Choir practice MP3s - how to accomplish?

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mjcosgrove
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:26 am

Choir practice MP3s - how to accomplish?

Post by mjcosgrove »

Hi there,

I’ve used Goldwave for years but have not even come close to using all of its functionality. I was researching some new software to help me accomplish a project, but then it occurred to me that Goldwave would probably be perfectly suited to do what I want. However I could use some advice on how to proceed.

I am a choir director. For years I have used Finale to make practice MP3s to help my choirs learn their parts. The basic plan was to have the part being learned (say, the alto) panned to the right and amplified while the other vocal parts are panned to the left with the volume reduced. This way, context is still helpful unless the singer wanted to tune the balance knob to isolate their part only.

The main drawback is that I’ve just been using instrument sounds to represent the vocal parts. So for the alto example, the singer would hear an oboe in the right channel playing her part and a set of “Choral Aah” sounds on the left. But now I would like to up my game and record the actual vocals.

It seems what I want is a graphical multitrack recorder that allows me to pan the individual tracks as needed. Would Goldwave be a good, workable solution? I assume it’s easy enough to lay down four vocal parts (soprano, alto, tenor bass), and hopefully Goldwave will allow me to pitch shift the female parts so they are sung in the proper higher octave. I’m guessing it will sound ridiculous, but sung lyrics have got to be better than just instrumentals.

I assume Goldwave would let me record one track while listening to the other tracks. Is that so?

I searched the forums to see if all of this is covered somewhere, but couldn’t find anything. Feel free to point me to a thread that covers this topic and I’ll go read it.

Thank you!
Marty Cosgrove
mjcosgrove@yahoo.com
DougDbug
Posts: 2172
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Choir practice MP3s - how to accomplish?

Post by DougDbug »

I haven't actually done that, but it should be possible -

The GoldWave FAQ has some information on playing-back and recording at the same time, but the directions are for real-time over-dubbing which isn't what you want. I think you can record a separate vocal (while monitoring a backing track) by recording from the microphone as-usual. (That is, DON'T use "loopback" or "stereo mix", etc.)
It seems what I want is a graphical multitrack recorder that allows me to pan the individual tracks as needed.
I don't think you really want to record multitrack. You just want to mix (and pan) multiple mono or stereo tracks down to stereo, and GoldWave can do that.

Note that mixing is done by summation (analog mixers are built-around summing amplifiers). So, you'll generally have to bring-down the levels to prevent clipping (distortion). GoldWave (like most audio editors/DAWs) uses floating-point internally so it won't clip, but the saved file can be clipped. If you run Maximize Volume before saving it will bring the volume down (if necessary) to keep the levels "safe".
and hopefully Goldwave will allow me to pitch shift the female parts so they are sung in the proper higher octave.
Sure, you can Change Pitch with the Preserve Tempo option. Sometimes you can get artifacts when doing that, and with a full octave change it won't sound "natural", but it should be good enough for this purpose.

If you want to step-up to a "real" multi-track DAW, Cakewalk is now FREE! (I don't have it, so I can't recommend it but it's popular and it's been around a long time under the name "SONAR".)
Ed M
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2018 7:21 pm

Re: Choir practice MP3s - how to accomplish?

Post by Ed M »

I do the MP3 practice disks for our choir. Sent an email to your address listed with details and examples.
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