what do i need to make a professional audio cd

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Wudyasay

New member
i am in the process of creating a bilingual cd, where one word is spoken in Spanish and the same word in English. I have no idea where to start. Can someone help me?!
 
Try helping yourself by reading any of the hundreds of posts in this section that start out, "I'm trying to do X, and I have no idea how"...

That will at least give you the basis for more meaningful questions.
 
is the cd just spoken word?
if so, professional sounding spoken word is a hell of a lot easier to achieve than professional sounding music...

i would have thought the following would be plenty.

a pc
accurate monitors or good speakers that you can 'trust' for reference.
a suitable broadcast mic like an sm7b, re20 (depending on the voice)
and a good audio interface (search the forums for advice and comparisons)
and some software that allows you to edit etc (there are free ones,,again, search the forums)


i'm not telling you to search to be rude, or cos i'm lazy. i'm saying it because i know each item on the list will be discussed at length in here by people with good first hand experience :)

good luck!!
 
Nah....most of what you suggested was fine.
Just that I don't think he'll need as much as someone would need to record a full band or even a solo artist, he is just recording a talking head CD.





:cool:
 
Wudyasay said:
i am in the process of creating a bilingual cd, where one word is spoken in Spanish and the same word in English. I have no idea where to start. Can someone help me?!
Click to expand...

Microphone + Microphone Preamp + Interface (two channel would be fine) + PC or Mac + DAW Software (Reaper, Cubase, Protools, etc...)

They make Mic Preamp Interface combos that would probably suit you just fine like a Presonus FireBox or the USB version of that for PC.

That's what you need. Learning how to use it all you will find in the search function.

Have Fun!
 
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moresound said:
Just that I don't think he'll need as much as someone would need to record a full band or even a solo artist, he is just recording a talking head CD.
Click to expand...

Heh... Until he actually gets started... :D

I started out doing spoken word and ended up wanting to do music. The curiousity was killing me... "I wonder what it would sound like if I plugged my guitar into..." And it all went from there.

Dr. V
 
Now who was it that said recently that the Newbies forum is full of first posters who post really general questions and then never reappear to answer any of the subsequent probing/helping questions that are asked, or never re-appear to say "thanks" either...

Sounds like we have one here... :mad:
 
Maybe It's like the Dr. wrote about .....probably plugged in a guitar and WHAM he is hooked, locked himself in his room still recording, calling out for pizza.
I bet he even has a piss jug right next to the computer he is so enthralled.:eek:
He is not coming out of there for a few more weeks.:laughings:





:cool:
 
Maybe he asked the same question on some other forum, payed more attention to it, got his answer, and never bothered to come back to this one?
 
lol I came back :)

Thank you everyone for all your replies. Sorry it's taken so long to reply. Just so you know, I'm not a guy!!!! I was laughing at your funny comments. thanks
Since my question, I purchased the Yeti microphone and have been using audacity (www.audacity.com) to manage the recordings. I like how it sounds, but still need some help!!!
I need to make sure I'm recording each voice/section at the same volume. What I mean by that is that some people sound louder than others when I record them, but I want to make sure their sound levels are the same when sent to the CD.
Thanks again!!!!
 
Wudyasay said:
I like how it sounds, but still need some help!!!
I need to make sure I'm recording each voice/section at the same volume. What I mean by that is that some people sound louder than others when I record them, but I want to make sure their sound levels are the same when sent to the CD.
Thanks again!!!!
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty easy thing to do. The first thing you should do is a process called "normalization." Open each file, find the "normalize" effect in the menu, and apply that.

That will at least make sure that the loudest part of each file is at the same volume as all the rest. But that won't guarantee that they will SOUND like they are the same loudness. That because some files may have had a much bigger "loudest part" than others, so their average loudness will still be different. Depending on how many files you have, this next part may or may not be practical, but after you normalize, I highly recommend simply listening to all your files, one right after another, and listen for any that seem too loud or soft. Then you can just adjust the loudness on those few and you're done!

Hope that helps. There are several different ways to do this. Feel free to ask for clarification if I wasn't clear:).

Good luck!

Jake
 
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