Talk:Tutorial - Your First Recording

Gale: It strikes me this whole tutorial copies the LP/tape recording tutorial too slavishly without considering the special issues of recording vocals and instrumentals.

Without getting too clogged in details there should be some reference somewhere in the below steps to:

• software playthrough (where to find it) and pointing to relevant FAQ
• overdub (where to find it) and delay (pointing to relevant FAQ)
• Latency Test for getting the recordings lined up once made.
  • Peter 27Nov11: This one here is intended to be a getting-started 101 type of tutorial. Koz' new magnum opus should be addressing all the above issues you raise and more ... In which case maybe the To Do (and this editornote) should be demoted or removed?
  • Gale 29Nov11: I see it differently. We must at least mention software playthrough and overdub here, or people will try them and not know why they may not give a good result, or not know they exist. Decision is whether Koz's piece goes as a sub-tutorial here or in "Advanced" Topics. Disadvantage of the latter: you lose the "read-through". And Koz's piece needs to go on a user page while we decide (I feel it should not duplicate/contradict Latency Test).
  • Peter 15Dec11: Ok - so having thought about this I now propose to insert an additional sub-tutorial between the current steps 1 & 2 to deal with Audacity settings. Some of that material will be moved from the existing step 2 with the additional stuff on playthrough and overdub. The current step 2 will then just focus on input selection. I will draft the new subtutorial in my user pages.
  • Peter 15Dec11: "Decision is whether Koz's piece goes as a sub-tutorial here or in "Advanced" Topics."
    I really don't think that he is the right place for Koz' material to go - it is far to complicated for that. I would certainly want to include a link to it for the more advanced readers - but for my money the primary readership for this tutorial are newbies. The intro note on the page does say "This set of tutorials provide a guide to making your first microphone, guitar or keyboard recording with Audacity."
    • Peter 15Dec11: I have now written the draft of the new proposed subtutorial on Audacity settings: User:PeterSampson/Tutorial - Audacity settings for recording. It is maked as ToDo-2 Ready For Proofreading (I do still need to change the Preferences image - but that requires access to my wife's W7 laptop). I have also marked up the existing Tutorial - Selecting Your Input with the sections I plan to remove now that they are in the new sub-tutorial.
    • Peter 19Dec11: Bill reviewed the drafts and approved them and there were no nay-sayers - accordingly I published the new sub-totorial structure. I removed the ToDo-2s as this should no meet Gale's additional requirements.

Rework of "Tutorial - Your First Recording" - Completed 9Jul11 - ready for review

This is a condensation of an email thread on the Manual list regarding the restructuring of YFR. This is the plan that I have gleaned from it:

1) I think that Bill's material on Audacity setup on his draft page (minus the h/w plugs sockets etc.) is considerably better than the text that is currently in the Reference/Understanding - it doesn't say much that isn't there already but it does say it better, and it is more up to date. So I propose to update the Reference section withe Bill's Audacity s/w set-up stuff. I agree that the Reference section should focus on Audacity setup and not h/w setup.

• Peter 8Jul11: DONE: Bill's revised material used to replace the previous version of the AS&C page, but I have not pruned the hardware references there yet (see step 4 of this plan). We need to review YFR and AS&C as a linked pair.

• Gale: A decision will be needed on Audacity Setup and Configuration after the YFR and Recording Computer Playback tutorials are finalised. If these tutorials do the hand-holding and step-by-step, then Audacity Setup and Configuration can be trimmed or become redundant. I foresee possibly keeping this "Setup" page as an overview (probably an image of the Audacity project window with arrows) pointing to the relevant parts of the Audacity interface and describing what they do - Mixer, Meter and Device Toolbars, Transport Menu, Devices and Recording Preferences, Project Rate, Temporary Folder.
  • Bill: Let's not forget our motivation for the expanded setup pages - to integrate information from the wiki into the manual and addressing the many support questions we get about recording with an external microphone or instrument.
  • Gale: The "beginner" questions that turn up on feedback@ may be more clueless than the ones you get on the Forum. They suggest people should be warned off inbuilt mics and encouraged to spend a little money. Others have enough knowledge to be dangerous but need a bit of help with condenser/dynamic, polar patterns and where to find out about mic technique. Wiki links may better here (maybe even Wikipedia) - our Wiki information isn't that good yet - see http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recording_Tips

2) As we agreed earlier I will atomize the YFR into its four basic sections. DONE 4Jul11

3) Then update those four YFR sections taking material from Bill's draft page as appropriate. DONE 4Jul11

4) When the YFR tutorials are looking in good shape I propose then to prune Reference/Understanding Audacity/Audacity Setup and Configuration - with a pointer to where the h/w setup material can be viewed. DONE 9Jul11

• Bill 19Jun11: Is there a plan for the hardware setup material? Would it be a separate tutorial, sectionized as I've done now? I think the pictures and descriptions of plugs are useful - we know from experience that total noobs don't know an RCA plug from a mini-plug, and don't know a stereo from a mono mini plug.

Proposed sub-tutorial headings

The following are the abbreviated sub-tutorial headings suggested by James. I propose to use these headings, pending no further objections:

• Tutorial - Connecting Up
• Tutorial - Selecting Your Input
• Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
• Tutorial - Recording and Editing

• Gale: - amended "A Test Recording" to "Making a Test Recording"

I note from the email thread that Gale would prefer longer links to indicate the actual structure rather than suggest the subsections are an independent tutorial when according to the TOC they are not. So for example: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tutorial_-_Your_First_Recording/Connecting_Up

• Reasons against:
  • We may wish to use these atomized sub-tutorials as part of other tutorial sets
  • It does make the names longer - and we know James favours shorter names
• Reasons for:
  • makes the subtutorials group properly under the master tutorial title
  • As with the LP Transcriptions we can provide forward/backward links and a link to the master tutorial (at the foot of the page) to facilitate navigation around the tutorial.

James: Peter - being super democratic costs time and energy, and in some cases that's a bigger cost than possibly disgruntling some people. We are also a do-ocracy in that when there is no clear decision the doer decides. 'Tutorial - Making a Test Recording' is better than what I suggested as it means all four are active voice. I'm not a stickler for as short as possible.

Bill 19June11: +1 to James' comment - go for it, Peter. It's more important to get it done. Once we have words on a page then we can concentrate on what's important - making sure the content is accurate and helpful to beginners.

Peter 4Jul11: after much deliberation I opted to stay with the shorter names:

• a) because the subtutorials may end up being referenced in tutorials other than just YFR
• b) it looks better on the page