Recently in Audio Category

The harpsichord is one of my favorite instruments. I love the tonality of the harpsichord sound and many of my favorite classical compositions feature the harpsichord as a primary instrument. I also happen to think LEGO blocks are among the greatest toys ever created. What does that have to do with the harpsichord? You would think nothing, but in this case, LEGO blocks are the harpsichord. That's right, following the documentation presented beyond that link, you could piece together your own LEGO harpsichord. Not feeling that ambitious? Read about the process of designing a LEGO harpsichord, then listen to the finished result. The blocks provide a rhythmic clicking you wouldn't get from other harpsichord building materials.

As someone who travels regularly, I'm always looking for creative ways to get better sound from my audio recordings. Hotel rooms tend to echo and you don't always have control over the environmental noises. I went looking for a solution that would offer a more controlled sound and ran across professional voice actor, Harlan Hogan's, Porta-Booth, which is built from some fairly common components. You don't have to travel to find this solution useful, it's also a great way to tighten up your sound when recording at home without needing a whole room dedicated to recording. Making a few slight modifications, I put together a video showing how I built my own.

Watch the video on YouTube

Required Components for the Portable Voice Booth

Studio Foam The biggest variation between my portable sound studio and the one Harlan Hogan demonstrates on his site is the foam. He uses Auralex Studiofoam 2" Pyramid foam, which is only available via special order from places like Guitar Center in $400 increments (or $200 via Amazon) - I know, I checked. I opted for a sheet of 2x24x48 Auralex Wedge foam, which runs about $25 per sheet. It got the desired result and I don't end up with a box of leftover foam. The sheet is big enough to make 2, which is also the minimum number of cubes you can buy, so get a friend in on this project and save money. Any local music supply store should have similar foam.

Whitmor Cube The Witmor 14x14 collapsible cube ships in quantities of 2 for about $12.99 at Target.com, Wal-mart.com and Amazon (by way of Target). You can't get them in stores for some reason, so you'll have to order online.

Bread Knife You need a bread knife for cutting the foam - trust me it works better than anything else. A cheap Chefmate knife or any of the $4 or under variety, like the World Kitchen/Ekco 7" Bread Knife from Amazon are great solutions for this. Don't use your wife's bread knife unless you plan on buying her a new one.

Additional Tools The only additional tools you will need is a tape measure to make sure you cut the foam in the right place and a Sharpie to mark the foam to make the cut.

Assuming you already have a Sharpie and tape measure, you're looking at total cost of approximately $42 plus any tax and shipping for materials to make 2 of these cubes.

Space Saving Bags For Storage

I bought the Large Space Bags 3 pack from Target for my packing solution. You can get both the Space Bags and the Whitmor cubes through Amazon's affiliation with Target and spend less on shipping for the overall package (you can likely get a bread knife this way as well).

Tony writes, "How can I convert some of my MP3s to WAV format? I have an old MP3 player that is supposed to support both MP3 and WAV files, but some of the new files I downloaded from AmazonMP3 don't seem to work with it. How can I convert these files to WAV to see if they will work?"

Your player likely has a problem with variable bitrate MP3s, which was a common issue with several of the early MP3 players. Fortunately, AmazonMP3 doesn't put any DRM on the files it sells, so converting them to WAV or any other format is a simple matter. The only downside is the WAV files will take up many times as much space as the MP3s, so you might not be able to fit as many files on your device.

To convert files from MP3 to WAV, start by downloading the freeware app WinFF. The app is simply to use and handles batch processing so you can convert all the files at the same time. Follow the steps below to convert MP3 files to WAV.

Converting MP3 to WAV with WinFF

1) After downloading and installing WinFF, launch the application and select the MP3 file or files you want to convert to WAV.
2) Choose the Wav for CD option from the Choose Format to Convert to... menu.
3) Pick a Destination folder to save your file(s).
4) Start Converting.

This tutorial should work for both Linux and Windows.

