Newsforge Article on Using Audacity for Voice Recordings.

ductapeguy · Post by **ductapeguy** » March 28th, 2006, 4:31 pm

Today Newsforge has a good article on how to use Audacity to make voice recordings and podcasts.

It gets a bit technical but has some great tips on how to make spoken word recordings sound great.

Mastering podcasts with Audacity
Monday March 27, 2006 (06:00 PM GMT)
By: Johnathon Williams
http://software.newsforge.com/software/06/03/17/1633214.shtml?tid=75&tid=130[/b]

kri · Post by **kri** » March 28th, 2006, 4:55 pm

Great resource! I'll have to read through it later. Unfortunately I have too much to do right now

Aldark · Post by **Aldark** » March 28th, 2006, 4:59 pm

Thanks ductapeguy.

kayray · Post by **kayray** » March 28th, 2006, 5:13 pm

someone should probably add the link to the wiki!

jimmowatt · Post by **jimmowatt** » March 28th, 2006, 5:18 pm

ductapeguy wrote:Today Newsforge has a good article on how to use Audacity to make voice recordings and podcasts.

It gets a bit technical but has some great tips on how to make spoken word recordings sound great.

It's all good stuff.
I particularly appreciated the section on the compression, which I hadn't previously used and also the envelope tool which is handy for taking out the peaks.

ductapeguy · Post by **ductapeguy** » March 28th, 2006, 5:27 pm

Wiki updated. Thanks for the suggestion. It's the first time I've added to a wiki.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 28th, 2006, 5:49 pm

ductapeguy wrote:Wiki updated. Thanks for the suggestion. It's the first time I've added to a wiki.

If you feel you have any more valuable information to contribute, that's what it's there for

Once you feel more comfortable with how LibriVox works, you can just peruse the wiki and add and adjust here and there as you feel necessary.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 28th, 2006, 8:57 pm

OK, so I just used this article to fix the volume in my recent Musketeers recording. It was really really easy to do, and very helpful. It evened out the volume without creating any wierd sounds. I haven't uploded it yet.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 28th, 2006, 9:23 pm

Here's a comparison...

Without Compression: http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/musketeers/three_musketeers_02_dumas.mp3

With Compression:
http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/musketeers/three_musketeers_00_dumas.mp3

I tend to be loud, and peak quite often. I think this may help rectifying that, because I'm afraid to turn my mic volume too far down to avoid having to amplify the volume higher. I don't have much background noise and want to keep it that way.

Think it made a difference?

kayray · Post by **kayray** » March 28th, 2006, 9:41 pm

Haven't listened to your sample yet, Kri, but I do highly recommend the judicious use of compression. I use compression in every recording. I didn't know what I was doing when I got started (still don't), so I just fiddled with the settings in Sound Studio until I came up with a good combination and I think it really helps. Whe I get a chance I'll read this article and I'll bet it will help me to refine my compression settings even more.