New Media Guides

The Recording Process

• see Settings for Windows and Mac computers sections to prepare your computer for recording
• check your recording level - on the average, -6 is where your audio should be on your LEDs for a good strong signal.. if it goes above that too much you will get distortion. A red light indicates that you are hitting the ceiling and will definately have too strong a signal. That level is just below 0
  
  
• use volume and trim or gain to increase the input signal if you are too low. Trim is the intensity of your signal and may give a cleaner sound if used moderately, Just increasing the volume will also add system noise. If your software does not offer trim or gain so just use the basic volume input control.
• use a pop screen if you have too many pops or sssss's. (see Hardware)
  
  
• do not eat the mic or stay too far away. Gauge for ideal distance from the mic by recording and listening to your playback to check your settings. Adjust as necessary.
• record somewhere with as little background noise as possible
• when recording music, ALWAYS do a count in for easy overdubs
• when done, stay quiet until you hit Stop. If playing an instrument, let it ring until it is inaudible before hitting Stop.
  
  

Editing

I will briefly explain how to use the following editing tools. Also read Basic Editing in Audacity for good general editing tips. 

• Compression - reduces the dynamic range of a signal and improves the quality of the sound.  It isn't a really necessary to compress sound files for the Web. Using encoders to reduce file size is necessary but it is a different kind of compression. You will see more on that type of compression in the Publishing section of this course.
  
  
• Cutting - an easy way to reduce file size is to delete unwanted sections or any extra noise from the audio clip. Almost all the editing applications let you select parts of your sound wave, and then cut, copy or paste them similar to a word processing document. Open your audio file in your audio editor, zoom in and listen to the file, and cut any pops, pauses or silence, or background noise. 

  To cut, highlight sections of the audio clip you'd like to remove with your mouse. Underneath the "File" menu or "Edit" menu on your program, you will see delete or cut. Be sure to listen to the audio before cutting silence. It may not be silence or it may cut a word off. Listen carefully to the file after you cut to be sure it sounds natural.

• Equalize - eliminates heavy bass or treble in your audio sound. Intense bass isn't a good idea with an audio file for the Web. Most computer speakers can't handle bass very well. The same is true for treble or high end. Too much makes it sound too brittle. You can use an equalizer to match the level and strength of the bass and treble match each other in the level and strength of sound, is to equalize your files with an equalizer. An equalizer is a flexible, precise tone control located in an audio editing application that contains faders. An equalizer divides audio into specific frequencies that you can boost or decrease. Each of these divisions is called a band. Some equalizers have 512 or more bands of control but the free apps and iTunes go from 10 to 50 bands. You use your sound application software to adjust these levels. You can, if you wanted to, increase the bass on your sound files, but for the Web, your files will sound better if you tone down the bass. Equalizing your files can also help bring out a certain part of your sound file, such as a voice, or one particular instrument.

• Normalize - Only use this for your final master! It is the last thing you do before sending it off to the Net and can not be undone..  Normalize increases the level of the whole audio file so that the loudest part of the sound is as high as it can be without distorting. The remainder of the audio increases proportionately. Most sound editors offer normalize and the program automatically normalizes your audio files for you.

  You have to choose the level you'd like to raise your sound to. Maximum level is 0db but it's a good idea to normalize a file to only 96% of it's maximum level. This compensates for computers that may not have good quality playback and may cause distortion.

  One thing to remember. When you normalize sound, you increase background noise. If you choose to normalize, first equalize your audio files to eliminate as much background noise as possible.

• Effects - 
• You can create echo effects with an echo or reverb function within your audio editing application. There is always a control for wet/dry. Wet means you are adding more effect and less original signal so the end product is more reverb or echo. A tiny bit will enhance a vocal and some instruments but what sounds like enough in pre-mix often sounds like too much in the final mixed down and published file. Oddly enough that final process seems to increase the effect! When there is no reverb or echo (they are the similar in effect but you can get it with various types of reverb/echo) and no ambience in the recording process, the audio may sound too "dry".
  
  
• Panning (for stereo recording) - you can choose where in the sound stage you want left channel or right channel to be by using pan. For multi tracks, vocals are often put in the center or slightly left and right for two voices, and instruments placed from far left and right towards center but not on top of each other. For example, bass should be center and back, guitar could be center and more forward (forward and back are gotten through the use of trim or gain). Lead instruments can be placed on either side so when they do fills or backup, they are in different places in the space preferably one on each side about 8:00 and 4:00 (envisioning a clock for audio space location)
  
  

• Notes
  
• A 44 hz and a 16 bit resolution file (44/16) is a good setting for a CD-stereo quality sound file. 
  
• An MP3 file encoded at no more than a 64kbs bitrate is a good rule of thumb for voice recordings at the point of export. Always record and mix or edit at a higher rate.