Tech: recording for Apple owner

29 Jan 24 - 08:44 PM (#4196366)
Subject: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: leeneia

A friend (Mary) has asked me to record myself playing recorder music. I play soprano, alto or tenor recorder in church, and she wants to listen to hymns, etc, that I play at home.

She has an Apple computer, and I have never used an Apple. I plan to use a studio. What format of recording should we make? How will Mary play the music? She's about 85 and knows nothing about her computer.

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29 Jan 24 - 08:54 PM (#4196367)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: GerryM

Apple computers come with an application called Music (older Apple computers called it iTunes) which can play files in .wav format, so that should work.

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30 Jan 24 - 03:47 AM (#4196373)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: DaveRo

The main disadvantage of WAV files over MP3 is that they are about ten times bigger.

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30 Jan 24 - 04:13 AM (#4196379)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: GUEST,Ray

Apple computers have no problem playing MP3 files. They also come with basic recording software - “Garage Band”

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30 Jan 24 - 03:48 PM (#4196413)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: GUEST,Captain Swing

The Apple application to use for recording is Garageband. The computer should have a built-in microphone. Garageband should default to the built-in microphone. It should be reasonably straight forward but if you need help I can supply some screen shots.

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30 Jan 24 - 07:11 PM (#4196426)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: Robert B. Waltz

gargoyle wrote: Try it, at home, with a simple (any version) I-Phone.

Place the phone on a feather pillow, on a table, with two feather pillows at the sides. Play and have fun.

If you're going to do it at that level of audio quality, the easiest way to do it on an iPhone is probably the Voice Memo app.

But notice that the question is not how to record; it's how to play back. The basic, straightforward answer is to save the files in MP3 format. That will play in all sorts of things.

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31 Jan 24 - 11:37 AM (#4196445)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: leeneia

Bless your heart, Mr. Waltz. You actually read and answered the question.
I'll look into recording in MP3.

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31 Jan 24 - 12:58 PM (#4196448)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: leeneia

Well, I guess that was a little sarky. I'm sorry.

I'm feeling encouraged about recording it myself. I asked Google how to record sound with Windows 11, and it said to use Sound Recorder. I had no idea I had a sound recorder, but I clicked the Windows icon and there it was on the list of apps. I made a trial recording (me singing) and was gratified till I realized there was no way to name it or save it. The computer was peeved at being asked to do a new task after all this time, and it was balking.

After a certain amount of thrashing, I tried doing a search for Sound Recorder rather than using the list of apps, and the search brought up a new version with icons for naming and saving a new recording. The program even let slip that it was an M4a file. It didn't reveal where it had saved the file, of course. That would be making it too simple for me, but I eventually found it. Did I mention that I have been using computers since 1983? I have my wiles too.

Next I will make a few short trial recordings from different distances. Then I'll record a single song, put it on a thumb drive and see if the Apple computer can play it.

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31 Jan 24 - 01:12 PM (#4196449)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: DaveRo

An Apple box should be happy with M4a. Apple invented it.

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01 Feb 24 - 12:10 PM (#4196479)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: leeneia

That's good news, DaveRo. Thanks for the info.
Yesterday we made some trial recordings. The Dear Husband sat at the Windows computer, and I walked here and there around the house, playing short snippets on a soprano recorder while he operated the buttons. The best tone came from the next room, which happens to be our music room. I was surprised because the sound had to come through the doorway, which is a little wider than usual, being built to allow for possible wheelchair use some day.

I estimate the instrument is 20 feet from the microphone, and somehow that smooths out a lot of tiny glitches and wobbles.

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21 Feb 24 - 12:43 AM (#4197636)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: leeneia

Okay, I can make recordings and I can play them back with Media Player, but I can't find where they have been saved. We want to save the files to a thumb drive, and to do that we need to access them. When I bring one up and click on Properties, the location includes " Desktop One Drive Documents" in the name.

Trouble is, I have never started a One Drive account, I don't want one, and last time I had a choice, I disconnected from One Drive. So how could the computer have saved the song to One Drive? There's a My Documents on my Desktop, but the sound file isn't in it.

Any advice? Search doesn't find it.

Do I sound like a newbie? I have been using computers since 1982. I sure am sick of Microsoft invading my computer with supposed improvements.

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21 Feb 24 - 07:06 AM (#4197648)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: DaveRo

My wife uses Win 10 and says she has never knowingly set up a One Drive account. But if I look at the (left) Navigation Pane in Windows Explorer (win key + e) I see a One Drive Personal heading with some files and folders. In the file list panel (right - showing details) I see 'availability' info. Most folders are are 'on this PC' - they're just pointers to local stuff - but a very few are 'in the cloud' and 'available online'. (It looks like most of those are accidental.) Take a look in there. If you see it, right-click copy it and paste it into the memory stick.

She doesn't have Sound Recorder (she does have Voice Recorder). If you installed that from Microsoft it probably signed you into One Drive at the same time.

Microsoft want everybody to have an account. It's quite hard to avoid ending up with one.

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21 Feb 24 - 03:43 PM (#4197667)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: leeneia

Way to go, Dave! I have Windows 11, but the win + e tip helped. Thanks!

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23 Feb 24 - 06:23 PM (#4197789)
Subject: RE: Tech: recording for Apple owner
From: Tattie Bogle

Going back to the Mac set-up, I have a pretty old Mac which has a CD/DVD drive.
So I would record into my Zoom H4 recorder, which gave very acceptable quality recordings, transfer recordings to my Mac’s GarageBand for any editing, then copy to iTunes as M4a files. If I wanted to email tracks to friends, I’d make an MP3 copy for smaller file/easier sending. Or I could burn the bigger M4a files to CD.
To find files, they would all be in iTunes.
And yes, I hate OneDrive on my Windows 10 laptop, and will probably switch it off, as it seems to default back to Autosave On without being asked, if I just leave the room for 5 minutes. It completely wrecked an older version of one file which I was using as a template to create a newer version, but wanted to keep the old one too!

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