Recording Songs |
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Jan 29 2010, 10:47 AM
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I think there are a number of things that you may want to consider...
If you want to record your band at a reasonable quality level then Audacity will only go so far. It is meant to be a wave editor and is not really recording software - its recording functions are quite basic. As Bogdan suggests Reaper is recording software and is free to evaluate but costs 60USD for a license. It operates as a digital multi-track tracking, mixing and recording environment. See here for some intro lessons on how to use it with guitar. (At some point when I have lots of free time I'll add some more.) As you can already get your sound in to Audacity then I'll assume you have an audio card already set up albeit you may want to check that you're not clipping it. At some stage you might want to consider upgrading your audio card but that depends on what you have, need and want. Facebook (and Youtube) prefers you to upload your audio/video in a format that it likes - hence why you're going through your 'double recording' bit. Neither use codecs that are audio 'friendly' however - both use codecs that compress the audio in quite a poor way. Best advice here is to minimise compression when you record - and by that I don't just mean turn down any compressor/dynamic processor hardware or software that you may use but also use less amp distortion. You might also want to look at how you are rendering your music and the file format you save. As you're in Audacity and exporting the audio to Facebook I guess you're using mp3 via LAME. LAME has a tendency to sum an additional 0.3-0.5 dB to the audio. That means if you record your music with the levels near to clipping then LAME can quite easily take the audio in to digital clipping/distortion. So you need to lower your master level to allow for this before you render to mp3 in Audacity. Alternatively you might want to render using a different format than mp3. Speaking as a mastering engineer, mp3 - although a very common and popular format - does not produce good quality audio partly because mp3 is a lossy, or compressed, format. I guess though that you have to use mp3 due to Facebook however. If you can use any format then for really want good quality you should use wave or some other loss less format and you should take care over how you both sample rate correct and alter the bit depth. -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
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Jan 30 2010, 04:02 AM
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Wow! Thank you for all that info! But one question. I can't use MP3 for facebook. I don't know why and honestly I just want a nice clean recording on there that people can appreciate. What can I do to have a wider variation of formats?
I just purchased the program Reaper as suggested in a previous comment. Any advice? QUOTE (tonymiro @ Jan 29 2010, 10:47 AM)  I think there are a number of things that you may want to consider... If you want to record your band at a reasonable quality level then Audacity will only go so far. It is meant to be a wave editor and is not really recording software - its recording functions are quite basic. As Bogdan suggests Reaper is recording software and is free to evaluate but costs 60USD for a license. It operates as a digital multi-track tracking, mixing and recording environment. See here for some intro lessons on how to use it with guitar. (At some point when I have lots of free time I'll add some more.) As you can already get your sound in to Audacity then I'll assume you have an audio card already set up albeit you may want to check that you're not clipping it. At some stage you might want to consider upgrading your audio card but that depends on what you have, need and want. Facebook (and Youtube) prefers you to upload your audio/video in a format that it likes - hence why you're going through your 'double recording' bit. Neither use codecs that are audio 'friendly' however - both use codecs that compress the audio in quite a poor way. Best advice here is to minimise compression when you record - and by that I don't just mean turn down any compressor/dynamic processor hardware or software that you may use but also use less amp distortion. You might also want to look at how you are rendering your music and the file format you save. As you're in Audacity and exporting the audio to Facebook I guess you're using mp3 via LAME. LAME has a tendency to sum an additional 0.3-0.5 dB to the audio. That means if you record your music with the levels near to clipping then LAME can quite easily take the audio in to digital clipping/distortion. So you need to lower your master level to allow for this before you render to mp3 in Audacity. Alternatively you might want to render using a different format than mp3. Speaking as a mastering engineer, mp3 - although a very common and popular format - does not produce good quality audio partly because mp3 is a lossy, or compressed, format. I guess though that you have to use mp3 due to Facebook however. If you can use any format then for really want good quality you should use wave or some other loss less format and you should take care over how you both sample rate correct and alter the bit depth. -------------------- "Baptized in a firefight. Hot blood running cold as ice. 44 minutes of target practice. All hell's breaking loose.
Outgunned. Watching the force come to a firefight with a pocket knife. Getting schooled until they shot Achilles' heel and brought down the beast." |
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Jan 30 2010, 05:51 AM
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QUOTE (BM @ Jan 30 2010, 04:02 AM) Wow! Thank you for all that info! But one question. I can't use MP3 for facebook. I don't know why and honestly I just want a nice clean recording on there that people can appreciate. What can I do to have a wider variation of formats? I just purchased the program Reaper as suggested in a previous comment. Any advice? For facebook as I know it, you have to make a musician fan page, there you can ad the music player app and upload your mp3s for listening. -------------------- For GMC support please email support (at) guitarmasterclass.net
Check out my lessons and my instructor board. Check out my beginner guitar lessons course! ; Take a bass course now! |
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Posts in this topic
BM Recording Songs Jan 29 2010, 01:56 AM
Bogdan Radovic I'm not sure what do you mean by recording thr... Jan 29 2010, 02:27 AM
UncleSkillet QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Jan 28 2010, 08:2... Jan 29 2010, 02:32 AM
BM What I mean is I would record the song on Audacity... Jan 29 2010, 03:18 AM
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BM True.
I just created that page today. Then I did ... Jan 31 2010, 04:23 AM Emir Hot QUOTE (BM @ Jan 31 2010, 03:23 AM) True.
... Jan 31 2010, 05:37 AM BM Thank you Emir! You're help is greatly app... Jan 31 2010, 05:13 PM Emir Hot QUOTE (BM @ Jan 31 2010, 04:13 PM) Thank ... Jan 31 2010, 05:14 PM
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Ivan Milenkovic I recommend that you get UX1 device, it's arou... Jan 29 2010, 06:18 PM Daniel Realpe QUOTE (Ivan Milenkovic @ Jan 29 2010, 06... Feb 7 2010, 06:28 PM
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tonymiro QUOTE (BM @ Jan 31 2010, 04:23 AM) True.
... Jan 31 2010, 12:49 PM
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