digital sound editing

Aaron

This evening I had my first real foray into the world of digital sound editing. I was creating a few sound effects for a multimedia project for school. Since I didn't have any nice, portable recording equipment, I used the microphone in my PDA. As you can imagine, this isn't the last word in recording quality (probably not even the first word). The sound I was recording was the motor noise of a DVD player when it's seeking. I recorded the sounds at 44.1kHz. (CD quality). I took my PDA back to my PC, downloaded the clips, and edited them in Sound Forge 5. The biggest problem I had to overcome was the hiss in the recording (thanks to the crappy microphone in my PDA). Also, since a DVD player's motor noise isn't that loud, I had to increase the volume of the recording (which further added to my hiss problem). I greatly reduced the hiss by using a 20 band graphic equalizer (in software). To help me identity the problem regions I used a spectrum analyzer (in software).

I can't say I knew exactly what I was doing, but I fumbled through it and learned a few things. I even had fun, too! I felt like some recording engineer guy sitting in front of my computer with my Sennheiser's on. I'm fairly pleased with the end result. Has anyone else done much digital sound editing?

Aaron

jcaut

Hi Aaron,

I haven't done anything of the nature that you're talking about. I did mess around with a program called, I think, "Cool Edit". It's more of a toy than Sound Forge is. I used the tone generator in the program to create some CD's of test frequencies, and frequency sweeps.

You needed one of those little portable MD recorders for that project. I've been pretty surprised at the quality of recordings that they can produce.

Jason

Aaron

I used the tone generator in the program to create some CD's of test frequencies, and frequency sweeps.

Cool! I did that too a little while back.

Aaron

TroyD

So THAT is the kind of thing you do for giggles on a Friday night? Does it come to you as a huge surprise that you don't have a girlfriend???

Get a faakin life Aaron.

Troy