How To Record

• Setting Up Your Microphone
• Testing Your Connection
• Getting The Software
• Your First Recording
• Cleaning It Up
• Removing the Noise
• Adding Some Effects
• Saving Your File

Setting Up Your Microphone

Generally speaking, setting up your microphone should be as easy as plugging in the microphone into your Audio In jack. The jack is generally located on the back of your PC and should be a red or pink colored input jack as pictured to the right.

More recently, a popular choice has become the use of USB headsets and microphones. If that's the case, be sure to follow the instructions for your USB devices. Chances are, if you're running Windows XP, you'll need to do the following...

• Click Start.
• Click Control Panel.
• Select Sound and Audio Devices from the control panel.
• Click on the Audio tab.
• Under the "Sound Recording" section, you'll need to select your USB device.

If you have an actual recording microphone, you'll most likely want to run that through a sound board or pre-amp and then attach the board into the PC jack -- you'll most likely need a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter to fit into the jack but, then again, if you've got that kind of equipment, you'll know how to hook it up. :)

Testing Your Connection

Once you hook your microphone up, the easiest way to test your connection is to do the following (on Windows XP):

• Click Start.
• Click Run.
• Type sndrec32

At this point, click the red 'record' button and speak into your microphone for a few moments then click the 'stop' button. Make sure your volume is turned down -- especially if you're wearing headphones -- then hit 'play'. If you're unable to hear anything make sure your speakers are plugged in, turned on and turned up enough to be audible. If you still don't hear anything after that point, open up your volume control and make sure that the 'mute' checkbox for your speakers or microphone isn't checked.

Getting the Software

There's one highly reccomended package which you can download for free -- Audacity is a cross-platform sound editing package. If you've got a bit more cash to spend and some time to invest in learning it, Adobe Audition is a great piece of professional level sound production software -- for now, we'll assume you're going to use Audacity.

In addition to Audacity, you'll need the LAME MP3 Encoder to export your recordings into MP3 format. You can find that software and installation instruction packages here.

Your First Recording

Start up Audacity, get your microphone and whistle set, then click the red "Record" button -- as soon as you do, Audacity will begin recording. Go ahead and start playing your tune -- when you do, for the sake of saving space and time, play it one time through the A Part and one time through the B part.

When you're done recording, click the "Stop" button. Once you're done, you'll have a new 'strip' in your workspace that's a visual representation of what you just recorded.

So, you have your recording now; however, before you can even save it, we'll have to clean it up a bit so it's a bit more presentable.

 

Cleaning It Up

Now that you have your base recording, you'll want to clean it up a bit -- between the time you turn on your recording, play your turn and turn off your recording, you're most likely going to have several seconds of dead air before and after your play. To get rid of this, we simply highlight the 'dead air' we want to get rid of and hit your 'Delete' key.

Before:

After:

Try to leave a little bit of lead in and lead out in case you want to add in a bit of reverb later on.

Removing The Noise

If you find your recording has a lot of noise, you may want to follow the following steps:

• Click the "Record" button to start a new recording.
• You're recording silence -- don't say or play anything. Let it run 5-10 seconds.
• What you have left is a 'noise profile'. Highlight as much of this 'noise'.
• Click 'Effect' from the Menu and select 'Noise Removal'.
• Click on the 'Get Noise Profile' button.
• Now, highlight your entire whistle recording.
• Click on 'Effect' from the menu and select 'Noise Removal'.
• From here you can preview your sound file with noise removal.
• Adjust the slider to the point where it sounds good, then click the 'Remove Noise' button.

Adding Some Effects

So, you have a noise free sound file at this point. Go ahead and highlight your recording and go back into the 'Effects' menu. You may want to experiment with a couple of the following effects:

• Amplify: Use this to increase the volume of your recording if the level was initially too low.
• Compressor: This will help make your recording sound a little solid and normalize the volume of your recording afterwards. That is, if your recording was 'clipping' or sounds distorted, this will attempt to correct that problem.
• Fade In/Fade Out: Nice for recordings that don't have a definite stop or start point -- not so much an issue with traditional music, but something fun to play with none the less.
• Echo: Add a reverb effect to the recording to make it sound as if you're playing inside of a theatre.

Saving Your File

Now for the easy part -- click on 'File' from the menu and "Export as MP3." Select a location to save the file. Regardless of which software you use, if there's a method to change the quality of your recording, please attempt to save it as mono (as opposed to stereo). Although there's a three megabyte limit, needless to say that the smaller the file, the better for the folks who have to download them. After that, upload it to Whistle This!