I’m new here. I am overwhelmed to find an entire community of whistle players. I have been playing a Clarke tin whistle for about ten years, mostly original material.
I’m writing to get some help making MP3 files, so I can upload and share them. What I want to do is record my whistle performance and then overlay my vocals over that to make MP3 files. I did a search on live recording and got some information but I am hoping there is someone already doing what I described. Obviously, I can not sing and play at the same time.
I have a way to do it, but it seems clumsy and a lot of work. What I currently use is a program called Autoscore that transcribes as I play. I take that and convert to MIDI. I edit the MIDI file to clean it up. Then I playback the MIDI file with one program while recording in WAV format with another. Finally, I convert the merged WAV to MP3 using a third program. The main drawback is that the MIDI version of music sounds sterile compared to the live music. I am thinking that there has to be better way without spending a large sum of money on equipment and software.
While I am here asking, has anyone had good luck with the Archos line of MP3 players? The Archos Jukebox has extra appeal because my hard disk is near full. The extra storage space on the unit, might allow me to continue with my current computer for a while longer.
Cead mile failte (100k welcomes), Bill! I hope you find this place to be the key to your whistling dreams!
Anyway, the first thing I would do is get a CD burner and software so you can transfer all those music files to CD and clean up your hard drive.
The second thing to do would be to go get one of those little electret mics at Radio Shack, about $25, and a package of windscreens for it. For best results, put on a windscreen and use a rubber band to fasten it to the whistle about midway between the windway and the top hole, facing the windway. When I play acoustic guitar, I just drop the mic inside the soundhole. Electric instruments (IMO not always bad for trad) are hooked up directly.
The third thing to do is get a good sound editing program with a studio feature. I use Cool Edit 2000 (available from Syntrillium) with the Studio plug-in. Not only will you be able to sing over your own full-bodied playing and be assured it will have the correct rhythm, but you will also be able to edit out noise, cover mistakes, add effects, etc. It also has independent pitch and tempo shifting, so you can use it to slow down MP3’s for practice and transcribing, or even change them to more whistle or voice friendly keys.
Hopefully this will help.
Slan agat,
Jim
Jim,
Many thanks for the warm welcome and information. I may be able to work with my current mic. Right now I am using a very cheap mic suspended from a bungee cord directly above the whistle and no preamp. I may try the electrek Radio Shack mic, but I may be better off with a nicer all around mic because I want to do vocals as well.
I hope to get some music uploaded relatively soon so I can share.
P. S. For those reading along, I found some older threads suggesting two other programs for recording/editing on a budget:
http://www.goldwave.com/
http://www.multitrackstudio.com/index.php
http://www.syntrillium.com/ (cool edit)
Hi - interesting topic!
I was wondering which program worked, and what you would recomend to those of us who want to try this…
Of the free trial versions, MTStudio seems the best fit for whistle players that want to overlay vocal tracks. The reason is that the other two programs seem to require registration and payment to do sound on sound recording.
http://www.multitrackstudio.com/index.php
If someone is interested in instrumentals only, then any of the three programs mentioned will do the job. Also Fasoft.com has an inexpensive package, and Cakewalk has GuitarTracks in stores that might be good options.
Some of the limitations of the trial version of MTStudio are no MP3 support, and no punch-in, punch-out recording. I use a separate program, CDEX, to convert the WAV files to MP3. The lack of punch-in recording means you have to have clean performances as there is no way to redo a small section (unless it is at the end with a break before it).
I have one song ready. I am waiting until I get a couple more before posting my Soundclick link. Soundclick allows free music hosting for original songs (which is what I do mostly). For people recording songs under someone else’s copyright, Soundclick is not a viable option. For them, some free sites such as Geocities or Angelfire are possibilities, though both have some severe limitations as to bandwidth.
For the curious here is the link:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/billchinmusic.htm
So far, I have three songs on Soundclick. I will add more as time goes. They are original tunes with vocals. The instrument is a Walton’s nickel-plated gold-colored with a green plastic mouthpiece. I use a $5 swap-meet mic suspended from a bungee cord, and the free trial version of MTStudio. I also have a $12 Lab-Tec brand mic, but the swap meet mic is better. My computer is a Monorail brand (similar to E-machines) bought at Fry’s Electronics about three years ago. It is a 500 Mhz Celeron, with 128 MB Ram, 8 gig hard drive. The sound card is an inexpensive Soundblaster compatible with mic-in and line-in.
Enjoy (or bear the discomfort 
)