Many of you know about my obsession with Librivox (link to the right), where Public Domain works are recorded by volunteers and put up for downloading. The program that they use is Audacity. It's a free, basic audio editing program. I didn't really know anything about audio editing before I downloaded it, and didn't read any information from them (I'm not even sure if they have any up). It's simple enough to figure out.
I figured I would use it to record things like audio books, but if you want to do some rough recordings for a band, it is nice because it allows you to record multiple layers, move them around, crop, copy, paste, and adjust volume and tempo of each layer. You can fade in and out, filter sounds, and do some crazy things with voices that I don't fully understand (everything from Alvin and the Chipmunks to the teacher on Peanuts)
I never thought I'd have the opportunity to use it for high school (though I figured it would come in handy for linguistic recordings), since I'm not in any technology or drama related courses. However, in English, we were assigned a short story project, and one aspect was creating a radio drama. This has been the handiest tool. I recorded my partner's lines, and on my own time at home, shifted and adjusted them. I also added in some background music and free sound effects I found on the internet. The final project is professional sounding, and it was relatively painless, compared to working with a recorder and cassette, where everything would have to be ready and we would all have to take time to meet outside of class.
The only warning with audacity is that it records things in an .aud format. You have to download another program which converts it to .mp3. Once you have both programs, the conversion is very simple. I don't know the other program's name, but if you're interested, let me know. I know they also have the information in some of Librivox's resources. I reccomend starting out with these programs for any students, rather than spending a boatload of money on a program with features you may never use. The only time I would consider otherwise is if you need a professional recording, but you would have to go to a studio for that anyways.
About Me
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Labels
- 101 in 1001 (12)
- Benjamin (1)
- books (40)
- C.S. Lewis (8)
- current events (12)
- debate (3)
- doula (2)
- drugs (2)
- family (14)
- food (6)
- friends (12)
- geocaching (2)
- Halifax (3)
- health (1)
- home (8)
- massage therapy (2)
- math (4)
- photography (6)
- piano (1)
- pictures (26)
- Pine Cove (2)
- poetry (4)
- pregnancy massage (2)
- quilt (6)
- random thought (9)
- relationships (12)
- religion (20)
- road trip (2)
- school (25)
- seasons (19)
- travel (8)
- trust (5)
- update (41)
- video (4)
- Waiting (5)
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." (I Tim 4:12)
3 comments:
Actually, you don't need a separate program to convert to mp3. Try "Export as mp3" from the file menu.
I use linux, but if its not the same, it should be similar.
Actually, you do. :)
Export as mp3 only works if you've downloaded the other part. That's why I don't remember the name of the program- I never need to open it since it works through Audacity, but it's somewhere on my computer.
And I ALWAYS forget who you are! I am like, "jf, I should know that person..." gotcha tuna. (If you watch The Office, I had that nickname for you WAY before they did...)
More info: http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/Audacity#head-9e49f5dc125d275a2b9c285323e4d4824b3f5ef1
ahhh I see. The only thing I can think of is that you downloaded Audacity, while mine came with the operating system. Shouldn't make a difference, but perhaps I already had the LAME encoder without realizing. :)
Post a Comment