Audio Recordings
WITH AN INEXPENSIVE PC MICROPHONE, it’s easy to record your own podcasts, music, audio books, or narration for videos. The results can sound great, but by taking a little time to enhance them, you can bring them up to professional standards. Audacity is the perfect software for this; it’s powerful, but easy to use, and it’s free.
Audacity does an excellent job of cleaning up audio, but there are a few steps you can take to ensure you get the best possible recording quality in the first place. First, make sure the input volume is set correctly by right-clicking the speaker icon in the System Tray, selecting “Recording devices > Microphone > Set up microphone,” and following the instructions.
It’s also worth using a pop filter to prevent noises being created by the rapid movement of air as you sing or speak. Make your own by following the guide at http://bit.ly/1Y2JwWh.
1 GET AUDACITY 2 MICROPHONE CHECK
Visit www. auda city team. org/ download/ windows and select the first option: “Audacity 2.1.2 installer.” This version contains additional help files, in case you need them later on. The download starts automatically; ignore the links that appear on the following page. Run the software installer, leaving the default settings as they are. Launch Audacity and take a look at the microphone and speaker settings at the top. Make sure these are set correctly, so you aren’t recording from your webcam, rather than your USB microphone, for example. If you’re not sure which device is selected, click the area marked “Click to start monitoring,” and the input from the selected microphone is shown as a green bar.
3 MAKE YOUR RECORDING
Click the red button or tap Shift-R to start recording. Try to keep a constant distance from the microphone, and don’t worry if you trip over a word—pause for a second and say that part again. You can easily cut any mistakes afterward. Once you’re done, click the rewind button, then click play to see how it sounds. It’s best to use headphones for this.
If you notice background noise in your recording, select a quiet bit of the track by clicking and dragging on a flat part of the blue waveform. Click “Effects > Noise reduction” [ Image A], then click “Get noise profile.” Tap Ctrl-A to select your recording, click “Effects > Noise reduction” again, then use the sliders and preview to adjust the strength of the effect. When you’re happy, click “OK.”
4 TRIM TO SIZE
If there’s a pause at the start of your recording that you don’t want, click and drag to select this part of the waveform, then tap Delete. You can also use this technique to remove any sections of audio where you made a mistake and had to repeat yourself. If you only want to keep a small part of the recording, select that section, then click “Trim Audio” beside the “Paste” button.
5 ADJUST LEVELS
Did you accidentally move away from your microphone while you were recording? If so, some parts of the resulting audio might be louder than others. If that’s the case, tap Ctrl-A to select everything, then click “Effects > Leveling,” and experiment with the options
[ Image B], checking them with the “Preview” button (the amount of leveling required depends on your own recording).
6 ELIMINATE PROBLEMS
If there’s a single particularly loud part of your recording, select it, then tap Ctrl-1 repeatedly to zoom in and isolate the specific waves that are causing it. Make sure you have just these waves selected, then click “Effect > Amplify,” and reduce the volume by a few decibels. Use the “Preview” button to check how it sounds before clicking “OK.” Tap Ctrl-T to zoom back out.
>> Harsh “s” sounds are a common problem in home audio recordings, but there’s a plugin for Audacity called Spitfish that can reduce them. Download it from http://bit.ly/1i1zfRG. Extract the ZIP archive to “Program Files (X86) > Audacity > Plugins.” Return to Audacity, click “File > Export Audio,” save your audio in WAV format, then restart the program. 7 TONE DOWN HARSH SIBILANCE Re-open your file, selecting the option to make a copy in case you need to undo your changes. Now select “Effects > Add/remove plugins > SPITFISH > Enable > OK.” Tap Ctrl-A, then click “Effect > Spitfish de-esser,” and experiment with the settings to tone down the sibilance [ Image C]. 8 EXPORT AND SAVE Your audio should now sound much better! Click “File > Export Audio,” and choose a file type. If you’re planning to edit it again later, or use it as a soundtrack for a video, save it in WAV format to keep the quality high. If it’s finished, and you’re ready to share it, save it in MP3 or WMA format; these provide compression to reduce file size, and are supported by most media players.