Download AC3Filter

With a large percentage of new camcorders using MPEG-2 video combined with AC3 audio as a common storage format, it's become much more complicated to work with camcorder video. If you have one of these camcorders and use free tools like Windows Movie Maker for video editing, you simply shouldn't be without the free DirectShow filter AC3Filter. The app runs in the background as an audio decoder and processor filter for AC3 and DTS audio tracks. AC3Filter supports playback of AC3 and DTS audio tracks in software like Windows Media Player, in addition to enabling editing features in things like Windows Movie Maker. Audio processing supports an up-mixing any audio source to 6 channels or down-mixing to stereo from surround sound. Both analog multi-channel and digital (SPDIF) output are supported. AC3Filter encodes any audio source to AC3 on-the-fly and send it over SPDIF to your receiver. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]

Brian writes, "I want to download just the music from YouTube. How do you separate the video from the music?"

There's no easy way to strip the audio out of a YouTube video while it's still on the Web. It's far easier to first download the video to your computer and then strip the audio once the video is on your computer. Since the new version of RealPlayer integrated video downloading the download process is remarkably easy. Once the video is downloaded, you then strip the audio and convert it to MP3, WMA or your favorite audio format.

"I like to sing karaoke at my house. How can I remove the vocals from my MP3s so I can make my own karaoke music?"

The best way to get great sounding karaoke music is to buy music that comes without vocals in the first place. If that's not an option, a number of tools help you remove vocals from MP3 files to make your own karaoke songs. None of them do this perfectly, because the whole premise of removing vocals is based on eliminating frequencies commonly found in the human vocal range from the file. Often these frequencies are also common to other instruments, so the sound of the entire song can sometimes get a little iffy. Here's a couple of my favorite ways to remove vocals from audio tracks.

Adam writes, "Is there a way I can manipulate the length of MP3 files, as I've been converting videos of live bands into MP3s but I'm getting the whole set as one file and Id rather have individual songs."

Virtually any audio editing app will allow you to chop up an MP3 file. The problem is, most of them also re-encode the file, which adds additional compression and often makes the file sound worse. There are a number of apps that support trimming MP3 files up into smaller segments. One of my favorites is mpTrim, which allows you to split MP3 files, without needing to re-encode the file. In some cases, you might need the pay version for trimming large files, but the free version works for many applications.

To trim a file with mpTrim, open the file you want to trim in the application and choose the mark in and mark out points.

When you're done, simply Save As and you'll have the new file with the original left unaffected.

One reason you might consider the pay version of the application is for batch processing, which allows you to make several changes and then apply them all at once.

Beverly writes, I need to record voice to CD, efficiently, and have the cd play in any normal CD player. I have an M-Audio Microtrack recorder with 1gb compact flash, but it seems that I have a high quality recording but it takes up a lot of space. In a work day I need to make 6 recordings. Does it make sense to consider a 30gb iPod to record voice to, and then burn to CD?

You don't mention how long your six recordings per day are, but if you want good quality sound for recording, don't use the iPod or any other portable media player. The Microtrack recorder is a good tool for what you are doing. If you want to use less space per file change your record settings. Under the Record Settings on the Menu make the following changes: Set Encoder to WAV. Set Sample Rate to 44.1. Set Bits to 16 (not 24). Using these settings, you will get about 90 minutes on a 1GB Compact Flash card and won't notice any quality difference. A much cheaper solution than buying an iPod would be to get several 1GB or 2GB compact flash cards and then swapping the card when it gets full. This also gives you the flexibility of using the Microtrack all day long. Keep in mind that an audio CD only holds as much as 74 minutes of audio, so a single 1GB card recording 90 minutes of voice audio is more audio than you can fit on a single audio CD.

Shannon writes, "I don't have a video iPod, but I was wondering if there was some program or anything that would help me strip the audio off of a video from YouTube and convert it so it will play on my iPod."

Without knowing exactly which iPod you have, there are two possibilities. Many of the newer iPods with no video support will playback the audio portion of an MP4 file without playing the video portion. If your iPod will support MP4 playback, the easiest thing to do is use one of the software apps for converting YouTube videos for iPod playback. If MP4 playback is not an option, taking video from YouTube and converting it to an audio file is relatively easy. You download the video file and then use file conversion software to go from the FLV format used for video on YouTube to an MP3 file playable on an iPod, Zune or any other portable media player. This second option requires a two step process. First download the video and then convert the file.

Tony writes, "Part of [my] podcast will involve material I record on an Olympus Digital Voice Recorder WS-100. It transfers the files to the PC via USB connection. However, when I tried to open the file with Audacity, it says the file is a Window Media file and need to convert it."

