WavePad Audio Editing Tips & Tricks

Below you will find a compilation of some the audio effects and sound editing basics for the WavePad audio editor that you will want to know and test out for yourself as you delve into the world of audio editing. Another great way for those new to audio editing to get started is by watching the WavePad sound editor intro video tutorials so you can see the audio editor in action.

Split and Cut Audio Files

You can split a file at any point you choose by simply clicking the Split button on the Edit tab. This will create two audio files split at the point you had the cursor. Be careful when you use this function, the action cannot be undone. Additional audio splitting options include splitting at bookmarks, splitting at silences and similar Trim options that delete sections instead of creating new audio files.

Amplify Audio Volume

To make audio sound louder, instead of simply turning the volume control up you want to amplify the file. You will find Amplify on the Effects tab, which will open a window where you can either adjust the amplification using the slider or by selecting a preset level from the drop down menu. Selecting 200% will double the volume, 50% will cut the volume in half.

Equalize Audio

Amplifying affects the full spectrum of the audio in a file, but if you want to increase or decrease certain frequencies, for example, boosting all of the lower bass frequencies, then you want to use the Equalizer. The Equalizer is also on the Effects tab and opens a graph of the frequencies going from low to high frequencies as you move left to right. This gives you very finite control of the frequency ranges you want to control. Moving a point up will make the frequency stronger and moving a point down will make it weaker.

Normalize Audio

Normalizing an audio file is similar to amplifying, except that normalizing increases the sound of the loudest peak to the maximum level without causing clipping in digital audio. This is frequently used as a last step before saving a final version of an edited song or recording. To normalize an audio file, you will find Normalize on the Effects tab.

Fade In and Out of Audio

Fading in and out of an audio file will help acclimate the ear to the background noise of a file. To fade in, select a region at the beginning of your file, then select "Fade in" under Fade on the Effects tab. Similarly you can select "Fade out" with a region at the end of your file selected. A good tip is to fade in quicker than you fade out because the ear expects to hear the initial audio quickly, but abrupt transitions to silence at the end can be jilting.

Remove Background Noise

Since not every audio recording is made in a sound studio environment, you often get unwanted background noise in recordings. To remove background noise you want to take advantage of the Cleanup options on the Effects tab. Specifically, under Noise Reduction try using Audio Spectral Subtraction and then Multi-band noise gating. If the presets don't give the results you want, try using lower levels on these reductions until you find a combination that leaves only audio you want to keep.

Remove Vocals

You will find an option to Reduce Vocals under the Voice button on the Effects tab. This will open a dialog box that allows you to change the pan position and width, the vocal level, and preserve the bass. Generally the default settings will work the best, but different songs may require different settings to effectively reduce or eliminate the vocal frequencies, so if you don't get the results you want, try adjust these settings until you are satisfied with the result.

Layer Audio & Voiceovers

WavePad won't allow you to record directly over another file; highlighting a file and clicking record will replace the selection. Depending on how much mixing you want to do, you may want to consider moving to MixPad audio mixing software, but for some basic audio mixing within WavePad you want to use the Paste Mix feature. Copy the audio you want to add to your file to the clipboard, then select all in the file you want to add it to, then select Paste Mix on the Edit tab. This will open a window with options on what to do if your files are not the same length. When you click OK the two pieces of audio will be combined.

Sound Effect Library

Find audio clips and sound effects to add to your audio projects in the NCH Sound Effect Library. Open the Sound Library from the Tools tab. This opens a new window where you can preview and download sound effects and royalty-free music clips.

Audio Effect Plugins

In the Windows version of WavePad you can add DirectX and VST plugin effects to further expand your audio editing capabilities. Find the options to add and use VST and DirectX plugins on the Effects Tab. VST Plugins will open their own interface where you can adjust the settings, while you will need to go into the settings when selecting a DirectX plugin for the effect to be applied when you click OK. Get started with this list of free VST plugins you can download and use with WavePad.

FFT Sound Analysis

All of the audio editing features outlined above are all easy to put into action, but don't let that fool you into thinking that WavePad doesn't have a lot of power under the hood. One of the more advanced areas you can explore are the powerful audio analysis tools for examining the spectral content of audio. Learn about the FFT and TFFT audio analysis graphs and what they represent to start to get your feet wet. These tools can be used in many fields, including linguistics and mathematics, in addition to sound engineering.


