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Basic Software:
Sound Editing / Recording
- Audacity (+ ‘VST-enabler’ and ‘Lamelib’) - Free VST plug-ins (various sites) - Audio Hijack (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) or WireTap (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/) - Skype (http://www.skype.com/)
Download Audacity here: http:audacity.sourceforge.net/download/. Also remember to download the ‘VST-enabler’ from that site as well (here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/plugins). Also, download the ‘Lamelib’ MP3 encoder (here: http://spaghetticode.org/lame/). Info on how to install these extras can be found here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/ and here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3). This host site also has links to many good free plug-ins. For more info on Audacity once you’ve installed it, there is an ‘online help’ option in the ‘Help’ menu (this is not web-based but on your computer!) and there are also useful websites, such as: http://babel.lss.wisc.edu/~doug/audacity/audacity_guide_3_05.pdf and: http://www-camil.music.uiuc.edu/classes/358/projects/web_proj/audacity-reference.html and: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/AudacityHelp.html FTP http://www.cyberduck.ch (Mac) http://www.smartftp.com (Windows) Podcast Publishing http://www.potionfactory.com/podcastmaker/ (Mac) http://www.podproducer.net/en/ (Windows) Basic Hardware: Most PC’s will have an audio-input mini-jack port. Most Macs do too, although annoyingly the iBook series doesn’t. For simple recording this port should be absolutely fine. If you want more versatility and quality, an audio-interface is required. Of course, hardware costs money, and you can always spend a lot of money getting bigger and better audio interfaces and even more specific things such as telephony devices etc. If you need to seek advice on major pieces of hardware, go to independent retailers, not the companies that manufacture devices. Good shops in these parts include ‘SoundControl’ and ‘MediaSpec’, but there are many others. For cheap, easy-to-use audio interfaces for general use, a good example is the small and portable Edirol series, like the ‘UA-1EX’. For a description (only!) go here: http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua1ex.html) Of course there are a few other small and simple devices like this on the market. ‘M-Audio’ also make a similar small interface, for example. When buying audio hardware, you MUST always remember to make sure of the following: Is it compatible with my Computer? (ie, USB-port and power-supply issues, etc) Is it compatible with my operating system? (ie, what version of ‘Windows’ or ‘MacOS’ do I have?) Often, even for small, cheap interfaces, you will have to install ‘drivers’ for the device to work, although this is becoming less of an issue with ‘WindowsXP’ and ‘MacOSX’. Mics: This depends on what you want to do. A cheap mic from ‘Maplins’ will record very simple voice material okay, but really not much else. You’ll get what you pay for. Mono mics are what you will need for vocal recordings, although a cheap stereo mic may be useful for two-person interviews. If you want to ‘document’ anything else (such as a live music event) you should really go for a stereo mic. If you want to spend more, ‘Sony’ (for example) do very good stereo mics starting at about £80. Above this you would be looking at spending larger amounts of money on professional equipment (such as the £300 radio studio mic demo-ed in this workshop). Again, if you need to seek advice on mics, go to independent retailers, not the companies that manufacture them. Some people may be interested in specialist mics, like the in-ear binaural headphone mics and A3 amplifier made by DACS (http://www.dacs-audio.com/Distribution/Soundman/soundman_main.htm).
