Sound

[Paul]

Hi All and Happy New Year,

I am new to AV and this forum so please forgive the obvious question.

I have made a few sequences, weddings, holidays etc. and used simple but effective sound tracks using mp3s.

What media do most folks use for recording more adventurous sequences, e.g outside live sounds, traffic, waterfalls, general crowd sounds? Also for mixing and editing sounds does everyone use cool edit or conventional equipment like MD.

Paul.

[RudiRe]

Hi Paul,

welcome to the forum.

Edit and mix your sound effects in wav format.

You can use any software, that fullfills this task.

Most of this sound-effects editing and mixing

can even be done in Microsofts audiorecorder,

which already is part of your windows.

Audacity is a fairly good sound program for editing

and mixing more complex sequences, as is GoldWave.

Before implementing your edited and mixed wavs into PTE,

convert them into mp3, using a low bitrate like 64 for

most soundeffects, which is not recommended for music.

Most music requires 128 in order not to loose quality.

This way, you cut down tremendously on your PTE file size.

[Guest guru]

Hi Paul! Welcome, and happy new year!

Forgive me Rudi, I think our new friend wishes some additional information.

Nothing obvious in your question, Paul. I think quite nobody here records his sounds, and especially "adventurous" sounds like traffic etc.

Usually all PTE users make a soundtrack with an mp3 music file (cutted, or mixed), and it's all. Sound effects are rarely used.

Let me start by your second question. I think most used software to edit (but above all to mix) sounds are "Audacity", a free, little but very good editor, and Acoustica mp3 Audio Mixer (very convenient and simple mixer, shareware $24.95). Someone likes better more sophisticated audio editors, like CoolEdit (very good) and Goldwave (cheaper, but very interesting).

I personally like very much to record sounds and music "live", but it's a job not easy. There are many excellent portable recorders (DAT, above all) and also very good mikes, but what is difficult is to chose and use these.

BTW, if you need sound effects, you can find thousands in professional CD collections...

[Danabw]

If you're looking for sound effects (like traffic, water running, etc.) most of these are available online, many free. Search on Google.com for "sound effects" or "Sound FX" and you'll get a ton of hits w/sound files you can make use of. My sons' favorite - a juicy (their term) burp that I used in a slideshow for one of their school outings.

Dana

[Alan Lyons]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum and also to 2003! As Dana says there are a lot of sound effects available both on CD and on the web, "search" for sound effects. Any programme which allows you to play tracks side by side will allow you to mix music, voice and FX into the one sound file. It can help you to taylor your sound to your show and free you from the time constraints of pre recorded MP3s ect. But watch for the final mix, remember that you will need to have your voice audable over the music ect. Trial and error will get you there but a good start is to seperate the voice and music by 20db.

If you get bogged down give us a call and we'll help out

Alan

[Paul]

Happy New Year and thanks to all for your swift and helpful replies. I'll look at some sounds to download and have a go at mixing with some of the suggested software.

Paul.

[Guest guru]

Paul, an excellent site to begin your search is Stonewashed.net.

But pay attention: not all sound effects are really free!

[pushu]

Guido:

In your reply you menitioned that you like to record your music live. I would like to do this for background music for wedding shows. Could you give me more info on how you do this? Such as what you use to record and how to transfer to the computer? thanks

[pip]

A quick introduction before I respond to the post. My name is pip and have been following the forum for many months now, however, this is my first post. I'm an avid picture taker/pte maker and was happy to have stumbled upon this great piece of software a year or so ago. Thanks to all that contribute such a wealth of knowledge to this forum. Now, it's my turn to give back with some of the knowledge that I have gleaned along the way!

Paul

Have been experimenting for a couple of years now with "live" sound for my shows. Almost as rewarding as making the images! I make my "audio pics" using a minidisc recorder with some special binaural mics and get excellant results recording all types of live sound, including street musicians which are a special favorite. These particular microphones are tiny and can be clipped almost anywhere and hidden for a totally candid recording session. Go to a minidisc site for all the info you'll need on gear, recording techniques etc.

Once I've got my raw sound recording on minidisc, I bring it back to my computer audio mixing software, and equalize and mix tracks in wave; tons of possibilities! I think the the consenses here is that one continuous sound file is preferable to a bunch of individual ones. Tie all of your sounds, music ,etc. together here in the sound edit! Final step is to compress the final wav project to mp3 and you're ready to add the images. Usually easier and more professional to put your soundtrack together first and then sync the images to this! Hope this gives you a little more info and the inspiration to make your own soundbites! Any more questions or specifics ask away ?

pip

[pushu]

Pip:

what is a minidisc recorder? Can you give us a link to a site with info about these?

[Guest guru]

Forgive my late reply, Pushu. Here I am.

In general, I can agree with Paul, but perhaps you desired a little more simpler and "practical" answer.

1. Recorders. For such usage (wedding shows), almost any type of recorder is good. Normally I use DAT recorders (true hi-fi), but here you can use without problems a Minidisc or even a good portable stereo cassette recorder (I used during many years - when digital recording did not yet exist - an excellent Sony TCD-5. I keep again these recordings, and I can assure it sounds better than some recent digital recordings).

2. Mikes. "Binaural" mikes that Paul uses are good above all for earphones listening, where the stereo effect is very natural, and are difficult to place correctly. In my opinion you can use a "decent" stereo mike (you can can find from about $50-60 by Sony, for example).

Place always your mike as close as you can to the sound source, to avoid excessive ambience reverberation and extraneous noises.

3. From recorder to computer. The most important thing is to have a sound card with a LINE IN input and a simple recording software. There is a lot of software suitable, but I like very much Acoustica Audio Mixer, very easy to use and cheap ($24.95) Connect the output of your recorder to Line input of sound card, check the recording level (with Acoustica Audio Mixer is very easy), and press "Record" button in the software window. It's all.

To cut, mix and adjust your soundtrack, follow excellent advices of Paul.

[Guest guru]

Pushu, if you want to see an interesting, nice and cheap Minidisc recorder you can see here: www.epinions.com/.

[Guest guru]

Excuse me Pushu, I made a mistake. The "recorder" is not a true recorder, it records only digital files (mp3 and Co.) from computers via USB port. And all today's Minidiscs seem no longer able to record from a microphone!

So the choice becomes very limited, because DAT portable recorders are now professional (and expensive) toys, and solid state recorders are still gadgets or dictation machines with a very poor sound quality. What is left? The good old portable cassette recorders, almost always very cheap, but almost always barely suitable for a decent recording...

[pushu]

Guido:

thank you for all the info. hard to believe with all the technology nowdays that you would have to resort to a cassette recorder. Maybe I should get out my old reel to reel?

[Guest guru]

Agree, Pushu. Hard to believe... and quite depressing. But unluckily the technology is not as important as commercial interests. Producers realized that recording machines were used by people to copy existent music (CDs, Mp3 files), not to record "live" voices and sounds.

Many years ago, all preamplifiers and integrated amplifiers had a "mike" input. Now I think it's impossible to find one of these devices with the mike in. You must buy a specialized (and expensive) pre-preamplifier, or a mixer...

I remember that nearly ten years ago I designed (and made) a great audio+video system for a friend - about $25,000 of sfuff. But since my friend was also a musician and liked play the piano, he desired also a stereo microphone to record his "performaces".

Well, I didn't find a good cassette deck with mike input, and I had to make myself a special low-noise preamplifier!

Well, to sum up I think you could look for a portable Minidisc recorder on e-Bay, or also a DAT recorder (as far as I know, almost all DATs still have the microphone input). And get out your old reel-to reel!