Tag Archives: Audio

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

Posted on January 16, 2012 by quill

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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Q. Why won’t a microphone work when I plug it into my Mac Mini?

Posted on January 6, 2012 by quill

This is because the Mac Mini’s input jack is a Line input not a Mic input (this is true of some other models as well). A microphone produces a signal that is many times weaker than a line level signal. … Continue reading →

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Q. Can I make music on an iPad?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by quill

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. What is a USB microphone?

Posted on May 31, 2011 by quill

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 →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Music recording, instruments, hard & software | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on May 28, 2011 by quill

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 →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Music recording, instruments, hard & software | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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

Posted on May 28, 2011 by quill

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 →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, Music recording, instruments, hard & software, Software, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quill

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?

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quill

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

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

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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