Part 7- Editing Audio Files

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Tom Jeffries

by Tom Jeffries, CEO of Blaze Audio
By now you should have good takes for each track, or multiple takes that can be edited into one good take. You’re ready to start editing your audio files! We have a detailed, complete tutorial here, but hopefully this will give you enough information to dive into editing your file. It is not hard.

As you have probably noticed when you were recording, you can have multiple files loaded into RipEditBurn Plus. Use File->Open to load any recordings you are going to need to create a really good track. At the bottom of the user interface you will see each file listed in a horizontal row. Just click on the name to go to that track.

Let’s assume you have one take that was good except for the beginning, which you need to replace with another take. Going through that process will show you how to do everything you need to do, even if you have to put together many different takes. First, use File->New to create a new file. Make sure the Sampling Rate, Bit Rate, and Channels are the same as what you set for recording.

Now, go to the file that has the best beginning. First, it is usually easier only to show the part you are going to use plus a little extra. Use the mouse to select the portion that you want by pressing the left mouse button down at or just before the beginning of what you want, dragging it across the screen to the right, and then releasing it just past the end of the section you want. In the upper right hand corner you will see four buttons- click on the upper left button, and the display will only show the area you selected.

Find the actual section you want. Leave just a little extra at the beginning and the end, since you can edit them out later. Use the mouse to select that area, and then either press Control-C or use the menu to do Edit->Copy.

Create a new file with File->New, again making sure that the Sampling Rate, Bit Rate, and Channels are the same as your record settings. Use Control-V or Edit->Paste to paste your selection at the beginning of the file. Put the cursor at the end of the file, either by using the mouse or by clicking the lower right button in the upper left corner of the user interface.

Now find the file that has the good recording of the rest of the track, and select from just before the part you want until the end of the track with the mouse. Use Control-C or Edit->Copy to copy that portion of the file, and click on your new track at the bottom so that you can add it. The cursor should be at the end, if it isn’t, move it there, and use Control-V or Edit->Paste to put it at the end of your track. Save the track- you aren’t done yet, but it’s always good to have backup versions.

The track you have will have some extra material at the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end part. Select a slightly bigger area and use the zoom button in the upper right to zoom in. Now you will have to find the area that you want to remove, select it with the mouse, and delete it. That may take several tries, which is why you made a backup version. In fact, you may want to make different backup versions, each time getting closer to the final.

When you have exactly what you want it’s time to save the final version. If you are going to make an mp3 version, click on “Change Song Info” at the lower left and enter the information you want to go into the mp3 file about Title, Artist, Album, Genre, Copyright, etc. Make sure you save mp3 files at a high BitRate- 320 is always the best for music.

You may have many sections to put together to get a really good final track, but the editing process is exactly the same. Find the right part of each file, copy it, and paste it into your final version. Most of the time you’ll want just a bit extra at the beginning and end so you can edit it to get the perfect track.

If you need more information, we have a detailed, complete tutorial here.

Have fun!

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Part 6- Making the Recording

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

At this point- hopefully- you have your mics set up and connected either to your sound card or external audio device, and the external audio device is connected to your computer. It’s time to do what the pros do- test.

Start RipEditBurn Plus. Make sure the correct sound device is selected for both record and playback by going to File->Preferences->Devices. If you are using an external device for recording and it is connected by USB or Firewire, you will have to find it in the dropdown list that comes up in Recording Devices. It’s OK to use one device for recording and a different device (often the “Default Playback Device”) for listening. Depending on your audio hardware, you may be able to use headphones for listening to the recording. Good headphones will help you get an excellent recording.

If you are using a mixer, hopefully you’ve listened to the balance through the mixer (probably using headphones) to make sure it’s correct. Make sure you get the balance right going into the computer. Sometimes that means rearranging the mics, moving them back for an instrument that is too loud or getting them in really close for instruments that are softer.

