recording an album with goldwav?

Category: Jam Session

Post 1 by blindaudio (Zone BBS Addict) on Monday, 01-Dec-2014 18:04:13

Hello all,

I'm interested in recording an album using goldwave. For those who say it won't be possible, a woman by the name of Sara Hillis I believe, has managed to do this, and it came out really good.

I'm wanting to do this, because I don't have the funds for an actual studeo, and I'm wanting control over how the music sounds. And yes, that means in mixing.

If anyone could point me to a good microphone I could use, that would be great. I'm also having issue with starting and stopping recording, so if anyone could help me with that, it would be appreciated.

Post 2 by Shaydz (Veteran Zoner) on Tuesday, 02-Dec-2014 2:04:29

Can't help with the microphone issue, but to start recording is control + F9, and to stop I
believe is Control + F8. I find it is often useful to hit Control + G to get the time dialog,
and within the Edit menu to drop a start and finish marker if I am recording a particular
segment, or especially when editing your sound.
The online help has a list of keyboard commands, they are most useful.
Victor

Post 3 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Tuesday, 02-Dec-2014 12:36:51

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have the "what you hear" function, where you can listen to one recorded instrument and play along on another while recording it. Somebody set me straight if I'm wrong on that please.

Post 4 by blindaudio (Zone BBS Addict) on Tuesday, 02-Dec-2014 16:30:01

I don't think it does, either.

i'm just trying to find a good mic as well, and I haven't came upon any, I could use.

Post 5 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Tuesday, 02-Dec-2014 16:34:33

But how are you going to mix?

Post 6 by Binary solo (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Tuesday, 16-Dec-2014 16:20:58

I think there actually is a setting you can switch in goldwave so you'll be able to listen in on your previously recorded instruments, how ever it's not intuitive and I couldn't find it to tell you on a short notice so I suggest you go and check out the excellent user manual. As for the mic it's hard to say, it really depends on the instruments you'll be using on your album. I have an Olympus LS 100 stereo recorder which I love and have managed to do some excellent live recordings with it. So if you're doing guitar or piano and some such I'd try to get a condenser stereo mike or an audio interface and two separate ones. It's very important to be able to control the gain on your input signal and an audio interface is the simplest way to do that but it is possible by fiddling with some settings in your computer if you're connecting your mic straight into that.
I know you said you wanted to do this with goldwave and good luck with that, however I think you'd make your life a lot easier by learning Audacity as that has multitrack support and a guide for screen reader users to learn.

Post 7 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 17-Dec-2014 20:56:00

Honestly, I've never used Goldwave, but from what I'm reading here, and what I've heard it doesn't seem to be the most intuative? Have you thought of trying Audacity? It's pretty accessible with JAWS and other screen readers. Only thing I don't think is all that accessible is splitting audio tracks into parts for moving, but there are ways around that.

Post 8 by dale1982 (Veteran Zoner) on Thursday, 18-Dec-2014 10:48:04

Honestly. You're choosing the wrong software to record an album. Goldwave is not
intended for that purpose, neither is audacity. Audacity has quite a simple interface, and I
can confirm to you that it works very well with jaws. As for the microphone question, it
really depends what you're trying to record. You need to be more specific.

Post 9 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Thursday, 18-Dec-2014 17:59:12

I think I'm gonna break out the ol' cassette-based 4-track, fuck around on the keyboard, then transfer the tape to gold wave.

Post 10 by Binary solo (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Thursday, 18-Dec-2014 23:27:11

I wouldn't say that goldwave is bad software at all. For simple audio editing such as live recordings and voice recordings it has served me very well and Is easy to learn. It has however no multitracking which is a pretty bad thing when mixing and audacity will fix that.

Post 11 by blbobby (Ooo you're gona like this!) on Friday, 19-Dec-2014 3:33:04

Sure goldwave has multi ttracking.

You want a new track? Just start one.

Bob

Post 12 by Binary solo (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Friday, 19-Dec-2014 5:01:56

What's your definition of multi tracking?

Post 13 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Friday, 19-Dec-2014 13:51:26

Multi-track editing is Being able to record two or more tracks simultaniously and independantly. Mixing two tracks together isn't going to be the same thing unless you're abnormally talented and can get your levels, eq and other mixing down on the first attempt. Audacity, as restrictive in some ways as it is is good for this purpose, especially from an accessibility standpoint. Especially if you're looking for free software.

Post 14 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Friday, 19-Dec-2014 18:03:22

Don'tcha miss those days of multitracking on a boombox? I certainly do, you could keep overdubbing and overdubbing until you got this incredible wall of hissy sound. Lol.

Post 15 by Striker (Consider your self warned, i'm creative and offensive like handicap porn.) on Saturday, 20-Dec-2014 1:18:39

You'd be much better off learning to use something like reaper

Post 16 by Binary solo (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Saturday, 20-Dec-2014 6:52:58

How accessible is Reaper?

Post 17 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Saturday, 20-Dec-2014 13:36:19

I'm learning reaper right now. It is incredibly customizable, and many things are capable with the keyboard; even moving items and tracks around. I do have a little bit of sight, so I tend to do some things visually. Reaccess improves accessibility quite a bit, and you can customize keyboard shortcuts to your heart's content. The sheer scale of freaper is a bit overwhelming, but it does have a lot of tutorials, and the PDF manual is at least readable with a screen reader. So far I'm really liking it. The nice thing about it too is you can link it with an external editor like Audacity. So essentially you can select a few tracks, open it with Audacity, edit whatever you need, then save the tracks over the ones you were working on (or copy new ones) and the changes will automatically be reflected in Reaper. Effects in reaper are non-destructive, and even when you render a track including effects, you can undo that render if you mess up. The program is also really cheap for a digital Audio workstation at only $60, and there's a free and fully-functional two month trial before you buy it.

Post 18 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Saturday, 20-Dec-2014 13:44:10

So you can listen on headphones and play along on another track then?

Post 19 by Binary solo (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Sunday, 21-Dec-2014 3:54:46

Has anyone taken the time to write some screen reader user's guide to reaper that tells you how best to work with it?

Post 20 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Monday, 22-Dec-2014 14:02:34

Yes you can, Imp. As many tracks as you want. You can even create folders containing more than one track, and you can manipulate everything within that folder. For instance, I'm working on an audio theatre piece right now, and in one folder named Dialog I have tracks for narration, and for each character.

I haven't come across anything for Reaaccess. Indeed it appears the website is down and it isn't being supported. There is a mailing list, but I'm not sure how active it is. I've been able to figure out a lot just by playing, and by reading the manual. What Reaaccess appears to do is just make some keyboard shortcuts that allow you to do things with the keyboard, such as moving tracks and accessing controls. Hitting F12 enters training mode, and pressing any button or keyboard combination in there tells you what that key does. Also seemingly every action reaper performs can be mapped to a keyboard command.