April 19, 2013
We're going to talk about taking something that you've written or read, and putting it into sounds so that you can either listen to it yourself, or share it with others. You may want to take on the formidable, if not rewarding, task of creating an audiobook. As surely as I sit here and type directly to you, as surely as you read this on technology that could have ended Word War II in its infancy, this task IS within your reach.
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February 20, 2013
It may have been a while since you made a mixtape for someone. It's understandable, as mixtapes are more closely associated with the '80s and '90s than the '00s and beyond. Having already explained how to create the perfect mixtape in 5 simple steps, it's time to explore great tools available for making digital mixtapes. What follows are five of the best out there, all of which are free, and most of which are available for all to use.
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October 16, 2012
Open source software is just plain great, and in the realm of audio editing, you’ll find no open source program more lauded than the popular Audacity. Truth be told, Audacity is useful for more things than simple audio editing. But the fact remains that Audacity isn’t loved by everyone. If you’re one of those people, be glad to know that there are plenty of alternatives available.
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October 9, 2012
I don’t like to see things out of place. Lately, my music collection has been. Thankfully, there are many music organization tools that can ease the spadework if one is falling behind. MP3Tag was my tool of choice till now. Just to perk up my motivation, I thought I would try out TagScanner and see how friendly it could be with my haphazardly organized MP3s.
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September 7, 2012
You've probably heard of Audacity. It's a free cross-platform application for recording and mixing, which also happens to be incredibly powerful and versatile. You can use it to record vocals, instruments and other sounds, mix them up into something useful and then create a music file to share. Many people use Audacity for podcasts or music mixing, but that's not all it's good for.
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August 4, 2012
Is your ringtone boring, phone-like and stupid? Don't be embarrassed - mine was too. Until, that is, I saw the light and changed it to one of the best sounds in the known universe: the Underworld Theme from the original Super Mario Bros. Now every time my phone rings, the people around me gaze in wonder and listen to my awesome ringtone, wishing they thought of that before me.
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July 29, 2012
Every so often I stumble across a piece of software that will eventually end up on every computer that I touch from there on. Such names would be Dropbox, Spotify, uTorrent, Skype, Steam, and so on. One of the lesser-known applications that belong in this same category for me is mp3DirectCut. While audio software like Audacity isn't foreign to most of us, this little tool has some major advantages.
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May 25, 2012
One of the more popular open source audio applications, Audacity, has recently upgraded to version 2.0 and is now no longer in Beta. Audacity has some great tools and effects that can be used to deliver great results. However, despite the facility to save your audio in a number of different formats, Audacity doesn’t natively allow you to export data as MP3.
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May 24, 2012
For many musicians, the cost of paying a professional sound engineer to record and produce a demo CD or demo tracks for an online talent profile is just too high. A much more affordable option is to learn a little about music production and recording techniques yourself and use your favourite tools on your computer to record your own music.
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May 17, 2012
Quickly edit any MP3 or AAC file on your Mac. If you need to make a quick edit to a file–like creating a ringtone or cropping a hidden track from a song–Macsome Audio Editor is a great free tool. It's certainly not the most advanced audio editor on the planet, but it's perfect for quick jobs.
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April 5, 2012
Confession: I have always wanted to play a musical instrument. Somehow, it never happened; I could never find the time, or the instrument, or some other excuse would come up. So for me, musicians have remained somewhat magical people, folks who can understand a language I can only hear. Because of this, I am always intrigued by musical "toys" – doodads and gadgets that lets you play with sound in interesting ways.
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April 5, 2012
Perhaps you're podcasting or your requirements for ripping the audio from a video clip might be rooted in a more artistic activity such as video editing. Either way, the matter of isolating the audio track from video files can be tricky to achieve. Fortunately there are various approaches you can take, either using your PC or employing a second device.
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March 23, 2012
Has it already been over 3 years since Android was first released to the public? But it’s always nice to take a step back and return to the basics every once in a while. Remember ringtones? As a newbie, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to create and install ringtones on my device.If you own a n Android phone and still don’t know how to do that, then read on.
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March 21, 2012
Every music fan knows a good tune can change your mood, but is it possible for sounds to actually alter your brainwaves? Believers in binaural beats think so. They claim these sounds, when listened to through headphones, can help relieve fatigue, help with relaxation or even induce meditation. Does it actually do these things?
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February 24, 2012
Last week, I talked about how to get started recording a podcast - microphones, Skype or Google Plus and how to record either. This week, I'll be looking at how to edit your (audio) podcast in Garageband. Garageband is free with most Macs, and it's an incredibly capable audio editor with everything a podcaster could need.
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