Instructions Needed To Record Voice Message

[steve]

I also checked the Creative Recorder, a separate program from the Creative Mixer, which can only record in WAV, but just opening the program locks up my computer to where it requires shutting off manually.

That's not good. The Creative recorder should work out-of-the-box as it is designed specifically to work with Creative (SoundBlaster) sound cards. You may need to check that your sound card is correctly installed with all the necessary drivers. If there's a problem with the sound card installation, then Audacity stands no chance.

I would start with that first - probably uninstalling the sound card then install it again and see if you can get the Creative Recorder to work. Once you have that working we should be able to get Audacity up and running in a jiffy.

[Aixa]

The first time the Creative Recorder locked itself up and the computer, after rebooting, I used the Creative Diagnostics Agent to test all of the sound hardware and all of the Creative components. Below are the results.

Hardware Test Result
09/29//09 12:08 56PM----Hardware Detection Test----Pass

Software Test Result
09/29//09 12:08 57PM----Wave Driver Test-------------Pass
09/29//09 12:08 59PM----Wave Driver Test-------------Pass
09/29//09 12:09 00PM----MIDI Driver Test-------------- Pass
09/29//09 12:09 01PM----Direct Sound3D Test--------- Pass
09/29//09 12:09 02PM----Mixer Settings Check---------Pass

I do not feel that I am sufficiently knowledgeable or brave to uninstall and reinstall the sound card, as I have no experience doing such a task. The sound card was installed by Dell prior to my computer being delivered. My computer sound system has 4 external speakers and 1 external powered subwoofer. I have never had any sound problems with my computer and I use messenger programs (AOL, Yahoo, Windows Live) that have sound alerts, I stream music (imeem, grooveshark) and live radio programs, I play MP3 and WAV files from the hard drive and the Creative Zen Micro (portable MP3 player) on Windows Media Player, Real Player, Winamp, I play CDs on the computer CD player, and I use Skype. Perfect sound every time. I would think, even with my extremely limited understanding of sound issues, that if anything was wrong with my sound card, considering the multiple ways in which my sound system must use it, problems would have arisen before.

Have I reached the end of the line as far as trying to make a voice recording on my computer?

[steve]

If Skype is running, then that could be the problem.

When Skype is closed, it remains active in the task bar (it's still running even when you close the Skype window).
Be very sure that Skype is completely closed and shut down before attempting to record.

To check that Skype is not running, click on the "Start" button and click on "Run"
in the Run box type "taskmgr" (without the quotes).

Search through both the "Applications" tab and the "Processes" tab and make sure that Skype is not running.

Was Skype running?
Does Creative Recorder work?
Does Audacity work?

"Options" did not give me the Recording Panel

What does "Options" give you?

[Aixa]

I clicked on the Volume icon at the bottom right of the screen and selected Adjust Audio Properties. On the new screen I selected the Voice tab, under Voice Recording > Default Device, I chose Creative SB Live! Series, pressed a button labeled Test Hardware, which brought up the Sound Hardware Test Wizard screen. I proceeded to test my heaphones/microphone and they failed the test. I decided to try a new pair of headphones/microphone I had never used that connect via USB. The moment I connected it, the computer showed a prompt identifying it by name. I tested it on the Sound Hardware Test Wizard, and it worked perfectly. I opened the Audacity control panel and was able to: 1- make a recording and 2- play it back. I could hardly believe it!

My best guess is that although the other headphones/microphone I had always used worked with Skype, apparently it was not recognized by the computer, as it did not show by name in the Voice Recording > Default Device menu to be able to select it, like the new headphones/microphone did instantly after being connected.

I now have a recording made on Audacity but I do not know what format I saved it in, as it did not give me options for it, only options as to what to name it and where to save it. Below are the details under Properties for that file.

Name: TEST FILE - Audacity_data
Folder: My Music
Size: 7.93 MB
Size on Disk: 7.96 MB
Contains: 8 files, 2 folders

1- Is it in a data format as data is the end word in the file name?

2- Why is it 7.93-7.96 MB in size when the entire test recording could have not been more than 60 seconds in length? Why does it contain 8 files, 2 folders when I only made one recording? Did something go wrong?

3- If I read it correctly, it recorded it in Stereo, 44100 Hz, 32 bit float, which must be the default settings, as I made no changes. What are the appropriate settings for an MP3 voice recording where sound quality is not important as long as it is intelligible? Under what headings or tabs are changes made?

4- How do I save (convert?) the recording from the current file format to an MP3 file? How do I save a new recording directly to the MP3 format?

[steve]

Brilliant, you can now record!
I've also got a good guess about why it works now and why it did not before.
Am I correct in thinking that the microphone that did not work plugged into a USB socket (flat rectangular plug/socket) and the new microphone that does work has a small round plug that goes into a small round hole on the sound card?

When you select "Save", Audacity saves the "Audacity Project". This is NOT an audio file and will not play in any software other than Audacity.
Audacity projects hold much more information than a normal audio file. For example, if you have a project with multiple tracks, then each track is saved independently.

To get a normal "audio file", you need to click on "File > Export".
In Audacity 1.2.x there are 2 relevant options:
"File > Export As WAV"
"File > Export As MP3"

For licensing reasons, Audacity is not allowed to ship with MP3 encoding built in. MP3 encoding is provided by adding the "Lame Encoder".
How to install "Lame" is covered in the "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) section of the main Audacity site. http://audacityteam.org/help/faq

The FAQ section is well worth a read as it will cover many of the questions that you are likely to have.
There are also some good "Tips" and "Tutorials" (see links at top of this page) that will help you to become an Audacity expert.

2- Why is it 7.93-7.96 MB i

Uncompressed audio makes BIG files - that's why MP3 and other types of compression are used for sending audio by e-mail or over the internet.
Uncompressed audio is better quality than MP3, but CD standard audio uses about 10MB per minute of recording time (about 8 times more than an MP3)

3- If I read it correctly, it recorded it in Stereo, 44100 Hz, 32 bit float, which must be the default settings, as I made no changes. What are the appropriate settings for an MP3 voice recording where sound quality is not important as long as it is intelligible?

Yes that's the default. This allows you to work in high quality and only suffer the audio damage at the Export stage, rather than compounding the loss in quality with everything you do in Audacity. Lame should automatically adjust the settings when you export as MP3.

The best settings for what you are doing are "mono 44100Hz 16 bit".

Also, for small MP3 files of your voice recordings, go to the "File Formats" page and set the MP3 bit rate to 64 (I'm assuming that you are using Audacity 1.2.6). This setting is only available after Lame has been installed.