Equipment and Software (At home Recordings)

Equipment And Software

In this part I'll be showing you the equipment and software I use at home and in college to record and edit my audio files.

Software - GarageBand

 The software I use to record and edit is called Garageband. Garageband is an audio editing software available for Mac, laptops and IPads. the software is free to download and simple to use, when you open the application it will give you different options for recording, click on voice to start your vocal recordings.

If you want to add sound effects or music to the track it's fairly straight forward, if you have a sound file of the sound effect you will be able to drag the track onto garageband and it will be copied onto there, free for you to edit in the way you want it.


Equipment

The main equipment I use at home is my MacBook Air and the Turtle Beach Reacon Headphones. Although they are designed as a 'Gamer' headset, they are very good for solo recordings. when you plug them in with garageband up and option will appear with how you want to record. Make sure the Microphone is switched on and that the Input device is selected as the headphones/microphones or if you are using a different mic then as that microphone.

These Headphones are good for solo work and experimentation. If you're a beginner just starting out and you don't have a lot of money to spend on equipment these headphones only cost around 30-40 pounds and can get you started.

Snowball Mic

The Snowball Mic is another microphone I have used in recording. If you want to try out recording with your friends this is a good option, it's open and therefor you are not restricted to one person speaking into the microphone.

You want to make sure that the room you are recording in is completely silent however as this mic is able to pick up sounds from a fair distance. You could also get some Acoustic foam boards to help insulate the sound in the room

Another suggestion made for insulating sound was made by Peter Greenall, the professional who came to see us, who when I was discussing where I had recorded my Charlie and Lola piece mentioned the idea of getting bed sheets and hanging it across the walls to work as make-shift insulators. This can help with money costs as you would not have to buy acoustic tiles and is also useful if you need to record something at home.