To start recording, make sure that the record source is correct using the Rec Source button. You may have to experiment, every audio card and external device offers different options, find the one that works properly and gives you good sound. Then click on the record button. RipEditBurn Plus will not start recording until you have told it the Sampling Rate, Bit Rate, and number of Channels you want to use. In almost all cases you will want to record at 44100 Hz, 16 bits, and in Stereo. Once you click on the OK button the recording will start. Click on the Record button (which should be flashing red) again when you want to stop.

Have your group play some soft sections and some loud sections. If the volume is set too high in the record slider you may get some distortion. If you are using an external device, turn the volume down until the distortion is gone, but leave it as high as you can. If you turn it down too far, you lose some of the quality in the softer sections. It’s better to get rid of distortion and lose some quality, but make sure you don’t lose any more than you need to.

Once you are happy with the balance between musicians, start doing takes. RipEditBurn Plus allows you to edit, so don’t be too concerned if there are mistakes on one take. You can always do another and edit out the mistakes. In the old days it was all going to tape, and editing was not a lot of fun. Things got pretty tense in the recording studio if you made a mistake! The tools are better now.

Before you start editing, make sure you save a raw copy of each take. That way if you do something wrong in editing, or if you don’t like an effect and run out of undoes, you can go back to the original and start over again.

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Part 5- Getting the signal into your computer

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

by Tom Jeffries, CEO of Blaze Audio
Tom is a former professional musician who has been running companies that develop audio software for 28 years.

At this point I hope you have a better idea of how to set up the room and choose mics and cables to record your church or school group. I may write more on those subjects; in particular setting up to record with a limited number of mics can be problematic. For now, though, let’s move on to how you get the signal produced by the mic or mics into the computer.

Your computer probably has a sound card, and you can easily just feed the signal into the mic inputs for the sound card. The input may be different for each sound card. You will need to look at your owner’s manual for the details.

If you have two mics, and I encourage you to use two so you can get a stereo recording (although RipEditBurn Plus has an effect in that allows you to create stereo sound with only one mic), you probably have two cables, each with a plug at the end, and you will need a device that will combine the two mono signals into one stereo signal. I could write two pages of instructions about how to do that, but there’s an easier way. Take the cables to your local electronic parts store (Radio Shack or something similar), show it to the staff, and have them put it together.

Sound cards are inside the computer. The inside of a computer is very noisy electronically, and there will almost certainly be a level of noise injected into your audio signal. The best way to eliminate that noise is to use an external USB audio unit. The analog signal, which is subject to noise, is converted to a digital signal which is much less subject to noise outside the computer, and the resultant sound is much better. We sell a nice USB 5.1 audio adaptor on our site.

Whatever you are using for a sound card, an internal one or an external USB audio unit, you should connect the output from the mics into the jack labeled “mic” or “microphone”.

If you have more than two mics you’ll need to invest in a mixer. I strongly suggest you find a mixer that converts the signal into USB before sending it to your computer. There are also some Firewire devices if your computer has a Firewire port. Over the years Singing Electrons, Inc, the parent company to Blaze Audio, provided drivers for many of the USB and Firewire chips, so you might end up with our software both in your computer and in your mixer!

Mixers range in price from under $100 to many thousands of dollars. The number of channels is important, as is the quality of the electronic hardware. I suggest getting the best you can, with at least a couple more channels than you immediately think you will need. Many mixers have effects like reverb and EQ built in. Reverb can give you the sound of a big concert hall, but you may already be recording in a room that has reverb. EQ (equalization) allows you to set the level for each frequency band. In other words, if you listen to the recording and it just doesn’t have enough bass, you can increase the level on the lower channels to give your recording a more satisfactory sound.

Some mixers may offer the option of outputting more than 2 channels, but in general I suggest mixing the signal down to two channels, left and right, before bringing it into the computer. Pro studios have hardware and software that can deal with many tracks, but both the expense and the learning curve are high.

You may be using the mixer to record not just microphones, but also guitars, electronic keyboards, or other instruments that produce a line-level signal (as opposed to the levels that microphones put out). Most mixers have jacks for both balanced (XLR) and unbalanced plugs. Plug your guitar or electronic keyboard into the unbalanced jack.

