musicians recording using Audacity

[wHATcOLOR]

i admittedly lack skill, so i'm having trouble getting a clean take for a song.. inevitably i'll mess up somewhere along the way..

there are different 'sections' to the song.. do you ever record section by section, so that you can piece them together, and not ruin a whole take with a mistake towards the end?

[DeviousJ]

Yeah - what you can do is record the whole thing in one go, and if you need to redo any sections just start a new track recording and play that part again. Then you can blank out the bits you don't want by dragging over them and doing Insert Silence or whatever.

Kristal's still better for this kind of thing!
http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

[DeviousJ]

Here's a pic to show you what I mean



That's what you're saying, right? The 5th track is basically a continuation of the 2nd track, but recorded separately to make things easier. Try to get things in one go if you can, but don't worry too much - they re-record sections in professional studios, it's called punching in

[wHATcOLOR]

Originally Posted by DeviousJ

Here's a pic to show you what I mean



That's what you're saying, right? The 5th track is basically a continuation of the 2nd track, but recorded separately to make things easier. Try to get things in one go if you can, but don't worry too much - they re-record sections in professional studios, it's called punching in

yeah that's pretty much what i meant. thanks! i still havent accomplished much yet, so if you think kristal is truly superior i guess it woudln't be a big deal to switch over now.. i can generate a click track with krystal?

[DeviousJ]

Originally Posted by big white horse hung

yeah that's pretty much what i meant. thanks! i still havent accomplished much yet, so if you think kristal is truly superior i guess it woudln't be a big deal to switch over now.. i can generate a click track with krystal?

Yes sir



Well it's a click you can play along to - if you need to record a click to a separate track for whatever reason I can show you how to do that too. Just check out the manual on the site, it's well-written and it will get you into the whole thing pretty easily. Audacity's good for quick scratch recordings and stuff, this is more like a mini studio setup and it's way better for doing decent recordings. Plus you can use effects

[wHATcOLOR]

hmm... well given i just have an acoustic guitar and my laptop's built in mic, i think the extra features for Kristal would probably be wasted on what im doing now. i just want to get the ideas down, and if it ever turned into a song worth spending more time on, my friend has protools and a ton of mics and a soundroom and all that. odds are this will just be a shitty song, and i know my way aorund audacity more or less, so i htink im gonna stick iwth that for the time being. thanks for the insight though, seriously!!

[DeviousJ]

It's honestly not about it being an amazing professional solution - say you play a run through, and you mess up at the middle bit. You click the scissors tool, go snip-snip at the left and right edges of the bit you want to remove, then it's a separate piece you can delete. Record the bit you want to slot in, drag it over to the right place and adjust the edges of the bits so it all blends together smoothly. It's so much easier than Audacity, which can be a real pain to edit with at times. I wouldn't recommend it if I thought it wouldn't be useful to you - if you're worrying about re-recording parts to get a clean run through, I reckon you'll benefit. The fact you can do things like add a little bit of sparkly chorus to your acoustic guitar is just the icing on the cake!

[wHATcOLOR]

well shit, i don't believe devious j has ever led anyone astray. Kristal it is!

[wHATcOLOR]

ugh, this is going to take a while.. i don't see any of that shit on the screen (mixer, transport panel, channel eq).. the only thing i see is Kristal Waver.. im checking out the online guide

[bardy]

hey are you going to share this song with us when you're done? I'm happily curious.

[wHATcOLOR]

i am definitely not gonna share, no way! nothing personal.

hey devious, regarding volume levels... when i record, the graphical representaiton of the track extends very little (up and down) from the midline.. on screen shots and stuff, it seems that most people's tracks take up a lot more room.. i'm recording with the laptop's built in mic, and my volume on my computer is set to max.. any ideas?

[wHATcOLOR]

hey devious, thanks for the recommendation! this program is pretty sweet. my computer has some of those latency issues discussed on this board this past week, and it's fairly easy to just move the track over so it'll synch up wiht the rest. and i like how easy it is to cut and remove bits, and to change volume levels of different segments.

!!!

[wHATcOLOR]

now how the hell is a man supposed to export

[wHATcOLOR]

mixdown schmixdown

[wHATcOLOR]

sweet! thanks devious

[alexthestampede]

what a noob, that unicorn recording has Audacity all over it you can hear it

[The Omega Concern]

Sirrr,

please put the laptop away sir...stand back from the laptop please. thank you. now turn around. that's good: SIR!!! KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!!! very nice...good...

now here's this: believe me, you'll be much better off.

http://www.kalyx.com/store/images/RCA35027.jpg

[DeviousJ]

Originally Posted by big white horse hung

i am definitely not gonna share, no way! nothing personal.

hey devious, regarding volume levels... when i record, the graphical representaiton of the track extends very little (up and down) from the midline.. on screen shots and stuff, it seems that most people's tracks take up a lot more room.. i'm recording with the laptop's built in mic, and my volume on my computer is set to max.. any ideas?

Well I'm guessing you fixed everything else - yeah you want the sound wave to have as large a range as possible (without clipping), so open your Windows volume control and do Options > Properties and set Adjust Volume For to Recording, then Click OK. Hit the Advanced button under Microphone (make sure that slider's high enough too) and check the 20dB boost button.

In Kristal itself you can grab the square bit in each audio part and drag it up and down a little if you want, and you use the mixer to get a nice balance for each track, but yeah you want it coming in as loud as possible in the first place, to reduce noise and keep it clean.

You can color the audio parts too, if you're into that kind of thing (I am). Oh yeah, and if you grab the little triangles at either end of a part, you can make it fade in and out which I do all the time, even if it's just a tiny bit - makes transitions smoother and cuts out pops and stuff. See you can do fades in Audacity too, but they're permanent and you definitely can't tweak them by dragging a little slider around. This is what I mean!

[DeviousJ]

Originally Posted by The Omega Concern

Sirrr,

please put the laptop away sir...stand back from the laptop please. thank you. now turn around. that's good: SIR!!! KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!!! very nice...good...

now here's this: believe me, you'll be much better off.

http://www.kalyx.com/store/images/RCA35027.jpg

Does that use hyperdimensional physics to drive the motor?

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by big white horse hung

my computer has some of those latency issues discussed on this board this past week

YEAH THEY WERE DISCUSSED!!

[PkPhuoko]

for the 90th time

Cubase SX.X

[DeviousJ]

Originally Posted by PkPhuoko

for the 90th time

Cubase SX.X

If you want to confuse the hell out of him straightaway, sure

[brendo_91]

There is also REAPER which is freeware.