Noodles
281 posts
Aug 23, 2012
2:46 PM
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It seems that many of us use Audacity software for recording and editing. Do you have a tip to share? If so, here’s your chance to share it.
HOW TO ADD DELAY to your recording (or any part of it)
1. Select the portion (highlight) that portion where you want to ADD DELAY
2. Effects/Echo
3. A small dialog box will pop up with 2 default settings
4. Try these settings:
5. DELAY TIME (seconds) .2
6. DECAY FACTOR .2
Last Edited by on Aug 23, 2012 2:50 PM
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jodanchudan
679 posts
Aug 23, 2012
4:20 PM
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How to split an mp3 file into choruses:
This might be old news to some, but it's a handy new discovery for me. You can load an mp3 file into Audacity, split it into choruses and save each one as a separate mp3 file. From the online instructions (except I've changed the word 'song' to 'chorus'):
" 1. Click to place the cursor at the start of the first chorus
2. Choose “Add Label at Selection” from the Project menu (or Tracks menu in Audacity Beta). If you wish, you can type the name of the chorus.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each chorus.
4. When you are finished, choose “Export Multiple” from the File menu. When you click the “Export” button, Audacity will save each chorus as a separate file, using the format and location you choose."
I place one cursor point at the start of the track and the rest around the turnaround area at the end of each chorus (yes, it clips a bit of turnaround lick, but at least it gives you an intro to each new chorus).
I've been slowing the tracks down first, then splitting them into choruses - makes a very handy practice CD for the car (not that I'd play while driving, you understand, officer).
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Pistolcat
280 posts
Aug 24, 2012
2:05 PM
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I'm going to share a tip I got from Isaacullah! What the hell I'm just going to cut it in here. It's from The thread called Rough solo demo that Harpninja posted recently.
Isaacullah:
"Their is a pretty good stereo widening plugin for Audacity that I use a lot, but it's really easy to do it without a plug in. First, you split your stereo track into dual mono. Then, you use the zoom tool to zoom into the track until you can see divisions of 0.01 seconds on the time line. Then, you use the "move track" tool to bump the start of one of the two tracks up to 0.01 or 0.02 seconds. You then pan one hard left, and the other hard right. Then, you can bump the volume of the track you didn't move up by 1 dB. You can also apply a low-pass filter to the track you moved (set the notch around 2000Hz) if you want to too. Then, you mix it back to stereo, and voila! Instant stereo sound! What this does, is trick the brain into hearing the sound "widened" by simulating directionality in the original source! The small time gap, and the slight low-pass filtering of the delayed track simulating the natural time delay and low-pass filtering of a directional sound passing through the head to be heard by the other ear.
Here's the article where I learned the theory behind this procedure: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct00/articles/stereomix.htm"
I think that this is a really nice tweak to fatten your sound and if your recording on top of a backing track it make you sound more as a part of the band. If you are recording yourself with ovedub on multiple harmonicas it's a really great way to separate the sound in "space". You just put one track a tad ahead with a slight volumeboost as per above to the right and the other to the left.
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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isaacullah
2117 posts
Aug 24, 2012
3:18 PM
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Thanks Pistolkatt! I was gonna do that myself, but ya beat me to it! :)
Here's the other couple of links from that thread...
This is another good article on the subject of stereo widening: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep10/articles/pt-0910.htm
This is the stereo widening Audacity plugin that I also sometimes use: Stereo Widener.
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isaacullah
2118 posts
Aug 24, 2012
3:21 PM
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oh, and FYI, if you have true mono track and you want to widen it, you can use the same steps as above, but instead of splitting the initial track (if it was "stereo" already) you add a new mono track, and then copy the info from your first track into it, so that there are two identical mono tracks. Then follow the same steps to hard pan them, and then add the time difference, the low pass filtering, and the volume difference between them before mixing it back down and rendering it in stereo.
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=========== I S A A C ===========
View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
Last Edited by on Aug 24, 2012 3:21 PM
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isaacullah
2119 posts
Aug 24, 2012
3:23 PM
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Also, if you do a live overdub into audacity, and you find that there is some latency (time difference between backing track and overdub), just use the time tool to move the overdub track back a bit at a time until it lays just right. I couldn't figure out why my overdubs sounded so weird until I figured out that little trick! :)
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=========== I S A A C ===========
View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
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Pistolcat
285 posts
Aug 24, 2012
3:33 PM
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Sorry for stepping on your toes Isaac, I noticed that this post fell of the first page and wanted to make people aware of that widening trick! I use the Mono-to-stereo and I think it makes a great difference.
