Recording your voice using audacity/cooledit

[0-0-0]

This is to help those who are still confused about how to record songs. I'm using two programs, so i'll outline them here. Feel free to add comments, etc. i'm hopeless at giving these kinds of instructions.



Recording using Audacity

If you can create a word document, you can record a song using audacity. It’s very simple to use, however obviously not very advanced.

To download audacity

The program can be found here: http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/s...-win-1.2.6.exe



To record a song acappella

Open up the program. Select your recoding input as ‘microphone.’ You probably have more options that I have on my computer… haha

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To record, simply press the red button (looks like a circle, sits between the play and pause buttons). If you want to adjust the input volume, move the bar beneath those buttons.

Once you press the button, you should notice that the program has begun to record. In my case, I’m not actually singing, so I just have a flat line (ie. Silence) but if you are singing, you should see a waveform.

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To ensure quality, try to ensure that the amplitude does not exceed the boundary, ie. The waveform should fit inside the boundaries 1 and -1.


To record with background music

Open the backing track (which must be in mp3 format) in Audacity.

Press the record button, the backing track will play and you should sing along to the backing track.

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To adjust the volume between tracks, use the - + bar on the left side.
The tracks should already be at least roughly aligned, you may have to fiddle with the alignment or use project --> align

Once you are done, I would suggest saving the voice track on a separate file, and then exporting the combined voice and background music sound file.




Using Cooledit Pro

Open up a new session (44100Hz is the most common used) and open up the backing track, inserting in track 1 (or another, it doesn't matter)

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To record, press the red R on the track you want to record in to. Then, press the record button at the bottom left corner. The backing track will play while you record your voice on the track you specified.

If you right click the wave block, you will find a number of options including adjusting the volume of the track.

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Once you are satisfied, click file --> save mixdown as

For a more professional sound, open up your voice track in waveform view and play around with reverb, found if you click effects --> delay effects --> reverb



If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, but as i'm only a beginner, someone else might like to help answer.

So, no excuses for those that said 'i don't know how to record my voice.'

[GuGu]

I request a vdo tutorial with your voice guiding us.

[flyingfox2002]

For the spc idol competition, we can't add reverb right? (I didn't use it)

[oGaKirA]

I think reverb should be fine. It's the same as echo on any karaoke system/program.

[u4ria]

This is to help those who are still confused about how to record songs. I'm using two programs, so i'll outline them here. Feel free to add comments, etc. i'm hopeless at giving these kinds of instructions.

Nice tutorial 0-0-0. You sound very geeky. It's nice to know you are pretty AND geeky LOL

[0-0-0]

For the spc idol competition, we can't add reverb right? (I didn't use it)

actually, you can use reverb on the background music division, so if you want, i will wait for the edited entry.

[flyingfox2002]

Reverb to recording is like steroids is to baseball. I may have to make like Roger the Dodger Clemens and try it next time.

---

PS, I don't mean using reverb is cheating. I just mean that it's an enhancer like steroids.

[warlock110]

Reverb to recording is like steroids is to baseball. I may have to make like Roger the Dodger Clemens and try it next time.

---

PS, I don't mean using reverb is cheating. I just mean that it's an enhancer like steroids.

easier said than done... there's alot of work that's needed to have a slight understanding of how it works.

[Swordwiz]

I find it easier when singing to the original singer in the background rather than just the background music... Do you have any tips on how to record/mix efficiently this way?

[flyingfox2002]

You would record just the same way. The difference is you may want to lower the original version so that your own voice can be heard, and not be drowned out by the original singer's voice.

[warlock110]

I find it easier when singing to the original singer in the background rather than just the background music... Do you have any tips on how to record/mix efficiently this way?

i wouldn't do that, people have a tendency to hide/flow with the original voice, it sounds good in your head while you're doing it, afterward when you have the seperation of the voices it sounds really bad.

[Swordwiz]

Yes, that is a good point. I'll try it without then.

[0-0-0]

Yes, that is a good point. I'll try it without then.

don't tell me you are submitting an entry, and are going to send it to me like 1 minute before the deadline!!!


i find that it is easier to sing with the bg music rather than the original, because in the case of following the original, if you make some error with the rhythm, you try to fix it abruptly, as opposed to naturally working it out.

on the other hand, recording without following the original track for duets is disastrous


and i agree with warlock about reverb needing to be understood, coz i totally cannot get anything like the 'warlock effect'

.