Category Archives: Music recording, instruments, hard & software

Questions and answers about recording music with computers, musical instruments and recording equipment

Q. Why isn’t my new vocal microphone working?

Q. I just bought a new microphone, and I have plugged it in and there is no sound. Is it broken? A. Chances are, your microphone is a condenser microphone, either a large diameter diaphragm or small diameter diaphragm mic … Continue reading

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Q. Where can I get free music?

Copyright and you: To start with, all music is covered by national and international copyright law which covers the music composition, the lyrics, and the recorded performance. Copyright covers the creator’s Right to control how their work is Copied, and … Continue reading

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Q. Is there free software for recording and mixing music?

Audacity is a great program for Windows and Mac – here are some links for it and for additional resources www.computer-answers.ca/2011/music-recording/q-i-downloaded-audacity-to-edit-mp3s-now-how-do-i-use-it/ Sony Acid Express (Win only)  www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/freestuff MULab Free (Mac and Win shareware) www.mutools.com/mulab-product.html Rosegarden (Linux) www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Rosegarden/ And of course, … Continue reading

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Favorite Sites: Experimental Musical Instruments

One of my earliest musical memories is of pulling all of the pots and pans out of the cupboards, arranging them around the kitchen floor and hitting them with wooden spoons.  Later, it was filling bottles and glasses with water … Continue reading

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Q. Can I make music on an iPad?

Making music on iPad and iPhone An iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone is a computer in your hand, complete with a stunning display and touch screen interface. With a tool this portable and powerful, it’s a natural next step to … Continue reading

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Q. Can I plug my guitar into the computer?

Guitar Audio Interfaces You could plug an electric guitar jack directly into the microphone or line input jack of a computer and it may record a sound.  But it will probably be a really awful sound, not at all what … Continue reading

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Q. What is a USB microphone?

See companion article on Software for computer recording See companion article on Hardware for computer recording A USB microphone is a hybrid – it is a microphone cross-bred with a USB audio interface, so that it can plug directly into … Continue reading

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Q. What hardware do I need to make professional recordings?

See the companion article on digital recording software When you want to record music and get a good sounding result, you will want better quality and more flexible audio interfaces than the Mic jack on your computer.  Getting the audio … Continue reading

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Q. What software do I need to make professional recordings?

When you are setting up a digital recording studio, the first question is to choose the Digital Audio Workstation software that you will base your studio around. That will drive the choice of the computer. A DAW combines recording of … Continue reading

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Q. Why is there a time delay when I am recording sound?

The time lag between playing and the sound coming back out is called Latency — it is the time required for you interface to digitize the sound, buffer it, the computer to read the buffer, process it, write the results … Continue reading

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Q. How do I remove the singing from a song so I have just the instruments?

Removing vocals from a stereo track (or conversely removing instruments from a track, leaving the vocals) is difficult to impossible. To do it properly really means having access to the original multi-track recording studio tapes or files. When performers have … Continue reading

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Q. How do I transfer all my songs/ movies from one iTunes to another computer?

In your User folder, under Music or My Music, you should see a folder called iTunes. inside this are your music folders and iTunes settings. Note: This is the normal place for the files.  iTunes is capable of reading the … Continue reading

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Q. How can I get copyright protection for my work on a CD?

If you are the author of the material on the DVD/CD (or in writing, or on the web, or any other form) then you are automatically granted copyright on your work as soon as you create it.  But you need … Continue reading

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Q. I downloaded Audacity to edit MP3s, now how do I use it?

Audacity is a great open source audio editor program, available for Windows and Macintosh http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Here are some learning resources for it Audacity Tutorials http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial Tutorial Videos on YouTube Removing vocals with Audacity http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal Mixing two songs together … Continue reading

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