Anybody make their own sounds? I’m needing to make a few sounds outside for a project. I’ve googled all kinds of stuff for audio recording devices and only coming up with “voice” recorders. What kind of recording device to record a few sounds outside?
I typically make my own sounds, mostly using audacity, or creating synths in lmms that produce the sound I want. I once wandered around my universiy carrying a “zoom h4” recroding engine sounds, ventilators, wind whistles, and then used those in some of my games. You definitely need a music recorder rather than a voice recorder, as voice recorders tend to be low-bitrate and/or poor frequency bandwidth.
If you are looking for an audio recorder, and are willing to pay for it, zoom makes some excellent devices. (I’m looking at purchasing the zoom h2n for recoding ambient sounds in the near future). Another brand to look at is tascam, but I don’t have any experience with those.
Prices for this sort of recorder start at about $100USD and go up from there.
If you don’t want to spend money, then a modern cellphone (if you have one) is capable these days - thouh you will have to post process the sound.
Be aware that making your own sounds is not a quick process - lots of takes, Gb of audio files, and many hours of fiddling in ylur favourite editing software…
something like this?
Yup, something like that.
I’d recommend reading reviews around the web before picking a specific device. Audio is very subjective though, so while someone may like the sound tone of a specific device, another person may disagree.
Also see (probably the cheapest): zoom h1
And the one I have used both for sound effects and music: zoom h4
I have a good old SM 58 sure mic and a blue snowball ice…I usually use both for voice or guitar…or just some folley work…but it is mostly trial and error…I’m no proffessional I also use audacity, ardour4 and lmms…I’m on linux so…that is the way for me to go…on windows I used a lot of magix music maker…I bought the cheap version and it actually did a lot for the price.
@sdfgeoff: those are mutitrack?..they look really useful…I am seriously considering adding one to my wishlist!(if I could ever afford it…it’s time to think about a new PC at this point)
The zoom H4 seems to offer the ability to record to multiple files from the different inputs (it has XLR connectors for proper microphones), but I’m not sure about the H2. However both can be plugged into a PC as a USB sound card and you can then use whatever software you like thereafter. However, they aren’t really studio mics or complete audio setups as they’re designed to be portable handheld recorders.
I recently came across Qractor if you’re looking for another piece of software to add to your collection. I came across it because I couldn’t get VST’s working in lmms - but with Qtractor you do need to be running Jack.
Incidentally, I was playing some settlers2 the other day, and noticed that some of the sounds include the sound of scrunching paper and the sound of someone hitting keyboard keys really hard…