The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

5.2 RECORDING AND EDITING SOUND

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Resources
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microphone with a cheap DV camcorder, you need a Beachtek 
audio adaptor (£200). This connects to the bottom of the camera, 
and provides two XLR sockets for your microphone system.
For recording direct to a laptop, running software such as 
Audacity, a stereo microphone with a stereo mini jack plug is ideal. 
(Interference is unlikely, because of the short cable length.) Good 
headphones are still important!
EQUIPMENT OPTIONS
Balanced cable options for live action video and animation
Sennheiser ME66/K6 short shotgun mic system: around £400
Rycote Windshield 4 kit: around £325
XLR cable 5 metre around £25
fi sh pole: around £48 headphones: £25–£50
Cheaper mic options:
Clockaudio C850E short shotgun mic with windshield: around £200
or 3208850 shotgun mic: around £55
Stereo minijack-based options suitable for recording direct 
to a laptop:
Audio Technica Pro 24 Stereo Condenser 
mic: around £70
Beyer 210/7 mic stand with boom: around 
£25
Please check the internet for latest models 
and prices.
Equipment suppliers:
http://www.canford.co.uk/

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132
The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
PC-BASED AUDIO EDITING WITH AUDACITY
Audacity is free, open source software for the multi-track recording 
and editing of sounds. It is simple and extremely effective to use 
allowing both the importing and exporting of sound fi les in WAV 
and MP3 formats. It enables the recording of sound directly on to 
the hard disc of a PC either by microphone or direct feed. This is 
achieved through the microphone mini jack port.
Audacity can be downloaded at:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows?lang=en
You will need a PC running Windows XP, Vista or 7 (including 
Windows Movie Maker), a microphone or a means of transferring 
sound from an original source (e.g. a direct feed from MIDI 
sequencer with appropriate cabling).
Features include:
level and L/R positioning controls for each track
I/O level and L/R positioning controls
simple editing features: cut, copy, paste, trim etc.

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Resources
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viewing options
project organizing functions: import MIDI, new tracks, track 
alignment etc.
sound generator: white noise, tone, silence, click track etc.
effects: fade in, fade out, reverse, boost bass etc.
analysis tool: beat fi nder, silence fi nder etc.
Audacity is an easy tool to use to record sound effects, voices or 
music for animation.