Audio Recording Frequently Asked Questions Winterfest Online 2008 January 12 - 20

1. What do I need to make an audio recording?

• a computer & microphone (either a built-in microphone, or a microphone jack and external microphone)
• some audio recording software. (You can use any audio software you like. You needn't use our suggestions below.)
  

2. Where can I get audio software?

For a short recording, you might want to try the Sound Recorder that comes with Windows.

3. How do I use Windows Sound Recorder?

• Open Sound Record by going to the Start menu and choosing Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Sound Recorder.
• To start recording, click on the round Record button. Speak near your microphone. 
• When you're finished, click on the square Stop button. 
• To hear what you've recorded, click on the triangular Play button. 
• To save the file, go to File and select Save As, then choose a filename.

4. Hey! I can only record 60 seconds with Sound Recorder!

That wasn't a question! Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, has crippled Sound Recorder so that it can only record 60 seconds at once (probably because Sound Recorder makes very large files, in .wav format.) 

5. What if I want longer recordings?

Microsoft, that programming powerhouse, has a solution for you! A way around the 60 second limit. Here, take a look.

6. You have got to be kidding! Surely there's a better option than that?

We've used sound recording software called Audacity and think it works well. You can download it–

7. Install new software? Me? You must have me confused with that geeky nephew of mine!  I can't install things!

Would you mind not interrupting me please? You could install software if you really wanted to! Embrace your inner geek! Well, ok, maybe you're at work and your IS department has made it so you really can't install things. (Psssst! You're supposed to be doing this at home, not at work! No, I don't want to hear about your overly controlling spouse. It's your computer too!)

9. So what about this Audacity now? Maybe my nephew will come over and help me.

• Go here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• Click on Audacity 1.2.6 installer, then from the list of locations that comes up, click on the one closest to you. Your download should begin in a few seconds. 
• Save the file to your Desktop, or to your preferred location. (After you finish the installation, you can delete this installer file.) 
• Once the download completes, double-click the audacity-win-1.2.6.exe file that you downloaded to start the installation wizard. The default options for everything appear to be safe. The first time you launch Audacity, it will ask for a language. Pick one.
• There's one more thing we need to install, the LAME MP3 encoder. (LAME stands for Lame Ain't an MP3 Encoder - I am not making this up! LOL!) If you want to download the full .zip file, go for it. Otherwise click here for just lame_enc.dll which is the only file you need. Your computer will want to know where to save it. If I were you, I'd put it in the same directory as Audacity, which if you accepted the default is c:\Program Files\Audacity.

10. Yes!!! I am the man! Or the woman! I installed it all by myself! Now what?

• Open Audacity if you haven't already done so.
• Click on the round red Record button to start recording. Speak near your microphone.
• When you are finished, click on the square yellow Stop button to stop recording.
• From the File menu, select Export as mp3.
• Choose where in your computer you want to save the file so you can send it to us afterwards, give the file a name and click on Save.
• A window will open titled Edit the ID3 tags for the mp3 file.
• My son would say that Of Course you should fill in all the tag fields as completely and accurately as possible, but I'll let you decide for yourself to fill them in or not. After you've filled them in - or not - click Ok.
• When you close Audacity, it will ask if you want to save changes before closing. So long as you exported to .mp3, you may safely click No. You may want to play the .mp3 file first to make sure it's good. Otherwise, if in doubt, you can save the file if you want to.
• Send your file to us! See question 12.

11. That was somebody else doing that happy dance! Tell me what to do with this huge .wav file I made with Sound Recorder.

Well, I would suggest FreeRIP to convert the file to MP3 and make it a lot smaller, but if you don't want to install Audacity, you probably won't want to fuss with FreeRIP either. Read on to learn about file sharing services.

12. Remind me where to send this thing now that it's done.

If the file you created isn't too big to email, send it to us at wintercandlemakers2@yahoo.com. If you don't know whether it's too big to email, give it a try. If it's too big, you'll likely receive a message to that effect. (Yahoo mail and gmail are up to 20MB attachments now.) In any case, we acknowledge all submissions received at that email address, so if you don't hear from us in a few days, you can assume we didn't receive it–or you can always email us and ask us if we received it. If your file is too big for email, we suggest using a file sharing service. We've used the following ones:

• http://yousendit.com/
• http://www.megaupload.com/
• http://www.turboupload.com/