Instructions Needed To Record Voice Message

[Aixa]

How do I:
1- record a voice message using a headphone mic,
2- create a sound file that can be played in Windows Media Player or similar;
3- attach the sound file to an email.

Since I have never done this before, I need detailed instructions, which I could not find in the Help section.

Thank you.

[steve]

Most of the information you will find in the " Create your Voice Track" part of this tutorial; http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... h_Audacity

[kozikowski]

That may be a little stiff for you because it covers too much. Do you have a headset microphone already? Does it work?

Koz

[Aixa]

Hi Kaz,

Thank you for your response.

Yes, I do have a microphone and it works.

The linked article provided by poster stevethefiddle has some instructions on recording and creating an MP3 file but it seems to be geared toward those doing more complex tasks than what I need to do.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Aixa

[kozikowski]

I would change the Audacity Preferences to 44100, 16-bit (not 32) and Stereo (not Mono). Restart Audacity.

Click once inside the red record meters and they should wake up and meter your microphone without making a recording. This makes it very easy to set levels. (Ignore the blue waves in this illustration. You don't get those until you actually record something.)

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg

Get your script ready and press record.

Press stop at the end.

Export As WAV (Don't save anything. Audacity will not save a sound file).

That file should open up and play in any player in the world.

Launch your email program and figure out how it attaches files and point it to your WAV file.


That's the Readers' Digest version. You can get killed with this process because WAV sound files are crisp, clear, and perfect quality, but they're also very big. Many email services limit how large you can send attachments, but if you have very brief performances, it might be OK.

If you start having file size problems, then you can create MP3 files instead of WAV. MP3 is a compression technology that keeps the performance more or less OK and shrinks the file size. MP3 is a destructive compressor and you can never get perfect sound in MP3. If you need really tiny files, MP3 may damage the sound quality significantly -- and it's a little hard to do in Audacity. See how far you get without it.

Koz

[Aixa]

I definitely have to use the MP3 format, as for my purpose sound quality is not important but file size is. Do you know whether there is a free software program available for download that is specifically geared toward creating MP3s, and relatively simple to use for a beginner?

The recording process will involve only me talking into my headphone microphone, no music or anything else, and I will not need to edit it.

I know how to attach files in my email program, so that should not be a problem.

[kozikowski]

If you caught that little dance, there, Somebody posted trying to advertise their video converter -- on an audio forum...

Anyway, you can use the "lame" plugin to create nice MP3 exports of your work.

http://audacityteam.org/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3

I would recommend moving over to Audacity 1.3. This whole process is a lot easier and faster in 1.3 than it was in 1.2. You can install both on your machines as long as you only open up one at a time. Audacity 1.3 Projects will not open in Audacity 1.2. WAV and MP3 files should open up anywhere.

I'm going to continue in 1.3 because some of these tools don't exist in 1.2.

Change Audacity Preferences to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo or maybe Mono depending on your microphone and capture system.

Convert to mono. Track > Stereo to Mono.
File > Export > MP3 > 32Kb.

You can usually ignore the metadata panel, or pick "best compatibility" and then don't fill in the forms.

See if that's a small enough music file for you. MP3 at 32 is right on the edge of being able to hear sound damage on a mono show. You can go lower if you want, but the quality will start to gargle if you go too far.

If the client can handle AAC sound, you can have the same quality at about half the bitrate; 16 to 18. AAC sound files are not universal and you need to know where your files are going.

Koz

[Aixa]

Per your instructions, I downloaded Audacity 1.3 and Lame for Audacity. Both installations were successful. (I uninstalled Audacity 1.2 prior to installing 1.3 and Lame.)

I understand the functions of the large, color buttons on the Audacity control panel. I also found the control where the recording rate is changed, and adjusted it to 44100 Hz as you recommended. However, I am unable to follow the rest of your instructions or those in the Audacity Tutorial - Your First Recording because I am not able to find the items mentioned in the instructions in the Audacity control panel.

When I tried to record my voice by pressing the red Record button, I could not tell whether it was actually recording. When I pressed the green Play button, after disconnecting my headphones, to test whether it had recorded, no sound came out of the computer external speakers. I assume that it did not record.

The headphones microphone is connected to the pink color connector in the back of my computer, which according to the manual is the correct one for voice or musical input into a sound or telephony program. I have used it in the past with Skype and it worked without any problem.

[kozikowski]

<<<I have used it in the past with Skype and it worked without any problem.>>>

Which, oddly enough, may be why it doesn't work now. Skype goes through your machine with guns blazing and forces all the sound services to do its bidding. When you hang up, Skype doesn't always put everything back where it was.

While you're making a recording, the red sound meters should be moving...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg

When you finish you should have blue waves and when you play the show, the green sound meters should move...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg

If you have no blue waves -- you only have a straight line, then, no, you didn't get a recording.

This is where it gets seriously messy. I'm going to take one giant step backwards and let the Windows people take over. Getting sound through a Windows machine is bad enough, getting it through a Skype machine takes one of the senior elves.

Koz

[Aixa]

None of the events below, which you mentioned in your reply, occurred when I was trying to record. I did not even have the straight line you indicated in your last sentence! The control panel showed no events at all.

"While you're making a recording, the red sound meters should be moving...
When you finish you should have blue waves and when you play the show, the green sound meters should move...
If you have no blue waves -- you only have a straight line, then, no, you didn't get a recording."

Will one of the senior elves you mentioned be posting a reply here?

Thank you for your help, Koz.