Freesound Forums
What recording software to use for voice?
Started February 15th, 2012 · 28 replies · Latest reply by Stompiede 3 years, 8 months ago
I've searched through quite a few different places, and have yet to find a good free program to record vocals.
I currently use audacity. It's great for the basic stuff, but it loads VST's in their own modal windows, meaning you can't tweak something, hit play, tweak it a bit more, hit play, etc.
I'm a hobbyist, so I can't justify buying something like pro tools, reason, etc. I like audacity for its simplicity, but perhaps its just too simple?
The main tasks I perform are:
1) Record a voice over
2) Record it again, because I fuked up the first one
3) Aw heck, another take can't hurt, can it?
4) If needed, record it again...and again...and again...
5) Unplug from the studio, and take my laptop back to my office
6) With the app still running, I trim out breaths and noise, and piece together the best complete run of what I'm trying to record
7) Export to wav or mp3
I find that step 6 obviously takes the most amount of time.
What would be nice is if I could hook up a VST like iZotope's "Nectar" (http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/nectar/index.asp) which I'd have to buy, obviously. But the problem with audacity is like I said...the VST opens in its own window and you can't keep it open to adjust the settings, then hear it, then tweak it some more, then listen...etc.
Is there any free alternative to audacity that will record, and let you run with VST's without having to flip back and forth between menu items?
The more and more I research, the more obvious its becoming that I need to invest in some software. It just seems frustrating to have to buy software that pro's use, when I'm just a nobody trying to have some fun. 
While experimenting with Audacity and various effects for voice acting for a videogame, I found that limitation to slow down productivity a lot, and wished to be able to play in real time with effect parameters and find good setups more quickly; and also to be able to change the last but one effect while keeping the last, without undoing/redoing everything.
When I decided to try other audio/music software, I found Traverso included in the Linux distribution I use, but it's also available for Windows and Mac OS X so you should be covered 
Also, check all the free VST available on the net, you might reach interesting results with free alternatives and delay the purchase of pro stuff until after your first commercial success 
Thanks--great tips!
I tried out traverso. It works well, but one thing I have to do is change from my mic input and output (coming in via m-audio fasttrack ii usb), over to my usb headphones. ie: in the "studio" (closet) I use the M-Audio box with a mic, and I have headphones hooked up through the M-Audio box. But when I'm done recording, I come back to my office, and tweak the sounds. In my office, I just have a pair of ghetto USB headphones. So switching back & forth between one input/output combo to another is important...and I like how audacity does that (one menu item: rescan inputs). Is there an equivalent in traverso?
I looked but it seems like you have to hop back and forth in the preferences dialog?
I think I might be asking to much of free software at this point, though hehe
You're welcome
I just checked the manual, Traverso has no command line option to load different configuration files, but you could still work around it with a little more effort:
Set it up for the studio, save the configuration, make a copy of it and call it, say, Traverso-Studio.ini; do the same for the office.
At this point you should have 3 ini: Traverso.ini, Traverso-Studio.ini and Traverso-Office.ini
Then create 2 batch files, say Traverso-Studio.bat and Traverso-Office.bat
Traverso-Studio.bat would be like:
copy pathofyourinifiles\Traverso-Studio.ini pathofyourinifiles\Traverso.ini
pathofyourexecutable\traverso.exe
The first line would overwrite the current ini with the one set up for the studio, the second would run the program; Traverso-Office.bat would do the same but with Traverso-Office.ini.
Then, to make it easier to run the batches, you could create two desktop icons or program menu items pointing at those batch files.
Yay for homemade multiconfig!
Reaper or Cool Edit Pro .
Reaper is not free but it does not ever expire and they even let you keep updating to the newest versions no kidding and cool edit was bought by another company adobe audition or something like that and they redone the program so if you can find the original cool edit , well just do a search on it.
I hope this helps you .
Using voice recording software Audacity2.0 which will give better output for your voice recording.
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I have found a great music recorder which can record both the computer streaming music and online streaming music from different sources.I found from dealpl.us, it is not free, but very penny worth to pay.
http://dealspl.us/Software_deals/p_only-95-for-leawo-music-recorder-and-50-off-for-other
Are MIDI controllers good for doing voice altering, simlar to the daft punk sound?
Pure MIDI controllers don't make sounds by themselves, they're just controllers, they send signals to instruments and effects. Of course you can use them with the right effects to get daft-punky.
