The Joy of (free) Tools

So, ladies and gentlemen...

Just *how* easy is it to use that computer to make music to upload? And not just cheaply, but FREE? Couldn't be easier! Here is the story, with links.

First point of departure
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What do you need?
a. A basic sound editing program (either to record and/or rip from CD)
b. An mp3 encoder

That's it. Period. Please note, as I mention below, that I may need assistance from Mac users out there. Jump in if my Mac ideas are wonky...

Here is info on the first part, a basic sound recorder
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When looking for a freeware editor, I kept finding links to a program called Tiny Wave Editor.

I finally found the link to the actual program; it was written, apparently, in-house by Yamaha to send along with some of their samplers. I was hesitant to share it publicly at first, but I finally found it on their website and -- lo and behold -- there are versions for both PC and Mac! (I am PC-based, so I can't testify to the quality of any Mac versions; maybe someone who is Mac based could help out here...).

In any event, this is a very simple sound recording/editing program. If you have a wave file already on the disk to edit, it is even easier; if you are recording from either mic or line-in on a sound card, the only thing you need to do (from what I've found) is give it a rough length of recording so it sets aside disk space. Probably a quick-and-dirty way for the programmers to not have to make code to account for running out of disk while recording. But the program contains all the basics you need: cutting, copying, pasting, normalizing, etc. Like a Swiss Army knife.

Link:
http://www.yamahasynth.com/down/a3000/s_twe.htm

And this is completely not mentioning that the industry standard for sound editing, at least last I looked, actually has a freeware version available ("free" in the sense that it doesn't cost anything but a 30+ megabyte download!):

http://www.digidesign.com/ptfree/

Steep learning curve, high download crunch, larger hardware demands -- then again, pretty much anything you might need!

Here is info on the second part, a basic mp3 encoder
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After the music has been put onto your hard disk with the above program, you then need to encode to mp3 (yes, there are other formats; for another time) -- this will allow you to compress the file, saving space and download/upload time. Here, there are a number of options. We start with PC.

There are two "front-end" programs that use the open source LAME encoder (which stands for "LAME Aint an Mp3 Encoder"), which seems to work very well and produces good sound files. The most straight-forward of the two is RazorLame (thanks to Robert Walker for pointing me to this one):

http://www.dors.de/razorlame/

Very easy to set up, and encodes very fast. Since I have other tools for 'ripping', I would use this. On the other hand, CDex:

http://www.cdex.n3.net/

...does essentially the same kind of encoding. The front-end isn't as direct about encoding as Razor, but it does have the bonus of being a ripping tool as well, so if you find music on CDs you can extract those to wave files, or even go directly to mp3 without ever having to record into the computer -- just pop the CD in your CD drive and go to it.

(...this would be ideal for Paul, since I have already burned CDs for him of his music from MiniDisc, and he could take these to work, use two programs to rip, edit, and encode, and upload them. Free. Easy. Recommended...)

Both programs are modest in size, and I believe both have stable versions as well as newer beta versions (I usually opt for stable).

For Mac users, I've come across another LAME encoder that might work (again, my non-Mac household caveat):

http://philippe.laval.free.fr/DropMP3/US/index.html

End of story. You too, all of you, with modest equipment (the Tiny Wave Editor needs _very_little_ computing horsepower or hardware), can now share your music with others via the net.

How cool is the world, huh?

Cheers,
Jon

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
Real Life: Orchestral Percussionist
Web Life: "Corporeal Meadows" - about Harry Partch
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