Cool Sound Stuff

Audacity / dB PowerAmp / FlexiMusic Software


Audacity


Audacity Screen Shot

This is truly an amazing piece of FreeWare.
This is an audio editor that will import Wave Files and MP3 Files, cut, paste, add, subtract, filter,...you name it.
You can then select to export either as a Wave File or MP3. [Exporting as MP3 requires a separate "Lame" encoder. There is a link on the site to find and download it.]
Using the microphone on your computer you can record voice-overs while playing other tracks. Add as many tracks together as you need then mix them down to a single (stereo or mono) output track.
Many effects filters are available and there are links to them on Audacity's website.
I've used this program at home, just for fun, and used it to make sound effects for shows that I simply burned onto a CD and took to the theatre.
If you need the ability to do professional quality sound editing, don't miss out on this program.
Yes, you did read it right! This program is free.
The download also includes complete documentation on how to use the program.
Visit their site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net .

dB PowerAmp Music Converter

Now, any of you that have done audio editing know that one big problem, especially with creating sound effects from a variety of sources, is that the sound files you want to use often don't match each other in frequency and bitrate. In fact, with sound you find on the internet, they may not even be compatible formats [Real Audio, WMF, MP3, WAVE, MonkeyAudio.] This brings me to dB PowerAmp Music Converter .
Open Windows Explorer and point your mouse at any audio file. With dB PowerAmp installed you will get this:

Tech Info Banner

If anything is not to your liking, you simply right-click on the file and choose Convert to :

Convert To

That will display this box:

Choose your Type

Click the one you want and this comes up:

Fill In the Blanks

Make the technical changes you need to the file and click Convert , and the audio file is converted to whatever you want.

This program does the same thing with CDs. Put the disk in the computer drive, right-click on the track you want, and Convert to whatever type of MP3 you want. [Windows 2000 users have to have "Administrator" access in order to access the data on the CD drive.]

Download links for everything are at one site: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/download.htm

There is also a companion music player that is outstanding: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Plug-Ins for many file types are available at http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm

FlexiMusic

I recently got an e-mail from a software developer named Ponnuchamy Varatharaj, who asked me to look at his site and possibly recommend some of his digital sound programs. Being highly gratified that anyone even cared what I thought, I immediately went and looked. I was rewarded with four, very cool programs.

Since most of the programs I recommend on this site are freeware, let me be really clear about these. They are not free but they are priced like "old fashioned shareware" at $10-$20.   Given the capability of these programs it's an amazing deal. The intended purpose of all of this software is creating and composing digital music using sound samples that you find or even create. If digital music composition is your main interest, be sure to give this software a close look. Of special interest is the Orchestra program. This application far exceeds the limits of my musicianship but the name certainly seems appropriate. With it, and some practice, I think a (talented) person could actually make their computer into a digital orchestra.

My interest, of course, was in how these performed for editing music and sound effects for shows. The first program I looked at was Wave Editor . It has an attractive and efficient interface and was fast and accurate editing single samples.

When you're ready to combine and mix several samples, open Composer . This is a very sweet digital mixer with all kinds of built-in effects for processing your samples and an unlimited number of tracks where you can add, move and adjust samples to create whatever mix you need. It also has some processing "toys" included and easily handled all the mixing jobs I could come up with to try it. Actually, I spent a lot more time (and had way more fun) on this program than I really needed to.

The last of the 4 programs is called Generator . This is a great program. Throughout my career, I have always been amazed by how many "little changes" directors can request in a simple sound cue. This may be the answer. I seriously think I will be playing with this program for years and still finding new processing combinations.

If you are technically inclined and want more detailed information about these programs and their capabilties I made up a "Just show me what it will do!" page for you. Unless your serious, don't go here. It's a very long page. To download these programs visit FlexiMusic.com . Each of the programs has a brief trial period but they will expire ["save" won't work] so you do need to register them. For more information about the author he has posted a brief Biography . From my eMail conversations with him, he seems like a nice guy. So, ... technical programs that are very good and a developer that actually writes back! What more could any sound dude want? Check it out.