The Olympus WS-100 is definitely a convenient tool for voice recording applications. Before I get into how to convert Windows Media WMA files to WAV files you can edit with Audacity, let me offer an important tip: if you plan to edit the audio recorded with the WS-100, make sure you record in the HQ mode. The lower quality modes apply extra compression which is great for saving space, but your audio won't sound good if you recompress to something like MP3 later.

To convert files from WMA to WAV, the easy (although somewhat ugly) solution is WinFF. The app uses file conversion support from FFmpeg to convert between many different audio and video formats. Below are step-by-step instructions for converting from WMA to WAV with WinFF.

Converting WMA to WAV with WinFF

1) After downloading and installing WinFF, launch the application and select the WMA file or files you want to convert to WAV.

2) Choose the Wav for CD option from the Choose Format to Convert to... menu.

3) Pick a Destination folder to save your file(s) and click Start Converting.

When the conversion finishes, you're ready to edit the WAV files in Audacity or any other audio editor.

This tutorial should work for both Linux and Windows.

Jonathan asks, "How can someone create an Audible sound file from an mp3 or wma? Is there another reduced size file format available?"

Audible's file format is proprietary. To create an Audible file, you need to work directly with Audible. Depending on what type of audio content you are working with, you might not get any real advantage from their format anyway. Audible files are optimized for voice only audio content. While they can make music files noticeably smaller, the way the Audible codec works, it would also make a music file sound noticeably awful. If you happen to have voice audio and want the advantages of smaller files sizes with no noticeable quality loss, there are two ways you can achieve optimal sound at small file sizes.

Windows Media Audio Voice 9

My favorite way to get great sounding voice audio in small file sizes is using the Windows Media Audio Voice 9 codec. You can create Windows Media Audio files using this voice codec with Windows Media Encoder.

Before proceeding, you need to download the free Windows Media Encoder 9 Series.

To create a WMA Voice 9 file, open Windows Media Encoder and choose the New Session option to Convert a File. Select the file you want to convert, choose a name for your output file (which might simply be the original filename.wma), and select File download (computer playback) on the content distribution screen. In the encoding options, choose the preset for Voice quality audio (CBR).

At this point you can click finish to start encoding or click next if you want to add detailed tagging information to your audio file. When you're finished, you get a file that will be listenable and incredibly small. If the audio was recorded in a quiet room, it might even sound great. Chances are, you'll want to open the Properties setting and choose one of the other presets until you find an acceptable balance between file size and sound quality.

MP3 Voice Files

The other option is to convert your files to an MP3 optimized for voice. Most audio editing apps with presets have a choice for voice audio with the following recipe:
Set the bitrate to 32 kbps. Set the sample rate to 22,050 Hz and choose Mono output. In this scenario get a file at least double the size of the Windows Media file encoded above, but it will be compatible with virtually any PC as well as being compatible with iPods. It is possible to match the file size of what Windows Media Audio Voice accomplishes, but in order to achieve the same audio quality, you need to create a much larger MP3 file.

Apple offers voice audio files with file sizes and audio quality comparable to Windows Media Voice Audio using the AAC option in either iTunes or QuickTime Pro. The disadvantage to this is the files typically require either iTunes or an iPod.

Download Audio Tagging Tools

Audio Tagging Tools is one of the more complete audio tag editors I've seen, with a number of batch and single file editing features to make managing tags on large audio file collections a snap. Clean audio file names to conform to your naming convention (not the convention assigned by your download source. Tag and rename files en masse. Modify ID3v1, ID3v2 or both when changing audio file details. Audio Tagging Tools also includes a handy duplicate file finder, making it easy to eliminate wasted space consumed by extra files. The app supports mp3, ogg, wma, flac, ape, asf and the standard playlist formats like m3u, wpl and pls. A scripting engine supports a ton of features not directly exposed through the UI. A few of the features could be more intuitive, but if you have a large audio collection, you'll catch on to the workflow process very quickly. [Windows 9x/2k/XP $0.00]

Rick writes, My Windows Volume Control has somehow been uninstalled, so that my attempt to follow your instruction for restoring the volume icon to the System Tray results in the following error message: "...Volume Control Program has not been installed". How can I reinstall it?