XLR Plugs (balanced) XLR Plugs (balanced) Unbalanced Plugs Unbalanced Plugs

With most balanced XLR inputs you will need to turn on something called “phantom power”. Phantom power is the 48 volts that are used to turn one conductor in the cable into the opposite of the other conductor, which allows you to have long cables without noise.

There’s a bit of confusion about balanced, unbalanced, XLR, phantom power, and mic and line levels. I’m going to make an entire blog entry about those subjects, complete with pictures of different connectors. For now, when in doubt, call the store where you got your equipment.

There should be a control marked “trim” on each XLR input (and sometimes on all inputs). Use that to get each input set to approximately the same level, and then use the pan sliders (or knobs) to set the final level for each channel. The output should be controlled by two sliders. Try to avoid red-lining the output- in the old days, with analog gear, a little red-lining was good, but because of the nature of digital audio going past the max means you will be adding nasty, unremovable distortion to the sound.

It is very important to spend time setting the level for each channel before you record. I suggest getting a good pair of headphones (the kind that are sealed so that you are listening just to the signal, not to what’s going on in the room) and having your group play while you move the sliders up and down until you get the right mix. With most mixers you’ll be able to select which signals go into the left channel and which signals go into the right channel. Do that with some care so that the eventual recording will sound realistic and clear.

So now you have the room set up, the mics chosen and connected, and the sounds going into your computer, all ready to record. The next entry will show you how to use our Recording Studio Software Suite Plus (or any of our programs) to start laying down great recordings of your musicians.

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Part 4- Cables and Connectors

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

by Tom Jeffries, CEO of Blaze Audio
Tom is a former professional musician who has been running companies that develop audio software for 28 years.

XLR ConnectorsCables and connectors come in many varieties, and you may already know enough to get started. There’s one very important area that you may not understand, and I’d like to discuss that first. There are basically two kinds of cables- balanced and unbalanced. The important thing about that is the fact that balanced cables reject electromagnetic noise. Unbalanced cables, if they are long, act as antennas for electromagnetic noise. That’s why professional studios use balanced cables as much as possible.

What makes a cable “balanced”? A balanced cable has two signal wires (along with one ground wire), but they are each sending the same signal. One is inverted from the other. Noise coming in affects both signal wires equally and in the same direction. When the two signal wires are summed at the other end the noise is zeroed out.

Balanced cables normally have a kind of connector called XLR. There are three pins at one end and three holes at the other end. Sometimes a cable will have an XLR connector at one end and what looks like a stereo ?” connector at the other. Most likely that stereo ?” connector is really a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) connector which works like an XLR signal. Balanced cables only send one channel, they never send stereo.

Most of the cables used in non-professional settings are not balanced, but if you get a condenser mic you will almost certainly need to get a balanced XLR cable for it- and you’ll need a mic preamp that has XLR sockets and probably the +48 volt phantom power mentioned in the last section.

XLR Plugs (balanced)
XLR Plugs (balanced)		 Unbalanced Plugs
Unbalanced Plugs

Once you get to this point I strongly advise finding a music store with somebody who has some expertise in electronic recording. There are even online stores that can advise you on making the right purchase. A well-informed technician can be worth his weight in expensive microphones for choosing the right mics, cables, and outboard gear. The next section will discuss the outboard gear.

However, if you are just learning how to do this, don’t get too distracted by the hardware details. You can get a decent recording of your group with a USB adaptor and a decent dynamic mic. Just keep the cable as short as you can, and make sure you use first class editing software like Blaze Audio’s Worship Software Suite. There are a couple of other things to keep in mind when choosing a cable, especially an unbalanced cable. Many unbalanced cables do have shielding, which helps reduce the amount of noise they pick up. However, just because a cable is very thick does not mean it has shielding. Many cables, especially guitar cables, are made with very thick walls to protect them from people stepping on them. Thick cables are not necessarily shielded, in fact one of the best shielded cables I’ve worked with was quite thin. We used it to record spoken words in a noisy room with the mic about 50 feet from the nearest place we could put the recorder. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. In general you’ll want to have cables much shorter than 50 feet. If there’s a lot of traffic and people are likely to step on the cable, make sure it’s also thick enough to withstand the pressure.