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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isaacullah
2120 posts
Aug 24, 2012
3:58 PM
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No worries! No stepping occurred! :) I'm glad you did it, since i'm way busier these days than I've ever been before... I'd been meaning to get to it since I first saw noodles made this thread, but I didn't even have time to check back until just this afternoon! Being a brand new professor is tough, I tell ya! :)
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=========== I S A A C ===========
View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
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Noodles
283 posts
Aug 24, 2012
7:57 PM
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Sometimes you may find it useful to change the key of a pre-recorded tune. It’s very simple in Audacity. If you don’t have a full set of harps, you’ll find this quite useful.
TO CHANGE THE KEY OF ANY SONG
1. Import the tune
2. Highlight the waveform
3. Go to EFFECT/CHANGE PITCH (a dialog box will appear)
4. Select the new key from the menu
If you lay down some harp on its own track, you can raise and lower it an octave to create low and high harp sounds. Same for vocals.
BTW, in case you don’t know, AUDACITY is a free download (Google it)
Last Edited by on Aug 25, 2012 11:53 AM
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arzajac
846 posts
Aug 24, 2012
8:37 PM
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You can slow down a harp solo so that you can hear individual notes (slow-downer)
Open the song with Audacity.
Play.
Find the solo you want to slow down.
Select it with the tool to make it grey.
Click Effect - Change Tempo
You will get a dialog box with the description "Change tempo without changing pitch". Slide the bar down as far as you like (I usually start at 40 per cent slower)
Click OK to make it go.
Click on File-Export Selection and save the selected, slowed down solo to a separate mp3 file.
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Steamrollin Stan
528 posts
Aug 25, 2012
1:22 AM
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I record to backing tracks, using for example my bottle O blues mic straight into the laptop, always have shitty sound and have to adjust delay volume etc to get some kind of decency in there, i'm looking for advice as to what rig etc to use for a little better quality, been doing this for ages and dont wish to waste money but aprehensive due to my beginner status and have realised its ME not the gear, so what can any one of our experts suggest??
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Frank
1047 posts
Aug 25, 2012
5:23 AM
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Stan...IF possible - only add effects to your playing - keep the BT neutral,do not add effects to it. Then when it is mixed down into an mp3 sometimes it will have a better sound!
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Pistolcat
286 posts
Aug 25, 2012
11:02 AM
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Stan - If you have a Iphone/Ipad/Ipod I can recommend the ampkit app with the ampkit LiNK connector. I use a sm57 with that, which is a good harp mic and have a lot of other uses, too. (Miking amps etc...) There are other (more pricey) digital options like line 6 pod HD
Here's a soundclip of my playing through Hering vintage harp- sm57- ampkit Link- Iphon. The soundcloud is without any postprocessing. Done one minute after I finished playing and in my YT the latest vid is the SAME track with aforementioned stereowidening and leveling. Took me 30 minutes with all uploading, turning on PC etc...
EDIT: A descent microphone is a first step I believe?
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
Last Edited by on Aug 25, 2012 11:05 AM
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Steamrollin Stan
530 posts
Aug 25, 2012
11:43 AM
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@ Frank, i do that now but add fx to my section and export to mp3, but i'll try exporting like you suggested and see what happens.
@Pistolcat, fine playing here for sure,i do have an ipod but not a sm57, i think the mic has a great sound, i'll check out the app store and see.
Thanks for the tips!!
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AirMojo
297 posts
Aug 25, 2012
2:40 PM
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@jodanchudan Hey, I like that "labels" stuff... I often chop up songs or parts of songs to learn from.
I would normally just take a song, select the part that I wanted, cut it, open a "new" file and paste it in, and save it... using a naming convention like "song-name part-1a.mp3"... and then do the same for the remaining pieces/parts.
I will often slow the part down, either make a separate file, or paste it to the beginning or end of the original piece.
But one thing I like to do is add some little silent pieces at the beginning and end of each part, so that it plays better, especially in my iPod.
Often I will use the "Fade In" Effect at the beginning and the "Fade Out" Effect at the end to make the snippit sound better.
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