Category Archives: audio

Android audio editing apps: no joy for Journos?

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Android robot logo.
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I’m currently putting together stuff for my Digital Newsroom module for this year.

One of the things I ask the students to do is to record and edit a short audio vox-pop*.We have a number of audio recorders of varying levels of ‘quality’ at the Uni and access to Audacity and Adobe Audition. But I don’t stipulate what the audio should be recorded on or how it’s edited. My line is always ‘if you can do it and submit it by banging nails in to a piece of wood, go for it”.

I want the students to explore the range of resources that are out there and I’m always keen to add to the list of possible tools and resources they can use. So Uber blogger and font of endless multimedia journalism info Mark Luckie couldn’t have timed his latest post better.

The post highlights 3 Unique ways to record, edit, and publish your audio. It includes Monle, a four track editor for iphone/touch which is useful if you use you phone to record your audio interviews. Which got me thinking about the students who might want to use their mobile to record audio but don’t have an iphone or touch.

Android audio apps?

I see a lot of iphones at work but I also see a serious number of Android based phones so I thought I would do a quick scoot around and pick one or two apps that none Apple users could consider. And the result…

Nothing….

Nada….

Move along now, nothing to see.

Well, OK, there was one; ringdroid which, on the surface, looks pretty good. But that was it.

From my reading round its seem the stumbling block is  a dodgy audio api on android – delays etc. But I was genuinely surprised that there wasn’t at least an attempt to try. Maybe it’s too niche!

Iphone/touch is the platform of choice

I’m nervous of the eulogizing that goes on of the iphone/touch as the ‘tool of choice for multimedia journalists’ but I have to say that as an all in one device (the new touch in particular) it’s looking pretty good.

If you know about a good audio recording/editing app on Android or other mobile platforms for that matter, please let me know.

* Before the anti-vox brigade have a go I should say that this is part of a series of competency ‘tests’. I want to be sure that the students have exprimented with recording audio and vox is an easy ‘reason’ to record audio.

Update: Transom.org has a nice article looking at the Monle and Hindenburg audio apps.

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Getting the best audio in the field

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Two excellent posts around Audio in my reader this morning, both from B&H video.

The first, via Peter at shooting by numbers, is called Getting the most out of your wireless system. Many people are using wireless mics in their video set up as, if noting else, it frees your hands up from holding a mic. Good sound and flexibility are the key pros of a wireless set up. But level control and sound quality can be an issue, especially if you are using them with lower range cameras. This article does a great job of fleshing out the issues and offerening good solution.

The second article comes via Matt Jeppsen at Fresh DV. How to Use a Portable Audio Recorder in Field Production, goes in to a lot of detail. The main audience is at those looking to integrate a digital recorder in to a pro-audio set-up. I don’t think many newspaper shooters will be needing to sync timecode boxes to their audio rigs. But there is plenty of good advice.

Also worth checking out is there article on selecting a shotgun Mic. External Mics are my biggest recommendation when it comes to upgrading video kit. A good radio mic and a solid shotgun mic add so much flexibility.

In the UK we don’t have anything like B&H. I suppose specialist suppliers like Canford Audio and a multitude of the smaller gear houses around the country offer similar range and advice. But to have it all in one place and with such useful information. Well, I’m pretty jealous.

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External microphone and the N95

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Many of you may remember the Reuters MOJO project a while back that had an Nokia N95 at its heart. One of things that most interested me about the thing was the special audio adaptor that Nokia built for them. I remember at the time thinking that it would be cool to have one.

I don’t know why this came back across my radar again but I stumbled on this video (via this post) that offers a nice easy low-fi alternative. It’s an idea that’s been around for a while but given that the N95 still seems to be the phone of choice for the mobile-j, I thought I would share in case anyone hadn’t seen.

Audio recorders resource

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If you’re thinking about buying an audio recorder – and why not share some podcast love with your audience – then you should check out Brad Linder’s Blog. I’ve linked to it before, but it just gets better.

He’s been playing with audio recorders trying to decide which one to buy as a replacement for his Zoom H4 and is learning a lot as he goes:

So I’ve created a new label for field recorders. If you want to check my latest news and reviews on flash audio recorders, just click on the field recorders tag in the label cloud on the right side of your screen.

Go and check this out.