To make a robotic voice, you'd just need a comb filter effect; to make it "sing", you'd use a vocoder.
Some are plain vocoders that expect 2 audio inputs, the voice that acts as a modulator, and the sustained sound that acts as a carrier; this one could be from you playing live on a MIDI keyboard that drives a synth, for instance. (voice input: audio; instrument input: audio)
Some vocoders also have a built-in basic synth that will provide the carrier sound, so it would accept direct MIDI from the controller. (voice input: audio; instrument input: MIDI)
Of course the first kind will give you more choice for the carrier sound; organs, strings, whatever you like, and since it's an all audio thing, a MIDI controller is not strictly required, only a good option.
If you browse for video tutorials on audacity vocoder for instance you'll see how it can be done with no MIDI involved.
That said, I'd die if I had to compose all the MIDI stuff directly in the DAW instead of using my hardware synth as a MIDI master keyboard linked via USB/MIDI cable, but that's just the lazy me; talents used to make masterpieces just with trackers...
Ahh OK, a vocoder is what I'll need then, great! Sorry is this is a daft question, but is a vocoder free? Also, which software goes best with MIDI controllers? I have a fairly up to date PC so can run most softwares, would be good to get a MIDI controller with a cheap piece of software and get going on making these daft punk sounds! Any idea where to get a really cheap MIDI with software?
There are quite a few free vocoders, take a look here for instance:
not all of those 22 search results are vocoders but it's a good start.
Every DAW worth its name will recognize external controllers, even the free ones like Ardour, QTractor and LMMS; sometimes it's single plugins (especially some old free ones, and most often on the synth side rather than effects) to lack the ability of external control via MIDI, but the majority are well behaved
Cool, ill have a look at that link. Glad to hear the majority are well behaved! Ok, so to clarify, if I buy MIDI controller with no software to go with it, I can download free software to go with it? or does that depend on every MIDI controller?
Yes you can; as long as the generic MIDI controller is correctly recognized by your computer's OS, even the free DAWs will let you use it with them; you'll have some configuration to do by hand, mapping hardware controls to DAW controls, but then you're done.
Specific couples of DAW and dedicated controller (e.g. Ableton) might make this easier or even unneeded, but that comes at a price
To play it safe, browse the forums of the DAWs you might want to try and look for threads about MIDI controllers, more deeply than I did just to be able to reply you 
thanks, you have been really helpful! ok, so ill look for some MIDI controllers, and then download some free software, that is the best option! that way cheaper all round, any software you would reccomend to download free? ill have a look now on some other forums, but if you have any off the top of you head, would be great!
You're welcome
As I said in another thread, these are the free DAWs I've personally used so far
Ardour (Linux, Mac) http://ardour.org/
Qtractor (Linux) http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/
LMMS (Linux, Windows) http://lmms.sourceforge.net/
Ableton Live Lite 8 (Windows, Mac, Linux via WINE) https://www.ableton.com/en/products/live-lite/
LMMS and Ableton have a lot of built-in plugins (instruments for LMMS, instruments and FX for Ableton) that will save a lot of plugin search time for most cases
On the net you'll find plenty of tutorials for all of them, but Ableton gets 1 point for the nice series of included lessons/tutorials that will guide you to learn in an interactive and newbie-friendly way; useful for those coming from other DAWs, even more for those completely new to many of the involved concepts, IMHO.
Feel free to consider switching the order of your acquiring and start with the software, as it can work without the controller, and once you got the hang of it, you can choose a controller that is known to work well with it.
Good point, I will look at those links, download my favourote, although already kinda persuaded by the abledon, then if I feel comfortable with it, In will go on an purchase a MIDI controller, look forward to it. Thanks man for all the help! I'll do some research over the next week or so and if I pick out a MIDI controller I'll probs ask you about it lol. You should make a profession out of this advice!
Hehe thanks for your trust, but I have to remind you I have no direct experience of MIDI controllers other than my synth used as a master keyboard, I hope more knowledgeable people than me will chime in at your next questions
haha yeah having a look at the MIDI controllers now, expect an email soon! lol
Hey, so found some MIDI controllers, this one looks real good! Gonna try and get some cheap software or some free versions, demos probably. Lemme know your thoughts? http://www.hifi-tower.co.uk/Schubert-49-MIDI-Keyboard-49-Keys-USB-Pedal-Black_i9141.htm