* Voice Recording

[gejjer]

Hello

I really want to be able to record my gran talking about her old photos in digitial format that I could then store on my laptop.  This would have two massive benefits: number 1, it would be an excellent way of taking notes on lots of photos and people which otherwise we would not have a clue about; number 2, my gran is such a character with such a turn of phrase and gift for story telling that it would be great to be preserved.  I imagine I could probably attach sound files to people on the FH program (although I am new to this).  Unfortuntely I feel I must do this soon before it is too late.

I have looked at the Griffin iTalk product for my ipod, but there may be a better or simpler way that someone can recommend.  I am not technically sophisticated by the way!  I imagine I would need some sort of microphone attached to laptop and some sort of software to record on to and edit the digital files.

Any advice/recommendations here wd be greatly appreciated.

ID:1161

[Jane]

I see you have already had a couple of suggestions on the FHU List.

I don't know much about the iPod, I have an Iriver myself which has built in sound recording direct to MP3 or WAV format which I use to record interviews and I then attach them as multimedia records.

I also tend to try and transcribe the recordings for access with in FH.

[vliet]

I seem to remember that a program I used to use called Goldwave, was just the sort of thing and I recall just linking up a stereo cable from the headphone socket to the sound card on the PC to record from cassette or vinyl to a CD. So, the principle should be the same.
I seem to recall that Goldwave, a full version, was available free on one of the recent cover CDs with Your Family Tree magazine but I haven't installed it on this machine yet. It did do a good job though and I do have the CD here - somewhere!
[cool]

[cjpick]

Unless you happen to have an iRiver or other digital voice recorder which will allow you to record direct to mp3, I suggest that you consider recording with a microphone through your soundcard into your computer.

I have just successfully completed transferring about 500 LPs from vinyl and cassette via an amplifier in this way, and I think the same principle should apply.

There are several programmes available for this exercise, some free, some not. By and large, unless you are going to try to manipulate the recording to amend the sound, create effects etc, the freeware is more than adequate.

I have tried the Griffin iTalk USB converter - no reason why it shouldn't work, but I found it easier to connect with a 2.5mm stereo jack into the soundcard (there's a socket marked for a microphone or other input on the soundcard at the back of your PC). I suggest you experiment to see what works best.

I used 'waverepair' to record and then 'Audacity' to edit the WAVform created by the recording and then convert to mp3. I found that Audacity was not brilliant at recording - there was a tendency for 'dropout' where split-seconds were missed - whereas waverepair was fine. I could have used waverepair throughout but if you want to use the programme to do more than record and split tracks then you had to pay (about $30, I recall). So I used both. I think that Audacity charges about £10 for the LAME licence to allow conversion to mp3, but I am not sure whether waverepair includes an option to convert to mp3 at all.

Basically, the process is as follows:

Record using a microphone connected through the soundcard's 2.5mm input jack. This means that you must have waverepair running. Waverepair has a sound level/start/stop/pause function a bit like a cassette recorder. Easy to understand. This creates a WAV file. Bear in mind that you will need a lot of space on your hard drive - about 750mB (yes! that's 3/4s of a gigabyte) for an hour's recording.

Run Audacity and use it to open the WAV file. Edit out any bits you don't want and split into 'tracks' as necessary (to divide comments about different photographs, perhaps?) and then convert into mp3 (which takes up a whole lot less room on your hard drive than WAV files - for example a typical compression ratio from WAV to mp3 is 7:1. As I have said, WAV files are surprisingly big - a typical record album is about 500mB! - while the same album as an mp3 might be less than 70 mB. (This is where the LAME licence comes in, allowing you to use the software to compress to mp3).

'Nero' or other 'burning' software will allow you to create CDs or even DVDs for posterity.

Once you have the mp3 file created, you can presumably link to the voice recording file like you can link to a photograph (I see no reason why this shouldn't work in principle, although I've never done it).

'google' for 'waverepair' and 'audacity' and download the software.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards

[Guest]

Hi I have a similer question, and not sure if its answered here.

I wish to play back my family digy pictures to a family member via my laptop, and wish to place a voice over whilst showing the pictures, I done a similer thing through a video camera yrs ago, and now hoping to do via the laptop.
any ideas please.

[Jane]

Most of the current crop of video editing packages, allow you to put a soundtrack on to still images. You just record your sound track and add the photos and durations as you need.

It's normally easier to render out a 'video' as that way there is no problems with timing, or you could use something like Powerpoint with built in sound bytes on each page.

[martync]

I use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 10 PLUS

http://site.magix.net/english-uk/home/v ... /?version=

Despite the name you can also easily make slideshows of stills with titles and transitions you can mix multiple soundtracks i.e. music and speech and output as video or VCD's or DVD's.
Amazon UK sell it for £35.97 or £29.50 on Amazon Marketplace

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 83-6488768

Magix also do a product 'Photos on CD & DVD 4.0 Deluxe' £20.49 that makes still slideshows that you can add a soundtrack to. I got the video package as for a very few pounds more you can do more things.

There is a trial version of 'Photos on CD & DVD 4.0' bottom right of the page, a 65M download though at:

http://site.magix.net/english-uk/home/f ... n=standard

All the best and Happy Christmas to everyone
Martyn

[Guest]

Hi Jane.
Thanks for the feed back, power point will be the simplest, so will try using this for use of ease and see how it turns out..

Martyn, Thanks for the additional info, I already use Magix for most of my editing, but just did not want to go into editing with this project, as there will be a lengthy consevation involved on each and every photo, however saying that it might well turn out I have to...

thanks again to you both........

[martync]

Hi Tony,

If you want to give the presentations to people you could include the PowerPoint viewer, a free program from Microsoft allowing people who don't have PowerPoint to see the presentation:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

You may well already know about this but I thought it was worth passing on just in case you didn't.

All the best,
Martyn