Technology Breakthrough

For years I've been suggesting that people record themselves reading their own stories. That's something I also kept meaning to do. Today that changed. I recorded a short story, Things That Go Rattle In the Night. 

To record this story, I used Audacity, the universally recommended Open Source freeware product for making digital voice recordings and doing simple edits. I found it straightforward and easy to use. When the story was recorded to my satisfaction, I exported it to the MP3 format. At 3.2 MB, the file compares favorably with the 28 MB of data in the Audacity file. 

Now that I have this file, I may save it in WAV format for burning to a standard CD disk. Or, considering the speed with which everyone is turning to MP3 players and iPods, I may leave it as it is. In either case, it's ready to share. 

If you want to try one of these projects yourself, here's how:

1. Download Audacity and follow the instructions to install it.
2. Go here and download lame_enc.dll. Unzip this file and put it in C:\Program Files\Audacity.
3. Open a new file in Audacity, then click on the red circle to begin recording. Click on the orange square to end the recording.

You'll need a microphone for this project. I use one mounted on a headset, such as you use for voice recognition software or an internet phone service like Skype. I tried several desktop microphones, and none were satisfactory, but if you have one, give it a try. 

 While using Audacity, you may need to adjust the microphone input level to keep your file from sounding hissy or to make it loud enough. Since the process for doing this changes as both operating systems and Audacity evolve, I suggest you do a web search for instructions on how to do this.  

I had lots of fun with this project, and plan to record many more. How about you? Isn't it time you ventured into a new corner of technology? Stories always sound best with the author reads them. What stories do you have that your family would enjoy hearing in your voice? 

Update, 4/11/2022

Most readers today have smart phones that do a fine job of recording. While Audacity may be the gold standard, you can record on your phone and import the file into Audacity for editing and tweaking. The main challenge with that is that if you need to rerecord a section, it will sound different in Audacity. But for basic reading, you can usually do it at one go. Or record it again in another file on your phone and splice that in. 

I know, talk about splicing and importing may set your hair on fire. The important thing is to record a sound image of your voice. Simple is fine. 

 Write on, 

 Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal