Audacity Sound Editor software

[fh1805]

This might be the wrong place or even the wrong forum for this subject but here goes:

In the 10 months or so that I've been a member of the PTE Forum community I have seen several posts relating to handling the soundtrack part of the AV sequence. Several of the "expert" members have recommended Audacity software as a reasonably good, basic sound file editor that is capable of doing most, if not all, of what is required. Although shying away from being called an "expert" I have recommended it myself to several new members.

Would there be any interest in an Audacity Tutorial? I'm thinking here of something that would be of value to a newbie to help them get started. I've done a couple of teach-ins at my local photographic society on this subject and would be willing to put one together.

Your thoughts on this matter?

[JudyKay]

I'll be right in line waiting to study them.

Simple cut and paste, fade out, etc...that stuff is easy.

The whole business of quality recording, applying filters (high/low pass) and compressors is important but eludes me.

How to eliminate hiss and hummmzzzz without producing robot results; Aligning multiple tracks, knowing what settings to

use for adequate quality (Hz, bits, etc)...all that stuff eludes me.

jk

[brian65photo]

Peter,

A tutorial on Audacity would be most welcome.

As a newcomer to PTE 5.0 I am really grateful to all of those unselfish folks out there who have produced tutorials and free stuff to help the likes of me to get to grips with this software without my having to "re-invent the wheel" all the time. Thank you all.

I look forward to your help with Audacity.

Brian

[Boogie]

Add me to the list of people keen for a tutorial on Audacity.

Particularly the advanced sections that are difficult to comprehend from the 'labels' (JK above listed some)

B

[Ken Cox]

we can never have enough tutorials

the more the merrier

ken

[fh1805]

Before I commit too much effort into this, I'd like to get some feedback on what I propose to build over the next few days. Accordingly, I've attached an initial stab at the contents list and have fleshed out the first two sections.

Is the content that which you'd like to see covered?

Is the layout style OK?

Is the style of English usage OK?

The first draft copy is on the attachment below:

The link to the attachment was withdrawn on 24 Jan 2008. The latest version of the User Guide can be found at post #12.

[leonard]

You might like to study the Soundforge/Audacity tutorials at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html

leonard

[mightec]

Hi Peter

What a great subject for a tutorial, looked at your attachment and seems to me that you have covered all of the bases, looking forward to the finished product. By the way, how do you get the 'Number of Downloads' to appear, neat.

[fh1805]

Leonard,

Thank you for that pointer. I wish I'd known about those pages two years ago when I started playing with Audacity. I'll need to rework the introduction section to make reference to them. And, as a side-product, I'll need to re-think the contents list. Ah well, that's precisely why I posted a very early draft - to find out who knew things that I didn't.

I still feel that there are some usage techniques that I could usefully document, so all is not over yet!

To everyone else reading this thread. Do have a look at the link provided by Leonard, it's excellent material.

[fh1805]

Mike,

Thanks for the encouragement! Do check out Leonard's pointer in his post.

The number of downloads feature comes automatically when you include the attachment into the post. The attaching was done as follows:

Used ADDREPLY to add my post to the thread

Browsed to the draft file on my hard-drive

UPLOADed that file

Took the option to "Manage Upload Files" or words to that effect

Clicked on the left most icon ("Add attachment to post" or words to that effect)

Put a carriage return in just before the attachment code in the post

I had done it once before many months ago but didn't really remember exactly what to do. It was relatively intuitive.

[fh1805]

Having spent some time reading the Audacity Reference Manual and Tutorials pointed to by Leonard in his post above, I have re-worked the structure and contents list of my User Guide to eliminate unnecessary repetition. I have attached a revised copy (version 0.2) of the User Guide. The real meat of the User Guide is still to come. If tomorrow is as wet and miserable as yesterday and today have been, I may get the back of it broken by tomorrow evening.

The link to the attachment was withdrawn on 24 Jan 2008. The latest version of the User Guide can be found at post #12.

[fh1805]

It's a dull, wet, miserable morning here in north Yorkshire so I've done some more work on the User Guide. The latest version is attached.

Please, please give me your feedback - good or bad.

What else would you like to see included?

What is still unclear to you?

[denwell]

Peter

It may be wise to include some references to obtaining and installing the Lame enc.dll needed to export the end product in MP3 format. Many who first use Audacity omit this stage and are baffled when the file will not export in MP3 format - although the 'Help' files do give a steer here.

Just a thought

DEN (NE UK)

[Peter S]

The whole business of quality recording, applying filters (high/low pass) and compressors is important but eludes me.

How to eliminate hiss and hummmzzzz without producing robot results; Aligning multiple tracks, knowing what settings to

use for adequate quality (Hz, bits, etc)...all that stuff eludes me.

jk

Hi Jdy,

I was given some very helpful advice at the last 123 AV competition. In summary it was:

Buy a decent microphone - not one from a PC shop but a "proper" mic. I ended up with one from a company called AKG.

