National Children's Folksong Repository
Hear some now
YOU MAKE & COLLECT HISTORY
GET INTO
THE NCFR
LIBRARY
but what good a song does.
USE YOUR PHONE TO RECORD
BROWSE HASH TAG #NCFR
---> COLLECT YOUR SONG DOWNLOAD FREE APP<---
https://storycorps.me/
SAY THE NAME OF YOUR SONG
+ YOUR TOWN + YOUR STATE + YOUR NAME + THE YEAR
--> NOW SING YOUR SONG OR CHANT <--
OR
USE YOUR COMPUTER TO RECORD
YOU ONLY NEED 3
THINGS
1. The Perfect Place isn't always Quiet
a) Find a quiet, carpeted space to avoid echos
b) turn off all background machinery and/or appliances
c) unplug phones and silence pagers,
d) put a "Quiet: Recording in Progress" sign on the door
The Perfect Place is the playground - Like This - Pizza Pizza Daddy-O
2. The Correct Set-up - Sometimes isn't possible
People must directly face the microphone. The microphone must be 10-12 inches from the speaker{s} mouth if you are recording to a computer, the microphone must be located away from the computer
3. The Right Equipment
Nintendo to create skipping and clapping game using library archives
Three English universities have teamed up with the British Library and gaming giant Nintendo to develop the
prototype games, which will be similar to Wii Sports. Researchers will use recordings of playground games and
songs held in archives at the British Library, as well as collect current examples direct from today's school
playgrounds. These will be used to create prototype games that can be played on a games console. The
researchers
will also create an interactive website for the Library, so that the archives can be accessed by children,
parents and members of the public. Children from the two participating schools will help develop the prototype
games, and design the website. Project leader Dr Andrew Burn, from the Institute of Education, +44
(0)2079074654
said: "We will 'record' movements from particular playground games and incorporate these into playable
computer games, ideally with songs and words." He added: "Gaming platforms such as the Wii are
designed for physical play and are therefore ideal for producing games involving movement." The three
universities involved are London, Sheffield and east London. Nintendo is offering advice, but has no
commercial
involvement in the project.
How to Collect PlayGround Songs, Chants, Poetry, and Folksongs with a Mac
Using laptops and phones as recorders
MAKE DIGITAL FILES USING USING A MICROPHONE AND COMPUTER
Using iPhones and iPads are not the problem. It is the microphones in these devices that are a concern, and
phones seem to collect sound better than laptops. They would need an app that allows recording in an
uncompressed format like wav files. As always, mic placement is also a key, get the mic close enough to the
speaker to work well. A decent external mic for a
computer is always better than the computer mic (internal mics picks up computer operating noise).
Recommendations
1.) Apple computers are sound-ready, but you will need to download sound recording software.
You may already have
SoundRecorder which is a FREE
on your computer
right now It lets you record sounds directly onto your hard drive. This allows you to record sound of almost
any length. You can control and adjust the sound level with two sliders for input level and volume. While
recording, SoundRecorder writes the data in a temporary file on your hard disk; once you choose to save the
sound, the temporary data is written to a final sound file.
MAC
- For iPhone use Apple's built-in Voice Memo app or Audio Memos that offers control over your recordings and easy to share cost $1.00.
-
For iPad
Tascam iM2 mic attachment , can be purchased for around $30 now, converts an iPad into a portable recorder, that can record in wav files. -
For Laptops
Audacity is a free, opensource recording software . Use it to record podcasts too.
2.) DO NOT use your Mac's internal microphone. Use an external microphone. If you have a PowerPc Mac, you must use a special plaintalk microphone that plugs into the 1/8" stereo input jack. Be certain to set your Mac's sound input choice to External Mic. NOT Built-in Microphone. You can do this either from within the software package, or from your Mac's Sound Control Panel.
3.) Record and save as an AIFF on your hard disk.
|
Digital Audio Formats
|
One Minute Audio File Sizes
|
MAKE DIGITAL FILES USING YOUR OWN COMPUTER
Freecorder FREE software program record sounds on your PC.
- Records what you hear from your speakers.
- Saves recordings as MP3 files.
- You can also record from the microphone or line-in inputs on your PC.
Audacity
for recording, editing, and compressing to
MP3.
There is a
minimal (though real) learning curve
, nicely explained in the included
documentation. You'll be able to edit different sections together if you'd like, change the volume
levels or remove noise from the recording,
export CD-quality WAV files as well as MP3,
and
much else. It's completely free and
works very well on Mac, PC, and Linux.
- Save it as a .wav file to your desk top
- Save it as a .aiff file to your desktop
- Example - thenameofyoursong.wav
- Save it as an AIFF file
- Example thenameofyoursong.aiff
SoundRecorder a FREE program
This allows you to record sound of almost any length. You can control and adjust the sound level with two sliders for input level and volume. While recording, SoundRecorder writes the data in a temporary file on your hard disk; once you choose to save the sound, the temporary data is written to a final sound file.
IF you don't have it -- Download it for your PC here
Your computer may already have it in your Entertainment folder it's called SoundRecorder and you can use your computer search tool to find it. Copy and paste sndrec32.exe.
1.) FIND IT NOW
Go to Start Button on your computer (bottom left side)
- Go to START (the button on the bottom left corner)
- Go to Programs
- Go to Accessories
- Go to Entertainment
- Go to Sound Recorder and click which will launch it.
