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Making and sending a sound recording - advice sought
Sorry if this is a really basic enquiry. I have never been on this part of PPRuNe before, so I apologise if what I am asking seems like basic knowledge to the experts on here.
What I want to know is know is how do I set about creating a voice recording which I can then send to a contact on the internet so that he can play it back? I dont have skype, and in any case this is something he needs to be able to refer back to regularly, rather than a one-off conversation, otherwise I would just phone him (it's a lesson, in fact).
I have a pretty old PC running Windows XP. As yet I don't even have a mic, but getting one from my local computer store will be no problem.
Any advice couched in pretty simple English would be much appreciated!
+1 for Audacity - makes it simple to record, edit and stitch together multiple recordings.
As it's voice you can get away with recording in mono, reduced sample rate (22kHz instead of 44kHz) & lower bits per second (32kbps or less). This will reduce the final size of the MP3 file (or other format you choose) but at the cost of reduced quality. For speech this is generally quite acceptable.
At the sort of settings mentioned you'll get the file size under 15MB per hour of recording with minimal degradation in speech quality.
TTN - from your post I would advocate NOT getting involved in the 'complexity' of Audacity - I cannot see you need it. 'sndrec32.exe' in your Windows System32 folder or under Accessories/Entertainment will, I'm sure, do what you need. It records up to 60 seconds of sound. [You will need to make sure you set the recording device to your spanking new mic ('Edit'/'Audio properties') ]. If you need more time or special effects, then Audacity here we come................
Look for a program called SoundRecorder.exe , its part of the included windows stuff. with a cheap microphone connected to your sound card you can easily record and save a wave (.wav) file that you can attach to an email.
Thanks for all the help guys, and dont worry, it is difficult to overestimate the depths of my ignorance about computers, so you needn't worry that you are patronising me by asking the obvious vulcanised!
I was assuming the mic would go in the same port where I plug in my camera when down (up?) loading pictures. The sound card? Well the thing has got sound, plays back You Tube clips ok - do I need to know where it is? And I think I'll try out the simple solution first, this is just speech, not very long, and doesnt need to be of a very high quality.
Thanks again.
Last edited by Tankertrashnav; 22nd Aug 2012 at 14:02.
It would rather help if you know where the sound card interface is. You will probably find a socket for the mic in the general area where the speakers are plugged in.
It might even be labelled 'audio in' or even 'mic'.
OOops, forgot that MS has a habit of changing names...
Thats what I meant.
Tankertrashnav, it might help[ if you mentioned what puter you have, so we can help tell you where the mic input is. Its not the same as your camera. You could of course buy a usb mic, that would make things easy.
First prepare your sound track. Audacity or VLS : Please look at tutorials - Are you a programmer ?
Now for the hard bit: Have you any knowledge of scripting
You can down load AvsP-AviSynth and using Audio Dub (another download) to produce a avi file that can be compressed into a zip ( less than 5 MB ) then send as an attachment.- this requires a knowledge of scripting language - It takes time.
If this is too hard - Sorry I have just done this - but it was not easy - but it works
CAT III
Last edited by CATIII-NDB; 24th Aug 2012 at 20:50.
If you have an iPhone or iPad, I'll recommend WavePad. It's a free app and records in very good quality. Much better than what you'll get with a £5 mic from PC World!
