How to record a sample of your pronunciation and attach it to a post

[roddy]

I got a private message asking me about this, so though I might as well do it properly. I work on Windows 7, but Audacity is cross-platform and hopefully the steps should be the same.

Recording

1) Download and install Audacity. Audacity is a free and very powerful program which allows you to record and edit audio files. We'll only be scraping the surface of what it can do today.

2) Once it's installed, run the program.

3) Click the 'record' button. (and click the image below to make it bigger)

4) Speak.

5) Click the 'stop button (which is the yellow square one two places to the right of record)

6) You should now see your recorded audio as a waveform. Press play to listen back to it. If you're not happy with it, hit the X button I've circled to delete it and go back to step three. If you are happy with it, move on to Step 7)

7) Under the file menu, select Export as WAV

8 ) Name your file and save it. It doesn't matter where you save it, as long as you can find it again.

Attaching

9) Pop along to your friendly neighbourhood Chinese-forums.com.

10) If you want to post your file as a reply to an existing topic, find said topic and scroll down the the quick reply box. Click through to 'More Reply Options'.

OR

If you want to post it as a new topic, click Start New Topic on the relevant forum listing.

11) Look for the upload section below the text box. There are two different versions of the uploader, a basic one-file-at-a-time version, and a more advanced multiple-files version, but both work pretty much the same.

12) 'Browse' or 'Choose Files' and find the audio file you saved earlier. Select it, then click 'Open'. If you're on the basic uploader, you then need to click 'Attach this file'.

13) The file may take a while to upload. Make a cup of tea.

14) We're done. Write your post, if you haven't already, and submit your post.

Notes

Longer, higher-quality files may be too large to upload. Use the Audacity defaults and stick to files of no more than a few minutes in length. MP3 Encoding can reduce file size, and you can adjust Audacity's export settings via Edit>Preferences>File Formats

There are plenty of other ways to record sound, but it's worth getting to know Audacity.

If you hit problems, you may need to do some local troubleshooting. Is your mic plugged in? Does it work on other programs such as Skype? Is your volume turned up? Are you too close or too far away from the computer?

Hope that helps.

Something else that's been suggested in the past and I'm now going to put forward - some people might not want to put their own recordings on here under their own name. Fair enough. If you want to email a sample to me at admin@chinese-forums.com and tell me where you want it and what you want to say about it, I'll put it up for you. Obviously I might know who you are, but I promise not to tell.

[Meng Lelan]

Merci beaucoup!

[roddy]

Gimmie a green point then! Meanie.

[Meng Lelan]

Voila! Un point vert.

[roddy]

Enthused as I am by my extra green point, here are some more hints.

1) Audacity makes it extremely easy to edit audio files. Here's a waveform of me recording 'Mary had a little lamb', but being afflicted by a coughing fit halfway through. The coughing fit is quite easy to spot.

2) Lets see if we can get rid of that. Select that section the same way you'd select text in a Word document - click on one side of it and drag to the other before releasing the mouse button. Now hit 'delete'.

3) Easy. One cough-free poetry recital.

You can do this very easily for any audio file - not just those you record yourself. Got a podcast with five minutes of music and pointless chatter either side of three minutes of useful content? Use Audacity to save only the sections you want.

[roddy]

And another thing - instant and easy repeating of any section of audio you want. Don't think we even need pictures for this one.

1) Select the section of audio you want to listen to over and over again - it could be a mistake your teacher says you made, but that sounds fine to you, or a rushed pronunciation of something in a news show you're trying to decipher.

2) Press and hold the shift key. Notice how the Play button changed. Click it.

And another thing - under the effects menu, the Change Speed and Change Tempo options allow you to slow down a section of a recording. This is done digitally and does have an effect on quality, but it's still useful. Use Change Tempo to retain the original pitch.

[Meng Lelan]

Gimme a green point for inspiring you! meanie.