- Go to Volume Control and make sure everything is on (no checks)
- Click on Help and then Help Topics to find out anything you want to know
- Close Window
2.) NOW YOU CAN START RECORDING
- Go to Programs
- Go to Accessories
- Go to Entertainment
- Go to Sound Recorder
-
Click the red button on the right and RECORD YOUR SONG.
See example of this PDF file - Remember 60 seconds of recorded sound may take up to 5 megabytes of space. Listen to your sample after you have recorded it to make certain it sounds right to you.
3.) SAVE YOUR RECORDING
- Sound Recorder doesn't export to MP3.
- Microsoft uses sounds on the computer and you can listen to a flash presentation of sound recorder playing around with all the sounds.
How to Collect PlayGround Poetry, Chants and Folksongs
MAKE DIGITAL FILES USING A MICROPHONE AND COMPUTER
(Tape) Recorder Guidelines
Use a good (tape) recorder that accepts an external microphone.
(Do NOT use a miniature tape recorder!!)
Optimally, use a high quality, separate microphone. (frequency response: 50 - 18,000 hz)
Your mouth should remain approximately 12 inches from the microphone.
The sample should be digitized at cd-quality:
digitized at 44.1 KHz., 16 bit mono.
The file can be a .wav | .aiff | .mov
Transfer cassette recording to the PC
Digitize a tape recording using a PC Using your PC to digitize pre-recorded sound
Learn how to take sound from a tape recorder and inputting it into your computer to create a digital sound file. Connect the cassette player's headphone jack to the computer's microphone jack (you can get a cord from Radio Shack) and then you record it using Sound Recorder to record it. It gives you 60 seconds. Then save it as an MP3 file from there.
For very basic digitizing, you can use the Sound Recorder on your PC . The sound recorder is generally found in your programs folder under accessories under entertainment.
1. Click on it and you will see the following window appear:
2. You must be certain that the sound recorder will record at CD quality mono settings (44.10 khz., 16-bit, mono). To do this, click on the File menu and select Properties:
3. You will then see the following window. Note that at this point the default sound properties are
set at 22.050 Khz, 8-Bit, Mono. Click on the button: Convert Now...
To set the parameters for quality recording, use the "Attributes" pull-down menu to match what you see in the window below. You will be selecting 44.100 Khz, 16-Bit, Mono. (This is CD Quality Mono)
To avoid having to reset the parameters every time you return to Sound Recorder, save these parameters with a new Name. Just fill in a new name and press the Save As... button. When you open Sound Recorder later, be sure to follow steps 1,2,& 3 and select the name. We have named our saved parameters "my parameters":
4. After you have saved your parameters as "my parameters", press OK. you will now see
the
following screen:
5. Press OK on each window. You will now be returned to the controller in 1.
Use a audio patch cable to connect your computer to the tape recorder. The cable will have a 1/8" stereo plug on both ends. (the plugs looks like this):
Plug the cable into the
sound in jack of your computer. Your computer may only have a microphone input jack. If so, plug the cable
into that. The other end of this cable is plugged into the sound out or headphone jack of your tape
recorder.
You must also activate the input jack on your computer.
Press the record button on the sound recorder, and then play the tape recorder to feed the sound to the computer. Your sample will now be re-recorded and digitized onto your computer. You may not be able to hear the sample as you record it, so watch the green waveform to see the sample recorded. Watch the levels to make sure you do not distort the sample, so keep the volume control of your tape recorder at a low setting. Save the sample to your disk.
Remember, these sound files are very memory intensive. 60 seconds of recorded sound may take up to 5 megabytes of space. Listen to your sample after you have recorded it to make certain it sounds right to you. Save the sample to your hard drive as a .wav file or an .aiff file.
ACTIVATE THE INPUT JACT ON YOUR COMPUTER
Activating the Line-in Jack
To digitize pre-recorded sound, you must activate the line-in jack in your computer (Some computers only
have
one input jack). To do this, double click the yellow volume icon on the task bar. A window will open. Click
on
Options, and select Properties. You will now see a window like the following:
Be sure to select Recording. After that, put check marks into the boxes next to Microphone
and Line (as shown in the window above). (On some machines, like laptops, you may see Stereo Mix instead of
Line. Select it) Press OK.
Now you will see the recording control that includes panels for Microphone and Line:
Be sure to select Line (as shown in the window above).
How to Get Started
HOW TO GET STARTED
HOW CAN I HELP CHILDREN SUBMIT THEIR CONTRIBUTION?
HOW TO COLLECT SONGS | HOW TO SEND YOUR SONG
USE YOUR PHONE
Download FREE APP
https://storycorps.me/
BROWSE HASH TAG #NCFR
USE YOUR COMPUTER
OR MP3 PLAYER
OR CELL PHONE
OR VIDEO CAMERA
YOU ONLY NEED 4 THINGS
1. The Perfect Place
a) Find a quiet, carpeted space to avoid echos
b) turn off all background machinery and/or appliances
c) unplug phones and silence pagers
d) put a "Quiet: Recording in Progress" sign on the door
2. The Correct Set-up
People must directly face the microphone.
The microphone must be 10-12 inches from the speaker{s} mouth if you are recording to a computer, the
microphone must be located away from the computer
3. The Right Equipment
4. THE GAME
The kids or teen or adults playging the game so you can record the song or chant.
UPLOAD IT THEN SEND IT
OR