Recording Software....?

Str8Axe · #1 January 20th, 2006

I had my ex's folks over for dinner last night. I often used to jam with her step dad and it had been a while, so I invited them over. He brought me a whole TON of really cool music recording and editing software. Programs like: Cool Edit Pro, Cakewalk, and about 15 others that I can't remember. There's drum track programs and everything. Are these programs hard to learn the ropes on? I'm by no means computer eliterate(sp) (I just can't spell....). I've just never fooled around with programs like this.

Any tips to make learning easier?

What's the best program to use? I have heard Cool Edit is one of the "better" ones.

I should be able to post some recordings of my brutish & sloppy spin on music sometime soon!
.

One more thing: I recorded a 1-2 minute accoustic version of Hey Joe and it's like 17mb. How would a person convert that to a smaller 2mb ish mp3?

allthumbs · #2 January 20th, 2006

Kirk uses cool edit. They all have steep learning curves IMO,but then I'm an off on button kind of guy.
Sounds like you have recorded in a wav. file. Get a free wav. to mp3 converter like cheetha and your file will get much smaller.

Str8Axe · #3 January 20th, 2006

Yes, I think it records in .wav format. I think he installed a program that converts files into .wav formats, but it looks like I'll need to get one that converts the .wav's to MP3.

LarryKu · #4 January 20th, 2006

CollEdit does record as .wav, but it has many options for saving the output to other formats, and MP3 is one of them. There is no need for any other program to convert the recorded output. Do a "Save As...", then explore the various formats available.

Str8Axe · #5 January 20th, 2006

Excellent. That's all good information guys. Thanks and keep it comin'!

Str8Axe · #6 January 20th, 2006

Ok I just went to my house on my lunch break and I can't "save as" an MP3 in Cool Edit Pro. Is there something I'm missing or do I need to get another program to do that as listed above?

LarryKu · #7 January 20th, 2006

When you do a "Save As" in CoolEdit, click the "Save As Type" at the bottom of the save window. One of the formats should read "MP3Pro (FhG) (*.mp3)" or something similar. That will save it as an MP3.

Larry

allthumbs · #8 January 20th, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryKu

When you do a "Save As" in CoolEdit, click the "Save As Type" at the bottom of the save window. One of the formats should read "MP3Pro (FhG) (*.mp3)" or something similar. That will save it as an MP3.

Larry

I think he has a demo version. Some of them have that feature disabled. Not sure which ones.

Str8Axe · #9 January 20th, 2006

The Cool Edit I have is actually a full version. I did the pull down menu for file types and didn't see any type of MP3 option, just a lot of .wav formats. I'll take another look after work and see if I simply overlooked it. Also, maybe it's an older version and doesn't have that option. Otherwise, I'm sure one of the other freeware programs I have is capable of it. I was able to condense it to 8mb or so by changing it to 8 bit, but it's still pretty large.

Str8Axe · #10 January 20th, 2006

Just confirming that there is no file type .MP3 option in my Cool Edit Pro full version. WaveLab seems to be able to convert it just fine!

allthumbs · #11 January 20th, 2006

You will need to be able to change mp3s to wave when you want to record over backtracks too.

Kirk Lorange · #12 January 20th, 2006

Strange that you can't see the mp3 option.

Clancy · #13 January 20th, 2006

I think you'll find that you'll need a plug-in to be able to export (or even import) Mp3's via Cool Edit Pro. It doesn't come with the program itself. It was a paid plug-in released by Syntrillium before Adobe bought them out and made Cool Edit Pro Adobe Audition. The plug-in is no longer available as far as I can see.

We had Cool Edit Pro before we bought Adobe Audition and I know that I installed a plug-in to be able to export MP3s.

Actually just found this http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp...3-Plug-In.html

Clancy

Str8Axe · #14 January 21st, 2006

Nice. I'll have to pick that up.

Thanks!

justinthyme · #15 January 21st, 2006

Str8Axe - have a look at Audacity, a freeware program which you can download here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Easy to use if you're new to recording software, and a great program. Doesn't support MIDI yet, I don't think, but you can export your projects to .mp3 using the 'lame encoder' which you can get here:

http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html

You just need to 'tell' audacity where to find the encoder on your hard drive and away you go. Its all in the help files.