Here’s a little demo I threw together just out of curiosity to test the multitracking capability in the latest version of freeware Audacity 1.3.4b. Three tracks plus a silent click track, one (sloppy) take per track. Recording took around 15 minutes, and maybe another 15 for tweaking and mixdown.
I think the result is acceptable, especially given my very basic setup and antique computer. The hardest part is aligning the tracks, which takes a bit of practice. More attention to detail such as mike placement, EQ, track sweetening, etc. would certainly help. Not to mention better playing.
Anyway, this might be an encouragement to other whistlers looking for an easy and inexpensive way to record multitrack clips and demos. Recommended.
Nice tune, Guru. Synchronizing the tracks is a real pain for me. How do you manage to get them perfectly synchronized? Any hints you could give on how you do it would be appreciated. By the time I get to the end of a second track, there is no correlation between them at all.
That sounds downright professional, MTG. I usually take an hour just to get a
take that I like! I did move to Cakewalk on my XP laptop and Garageband on
the Mac, so I don’t have to mess with synch anymore, but still Audacity
represents a huge bang for your buck.
I don’t know if this is assumed or not, but I have to listen in headphones else the web cam mic will pic up the click track.
And then since I have headphones (sorta half on and half off so they don’t alter what I’m hearing that I’m playing) I align each track when I record it and play along with the growing orchestra.
This can be a lot of fun, to the point I didn’t realize the sun had gone down.
Right … First lay down a click track, record your audio track against that, then line up the audio with the clicks. Do the same after each track. Recording at MM=120 is particularly nice, because you know each click is exactly 500 ms apart. My latency seems to be around 200-300 ms, so I have to slide everything forward by that much. Or if you can figure out your exact latency, you can go to “Preferences|Audio I/O” and enter the negative milliseconds in the “Latency correction” field, and things should more or less align automatically.
Yes, my machine is an antediluvian 8-year old P3-500 running WinNT4 (!), so my choices are limited. But Audacity seems to run just fine right out of the box. A pleasant surprise!
Sure, I use closed AKG headphones. And Audacity does “Software Playthrough” so you can simultaneously listen to your previous tracks and monitor your mike input right through the headphones, without having to slide them half off. Very convenient.
I tried the play-thru on 1.3.2 but it didn’t record what I played in sync. IRRC I didn’t hear what I was playing until some time later. It was pretty far out really. Maybe I was asking it to do too much with the display at the same time or my computer is lame. It’s only three or four years old, but maybe that’s old enough. Or maybe because it’s a notebook some stuff was done in the CPU that otherwise might be a seperate processor. I’m not sure, but I couldn’t use that mode.
But since it works for you, it doesn’t seem to be an issue with the software, but something in/about my computer. And if it does work, that’d be the way to go fir shore!
It´s pretty good I´d say. Only (hopefully) constructive criticism I´d have would be - consider putting your mic closer to the guitar, and lowering mic’s loudness - you should get (well, I do) much fuller sound of the guitar, which will create the basic “level” of the tune.
Mea culpa, Carey, I steered you wrong. I actually recorded using the hardware duplexing in my SoundBlaster card, not the Software Playthrough in Audacity. I unmute the Line In on my audio control panel, and slide the Line In volume up to a comfortable level in the phones.
You’re right, when I try it, Software Playthrough gives me a delay of around 1/2 second, too. So it’s not just your computer. The delay is kind of psychedelic, but not very useful.
A good observation, Pyroh. Yes, I recorded the guitar at a distance of 1 meter - because I was just too lazy to move the microphone! It’s only a demo. Normally, I would close-mike the guitar as you suggest. But honestly, sometimes I find that guitar is too present in the mix in ITM. After all, this music is really about the melody. Putting some distance between the guitar and mike opens up the sound and produces a lighter feel, more like a cittern, with less pick noise. So I actually like the way this turned out.
I actually recorded using the hardware duplexing in my SoundBlaster card, not the Software Playthrough in Audacity. I unmute the Line In on my audio control panel, and slide the Line In volume up to a comfortable level in the phones.
very nice MT. Are those Susatos with the O-ring tweek? This is very timely as I just bought a new notebook PC and just downloaded Audacity. I hope to lay down some tacks using nylon strung guitar, uilleann pipes and whistle.
Its my own composition of low whistle, high whistle, melodica, and glockenspiel. While different and not as fun as the original leprechauns song… it is more in time! Thanks to MT!
This may be obvious to everyone but me – and it may be answered in Fancy’s tutorial links – but is there a way to drop a marker into an Audacity track?
Sometimes I want to select an exact chunk out of the middle of a recording – i.e., a single tune or song in the middle of a 60-minute workshop recording, or something like that. It would save a lot of time to be able to place a marker, so as not to overshoot when click-and-dragging to make the selection.
Thanks, fancypiper! I have quite a bit of recording experience, but every little bit helps.
No, the whistle is a plain old untweaked red-top Generation D, courtesy of Jerry Freeman (thanks, Jerry!).
It sounds like something Yann Tiersen might have written. Vengeful French leprechauns … LOL!
Sure. First create a Label track for your project. Position the cursor at the beginning of your chunk in the audio track, and type Ctrl-B to drop a label there, Then Split or Ctrl-I to split the track at that point. Do the same for the end of your chunk. Now you can just double-click between the split points to select your chunk, or click on a label to move quickly to either split point.
Aye, come ye brave and daring whistlers all … Arrgh!
I don’t have an emoticon for slapping yourself on the forehead.