If you have any other tips, favorite features or advice of your own, please comment and share them below.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival April 2, 2013

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Shaun Farley presents Creative Uses of Reverb posted at Designing Sound, saying, "Reverb is used to create realism and adding appropriate reverb will instantly help dialogue fit better into a scene. However, reverb can also be used in many other creative ways, here is a small collection of examples."

Denise Young presents 10 Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument posted at Au Pair Care, saying, "There are many benefits to playing a musical instrument that go beyond improving hand-eye coordination and instilling a sense of responsibility in your child."

Ken Theriot presents EQ Basics posted at Home Brew Audio, saying, "Equalization&emdash;or EQ&emdash;is a big part of mixing and mastering music, but for those new to audio engineering it may be difficult to grasp. Here are some of the basics for using EQ effectively."

stayonbeat presents Free VSTs for Music Producers and Artists posted at stayonbeat.com.

Lee Pritchard presents Why you should remove breaths from voice over audio posted at Media Music Now, saying, "The problem is that once audio is produced with compression and EQ the breaths will actually become more prominent, making de-breathing essential."

Michelle Brown presents 10 iPhone Apps for Music Maniacs posted at Nanny, saying, "Apple and the app developers for the iPhone App Store are bringing instruments and equipment right to your mobile device, allowing you to use them anywhere and at any time."

Sydney Bell presents 10 of the Best Mash Ups posted at Longhorn Leads, saying, "Mash-ups are the combination of two songs sites like YouTube have boosted the art to mind-boggling popularity."

Peter Kirn presents Makey Makey + Fruits and Vegetables = Music posted at Create Digital Music, saying, "Simple circuits have long been able to make use of sensors in real-world items, but the Make Makey interfacing has made those circuits silly-simple. The project grew out of research at MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten. Here see Massive Attack's Teardrop, as covered by artist j.viewz on fruits and veggies using the Make Makey system."


You might also be interested in:

• Using EQ to Boost the Bass in Audio
• Several Ways to Quickly trim and Cut Music and Audio Files
• FFT Spectrum Audio Analysis Software
• Mixing Audio Voice Overs With Other Audio
• Add DirectX and VST Audio Effect Plugins to WavePad

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Audio Effect Plugins for WavePad Sound Editor

In addition to the wide range of audio editing features and effects built into WavePad Audio Editor, you can also add plugins to further expand your Audio Editing possibilities. WavePad supports both DirectX and VST plugin effects, providing access to thousands of additional audio tools and effects.

VST Plugins

VST or Virtual Studio Technology, is a standardized way of adding effects to digital audio editing programs like WavePad. To add a VST effect to WavePad choose VST on the Effects tab, which will open the VST plugins window. In this window browse to the directory on your computer where you have saved your VST plugins (note that the plugins must be DLL files). When you have a folder selected, the list of VST effects in that directory will populate the VST Plugin list, so you can use the drop down list to select your plugin. When you click OK, the VST plugin will open in WavePad and you can make any adjustments to its parameters and continue to edit the waveform, but now the audio you hear is being processed by the VST effect. To save the effect, click the Apply button on your effect which will close the effect and save the audio with the effect added.

DirectX Effects

Similar to VST, DirectX plugins are another standardized way to connect audio synthesizers and effects to audio editors. These plugins do not have their own interfaces, but pass and process the audio behind the scenes. Also, as with the VST plugins, you will find DirectX on the Effects tab, and clicking on it will open a window with a list of the DirectX plugins detected on your computer. Select the effect you want from the drop down menu and click Settings to make changes to the configuration settings, and click the OK to apply the DirectX effect to your audio.

There is a world of extra effects out there that you can use when you start exploring VST and DirectX effects. To get you started we have a list of free VST plugins available online for you to download and try with WavePad, but this is just the beginning. There are lots of other plugins available that you can use with WavePad Audio Editing Software to further enhance your audio editing projects.

