Recording your own sounds?

HI Im not sure if this is the right thread for this question so if it isn't please forgive me.

I recorded my own voice for a gesture. It was a wav file and I ran it thru the R8brain program and uploaded it to sl. Everything went perfect UNTIL I went to play the sound and can't hear it even though I turned sound up. I sent it to my freind in sl and she couldn't hear it either. So what did I do wrong??
thanks for any info

Sasha Dasilva

i just started tinkering with this and I used music/audio studio 7 and just open up a file.. export as a wav , but you have to select some other options as well... Although im not on my home computer at the moment to verify but i believe the encode was pcm and at the 44.1bit rate selected...
its extremely easy with this program and takes all of but 10 seconds to open the program, bring in the file and export/save back to the desktop to bring into sl...
ALSO, the sound files cant be more than 10 seconds.

if you like email me with your file and i can convert it for you and email it back if u like. [email]davet@insightbb.com[/email]

All sounds must meet the following criteria:

1. Under 10 seconds in length. 9.99 seconds is fine. 10 seconds is not.
   
   
   
   
2. Windows PCM WAV format.
   
   
   
   
3. 44.1 KHz sampling, 16 bit-stereo or 16-bit mono (same sample rate and bit depth as a CD)

If any one of those criteria are not met, your sound won't play in SL. If you're sure all the settings were right, perhaps something just went wrong with the upload, maybe an internet hiccup or somthing. Try uploading it again.

I use Adobe Audition 1.5 where u can boost the sound up and normalize the soundclip..it's gotta be SUPER loud and also if ur making a gesture out of it..repeat the sound in the gesture itself more then once to get the full effect

Good call on the volume, Dismay. I didn't think of that.

Anyway, I'm glad to see another Audition user in the world. I've been using it since back when it was Cool Edit Pro. It's such a great program. To do a quick fanboy plug for a moment, if anyone's got $300 burning a hole in your pocket, and you want a professional grade audio tool, Audition beats the hell out of much more expensive programs like Sound Forge & Acid. Consider it Adobe's PC answer to Pro Tools.

2.0's got some cool new features you might want to check out, Dismay, just so you know. It's a bit of resource hog compared to 1.5, and it takes a little while to get used to the changes they made to the interface, but it's easily as much of an improvement over 1.5 as 1.5 was over 1.0. The new audible scrubbing feature alone makes the upgrade well worth the $129.

I am sorry I forgot to tell you all I used sound recorder that comes with windows. These other programs you all have mentioned can they be dowloaded off the net or have to buy the software at a store?
good helpful advice all
and also I wanted to say that the 44.1 khz sampling and the 16 bit I dont really know where to find this at. IM sorry I'm a lil dumb but I'm trying to learn
thanks all
Sasha

If you're using MS Sound Recorder, go File -> Properties -> Convert Now... Under Format, choose "PCM". Under Attributes, choose "44.100KHz, 16 Bit, Mono" or "44.100KHz, 16 Bit, Stereo". Click OK.

The default setting in Sound Recorder is 8KHz, 8 bit, mono, which is the most likely reason why you couldn't play the sound in SL. SL requires that sounds be at CD quality sample rate and bit depth.

As for higher quality software, if you're interested in Adobe Audition, you can get it at www.adobe.com. Download the free 30-day trial, and give it a whirl. If nothing else, reading through the help documentation will teach you a lot about audio. If you decide to keep the program after 30 days, it costs about $300 US. In my opinion, for the money, Audition is the best audio program on the market today. As I said earlier, it runs circles around a lot of much more expensive programs.

If you're looking for something cheaper, Goldwave isn't too bad. Unlike Audition, its wave editor and multitrack mixer come as two seperate programs (as is the case with other audio packages like SoundForge/Acid). They're $45 and $55, respectively, and there are free trials for both.

If you want a freebie, Audacity looks pretty decent, although I've never used it. Even if it's not great, it's gotta beat the hell out of Sound Recorder.

Also, if you have a Creative sound card, check the installation CD that came with it. You probably have Creative Wave Studio, and Creative Audio Converter. Wave Studio will allow you to record and edit sounds. Both allow you to convert sounds to different formats. Audio Converter runs batches, which is a nice time saver. You can convert any or all of your sound files to any available format, all at once.