Resources for Web Workers

Audio

This page lists equipment, tutorials and resources for digital audio for journalists. It's not about music. It's about gathering sound in the field, editing it and putting it online.

Everything about audio on the Web is probably easier than you think it is -- if you have never tried it before. Anyone can make audio files and put them online.

First, three points:

  • You do not need any expensive recording equipment to transfer sound into a computer.
    • Buy a very inexpensive "male to male" mini cable at any electronics store ($4.99 at Radio Shack: Catalog #42-2497 or find it in a store), plug one end into the headphone jack of a cassette recorder (or any playback device) and the other end into the microphone jack (port) of a computer, and press the Play button.
    • Buy a very inexpensive computer microphone (Logitech has some for under $25) and plug it into the microphone jack (port) of a computer. This is not portable, but you can record a voiceover or commentary.
    • Both Windows and Mac OS come with basic sound recording software that can be used to record audio. Just open the program and click the Record button. The file you save can later be converted to an MP3.
    > See Small Digital Recorders, below
    > See Audio Editing Software, below
     
  • The quality of your microphone has a greater effect on sound quality than the quality of your recording device. If you want to record people speaking and natural sound, invest in a better mic.
    > See Microphones, below
     
  • U.S. copyright law protects recorded music. If you copy a song from a music CD and put it on your Web page, or into your Flash movie, you are breaking the law. Even a short segment that you transform into a loop is protected by law. There is a common misconception that students and teachers may copy recorded music legally "for educational purposes," but if you put that sound file on the Web, you have gone outside the classroom environment, and the education exception no longer applies!
    > See the U.S. Copyright FAQ

If you are interested in podcasting, this Wikipedia article provides comprehensive information.

Microphones

In college broadcasting classes, teachers like the Electro-Voice 635 family (see it) because these mics are almost indestructible and cost just over $100 each. I use these. They work fine and stand up well to student use.

For a shotgun mic, look at the Audio-Technica 835b, a directional condenser mic that comes with a windscreen. You should be able to find it for less than $250.

Another good one under $200 is the Sennheiser ME66 (see it).

See B&H for a wide selection of professional microphones and accessories.

See Logitech for computer headsets and microphones under $25.

Small Digital Recorders

These models are suitable for journalists, and they allow very easy copying of digital files directly from the recorder to a computer. A key feature is mic input. You must use a professional mic to get decent audio.

  • Edirol R-1 (street $400)
    Marcel James wrote a detailed review for audioMIDI.com. It runs on a AAA battery, so you can carry backup power in your pocket.
  • M-AUDIO MicroTrack 24/96 (street $300)
    Jeff Towne wrote a detailed review for Transom.org.
  • Olympus WS-200S (street $100)
    See WS-200S pictures, hear sample. Note that not all tiny voice recorders are as good as this one. My students have had some models that work fine for recording an interview as backup to written notes, but the sound quality is not good enough to use on the Web.
  • Olympus DS-2. I have not tried this one yet, but some journalists have told me they LOVE it, an it comes with file conversion software for both Mac and Windows.
  • Slightly cheaper, the Olympus WS-300M -- I haven't tried this either, but some reliable people have given me enthusiastic recommendations for it.

If you need to record a telephone interview, the best practice is to use a small specialized piece of hardware called a recorder control ($29.99 at Radio Shack: Catalog #43-2208 or find it in a store). This device jacks into the phone line directly (so your recording will sound like what you hear through the receiver) and connects to any recording device that has a mic input.

You'll find a lot of information online about using MiniDisc recorders for online journalism. For a few years, those were the best option for portability. But they are cumbersome to use -- because of proprietary software requirements, poor controls and unhelpful screen displays. So now, journalists are moving away from MiniDisc and toward more friendly recording devices.

Tutorials for Adobe Audition

Tutorials for Audacity

The Audacity: Help page has links to tutorials and the user's manual for this FREE audio editing program.

Tutorials for Apple's GarageBand

If you open GarageBand on your Mac and see a bunch of musical instruments -- that's not the interface you want for simple audio editing. Switch to the Podcast view (New Podcast Edisode) and use this tutorial (from Apple).

Other Helpful Tips and Tutorials

  • Capturing Audio: Excellent advice about recording in the field and the equipment to use; from CBC Radio/Outfront.
  • Interview Tips (for radio): Advice and how-to about how to handle an interview when you want to publish or broadcast the audio; from Radio Diaries.
  • Streaming Audio Primer: A very friendly introduction to what it's all about. You'll find a lot of audio tutorials that seem to be written by engineers, for engineers. This is NOT one of those. It's VERY OLD (2001), so ignore the bit about VQF and references to old software versions.
  • Cool Edit Pro tutorials from the BBC: An amazingly rich FREE resource. Sound tutorials are listed under "Radio." There are also tutorials here about digital video.
  • What Microphone Do I Get? This guide is very user friendly and not overly technical; from Transom.org, a great site about doing great sound for radio journalism.
  • Sound in the Story (PDF file), by J. Carl Ganter and Eileen E. Ganter, from a workshop at Poynter.org.
  • Gathering Audio: Introduction and A Practical Guide, by Brian Storm and Jim Seida, provided by MediaStorm.
  • Editing: The Invisible Art, an illustrated guide to audio editing (one page!), by Eric Nuzum. It takes a while to open this page, but it's worth the wait. You can print it. From This Amercian Life, the great Chicago Public Radio show.
  • Oral History Tutorial This page is about your recording environment, but there's lots more at this site too.
  • Audio-Technica's A Brief Guide to Microphones answers your technical questions about dynamic vs. condenser, omnidirectional vs. directional, and powered vs. "phantom power."

Recommended Sites

Listen to great radio journalism:

* Broadcasts in English and numerous other languages

Books About Web Audio

Audio Editing Software

  • Audacity (*free!*) works on Windows, Mac OS, Linux; allows multitrack editing. You can convert just about any audio file to MP3 by opening it in Audacity and then "save as" in the MP3 format. To do so, you must download and install the (free) LAME MP3 encoder (instructions are here), which works with Audacity. There are several tutorials for Audacity.
  • Adobe Audition (list $300; download a free trial version); formerly Cool Edit Pro, from Syntrillium.
  • GarageBand comes with all Macs (free) and works great for multitrack editing.
  • Pro Tools comes from DigiDesign. You can try out a free version for Mac OS 9 or Windows 98, but note that it will NOT work with later versions of the Mac OS or Windows.
  • Sound Forge (list $300) and Sound Forge Audio Studio (list $70; download a free trial version); formerly from Sonic Foundry and now owned by Sony. I really like Sound Forge Audio Studio; it's very easy to use.
  • Soundtrack Pro comes with Final Cut Studio (Mac only). A lot of journalists who edit video use this to edit their audio-only files.

> See also the Plug-ins page