Note: currently plugin support is limited to the Windows version of WavePad

Adding an Audio Voice Over with WavePad

If you want to record a your voice over a piece of music you have two choices in the NCH Software audio suite. MixPad recording and mixing software is the more advanced program, that will allow you to record multiple tracks, and fine tune the mixing of the music and vocal tracks, but you can also try the Paste Mix feature in WavePad audio editor for quickly combining to files.

WavePad doesn't allow you to record directly over another file, highlighting a file and clicking record will end up replacing the selection. Instead, use the Paste Mix feature to combine two audio files into a single track.

Copy the recorded voice over to the clipboard, then select all in the audio file you want to add that voice over to and click Paste Mix on the Edit Tab.This will open a window with options on what to do if your files are not the same length. If the Mix Audio�which is your voice recording on the clipboard�is the shorter of the two files, you can ignore the options and click OK. If the Mix Audio is longer, you need to decide what to do when the audio you are mixing into is finished. When you click OK the two pieces of audio will be combined and when you press Play you will hear both files.

WavePad FFT Spectrum Audio Analysis Software

WavePad sound editor is more than just an easy audio editing program. Once you scratch the surface there are powerful audio engineering tools available for the more advance user. These tools include the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Time-Based Fast Fourier Transform (TFFT) which are both very useful tools to perform sound analysis on the spectral content of audio. These audio spectrum analyzer tools have applications in a number of areas, including linguistics, mathematics and sound engineering including reducing noise and vibration testing and analysis.

Audio FFT Graph

\ The FFT analyzer graph is designed to illustrate characteristics of audio at only one point in time. It takes a small sample of audio and plots the sound frequency in Hz against the audio intensity in decibels. If the audio is in stereo two lines will be plotted on the graph, otherwise just the one plot will be displayed.

Audio TFFT Graph

The TFFT graph maps the audio intensity of the frequency spectrum across time for the duration of the audio clip, representing the intensity through color. On this graph the x-axis is time and the y-axis is the frequency with the decibel intensity being mapped to the color intensity scale, with black representing -128 dB and white representing 0 dB.

Both the discrete and temporal fast fourier transform frequency analysis graphs can be created/opened from the Tools tab and both graphs will update in real time as you move to different positions in the audio file, or even as you play the audio so you can better see what is happening in the audio. So, download WavePad audio analyzer software to take a closer look at audio and learn how to analyze voice patterns and more.

Quickly Cut Music and Audio Files

WavePad music editing and cutting software provides several easy options for cutting music and mp3 files. Whether you want to trim off silence or cut out a section to use as a ringtone or split long recording into smaller audio files, here is a look at how you can cut, trim and split sections of you mp3, music and audio files.

1. Trim
   To trim, or cut off, the beginning and end of a file, simply select the region you want to keep, then you can use the shortcut CTRL+T or, choose Trim (delete all but the current selection) from the Trim drop down menu on the Edit tab. Here you can also see other choices for trimming down an audio file, including Trim start and Trim end that will respectively delete everything from either before or after the current position.
2. Auto Trim
   If you are deleting silence from start and end of your audio you can save yourself the step of finding the start and end points and selecting a region. Instead use Auto Trim to scan the audio file and remove the beginning and ending regions that are below the Auto Trim threshold.
3. Split
   To keep the sections on both sides of the current position as individual files, instead of trimming move over to the Split drop down menu, which is also on the Edit tab.
4. Auto Split
   Just as WavePad can detect silences at the beginning and end of a song, it can also detect silences in the middle of a file. So, if you recorded a whole set you can select Split file at silences from the Split drop down to separate the recording at each silent section so you can edit and save each song individually.

Boosting the Bass in Audio Files

Want to boost up the bass in your music? The Equalizer in WavePad music editing software is your answer. Open your song in WavePad and select Equalize on the Effects tab. Equalizing allows you to adjust the level of frequencies in your audio amplifying ranges of sound frequencies. So you can change the volume of just the higher or lower (bass) frequencies in a song, as opposed to simply amplifying a song which will affect all of the frequencies.

Unlike a graphic equalizer you might see in a studio, with a multitude of knobs and dials for certain frequencies, the WavePad equalizer displays a graph of the frequencies going from the low frequencies at the left to the high frequencies on the right giving you very finite control of the frequency ranges you want to control. Move a point up on the graph to make the frequency stronger and lower a point to make it weaker.

