If you ever have reason to use the audio-editing program Audacity, don't use the "Normalize" effect. It makes your recording sound very...one-dimensional. Or maybe it works on some audio, but just wasn't right for mine. That's the only thing I didn't like about the program.
Anyway, Audacity is what I used to edit these files and I'd say it worked fairly well. I haven't ever used audio-editing software before and I found this pretty easy to use. A lot of Google searches were also involved though...look through the "effects" menu, search to find out what the various effects actually did and how to use them.
I'm pretty pleased with the results I got, I was able to remove noise, join two files together, tone down a loud spot, make the two files approximately the same volume (I imagine there was a way to make them exact if I knew what I was doing), and amplify the whole track.
So here we go...please keep in mind that we are SO not professional, I'm not sure that I really sing very well, I have very cheap recording equipment (a micromemo attached to my iPod), and we were being distracted by John tapping on the window and Colin coming in and out. And next time I record something? I need to either sit in a chair that doesn't creak, or hold still!!! ...I think I'd better sit in a different chair. :p
So, two songs, or covers, by our "band"... :D Yes, I agree with Rebecca, our "band" needs a name...and a lot more instruments. :p Oh, and we kind of had a problem with "In Christ Alone" because Rebecca sang the lyrics the way they were written "light of the world by darkness slain" and I sang them the way our music leader had changed them "light of the world for sinners slain"...oops!
The title are links to the actual file, so if the mp3 players don't work on your computer you can download a Quicktime file and that should work as long as you have Quicktime on your computer....because you wouldn't want to miss our lovely singing... *insert sarcasm and doubtful face* :p
In Christ Alone:
New Soul by Yael Naim:
And here's a random video I took:
Sorry I turned the camera sideways all the sudden...I forgot that it would be sideways on the video.
10 comments:
That "Because it's hot outside!!" sounded exactly like me...sort of freaky :)
I think we dance better than we sing :P
Yeah, we do sound the same sometimes! Because that was me, not you that said that.
I think we dance better than we sing :P
Definitely! And that's pretty bad... :D
You guys sound Southern when you sing, but back to being Yankees when you talk. Like British rockers... :)
Suddenly I feel a powerful urge to buy a MacBook Air!
Why does my voice sound so strange?!?
I don't think that you sounded that bad. It was at least better than the dancing!
Natalie, to "normalize" an audio recording is to compress it so that the highs and lows fit in a more narrow bandwidth.
It's a useful feature when you're dealing with people who whisper and then scream in the same recording session, but (as you found out) it does ugly things to recordings made by folks with more vocal self-control.
That's strange isn't it, Mom! I noticed that when I was listening to it..."wow, I don't say that word like that when I'm talking!" Yeah, like British rockers! Hey, that's not so bad...
Because you're not used to hearing your own voice, John.
Ah, I thought from what I'd read about the "normalize" feature that it was supposed to even out the highs and lows, but I didn't realize it meant much greater extremes than we had, Uncle Jim. Hmm...I know some people who could stand to normalize their recordings...
Vocal self-control? What is that??
My guitaring seems to be much faster than your and Andrea's singing.
There are so many things wrong with that last sentence that it almost sounds right.
THE BRITTISH ARE COMEING!
THE BRITTISH ARE COMEING!
There are so many things wrong with that last sentence that it almost sounds right.
You're insane Rebecca! ;p ...kidding!
*snicker* Marck, you crack me up! :D
i love that new soul song~
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