sound recording apps

[Jamie W]

hi guys,

i'm going to do something quite novel, for the sound fx (not music) in my current game; record them myself (i.e. voice microphone etc). i need some application to record sounds (that can save as wav's) any suggestions?

cheers.

:)

[janwinnicki]

Anything... for eg. http://www.wavosaur.com/

[bignobody]

I'm a big fan of Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). It's open source (free!) and has served me well.

[ZeHa]

I hate Audacity, it's slow and very un-usable (in my opinion) - try www.goldwave.com

[Desktop Gaming]

You can use Windows Sound Recorder if you want an absolute basic tool.

Audacity is OK, so I've heard.

Mid-range tool would be Goldwave at about $50.

Top of the range would be Soundforge 9 which is about $300.

[Spaiz]

Use Adobe Audition, it is a must tool for sound recording and editing!

[PoV]

I liked my Cool Edit back in the day, so I also use Adobe Audition. I also rather like the included multiband compressor, but that's just me.

Any app will work, especially Audacity (even some music apps like Live can record), but what you really need is a good Mic. There are many $100-$150'ish podcasting targeted USB Mic's that have a really excellent entry level sound. Check your local online music stores. Samson, Rode, Alesis, Marshall, and Blue all make one. Plugging one of these in will show up as an audio input source. You can tell Windows in the control panel to make it your default recording source. Then you're laughing.

And maybe one day you'll spend too much money like some of us on 96/192 khz phantom powered inputs, monitor speakers, and so on. :)

[Hamumu]

I loved Cooledit2k, but having just moved computers, I discovered only this month that it no longer exists (and apparently does something sneaky somewhere, because just copying the folder and registry entries isn't good enough!). I guess I'll have to drop the absurd bucks for Adobe Audition, because Audacity is total crap.

Beware of the Blue Snowball USB mic. I think it's a good one, but it does NOT work on Vista at all. At least not yet. They keep saying they might have a firmware update someday or something. I don't know about Blue... but the guys I bought the mic from, Sweetwater Sound - they're awesome. I wish I needed sound gear often, so I could shop there more.

[electronicStar]

What's your soundcard? sometimes they come with a CD full of audio apps.

[Jesse Hopkins]

Adobe Audition and Coll Edit Pro are the same thing. I like em! They have superb noise removal if you can't get a perfectly clean room.

Most important is your distance from the microphone and the room acoustics. Most voice recordings also need remastering to sound "pro", or else its muddy.

[mot]

Sound Forge is the best and there's no need to buy the latest version
(nothing new, basically just rebranded to Sony). Try eBay...

[PoV]

Sound Forge is the best ...
Clearly you've never used Cool/Audition's spectral view. ;)

[Jamie W]

What's your soundcard? sometimes they come with a CD full of audio apps.

Dunno mate, it's just built in to the laptop.

[mot]

Clearly you've never used Cool/Audition's spectral view. ;)

I haven't - what is it?

[PoV]

Here's a link with a few good screenshots.

http://www.music-software-reviews.com/adobe_audition_2.html

Generally speaking, it's a set of analysis views that graph the sound according to frequency space, phase, and so on. What's really awesome about them is, for example, you can find an offending sound, say tires squelching or birds chirping (something outside the frequency range of a sound you're trying to get). Then make a selection as you would in a 2D graphics app (once you've identified where the problem sound is), and either add effects to it or delete it. Very cool.

[Sharpfish]

steinberg's wavelab. V.powerful.

[MrQ]

Cooledit and Sound forge are great programs, I would recommend Cooledit for starting out. I think you can still get working trial versions of it.

[summoner]

I had used cool edit(now adobe audition) in the past to record some electric instruments(guitar-bass) and it worked ok,not sure about what's new in audition now though. But I guess you could try some free/open programs first.

[PoV]

I'm pretty sure Audition 1.0 was essentially Adobe rebrandings. Audition 1.5 was making Audition more like and compatible with other Adobe applications (bridge). They might have added video to this one too, I can't remember (I didn't use that feature). Audition 2.0 added ASIO support (the 1 feature I cared about at the time), something called the Mastering Rack (a chain of effects to run on a mixdown), and the compressor I like. :D

[amilcojazz]

cool-edit and audacity are great programs, simple and easy to use. Sound-forge is professional and powerful: On the site of Gamasutra you can ascertain that the knowledge of soundforge is a competence required by a lot of software house to work as sound-designer.:)

[Jesse Hopkins]

I still use CoolEdit, but I suppose I should switch to soundforge for this reason. However, that doesn't make it sound any better.