To familiarize yourself with the equalizer take advantage of the presets to get started, but don't be afraid to play around with them and to adjust their settings to see how they affect your songs. To boost the bass start with the Low Pass filter presets. If you hit play you will hear the higher frequencies drop down, giving a boosted effect to the bass. Chances are the result won't be exactly what you wanted on the first shot, but this will provide a good starting place to make further adjustments. Changes aren't applied until you actually click Apply, so you can continue to tweak the graph as needed without fear.

Other preset filters include a High Pass Filter which is the opposite of the Low Pass Filter lowering the bass instead of the higher frequencies, a Band Pass Filter to maintain the frequencies in a specified range and lower the regions above and below that section, and several more that you can experiment with on your own, or go to the help for more details on the settings of each of these presets.

Try WavePad sound editor today to boost your bass and pump up the volume of your music.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival February 4, 2013

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Matt presents Play the Rings of a Tree Trunk Like a Record posted at Make: Blog, saying, "What would the trunk of a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP?"

Mary presents Music resources for small churches posted at The Mustard Seed Journal, saying, "links to sources of instrumental music for hymn singing and more."

Mel presents Audio reporting tools of the trade: then and now posted at journomel.com: Examining where journalism is heading, saying, "a shift from using many one-use devices to one device with many applications."

Darren presents C25K Podcast Music � Make Your Own and DIY! posted at PromoGuy dot Net, saying, "How you can create your own C25K podcast and get running!"

profmaja presents Why I Put a Recording Space in My Classroom posted at Day in the Life of a Backwards Musical Mind, saying, "A space for my students to work on their rhythm projects and promote excitement towards doing their best."

Jessica Clark presents 10 iPhone Apps for Recording & Editing Audio posted at Kenney Myers, saying, "Here is a list of 10 interesting applications that I have looked into recently for recording and editing audio."

Chris presents Epic Musical Mashup posted at Mental Floss, saying, "video artist Crumbs Chief mashes up an insane number of musical dance numbers, matching them to the mashup track 'Come Again (Beatles vs Rare Earth vs Beaties vs Daft Punk vs Cypress Hill vs Boston)' by the Kleptones."

Floppy music DUO - Imperial march by Pawel Zadrozniak:



You might also be interested in:

• WavePad Sound Editor Makes a Cameo on NBC's Chicago Fire
• Speaker Recording Software for Windows and Mac
• How to Record an Audio Book
• An Audio Swiss Army Knife

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Software from A to Z

A: Audio Software	B: Business Software	C: Converting Software	D: Dictation Software
E: Easy Software	F: FTP Software	G: Graphics Software	H: Hardware
I: International	J: Jamming Software	K: Keep (Protect & Save)	L: Live Broadcasting
M: Mobile Software	N: New Programs	O: Optimize	P: PDF Software
Q: Quick	R: Recording Software	S: Social Sharing	T: Typing Software
U: Utility Software	V: Video Software	W: Web Access	X: eXpress
Y: YouTube Software	Z: Zip Software

Speaker Recording Software for Windows and Mac

Everyone knows you can use a microphone for recording audio, and a quality microphone is the best tool for a lot of different types of recording, but if you want to record something that you are listening to on your computer putting your mic next to your speakers is not going to get you the quality audio you can get with SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder.

With SoundTap you can directly record audio from your computer, so you are capturing the same audio you hear being played through your speakers and saving it as an mp3 or wav file. So, with SoundTap installed on your PC or Mac you can record high quality digital audio from all kinds of places including:

• Record internet radio streams
• Convert formats with their own players to mp3
• Record VoIP phone calls or conference calls
• Save audio from streaming webcasts
• Grab the audio in online videos

And the list continues, so download SoundTap today to record sound from your computer and happy recording!

WavePad's Chicago Fire Cameo

If you're a fan of the new NBC show Chicago Fire and you have sharp eyes you might have spotted WavePad on the recent Two Families episode that aired on November 21st. For those of you not familiar with the show it is an intense look at the lives of the firefighters and paramedics Chicago Firehouse 51. One of the subplots of this rather intense Thanksgiving episode includes one of the firefighters deciding to put together a podcast, and there is a scene with him doing an interview with another one of the station 51 firefighters. As they are talking if you are familiar with the WavePad interface you might recognize it in the computer sitting on the table between them. For us this was an added excitement to add to the already action packed television show.

