RECORDING LOW BACKGROUND MUSIC W/ VOICE

[cosmiclight22]

Hello Bill
some time ago you referred me to this link below about how to mix a narration with background music after that I record the narration

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... ound_Music
I read all of the steps, I found it really helpful, so thank you so much
I found, in the tutorial, the option of fading the music at the end
However I did not find the option of which steps to take if I want the music to starts not at the same time as the narration, but after few minutes, like starting to talk first for few min. and then start the music later, so that the first few min, section is without music

Could you refer me to a section or page in the tutorial where I can find this information?
Or tell me directly how to accomplish that?
Also, can I interrupt the recording of the narration, save it and then continue it another day?
Is that the same as a the "PAUSE" option, or is that a different step?
Could you advise?
Thanks so much
Anna

[billw58]

You can slide the background music using the Move tool and position it anywhere you want.

Remember that you can move clips between tracks as well. So for recording the narration, you could record a bit one day, save your work then come back another day and record more narration on a separate track. When you're finished recording you can use the Move tool to move that second recording onto the track with the first recording. Alternatively, when you're ready to record more narration, click in the narration track then do Transport > Append Record.

-- Bill

[cosmiclight22]

Thank you for your helpful reply
by "MOVE TOOL" do you mean the simple SELECTING then copying and pasting feature-- or the "hand with index finger pointing out" ?
Or is it a special feature called MOVE TOOL somewhere i n he tool bar, that I am not aware of?

Also, when I tried the last option you suggest ,in the middle, (between the first recorded and the later recorded track), an empty, third track, appears
What is that? And is it supposed to be there? Or am I doing something wrong?
Thank you so much in advance
Anna

[billw58]

"Move tool" also know as the "Time Shift tool". It looks kind of like this <--->

See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Auda ... ting_clips

-- Bill

[cosmiclight22]

Oh! I see,
Now I know what that little tool is for
Thank you soo much
Have this other 3 questions:

I saved a voice recording (as exporting it and saving it as a MP3 file)
Now when I open it again afterward in Audacity,first, :
the track is doubled,(I guess from Mono to Stereo) but the quality of the recording is so much worse than it was before I saved it
also the blue line in the middle of the sis much ticker than the original one (which was very thin and smooth)

1) does it work only that way? or I have done something wrong?
2) Does that mean that the quality automatically deteriorates after saving the file as exporting in MP3 ?
3) How do I skip this problem and keep the same good quality of the original recording?

Thanks so much for your help
Anna

[billw58]

I saved a voice recording (as exporting it and saving it as a MP3 file)
Now when I open it again afterward in Audacity,first, :
the track is doubled,(I guess from Mono to Stereo) but the quality of the recording is so much worse than it was before I saved it
also the blue line in the middle of the sis much ticker than the original one (which was very thin and smooth)

1) does it work only that way? or I have done something wrong?
2) Does that mean that the quality automatically deteriorates after saving the file as exporting in MP3 ?
3) How do I skip this problem and keep the same good quality of the original recording?

1) Yes it does work that way. Your mistake was saving as an MP3.
2) Yes
3) Save your Audacity project. Use File > Save Project. Alternatively, if you want to export your work, export to a WAV or AIF file.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/File_Export_Dialog
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Audacity_Projects

-- Bill

[cosmiclight22]

Thank you for the referral and help
I understand now why it happened!!

However, I am not very technically oriented and I am still confused because I am not familiar with recording terms

The only thing I am trying to accomplish is this:
I want to record a good quality audio narrative and then be able to save it into a CD, is it possible?

I mistakenly thought that if I have the Lame plug in, I could directly save an Auda. recording into a MP3 or WAV by choosing FILE>EXPORT>MP3 option
Wrong!!!

Ok so I will save the Audacity recording as an AUP
Then what is next step to save that AUP into a CD and---keep the same sound quality?

I appreciate if you d' kindly show me (or refer me to ) all the steps needed, that would be awesome
Thank you sooo much in advance
Anna

[steve]

The only thing I am trying to accomplish is this:
I want to record a good quality audio narrative and then be able to save it into a CD, is it possible?

Perhaps I can help with some of the terminology:
You want good quality audio and then be able to "write" it to an audio CD. (also known as "burning" an audio CD).
The first part you can do with Audacity.
For the second part you need to use a "CD authoring" program (also known as a "CD burning" program).

I mistakenly thought that if I have the Lame plug in, I could directly save an Auda. recording into a MP3 or WAV by choosing FILE>EXPORT>MP3 option

Very close.
After completing the recording you need to "Export to WAV"
This is easy to do in Audacity 1.3.x because the default settings are perfect for burning to CD.

Before you export, check that the "Project Rate" (bottom left corner of the main Audacity window) is set to 44100. If it's on an other number, change it to 44100.
Then:
File menu > Export
Then select "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16 bit PCM" as the export format.

When you give the file a name, use only alphanumeric characters, space, hyphen and underscore. To avoid problems, avoid using any other characters, particularly avoid using punctuation characters.

The exported WAV file can then be burned to a CD using a CD burning program. For Windows there's a very good free CD burning program called CDBurnerXP http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home

If you want to make the sort of CD that will play in a normal CD player, ensure that you tell the CD burning program that you want to make an audio CD and not a data CD. Also, us an ordinary CDR, not a CDRW or DVD.

There's more information about this process here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Trans ... uter_or_CD

[kozikowski]

Many people think audio files are automatically MP3 because there are so many of them around and it's familiar territory. MP3 should not be used for audio production because MP3 causes sound damage. Export as WAV instead. You may get sticker shock at the amount of hard drive taken up by WAV files. They're big. WAV files are very large to avoid causing damage.

As above, the music on a Music CD is a very close cousin to WAV. So you would be editing the show at the same quality level as the sound on your Music CD.

Koz

[cosmiclight22]

WOW
Thank you so much guys you are stars!!!!
That was awesome, much more info and references than I expected to find out, thank you!!!
It makes so much more sense to me now!

Now I have few other questions though

1) was I supposed to save the recording as AUP first--then reopen it and then export it as a WAV file?
or just export it as a WAV file directly soon after recording it? I did it directly, without saving it first as a AUP file, but when I re-open it or import it in Audacity, to mix it with another track, the same thing as before happens, the blue line is thicker and static background noise has been added and it sounds worse

2) Does that mean that I cannot reopen a file in Audacity after it has been turned into a Wav file? How can I make adjustments to it then?

3) Also when I try to listen to that Wav file that i recorded on Aud. in Media Player, to see what kind of quality sound it has there, it has some kind of echo or vibration added that was not there when I last listened to it in Audacity soon after finished recording it, is that normal? Is it because I recorded it under the Preference> Recording> Stereo --option rather than Mono? Or why do you think?

4) I also noticed that if i record under the Stereo option (preference>recording) and 16 bit, and save the voice recording as a simple AUP file, when I reopen it in Audacity, static noise is added and quality is worse than before saving it, but if I record on Mono, quality is the same, What do you suggest, any insights on this ?

Thank you so much again
Anna