In general, if you are having trouble getting a signal from a mic, take a look at the cable and make sure the connector is not getting loose. Mics fail, as do amplifiers, but cables are generally considered the most vulnerable part of your recording gear. Fortunately they aren’t very expensive, and it’s probably worth having some extra cables on hand.

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Part 3- Microphones

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

by Tom Jeffries, CEO of Blaze Audio
Tom is a former professional musician who has been running companies that develop audio software for 28 years.

Books have been written about microphones. I’m going to start with a recommendation that will work for most of the people reading this. If you want to know more, I will give some basic information about different kinds of mics, placement, etc, but please be aware that this is a huge subject that even the experts disagree on.

You can buy a mic for $5 and you can buy a mic for thousands of dollars. Fortunately these days you can get good mics at fairly inexpensive prices. If possible, find a good music store and get them to record something with the mic before you buy it. Some stores will even allow you to take it home, especially if they know you’re likely to buy several mics. Over time you can keep upgrading your mics.

I suggest that you start with two dynamic mics. Later I’ll explain what a dynamic mic is, for now dynamic mics are relatively cheap and a good dynamic mic can sound pretty darn good.

Put them as close together as you can, directly in front of the ensemble you want to record. I suggest you have them at an angle to each other, somewhere between 100 and 135 degrees.

2 mics at the correct angle for recording

How to angle 2 mics

Generally the easiest way to do this is to have one mic over the other. This is called using a stereo pair and is a very common technique for professional recording.

Most of the time people recording a choir or ensemble will have two mics, but they will both be facing the group and will be between 4 and 10 feet apart. There is a very good acoustical reason that is not the best way to record- the distance between the mics will cause certain frequencies not to be recorded properly. If the mics are close together the frequencies that are lost are too high to hear. If you have a large group you can put them 25 or more feet apart and the frequencies being lost will be below the bass register.

Put the mics as close to the ensemble as you can, although they need to be far enough away that the entire ensemble will be heard. The angle of the mics will help give you better coverage. 12 feet is a good starting place, although it will vary with your group. Record some loud parts and some soft parts, listen, and adjust until you like the result.

Now, for those curious about how mics actually work, here are a few details. There are two main characteristics of mics- the way they turn sound into a signal to be recorded, and the pattern they use in deciding which sounds to emphasize.

There are two primary ways that mics turn sound into an electric signal. Dynamic mics (usually less expensive) use the same principal that makes a loudspeaker work but turn it backwards. Sound moves a small diaphragm back and forth, and an induction coil generates a small current.

Condenser mics have two very thin plates, with an electric charge between them. Sound changes the capacitance between the two plates. Condenser mics need a charge to start out with, which can be provided a number of ways. If you have a mic that needs +48 volts of “phantom power”, it is a condenser mic.

There are many variations and even other ways that sound can be turned into an electric signal. If you’re curious, grab one of the books on the subject and you will find a most fascinating area of science and engineering!

The housing of the mic which goes around the part that actually converts the sound is used to make sure that the mic picks sound up from the correct direction. If you are trying to record everything that happens in a room, you want a very different mic than if you are trying to pick up one instrument that is 100 feet away. Modern mic technology is very good at controlling which sounds are picked up and which sounds are not. It’s up to us to understand what the mic does so that we can make sure our recordings get the sounds we want instead of the person coughing in the third row.

Omnidirectional mics pick up everything from every direction equally. They aren’t used a lot for recording since usually that’s not what we want to do. I used an omnidirectional mic once with a 8 member singing group. They surrounded the mic and all sang directly towards it. There were some minor fluctuations since the singers had different volume levels, if we had had more time we would have experimented with placing certain singers a little closer and certain singers a little farther away.

Unidirectional mics give stronger signals in one direction. You may have seen mics referred to as “cardiod”, they pick up sounds in front of the mic better than sounds to the sides.

There are also hyper-cardiod mics which have a stronger cardiod pattern, and even and shotgun mics which are designed to pick up a small area that may be at a distance from the mic.

There are also bidirectional mics, which pick up sound from both front and rear but exclude sound from the sides. They are less useful in recording music.

The history and practice of building mics is a huge subject. I encourage you to read all you can about it. But you don’t need to understand everything about mic technology to get a good recording of your choir. Find a couple of decent dynamic mics, place them carefully, and use our Worship Recording Suite to create a great recording.

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Part 2- How to Record in Your Space

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

by Tom Jeffries, CEO of Blaze Audio
Tom is a former professional musician who has been running companies that develop audio software for 28 years.

If being able to get a good recording in any space sounds like a tall order, it is! There will be some spaces that have so much echo and reverberance that they are very difficult to use for recording. However, if you pay attention to how the room sounds, and are willing to work with microphone placement, you can get a good recording in almost any room. With most churches and schools there aren’t many options, so it’s worth figuring out how to make the best of the space you have available.

Rule number one, two, and three: listen. Use your ears. Record a little bit, play it back and listen, move the mics, record some more, listen. Go into the hall and listen. Pretend your ears are mics and listen. That’s what the pros do, I’ve watched them.

Many years ago I was playing with a brass quintet and we needed to record a performance in a large cathedral. There was a lot of echo as the sound wound its way through the cathedral, and we were afraid that our actual playing would be obscured. Fortunately we had a recording engineer who knew what he was doing. He put two good directional mics (more about directional mics in the mic article) directly in front of us about 10 feet away, and the recording had just enough echo to make us sound really good- in fact, the recording sounded better than we did!

The farther the mics are from the musicians the more ambient sound you will pick up. A little ambient sound can be good, but more is almost never better. I’ve seen mics set way at the back of a church and the result is usually bad. If there is an audience the mics can pick up more of the audience than the musicians, even without an audience mics placed at the other end of the room from the musicians will pick up more of the room than the musicians. In general keep the mics as close to the musicians as you can.

Churches and gymnasiums often have strong reflected sound from the floors, wall, and even ceilings. That can be a problem. If you are doing a recording with no audience it may be worth covering the floors with rugs or cloths.

The material that the sound is echoing off makes a difference, too. The reverberation from wood is much better than concrete. Probably you don’t have the budget to tear down all the walls and replace them with wood, but sometimes people bring in sheets of wood and set them against the wall.

If you go to a good concert hall, you will probably note that although the room itself has a fairly simple shape, there are lots and lots and lots of reflective surfaces, some of them very small, that redirect the sound in different directions. If you have to record in a gymnasium or other very boxy room you will be able to hear why. You can’t completely fix a boxy room, but bringing in furniture and putting it in places where sound will get reflected in different directions may make a difference.

No room is perfect, not even great concert halls, and the sound of a recording will always be different from what you hear as an audience member. The important thing is to experiment before the day of your big recording so that you have a chance to work with setup and placement of mics. Later I’ll be telling you all about the great reverb, echo, EQ and other features of our RipEditBurn Plus software, but if what you’re feeding into the record program is garbage, it will be really hard to make your recordings sound good.

Listen and adjust is the rule of the day. It can be frustrating at first, but with some listening, thought, and effort you may very well be able to radically improve the sound before you have recorded so much as a note of the music.

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How to Record Your Church or School Group-Introduction

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

by Tom Jeffries, CEO of Blaze Audio
Tom is a former professional musician who has been running companies that develop audio software for 28 years.

Many people think that getting a good recording of a school or church group is impossible without expensive equipment and years of training. Fortunately that is not true. With a little forethought it is possible to get good recordings without spending a lot of money. I

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Blaze Audio’s New Blog About Music, Sound, and Audio

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Tom Jeffries

Welcome to Blaze Audio’s source of information about all things audio!

We will be posting regular articles about audio recording and editing, the software and hardware involved, streaming audio recording, saving your LPs and audio tapes as digital files, recording your church or temple services, and learning to play and teach musical instruments. The field is changing fast and we can help you keep in touch!

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