If you haven't seen it you may very well want to start following the heroes portrayed in Chicago Fire. And if you want to create a podcast of your own you will want to have WavePad Audio Editing Software on your computer.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival December 3, 2012

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Lambert Varias presents 3D Printed Records for Fisher Price Toy Player posted at Technabob, saying, "Instructables member Fred27 figured out a way to play pretty much any tune on a Fisher Price toy record player with a little bit of code and a 3D printer."

Mitchell Morris presents Helping Your Child Choose a Musical Instrument posted at Full Time Nanny, saying, "Musical instruction can help your child master more than just how to play an instrument over the course of their education"

Jeff Moore presents 10 Signs Your Child Thinks Your Taste in Music is Lame posted at Babysitting Jobs, saying, "Hating your parents taste in music seems to be a rite of passage these days."

Anisha presents How I Minimized My College Debt as a DJ posted at NerdWallet, saying, "A self-taught DJ tackled college debt by spinning records at college parties. Get creative and get paid."

Neil presents What was the number one song the day you were born? posted at This Day in Music.

Bobby McFerrin plays... the audience! posted on TED: Ideas worth Spreading:


You might also be interested in:

• Audiophiles Rejoice
  
• Record Skype Calls
  
• Give Your Computer A New Voice
  
• Text to Speech Software
  
• Audio Software for Radio
  
• Best Software for Making Music
  
• Hawaiian Slack String Guitar Tuning
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Best Software for Making Music

Software Review Boffin recently reviewed MixPad multitrack mixing and recording software, adding it to their list of music making software titles. In the review they praised not only MixPad alone for being exceptional software, but noted that "the [high] standard is consistent with other NCH products that Software Review Boffin has audited before." The review also went on to say:

"With MixPad Multitrack Recording Software users are able to record instruments and vocals for their music production. Users will find it simple to rearrange, copy and integrate music to the intended state the user desires. Create audio productions within minutes of downloading is a great start for music making software."
  � Software Review Boffin

You can read the complete review of MixPad music mixing software from Software Review Boffin, or download MixPad today to test out the multi-track recording and mixing features for yourself. Also be sure to check out our other exceptional and award-winning, audio software or musician software titles for additional music making tools.

Audiophiles Rejoice

xkcd - Audiophiles

Do you have a significant investment in audio equipment and want to get the most range from your music collection? Do you want the crisp highs and deep bass you�re used to from CD�s? Then stop listening to audio compressed in the outdated MP3 format! Anytime audio is compressed, even with 320kbps quality MP3s, some range is sacrificed to reduce the file size and sound artifacts can occur.

For true studio sound, lossless formats such as an uncompressed WAV (Waveform Audio File Format), or a compressed FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), are the better option, even though they require more storage space. The smaller file size of the lossless FLAC is great for music collections, supports tagging for artist and album information, and is ideal for streaming audio because it is fast seeking. One note of caution if you�re straying away from your computer, while FLAC is a popular lossless audio format, not all devices, like car stereos, will support playback without modification.

Additionally, editing music in lossless formats, like with our WavePad Audio Editor Software, means you can exercise more control, on more sound data than with other formats. Starting with the highest quality possible source will result in the best final product. Use our other audio tools, like Switch Audio File Converter Software, to batch convert audio files between formats, for example if you don�t have room for your FLAC collection on your gym iPod.

Give your equipment and ears the quality they deserve!

Something to Talk About

Below is a word cloud generated from our posts here on the NCH Software: Do More with Software blog. There is no real surprise that we talk a great deal about "you" and "software," but is there anything you would like us to write about and cover more in the future?

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival October 1, 2012

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Jon Savage presents When Songwriting Your Friends Will Lie To You posted at Songwriting Business.

Perry presents The Priceless Value of Music posted at ithuit.com, saying, "why is music the key to higher levels of consciousness? Find out!"

Dan White presents A DJ�s Guide to Audio Files and Bitrates posted at DJ Tech Tools, saying, "an article discusing the best options of digital audio files. Many DJs don�t notice a big difference in file type and bitrate until they�re blasting the track on a high-end club system and find the track just isn�t hitting hard enough. Read on to find out the best practices and how to be ready for the future."

