's no 
point saving the file in stereo.)

Click Okay.
Give the file a new name with .mp3, like hiney_mah_tov1.mp3, and change the
"save as type" to All Files (*.*) and click "Save."

Now your mp3 file is saved to your hard drive and is ready to mail to a 
friend or upload to your personal web site.

A few other notes...

7. For very low-tech multitrack recording, record one track, play it back
using Windows Media Player, and sing along, while recording with Sound
Recorder. The sound quality isn't great but it's a nice tool to try out a 
two- or even 3-part piece you're working on. If you like to add echo, 
wait until all the tracks are recorded and add it at the end.

8. For higher quality but still primitive multitrack recording, use the
Sound Recorder's feature "Mix with file." This tool blends two wav files
together. Getting them in time synchronization is a real pain;  I end up
shaving tiny fractions of a second off the beginning of one file or the
other until they match. You can use the arrow keys to help move the cursor
in 0.1 sec steps but even so it's hard to get the timing just right. 
There is also no way to adjust relative volume of the two tracks. It would
definitely be better to use more advanced software for mixing tracks. 

9. You can burn your sound files onto a CD-R using a CD burner. Make your 
own CD cover and you've got a cool home-made Chanukah gift.

If you'd like to hear what I've accomplished with Sound Recorder, you can 
check out my tracks at

http://www.geocities.com/shireinu   
  or
http://www.totshabbat.com

On the shireinu website..."Peace Minute" for instance is a mix of a
home-made vocal track with a percussion loop I downloaded from the web. I
used Sound Recorder to massage the short percussion loop into an 8 measure
sequence repeated several times; recorded the vocal track separately; then
mixed the two.  It was all done with Sound Recorder. The result isn't
completely professional, but it sure was fun making it. 

"Tears and Roses" is recorded with 3 part harmony. All 3 voices are mine,
recorded with primitive multitrack techniques. It's just a rough cut of 
the chorus-- still working on the lyrics for the verses. Any lyricists 
out there want to collaborate?

If you'd like to have your mp3 file heard by members of the HN community,
I'd be happy to post it for you at www.geocities.com/shireinu or at
www.totshabbat.com. (Remember-- I can only post copyrighted materials with
permission of the copyright holder.)

Be creative and have fun!

-Robin Selinger
 Music teacher, Temple Shalom, Chevy Chase, MD
 selinger (at) cua(dot)edu
--------------------------------------------------------------
Robin Selinger                        202 319-6740 phone
Associate Professor, Physics          202 319-4448 fax
Catholic University 
Washington, DC 20064                  selinger (at) cua(dot)edu


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