Attending: Pam, Keri, Heidi, Kate, Laurel, Angela, Cyndi, Peggy, Kristen
CHECKIN: WHAT IS EVERYBODY DOING?
- Peggy played on the harp for us one of her son’s favorite pieces: Gabriel’s Oboe by Ennio Morricone. Both Peggy’s son and husband are not well right now.
2. Heid reported she had been accepted into the St. Mark’s Clinical Pastoral Education program as a Chaplain Intern starting in September.
3. Keri is now playing with an orchestra and they are working on Les Mis. She also completed a hymn arranging class and is creating an arrangement of For the Beauty of the Earth and God is Love medley for harp and choir.
4. Laurel is taking wire harp lessons and workshops.
5. Angela is teaching violin, planning on going to the MHTP conference this week, working on her harp technique and taking lessons. She took a recording course through Coursera
6. Pam is taking a sabbatical from the harp for now.
7. Cyndi is working on her therapeutic harp certification and several other programs as well as working full time.
8. Kristen is focused on playing her violin and viola
II. INFORMATION ON AUDACITY. KATE DOUGHERTY’S NOTES FOLLOW
Useful Audacity Feature: Noise Reduction
Some therapeutic musicians want to record their music. A powerful free program like Audacity can improve the quality of an imported waveform. Removing noise is a quick and easy enhancement.
Check out YouTube for popular videos demonstrating Audacity in all its maddening, complex glory. Also Google Recording the Harp for how to position microphones and ways to improve the sound environment.
DOWNLOAD AUDACITY
Choose Audacity for Windows
Audacity for macOS
Once installed, Chose Language.
An easy useful feature of Audacity is removing ambient noise.
RECORDING AND NOISE REDUCTION
Press record on the Player Controls. Wait three seconds for the mic to record the room’s ambient noise. Record your piece. Now select those first three seconds before instrument or voice begins.
Select Effect > Noise Reduction. Click on Get Noise Profile. Depending on the length of the piece, this may take a few seconds or be done in the blink of an eye. Then select the entire recording. (Ctrl A for Windows). Or use the I Bar to select the whole clip. You may need to Zoom out.
Return to Effect > Noise Reduction > Preview. Like the change? If more reduction is needed, increase the db level. Repeat the process till the sound is what you want. Click OK to apply. The waveform in the first three seconds has less background noise, as will the whole recording.
When satisfied, select and cut those first three seconds.
For more fun with Audacity and easy recording improvements, check out YouTube tutorials on normalization and equalization.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS TO RELATED TO RECORDINGS
The Quicktime app can be downloaded for free and is an easy way to record and then import to itunes where a CD cna be burned.
Using a good microphone will improve the sound of the recording no matter what recording system you choose to use. We had a discussion about microphones.
All recordings should be backed up before being imported/exported.
