Choosing a Sound Recorder and Audio Editor

A good sound recorder and audio editor program is one of the key pieces of "equipment" you need in order to convert your voice and/or music into a web-friendly format.

Most people think they can use the Windows "Sound Recorder" program to create their web audio. Well they can ... if they want limited flexibility with recording their audio messages and don't mind having to practice and practice their delivery in order to get an error-free recording.

A better solution is to spend a little money and invest in a nice sound recorder that also contains an audio editor. A basic audio recorder will capture your sounds at varying levels of fidelity and the audio editor will let you fix mistakes in your verbal messages. After all, which sounds better ... the original or the edited sound file?

Original Sound File	Edited Sound File

I think you'll agree that the edited sound file comes across as much more "professional" without all of the "um's" and hesitations. Doing this editing was as simple as removing a sentence in a word processor ... I just selected the portion I wanted to remove and hit the Delete button!

Your Sound Recorder Should Contain These Functions

First, you should be able to recorder from microphone, CD and line inputs. A bonus would be the ability to record from the internet or from Winamp, but that's not really important on a day-to-day basis.

Second, you should be able to record at a various sample rates in both mono and stereo. For example, you should be able to record at 22,050 and 44,100 sample rates in either 8-bit or 16-bit formats.

Third, make sure you can save files as .WAV or .MP3 files. These are the primary formats used by popular web audio programs. If you can save to other formats, that's a bonus, but not crucial.

Fourth, you should be able to see the volume levels on screen while you are recording.

Finally, the sound recorder should have a built-in audio editor so you can modify the content of your file after recording.

Characteristics of Audio Editors

The audio editor portion of the software should have three main functions built-in:

First, the audio editor should have clear and easy-to-find "transport" controls. In other words, you should be able to find the Play, Stop, Pause and Rewind buttons easily!

Second, you should be able to easily highlight a particular area of a sound wave by dragging your mouse over the desired portion. You should then be able to Play only that selected area.

Third, the audio editor should have the ability to Delete selected wave portions, as well as to perform standard cut, copy and paste functions.

Finally, the editor should have a "Normalize" feature. When recording voice or music there will be some sections of your recording that may be much louder than in others. Normalization corrects this by scanning the uncompressed audio file to determine the peak or average level and proportionally increasing or reducing the levels throughout the file to obtain the desired volume level.

As long as your audio editor has user-friendly "transport" controls, and the ability to highlight, delete, cut, copy, paste and normalize, you've got all that you need. Some audio editors have various filters and effects like echoes and delays, but you probably won't use them for most of the web audio you are likely to create.

"Free" Sound Recorder / Audio Editor programs (PC/Windows)

Professional-Level Audio Editor programs (PC/Windows)

About The Author:

David Caban is a successful author and publisher of http://www.webaudioadvisor.com. A one-stop source of free information on creating and adding audio to websites.