Recording Technology Exploring New Ways to Record and Distribute Your Music.

Recording Technology

Exploring New Ways to Record and Distribute Your Music

Leadership ConferenceJune 2005

Region 16Sweet Adelines International

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Introductions

• Sue Melvin– Director, Rochester Chorus– RMT Co-Educational Coordinator– [email protected]

• Debbie Stellrecht– Lake Effect Harmony Chorus– [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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The Basic Process

1. Record

2. Transfer recording to PC

3. Edit

4. Save edited music in desired format

5. Make copies for mass distribution and/or

6. Make available for download from web site or email to members



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Choosing a Recording Method• Directors want

– quality recording to fine tune each part’s performance

• Singers want– acceptable quality rehearsal/learning recording to

practice interpretation & tempo, correct notes

• PR & Marketing– highest quality ‘mastered’ recording for distribution

and/or sale to consumer• (beyond the scope of today’s workshop)



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Recording Your Music

• Recording devices:– Cassette Tape Recorder– MiniDisc (MD) Recorder

• portable and deck models

– Digital Recorder

• Edirol WAVE Recorder



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Cassette Tape Recorder• Fair to poor sound quality• Tapes jam, break, deteriorate in

quality• Not easy to download/upload

music from/to PC• Cannot edit/move tracks, or jump

from track to track - REW or FFWD only

• Everyone knows how to use one• $10-? US

Cassette Tape Recorder



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MiniDisc (MD) Recorder• Quality sound, especially

with external microphone• Discs have high storage

capacity, are very durable• Easy to download music

from PC, if USB equipped• Not so easy to upload files

to PC, but can be done• Easy to edit/move tracks on

MiniDisc

MiniDisc Portable



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MiniDisc (MD) Recorder, cont’d• Plenty of online support and

resources• Jump from track to track

quickly• Complex to learn to use• Blank media is inexpensive• $100-300 US• Be sure the unit you

purchase is a recorder and player

MiniDisc Portable



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MiniDisc (MD) Deck• Same benefits as portable, plus• Finer editing precision when

dividing tracks

• Decks often have digital (USB) output, but may not have microphone inputs

• Often have built-in speakers for playback without headphones

• $135-300 US

MiniDisc Deck



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Digital Recorder• Quality sound, improved with

external microphone• High storage capacity, durable• Easy to download music from

PC• Easy to edit/move/switch

tracks• Easy to upload files to PC on

USB-equipped models• $35-400 US

Digital Recorder



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Edirol WAVE Recorder• High-quality recording • Record/play in WAVE or MP3

format• USB transfer from recorder to

computer• Includes two high quality

microphones for stereo recording• Inputs for line and microphone

level recording • ~$500 US

Edirol R-1 Wave Recorder



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Transfer/Upload Recording

• USB connection– fast file transfer: seconds

or minutes

• Line-in transfer with male-to-male stereo plug– real-time transfer: 1 hour

of recorded music will take 1 hour to transfer



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Transfer/Upload RecordingNote:

No matter which device you choose to record with, if it has an output jack (e.g. headphone jack), you can transfer that recording to your computer

• Use the line-in transfer method• Need male/male stereo cable to transfer the file from

the recorder to the PC



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Editing Your Recording• Simple to sophisticated programs

– Shareware or commercial program?

– Depends on how much you have to spend & desired result

• Editing tasks may include:– Cut, Copy, Delete, Paste, Mix– Applying various effects

• Amplify, Compress, Delay, Equalize, Fade In, Fade Out, Invert, Normalize, Reverb, Reverse, Silence, Shrink, Stretch, Vibrato, etc



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Editing Your Recording, cont’d• Editing tasks may include:

– Applying filters to any selected portion of audio files

– Breaking into tracks, inserting information (Titles, credits, etc.)

– Complete, multi-level undo and redo capabilities

– Inserting silence or noise

• Examples of Programs to Edit Recordings– MusicMatch Jukebox Plus - $20 US

– Adobe Audition $300 US

– PolderbitS Sound recorder - $36 US



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Digital Audio Formats• Waveform (WAVE -.wav)

– superior quality, very large file sizes

– widely supported

• MPEG-1 Level 3 (MP3 -.mp3)– high quality, 1/10th of the file size of .wav

– very popular, widely supported



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Digital Audio Formats• ATRAC™, ATRAC3™

– Sony’s proprietary MD compression format for copyright protection, makes it difficult to share files

– HiMD: even better sound quality, fit more music on a HiMD disc

• Windows Media Audio (WMA - .wma)– Though not as popular as MP3, WMA tends to outperform

MP3 in the area of sound quality



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Distributing Your Recording• CD-R, CD-R/W

– CD-R allows you to copy to it only once– CD-R/W permits rewriting & erasing files– need CD player (some players won’t play

CD-R/Ws), device to make mass copies

• DVD-R, DVD-/R+W– copy video and audio files (See handout

on copying video tapes to DVD)– need DVD player, device to make mass

copies



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Distributing Your Recording, cont’d

• MiniDisc– can fit a CD's worth of high-quality

music on a 2-1/2" disc

– need an MD player to playback– device to make multiple copies

• Cassette tape– almost everyone has a cassette player

& knows how to use it



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Distributing Your Recording, cont’d

• Audio file uploaded to web site– members must have a device or software

capable of playing the downloaded file– Time to download file depends on Internet

connection (Cable, DSL, Dial-up)

• Email attachment– Time to download file (same as above)– Large files size may exceed inbox limit



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Uploading Files to the Web• FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

– Transfer files (upload or download) between two computers on the Internet

• Must have username/password to upload files to the web server

• Need FTP software - inexpensive or free– see Uploading resource web page at Region

16 web site



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Download/Play Audio • Sound file

– can be played live from web site– can be downloaded from web site, email

attachment– can be played on any device capable of playing

the format it was saved in



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Additional Resources

• Resources– http://www.harmonize.com/lakeeffect/resources.html

– will be available at Region 16 site soon

• Uploading Help – http://www.harmonize.com/lakeeffect/upload.html

– will be available at Region 16 site soon

• Handouts



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Questions?

Recording Technology Exploring New Ways to Record and Distribute Your Music.

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