This error message generally means the application that controls volume in Windows, sndvol32.exe, is corrupt rather than uninstalled. There isn't a clear reason why this happens, although I have seen cases where third party drivers from soundcard manufacturers completely damage the entire Windows volume control setup. To make matters more confusing, the error message in Windows is misleading, because you can't restore the problem from Add/Remove Programs.

Phillip writes, "I was wondering if you could possibly help me with a recommendation. My daughter used an Apple laptop and is now using a WinXP Pro laptop. She is quite happy with the whole matter other than her inability to find any software that she feels is comparable to Apple's GarageBand. Any suggestions?"

Mixcraft, an audio looping and editing tool made by Acousitca, is the first application for Windows that makes it simple to start building a song in a matter of minutes like you can with GarageBand. Mixcraft integrates loop importing. Mixcraft is even compatible with Apple Loops used in GarageBand. Voice and music recording are supported both with virtual and real instruments. Beat matching and key changes happen on the fly just like they do in GarageBand.

Listen to Charlie Hunter

At the risk of alienating all the Charlie Hunter fans out there, I have to ask, what's the big deal? Sure he plays a custom eight-string guitar, noodling both the bass and lead lines simultaneously, which is a superhuman feat for certain. Every time I listen to the Charlie Hunter Quintet, I can't help thinking that those bass lines would be more interesting (and maybe his leads would be too) if there were two players instead of just one. I like Hunter's musical style, as much as I like any other Jazz guitarist, I just don't think anyone would find the music remarkable if a six-piece outfit played it instead. For anyone enamored with Charlie Hunter's mad dexterity, his site offers some free MP3s and an album cover specifically designed for creating your own album of the audio.

http://www.campervanbeethoven.com

I can't remember who introduced me to Camper Van Beethoven back in high school. At the time, I had aspirations of being a metal drummer, but their first album, Telephone Free Landslide Victory grabbed my attention in a way that nothing in the metal world ever has. With the raw ambition of a garage band, coupled with a strange blend of ska and Eastern European folk music, CVB were most definitely in a class by themselves. The defining instrument of their sound being the disturbing violin tones of Jonathan Segel. Despite a strong following on the college radio circuit, the closest CVB ever came to mass acceptance was a remake of the Status Quo song, Pictures of Matchstick Men (although, I firmly believe that Take The Skinheads Bowling should have been a Top 40 smash). As the band evolved, David Lowrey, emerged as the frontman figure, which ultimately killed CVB at first, and Lowrey went on to succeed with Cracker. Around that time, I forgot about the existence of CVB, aside from occasionally playing old albums. Apparently they've been busy since I last checked in on the band; releasing some old material, recording some new material, going on tour, and generally doing all the things a working band does. Check out the old stuff to get a feel for what this band is about and then grow with them through their evolution.

Listen to Sinombre

With an upcoming trip to San Francisco almost upon me, I figured an exploration of the local music climate was distinctly in order. I'm a huge fan of a wide variety of genres and would love the opportunity to experience several local flavors while I'm there. I hate comparing one band to another, but I would tend to agree with a review posted to the sinombre site suggesting they sound similar to My Bloody Valentine, complete with the sensually melancholy vocals hovering above some seriously distorted pop guitar tracks. If you're a fan of the loosely defined genre of "noise rock" you'll probably dig this band (yes, I'm sure there are some who might term all rock to be "noise") If you live in the Bay area, sinombre seem to be regulars on the club scene.

Download Banks & Patches

If you make your own music, this is a must stop destination. K-v-R has a HUGE library of banks, patches, and drum kits to make your loops and other audio creations sound even better. Most are provided in standard formats for their particular application and the overwhelming majority are free. If you use an industry standard app for creating music, I guarantee you'll find something you like in this library.

Listen to KPIG Somehow, we've successful avoided ever featuring KPIG in the Digital Media newsletter, despite it's being the first commercial radio station to broadcast on the Internet. Unfortunately, their free live stream is no more, although they do have a pre-recorded show that's pretty awesome. Broadcasting live from the Santa Cruz area, KPIG serves up radio the way it's meant to be done, with real people choosing cool music, instead of letting trends and statistics dictate what will be aired like so much of corporate radio today. I'm now torn between KPIG and RadioParadise.com for my online listening attention. In an effort to survive, they've joined the RealOne RadioPass network of stations, ( I can only hope a competing service emerges so that Real doesn't control the online radio market) which offers about 50 stations for $5.95/month.