Use a pre-amplifier between the mic and the PC input. It must be an amplifier that produces minimal hiss itself.

I had previously used a cheap mic and tried to eliminate the background hiss in Adobe Audition. It was pointed out to me that it is impossible to eliminate the background without cutting out some of the sound you want and the best solution by far is not to record it in the first place!

This has made a big difference in the quality of the sound I can now record.

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

Judy/Peter

Another alternative which is working well for me is a solid-state digital recorder. See this post of mine (and indeed, the whole thread in which it sits)

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=47811

[fh1805]

Den,

I'm trying to avoid duplicating material that already exists and is good. The need for the lame encoder and the "how to get it and install it" is well covered by the Audacity Help and the Audacity Manual and Tutorials which I document in the introduction to the User Guide (latest version is v0.3).

[Peter S]

Judy/Peter

Another alternative which is working well for me is a solid-state digital recorder. See this post of mine (and indeed, the whole thread in which it sits)

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=47811

Hi Peter,

I had missed this thread but thanks for bringing it to my notice. ContaxMan mentioned Howard Gregory in his post on that thread and Howard is the person who supplied my pre-amp and some useful tutorials on mics and their use. So we have now gone full circle.

In spite of the fact that I write a script first I still find I need to make quite a few changes to voice overs. I also want to be able to add music that I can reduce in volume at certain points and match the voice over to very specific points in the slides (or vice versa). I think this is easier to achieve using Audition (or Audacity) where you can identify and mark points on the wave form, make changes and then go back and readjust everything another day if you want to make further changes. It's the flexibility that I am looking for - probably a case of horses for courses.

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

Peter,

I think there may be some slight misunderstanding between us. I use the Zoom H4 simply as a recording machine. It captures the recording on its SD card and then, using a USB cable, I connect the H4 to my PC where it appears as an external drive. I copy all the files (which are already in WAV format) onto the PC. Then I take these WAV files into Audacity to do any post-processing. All the "techie" stuff is done in Audacity. The trick is getting the right quality of original open-mic recording.

I, too, am aware of Howard Gregory's excellent offerings in the sound recording field. Indeed, I also own one of his pre-amps, but could never get it to give a satisfactory result when trying to record via a microphone, through the pre-amp and into the soundcard on the PC.

Hence my use of the Zoom H4 to do the initial recording off-PC, and then the import of the WAV file from the H4 to the PC for subsequent work.

The name of the game that we're in is Audio-Visual but most of those who dabble in it only ever use ripped music. They have no idea how complex the audio part can be when you try and add open-mic recordings of voice-over and sound-effects.

Good on yer' for trying.

[JudyKay]

Thanks you guys. Is there a way to do this to increase quality without spending quite so much money? A digital recorder is US $300+, a cheap preamp is $200+, a cheap good mic is $100. I don't need soundroom quality, I just want a little better quality.

Now don't laugh...

Actually I have a couple decent mics. but no preamp. I do have a karaoke amplifier, but it has no digital output to connect to my computer--there are no dumb questions right--can I use it as a preamp somehow? It does have "line out," but if I connect that to "line in" on my sound card--nothing happens.

jk

[fh1805]

Judy,

Please contact me "off list" via my e-mail address (see signature below). I have a Word document that contains some instructions which may help you determine whether or not you have any chance of getting results using your existing mic and soundcard.

[Peter S]

Hi Judy,

Have a look at Barry's post here:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=49615

If you watch some of his shows (or tutorials) with voice overs I am sure you will find the sound quality excellent.

Peter Appleton hasn't mentioned his own excellent show "Lest we forget" http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....0&hl=forget. This will indicate what good sound quality he achieved using his methods.

I think that if you want to get good quality sound using a PC one way or another you are likely to have to spend some money. The PC itself was not really designed to be a top quality sound recorder.

One very strange quirk that I found is that I get lower noise using a mic connector at the fron of my PC rather than the one at the rear. As the one at the back is a more direct connection I have no explanation for this but if you do have two possibilities it may be worth swapping your input.

To use Line In you may need to go through the following: Go to Programs Accessories Entertainment Volume Control. Select Options Properties and the Recording radio button.

You can select All the options and OK then adjust your input volume for the Line In option or other chosen input.

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

Hi Peter,

Here's my take on what is happening to explain the difference between "front panel" jack and "rear panel" jack that you have encountered.

Where does the mains power cord attach - and thus go into the AC/DC converter?

Where are all the plug-in cards and their slots located?

Where is the cooling fan located?

And what do these things have in common? They all radiate electromagnetic frequencies ("electronic noise" or EMF) to some extent.

What property does all electric cable have the potential to fulfil? To act as a radio (=EMF) receiver aerial.

