By
using a computer to edit the recordings, you can take advantage of the
features of your recorders. A stereo recorder can function like a two
track recorder: by using two different microphones, one on a lapel and
one on a tabletop, you can often fill in the blanks when crowd noise
and body noise conspire against you. Gillian points out that,
|
| |
"recording
with the monaural setting is perfectly fine for voice recordings, and
I can make them stereo when I edit with ProTools (a computer sound editing
suite). ProTools is wonderful, and I am getting quite handy with it.
I had a fabulous interview with an old man in County Mayo, but the flow
of his speech was a little halting at times, and he required encouraging
noises to get him going. I was able to edit the piece so that it now
flows quite smoothly and most of my input is gone. And this did not
take very long. I feel quite competent with the program, which makes
up for the fact that I still seem to be quite hopeless at other computer
activities."
She has even
learned to improve the quality of tapes by using her sound software.
Gillian is also using the industry standard: Digidesign's Pro Tools;
most theatre sound professionals use this software on a daily basis.
CDs
Michael Barnes points out that the standard for the average actor/student
these days has shifted away from audio cassettes to CD (though WalkPersons
are everywhere still). There is a way you can create CDs at home, by
using a computer and a peripheral called a CD recorder. The process
is a fairly slow one, called "burning a CD" in the industry. There are
two types of recorders, CD-R (for Recordable) and CD-RW (for ReWritable).
The latter has the advantage that you can rerecord over a disc, while
CD-R makes a permanent copy; it can only be recorded on once. Unfortunately,
at this time the CD-RW format is not supported by regular CD players.
Some DVD players (a new audio/video read-only format) may play CD-RW
in the future, but few do now. The only hazard is that CDs only hold
75 minutes of material, whereas audio cassettes can be 90 minutes. The
media (i.e. blank discs) are quite cheap for CD-R at ~US$1.50 each,
whereas CD-RW is about twice as expensive. CD-R "burners" sell for about
US$500.
TechTalk
Recommendations
As the DAT recorders are probably twice as expensive as the MiniDisc
recorders at present, most voice and speech professionals will find
that the quality of MD exceeds their needs, that it's more convenient
to work with and within their budgets. Some are now available for under
US$300, while DATs still hover around the US$700 range. Whatever you
choose to do, don't throw away your analog recorder. Use it as a backup
to your recording sessions.
- Introduction
- MiniDisc
vs. DAT: Which is best for us?
- Accessories
- Editing,
CDs & TechTalk Recommendations
|
