tools and tutorials

Zoom H2n audio recorder tutorials

Oct 272011

Here’s the basics.
Turning on the h2n. Basic recording.
You can also learn about the recorder in this video from the manufacturer.

How to change the batteries.
Be sure not to throw out the batteries, they are rechargeable!
Rechargeable batteries have been marked with red tape. Please return them with the recorder.

How to adjust the width of the stereo field (Mid-Side Recording)
Want to include some of the action behind you as you record?
Maybe decrease it’s volume a bit? Adjust the settings while you are in MS mode (Mid-Side recording).

iphone – iTalk Recorder

Aug 162011

The free version of this recording app is very good, in fact I think the only thing you might get in the premium version ($1.99) is an ability to upload to dropbox. But who needs that when you can just use iTunes filesharing which is built right in? This is a no frills recorder, hit the beg red button to start and stop your recording. If you want to do any editing, you’ll need to do that after you download the file, unlike Fire2 Field Recorder that has editing tools built right in.

iTalk Recorder is a full-featured recording app with a streamlined and intuitive user interface. Press the big red button to record; press it again to stop. You can append to existing recordings, choose from three levels of recording quality (11.025, 22.05, or 44.10 kHz sample rates), and manage your recordings, all with just a fingertip.
– from the itunes app page

Tutorial – Zoom H4N

Aug 132011

John has a sound recorder called the Zoom H4N that your team can borrow provided that you watch the following tutorial. While it is a bit silly, it is also quite informative and gives you the basics you need to set up the recorder and get started.

You will likely want to record with the built in mics which are very good.
In that case, you can ignore the instructions about plugging in an XLR mic and switching on the Phantom Power.
And instead of the Input buttons on the front being set to “Mic 1 and 2″, You will simply leave it set to “mic”
You can also choose one of the Mp3 recording options rather than WAV.

What this tutorial doesn’t include is how you get the files onto your computer!
This tutorial (dig that music) shows you how to plug the device into your computer and access files.
Of course this video describes how to ADD files to the recorder, but IGNORE THAT! You’ll looking for files to remove

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Tutorial – Apple Garage Band

Aug 102011

Garage Band is a very basic audio editing and creating application featured as part of the Mac operating system.
Like iMovie it is very much a consumer grade product designed more for making audio editing available to everyone. It works fairly well for editing audio and you can import audio files, cut them up, use simple vector tools to add fades and increase volume. This is a short tutorial that explains how to import, cut up, add effects to and save an audio file.

Tutorials – Marantz Digital Audio Recorders

Jul 192011

You have access to two of these Marantz Digital audio recorders.

These are high quality recorders and create digital files that can be moved to your computer for editing or sharing.

You can check them out with John after you have viewed the following tutorials below.

Tutorial One
Preset One – Setting up the Marantz to record using the internal microphones.

Dollar Store Parabolic Microphone

Jul 192011

This project started with a paint roller handle and one of those silly folding plastic umbrella hats shown above. Both came from a local store where everything is a dollar. I just added a short length of 9/32″ brass tubing and a Radio Shack 33-3028 Stereo Clip-On Microphone. The whole process took about an hour and cost less than $20.00. Radio Shack has discontinued (and discounted) this great little microphone. It now costs about $16.00 if you can find it.

full project details HERE

Decibel level readers – iphone / android

Jul 062011

iphone Apps
Here are two iphone apps that can read decibel levels using the built in microphone on the iphone.
The free app has fewer features and the interface isn’t quite as nice, but it’s FREE.
That said, I have them both and tend to prefer the .99¢ Decibel app.

Decibel (iPhone) cost .99	Decibelite (iphone) free

Android App
Since I don't actually own an Android, I can't test any apps. So here is a free decibel reader that I found online

deciBel (android) free

Myrna – Online audio editor

Jul 042011

Myna Audio Editor
Use Myna to remix music tracks and audio clips. Apply sound effects and record your own voice or instruments.

note: I’ve never used this tool, so please experiment!
here’s a review:
http://gigaom.com/collaboration/myna-a-surprisingly-good-online-audio-editor/

Audacity – Free audio editor

Jul 042011

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
This is a fine solution for editing audio if you don’t have other tools. It can be a bit buggy sometimes (it’s free after all).

You can use Audacity to:

Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more! See the complete list of features.

audacity

To view some video Tutorials, click “Continue Reading” to the right.

Flexible Mini microphone for iphone

Jul 032011

Brando Mini Mic
$14.00
Increases the sound quality of the iPhone while also rising to overall sound level of the recordings.

brando mic

Fire2 Field Recorder (iPhone & android app)

Jul 032011

Fire2 Field Recorder
Full featured sound recorder and editor for iphone and android.
This is a powerful app and as a result it can take some work to understand all of its features.
cost: $5.99

fire2

Here’s a review/introduction to the app.
Watch out for those speedy fingers!