Is it then, any surprise that the Line In on the rear panel not only carries the microphone signal (a very weak signal, remember), but also picks up some of this stray EMF?

When this signal - plus the unwanted EMF - is amplified on the soundcard both get the same amount of amplification. The end result? A hissy, hummy, crackly recording.

There is much less cable behind the front panel and a lot fewer sources of EMF noise in that vicinity. Therefore the front panel Line In jack makes a cleaner recording.

To improve the quality of sound using a microphone through the Line In or Mic In jacks one would adopt the Howard Gregory solution - a microphone pre-amp to boost the signal level of the microphone input above that of the background EMF noise. End result? a much cleaner recording - but not necessarily totally clean.

(For the benefit of non-UK AV workers, Howard Gregory is well recognised in the UK as an authority on open microphone recording techniques for AV work)

If a totally clean recording is required, then using the PC's Line In or Mic In is, in my opinon, not an option. The only option that produces acceptable results for me is to make the recording externally on my solid-state digital recorder and then upload the data via USB. But I recognise that not all workers will want to go to this expense. (However, in my experience, someone who refuses to pay £150-£200 for a digital recorder is quite happy to pay £450 for a lens or a digital SLR body).

Whatever solution is chosen, the important thing is to have fun trying and to learn from the experience - whether it be good or bad.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Peter,

Here's my take on what is happening to explain the difference between "front panel" jack and "rear panel" jack that you have encountered.

Where does the mains power cord attach - and thus go into the AC/DC converter?

Where are all the plug-in cards and their slots located?

Where is the cooling fan located?

And what do these things have in common? They all radiate electromagnetic frequencies ("electronic noise" or EMF) to some extent.

What property does all electric cable have the potential to fulfil? To act as a radio (=EMF) receiver aerial.

Is it then, any surprise that the Line In on the rear panel not only carries the microphone signal (a very weak signal, remember), but also picks up some of this stray EMF?

When this signal - plus the unwanted EMF - is amplified on the soundcard both get the same amount of amplification. The end result? A hissy, hummy, crackly recording.

There is much less cable behind the front panel and a lot fewer sources of EMF noise in that vicinity. Therefore the front panel Line In jack makes a cleaner recording.

To improve the quality of sound using a microphone through the Line In or Mic In jacks one would adopt the Howard Gregory solution - a microphone pre-amp to boost the signal level of the microphone input above that of the background EMF noise. End result? a much cleaner recording - but not necessarily totally clean.

(For the benefit of non-UK AV workers, Howard Gregory is well recognised in the UK as an authority on open microphone recording techniques for AV work)

If a totally clean recording is required, then using the PC's Line In or Mic In is, in my opinon, not an option. The only option that produces acceptable results for me is to make the recording externally on my solid-state digital recorder and then upload the data via USB. But I recognise that not all workers will want to go to this expense. (However, in my experience, someone who refuses to pay £150-£200 for a digital recorder is quite happy to pay £450 for a lens or a digital SLR body).

Whatever solution is chosen, the important thing is to have fun trying and to learn from the experience - whether it be good or bad.

Hi Peter

I'm the member of WCC tying to do things less expensively. I told you I had bought a cheepo digital recorder from Ebay and sent it straight back. Since then I have bought a Samson USB mike and after a lot of feretting around found a reasonable voice software download called wave pad. I am still trying to get a voice over onto my PTE presentation but not very hard. Hopefully your Audacity tutorial will point the way. Keep it up.

PS Did a demo at the club last Monday which seemed to go OK. Sent back the cheepo ebay speakers and bought a pair of realistics which give excellent resuts. Got them connected to the TV at present as the sound is superior to the TV sound.

Regards ES.

[jfa]

Thanks you guys. Is there a way to do this to increase quality without spending quite so much money? A digital recorder is US $300+, a cheap preamp is $200+, a cheap good mic is $100. I don't need soundroom quality, I just want a little better quality.

Now don't laugh...

Actually I have a couple decent mics. but no preamp. I do have a karaoke amplifier, but it has no digital output to connect to my computer--there are no dumb questions right--can I use it as a preamp somehow? It does have "line out," but if I connect that to "line in" on my sound card--nothing happens.

jk

Judy, have a look at my post today:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....st=0#entry49776

It's not as expensive as you think when you consider the money we all spend on our photography equipment, not to mention the PC cost. Good prices can be found on the NET and the end result is very satisfying.

[Almark]

I have just discovered that the cooler unit I use beneath my laptop was a major culprit for dreaded hiss. The cooler unit runs 3 small and almost silent fans off USB and keeps the laptop CPU at a steady 46C (instead of a 10 minute loop from 40C to 70C using the default laptop fan). Anyway as it was nearly silent I ignored it. But after reading some comments earlier on this thread I decided to unplug it and see what happened. Clearly although near silent these small fans must be produced EMF's.