Bernie Goldbach presents Use My Audioboo Voice for Audio Blogging posted at Inside View from Ireland, saying, "one of the biggest changes in blogging during in recent history has been the emergence of using multimedia technologies to extend thoughts to different communities, such as audio blogging."

John Paul Titlow presents How Journalists Are Using SoundCloud posted at ReadWriteWeb, saying, "musicians were the first to settle into SoundCloud, but the social audio-sharing service has been expanding in new directions and is now also a hub for radio-style journalism and commentary with an interactive twist."

Ken Theriot presents Recording Equipment Categories posted at Home Brew Audio, saying, "a handy little post that lists categories for recording gear, which could be a useful thing. Everyone knows about microphones or headphones."

kenetejumy presents The Person Who Does Audio Mastering Can Be As Important As The Original Artist posted at kenetejumy.

John PaolozziIn the Loop, a free workshop series introducing women to electronic production posted at CBC Music, saying, "there is a big gender divide in the electronic music community with men significantly outnumbering women. So we spoke with the women behind In the Loop, who have set out to challenge that divide, Christina Sealey? and Naomi Hocura to learn more."

Mickey Cheatham presents The Science of Music posted at STEAMD, saying, "a body of knowledge of music and what it is from a physical perspective and take the journey from records to tapes to CDs to whatever may be next. We can talk abut compression and expansion and tone controls and dynamic range and frequency response and timbre and color and tonal richness."

You might also be interested in:

• Music Notation Software Gains MIDI Playback
  
• WavePad App Recommended for Students
  
• Audio, Video and Telephone Recording
  
• Creating and Editing Extreme Electronic Music
  
• TempoPerfect Metronome Software is the First NCH Software Android App
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Creating and Editing Extreme Electronic Music

Guest post by Scott Lefebvre

My motivation for creating digital music is that the music I want to hear doesn�t exist yet, so I have to create it myself. I was looking for extreme break-core music and although I appreciate the work of musical artists like Bong-Ra, Drumcorps, Babylon Disco, Atari Teenage Riot, and Aphex Twin, I wasn�t able to find anything extreme enough to satisfy my desire for the ultimate in extreme electronic music, so it looked like it was up to me to try to create the sounds I was looking for.

Although the technology has existed for a few years to perform this task, the software has often been expensive, and required a significant amount of time to put towards learning how to use the software with any kind of proficiency.

I originally discovered NCH Software�s WavePad audio editing software through a general search for �Edit MP3s� on Cnet.com because I wanted to edit out the silence associated with many �Unlisted Tracks� on albums released by self-indulgent artists and play long, unnecessary silent periods.

While I was editing out those silences, I noticed that WavePad offered many other options to copy, save clips and to combine clips, so I began to assemble a sample library and experiment with mixing clips.

The single-track mixing offered by WavePad was prohibitive when I started thinking about compiling a full-length song, so I decided to try out NCH Software�s MixPad multi-track audio software. The interface of MixPad was simple to master and after only a couple missteps I was able to easily put together my clips in the way that I wanted to create new songs from the clips I had compiled.

A tip for new users: Don�t try to add all of your clips to your project at the same time or it will all play at the same time as an un-listenable jumble of sound. Add them one at a time and ease them into the sequence for the desired effect.

When I had a completed song, I wanted to post it to my YouTube account to share, but I wanted to create something visually stimulating to accompany the song so it wouldn�t be accompanied by a blank black screen. First I tried to use Windows Movie Maker, which I used to great effect when I was running Windows Vista, unfortunately, with my new laptop running Windows 7, Microsoft simplified the interface for Windows Movie Maker so much that it was impossible to do what I wanted. Since I had a positive experience with NCH Software so far, I downloaded their VideoPad video editing software.

VideoPad had all of the usability that older versions of Windows Movie Maker used to have so after about an hour of fumbling and playing around I was well on my way to creating the videos I wanted to make. Also it�s a relief that VideoPad has all of the effects and transitions making it possible to do some pretty amazing things.