Listening Lab Links

Loren chasse, photographing acustic spaces - Luca Bergero
"The American Loren Chasse is one of the most important international artists, connected to the environment/sound relation. His abilities to listen and to transform the object in "musical instrument" are some of the most identifying features of his work. " Tags: sounds sound field recording sound art listening lab […]
Bernhard Leitner Forum
""I can hear with my knee better than with my calves." This statement made by Bernhard Leitner, which initially seems absurd, can be explained in light of an interest that he still pursues today with unbroken passion and meticulousness: the study of the relationship between sound, space, and body. Since the late 1960s, Bernhard Leitner has bee […]
Gordon Monahan - Speaker Swinging - YouTube
First performed in 1982, this piece uses 9 sine/square wave oscillators broadcast over 3 loudspeakers that are swung in circles by 3 performers. This video was produced in 1987 and is edited to just over 7 minutes, while a live performance of the piece lasts approximately 25 minutes. For more information visit www.gordonmonahan.com Tags: listening lab sounds […]
Public Hearing
Very good blog collecting numerous examples of sound art, acoustic ecology, etc. Tags: sound sounds listening lab blog […]
Painting With Sound - Slide Show - NYTimes.com
"Like a 3-D take on Jackson Pollock, the latest work by the artist Martin Klimas begins with splatters of paint in fuchsia, teal and lime green, positioned on a scrim over the diaphragm of a speaker." Tags: sound sounds visualization listening lab […]
About - Rabbit Travelogue: Central Region
"Rabbit Travelogue was originally initiated by Rita Hui and Edwin Lo. This project is an on-going dialogues and travelogues between the two artist (Rita on visual; Edwin on sound) about the changes and happenings in Hong Kong. Through the fictional character in the project, Rabbit, witnessing happenings and locating different scenes in Hong Kong, this p […]
SOUNDWALK.COM/BLOG › EDITIONS
"Soundwalk Editions features artists and composers who use environmental field recordings as a point of departure in their work. By recording sounds outside of the conventional studio you are in the act field recording, audibly engaged with ears that gradually refine a sonic experience, like the eye looking through a camera lens. Field recording is ofte […]
The Wandering Soul - Vietnam Psychological Operations (PSYOP)
"Listen to the eerie sounds of "The Wandering Soul" - also known as "Ghost Tape Number 10" - that was broadcast by loudspeakers installed on Swifts and other units during "Chieu Hoi" and Psychological Warfare missions to "taunt" the enemy. { "So Moui" or "Numbah Ten" was a common slang term use […]
Phonautogram - Studio 360
"Did you know there are audio recordings that predate Thomas Edison's phonograph by almost 20 years? The phonautogram was invented by a Frenchman named Éduoard Léon-Scott and patented in 1857, translating sound waves (shakily) onto sheets of paper. But for the last century, no one had been able to decode the information on Léon-Scott's sheets […]
Who Controls The Machine? Eli Keszler's Motors And Piano Wires : All Songs Considered Blog : NPR
Tags: sound sounds urban listening lab installation sound art music […]
Salomé Voegelin on SoundTimeSpace
The urban and the sound are very much one and the same. Noises and tweets, squeaks and bangs, whispers and rattle are constantly present and play an important part in the shaping of the environment. consciously or unconsciously we are attracted or repulsed by certain sounds in specific configurations. But how is it interlinked with time and space, how does i […]
99% Invisible-43- The Accidental Music of Imperfect Escalators by Roman Mars on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
There's a secret jazz seeping from Washington's aging Metro escalators - those anemic metal walkways that fill our transit system…they honk and bleat and squawk…why are you still wearing those earbuds? Tags: sound music radio urban sounds listening lab […]
A Balloon for Linz - Everyday Listening - Sound Art, Sound Installations, Sonic Inspiration
"I just came back from New York City, a place with an overwhelming sound, everywhere you go. And each location in a city like that has its own resonance, its own sonic identity. That's hard to hear though if there is so much noise around it becomes a cacophony. But what if we could isolate this resonance and listen to the astonishing differences in […]
Listening to Shhhhh in the City - WSJ.com
"Some of the hottest tracks on digital playlists: sounds of an oscillating fan, a waterfall and crickets. White noise and other soothing sounds, once mainly played on machines to aid nighttime sleep, are increasingly helping make daytime hours more serene. When played through headphones, the sounds help people tune out chatty co-workers, pounding jackha […]
Gruenrekorder » Autumn Leaves | Various Artists
"The phonography scene is small and fragmented, yet ambitious and international - all factors which make it simultaneously hard and easy to keep up with developments. Ever since it was founded, Gruenrekorder has attempted to be more than just a label and turned into a hub for field recording-related issues and projects. They therefore seemed like an obv […]
BLDGBLOG: Soundscape Ecology, or: An Archive Fever of the Ear
Bryan Pijanowski of Purdue University is hoping to start a new research discipline that he calls soundscape ecology; it will "use sound as a way to understand the ecological characteristics of a landscape," as ScienceDaily reports. Tags: acoustic ecology acoustic-ecology soundscape listening lab […]
Earthquake Sound of the Mw9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake (Zhigang Peng)
"This webpage contains earthquake "sounds" created from seismic recordings around the world generated by the 2011/03/11 Mw9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake. They provide a unique way for us to listen to the vibration of the Earth that is otherwise inaudible to us, and to decipher the complicated earthquake physics and triggering processes. " T […]
'The Music Box' in New Orleans is a Sonic Shantytown - NYTimes.com
""The Music Box," the project of which this tower is a part, is one of those things that requires a hyphen or a compound word to describe; Delaney Martin, its curator, calls it "a shantytown-sound laboratory." " Tags: sound listening lab NYTimes.com installation music […]
The Yankees, a Summer Symphony in 9 Innings - NYTimes.com
"For most fans attending a baseball game is a summer diversion, an addiction, an act of devotion. I'm a music critic, so for me it's something else too: an immersion in bustling, jumbled, enveloping sound. And if you think of the Yankees as an athletic orchestra, the team has a comfortable and acoustically lively new concert hall. What if I tr […]
SONIC GEOLOGIC - The Secret Life of Material Objects
"Conceptualizing sound in geologic terms is a daunting task. Both the geologic and the sonic are time-based media, defined by duration. Yet sound speaks in milliseconds, the geologic in eons. They exist in different time zones. So, given this conundrum, instead of considering how to measure sound within a geologic scale, perhaps we are better served to […]

Laboratory 1 – John Roach