Get your own Recordings! These are mine!

Did you ever wonder what you sound like "on tape?", or for the newest generation, "digitally recorded in EM PEE THREE?". How about it, who wants to make some recordings? Well, I did it one Saturday morning with nothing more than a $10.00 microphone from Radio Shack (now The Source By Circuit City ), and some freeware software from you guessed it - the internet (I hear they have it on computers these days).

You're probably not going to get CD quality recordings, but you will definitely achieve the following, which I found very useful and helpful:

1. Hear your own voice from outside of your own head. This sounds simple, but it is a fact that most people think they sound higher, or lower, than they really do. I don't know the physics of it, but I assert that this is a #1 bona fide fact (OK, Mythbusters prove me wrong).

2. Sing and work out harmonies. This can be great exercise for those vocal chords - pun intended, and is lots of fun. There are few things that I enjoy more than singing in a group (which was hard by myself - until now). I like to play the guitar while I do this, and sometimes I'll try base lines on the guitar, or put in a solo).

3. Save YOUR money. I know a couple of people who have spent a fair amount on recording equipment eight track recorders, microphones, boom stands, patch cords, equalizers, knifflin pins, roller-bobs and whosiwhatsits. I'm sure eventually, I will too, but for the moment, I am happy with my $10.00 recording studio.

4. Record a voice message for a loved one, and leave it on their desktop, or e-mail it to them. A great use of this technique is to record Amazing Grace and then send it to someone who doesn't like Amazing Grace - best results include bag pipes (as usual). Before anyone gets up in arms, I happen to really like Amazing Grace, and love bag pipes. I would be very happy to receive your recordings.

OK, enough of the pep talk, here is how it is done:
1a. Check too make sure your computer doesn't already have a microphone. A lot of computers have them built in, just waiting for the amateur skylark to discover them.
1b. Check to make sure you have a sound card. I'm pretty sure you need a sound card so you can plug this little baby in somewhere.

2. No mike, purchase one. I am no expert, so I will not give you advice on what kind. I have only purchased one computer microphone in my life. The one I have was the cheapest one I could buy.

3. Download the free software. I am using Rosoft Engineering's Audio Recorder which I downloaded from their Website http://www.rosoft.nu/index.php. It was easy to install and very easy to set up. Even the under five set can record themselves nowadays. I showed my daughter the buttons to press to start and stop the recorder, and she happily recorded and played herself back for half an hour after I had left her to it.

4. Record away. I'm hoping you were not expecting anything more complicated than that. I am also hoping that you were not expecting more detail than that.

Finally, I'm sure that simple "record to a file', and "playback' are not the limit of what you can do. I'm trying to work out how to record multiple tracks, and all that - I'm sure it can be done, after all it's just software and I've known software to do some pretty surprising things.

I hope I have inspired you to go out and get that microphone,
Good luck with that!