Using Microsoft Paint and a 4,000 font package I downloaded for free from Cnet.com I was able to create a tribute to the title sequence to Gaspar Noe�s �Enter the Void� to accompany a re-mix I made while compiling a sample library from the discography of Japanese extreme pop music band Melt Banana:

Granted, it took a little time to figure out. But what probably took the film-maker thousands of dollars and weeks of time to put together I was able to do in a couple hours by myself using VideoPad.

My ultimate goal for this project is to put together an album of extreme digital music and to put together a band to perform the music live, kind of like Nine Inch Nails in concert was a live cover band for music created by Trent Reznor. I also want to create a video presentation to play behind the band to supplement the audio/video experience of the live show as I�ve seen done by Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and Neurosis.

To be perfectly honest, anyone can do what I�m doing with the NCH Software suite. All you need is the time and effort required to mix-down and sample your music library and the aesthetic sensibility to see how you would prefer that the samples be rearranged to suit your preference. So if you�re thinking about purchasing software from NCH Software, I say, don�t hesitate. The pros of this software are too many to list and the cons are so few that they are dwarfed by the incredible flexibility of the pros.

The only minor problem I have is with WavePad, and that I am not able to load an entire album of songs for editing down at the same time, but editing an album in ten song groups is a small price to pay for being able to capture whatever sample you want from whatever song you want and to be able to amplify and reduce noise on any sample.

The NCH Software suite has made it possible for me to easily create the music that I want to hear and I would recommend it to anyone interested in creating their own digital music without a moment of hesitation.

Scott Lefebvre creates digital music under the name Master Control. You can see more of his music projects on his YouTube channel or follow the adventures of Master Control at www.facebook.com/TheLefebvre

WavePad Recommended App for Students

Dakinane provides support for schools to integrate information and communications technology into their classes and programs through staff training, facilitation and consultation services. Last week Dakinane featured WavePad on their website, looking specifically at the iOS version, saying that "this app can enable students to take recordings in the field or whilst roving around the school, great for podcasting etc." And since the audio recordings and edited audio are easy to email and share with other applications, the WavePad Audio Editing App can also be a stepping stone for embedding audio in wikis, blogs, websites or other learning management systems.

Watch the short video tour/review from Dakinane of WavePad's simple, but feature-packed interface below, and be sure to visit www.nch.com.au/wavepad for the cross platform Windows and Mac versions of this wonderful audio recording and editing program.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival August 6, 2012

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Ryan Newman presents How to transfer iTunes from one laptop to another? posted at Laptop Repair London Blog, saying, "London Laptop Repair blog article describes the step by step process of how to transfer iTunes from one laptop to another?"

AtoragoN presents How to Do Audio Editing: a guide for dummies - Part 1 and How to Do Audio Editing - Part 2 posted at Guitar Nerding Blog, saying, "Audio Editing is the single most important task to accomplish before you starting mixing. Taking the time to correct all the little mistakes on the audio track ensure the final result sounds the way it should."

Lifehacker presents Hack a Zoom H2 Portable Audio Recorder to Accept Four Inputs posted at Lifehacker.com.

kentheriot presents Audio Recording Tips For Newbies: Stereo Or Not? posted at Home Brew Audio, saying, "Do you know what stereo really means?"

Marc Settle presents Smartphones for News: how the Academy is helping journalists get more mobile than ever posted at BBC, saying, "Smart phone reporting is becoming more common in news reporting, and is particularly popular in radio, using audio apps to record interviews."

You might also be interested in:

• WavePad at the Radio Station
  
• Remove Background Noise from Audio with WavePad
  
• Edit Song Tags to Organize Your Music Collection
  
• Real Time Voice Changing Software
  
• Where to Learn to Make Music
  
• New Music Industry Book Takes You Behind the Scenes
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Real Time Voice Changer Software

One of the newest NCH applications is Voxal - a free voice changing software. You apply a series of effects to change the sound of your voice. You can apply these changes either to a recorded file, or have Voxal set up to intercept the audio coming in from your microphone. Change your voice in real time and send the changed voice into any other application you are using the microphone with. So from chatting with friends, to giving a your avatar a distinctive voice for online game play, you can use Voxal voice changing software to create interesting voice distortion patterns in minutes, without needing to change any configurations or settings in your other programs.