How to Clean Up Background Audio Using the Free Audacity Editor

I thought I'd do a quick tutorial about audio editing.  Particularly, since I do quite a few voice-overs lately and need the audio to sound clean and nice.

I've used a few audio editors.  Some were supposed to be good stuff!  But, Audacity, impresses me with all the features it has.  And, it's free!

Awesome!

When I first came across the noise removal feature in Audacity, I thought it was magical.  I have been able to filter out all sorts of miscellaneous, extraneous and downright distracting background noise from my voice-over recordings.  I know there is other software that does this, but... did I mention Audacity is free?

Here's the link, if you want to get Audacity for yourself and see what I'm talking about.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Oh!  And here's my wee little tutorial.  There's loads more I could tell you about the software, though I'll leave it at this for now.

By the way, choose the HD option and turn up the sound to better hear the noise removal tool's skills. Which probably means it's best viewed on YouTube and not here. Ah well.

Enjoy!

How to Make an Animated GIF (With Text That Isn't!)

Please choose the "full screen" viewing option to better see the vid.





This tutorial is in the can, as it were.  Gone to press, done, fini...  And so on.  It was a fun one!

Yes, the time on it is correct.  I was working in the wee hours of the morning to get it ready for posting.  It was a request by a viewer, so I wanted to get it done as soon as possible.

O' course, technology always tosses a wee wrench in the machine.  I'm learning to frequently save my work in prep for software crashes.  Of which, I only had a couple!

Now, before anyone says anything (not that I expect anyone to, but just in case), I do realize there are likely even better and more "pro" ways to get the GIF-making job done.  Me, I improvise and figure out what makes sense to me, that I can somehow relay to others.  I hope it makes sense to everyone else, too!

It's funny...  I never thought I'd be making animated GIFs again.  It seems though, Tumblr has made them popular again.  And maybe other sites, as well.  For me, it was MySpace, back in its heyday.

Making an animated GIF back then, the MySpace days, was pretty exciting.  A person who did this didn't have to rely on those sites where you have to copy code and paste it to get the image.  It's nice being able to create your own stuff.  And now, with today's software, it's so much simpler!

The first time I tried Photoshop Elements 7.0, I was discouraged.  I wasn't sure it even made animations.  But, it does.  And it's pretty awesome.

Now, on to the next project.

I've got some new software coming.  An update to Serif's WebPlus X4 I've been using.  I had skipped the X5 version, since there wasn't much that I needed in it, and I'd heard it was a bit buggy.

Now, WebPlus X6 is out!  I'm looking forward to the new features.  One being the ability to create a website for mobile phone viewing as well as the full-sized site.  This should be fun!

In the days to come, there'll no doubt be mention of the new software as I test out its stuff.

More later~~
Enjoy~~~  

Almost There

So, today, I'd meant to put together that quick tutorial I'd mentioned in the last post.

It's almost there. When I say "almost there", I'm using my best impression of the pilot in that Star Wars scene. You know the one, when the Death Star is soon to meet its demise. And, yes, I'm staying on target.

I've got the vid together, but it needs a voice. Methinks it will be pretty dull with no sound, and what with all the reading that would have to be done. I'll get to it. And soon.

Creating a voice-over is no small thing around here. The noise is a bit difficult to get around. Still, it can be done with a touch of ingenuity, if the noise isn't too terribly loud. The free software application, Audacity, can actually handle it pretty well. There's a Remove Noise feature that does a fairly decent job. I've used it on nearly all the vids I've recently posted, though with the slightest bit of distortion. Still, you'd never know the little guy was playing Star Wars Lego on the PS3 in the background!

But, today was a little different. There's been goings on that could not be edited out. It's Chinese New Year!

Maybe tomorrow I'll get some work done. Soon, there's to be an equipment change I'm very much looking forward to, though not likely tomorrow. There may be some talk of it later.

In the meantime...
Gong Xi Fa Cai! \(^.^)/