Femmetech » interview http://www.femmetech.org Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:59:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Recording For Free: Sound on a Mac & PC [how-to] http://www.femmetech.org/2010/01/recording-for-free-sound/ http://www.femmetech.org/2010/01/recording-for-free-sound/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:56:58 +0000 femmetech http://www.femmetech.org/?p=27 I love recording audio, making music, archiving stories and beautiful moments, and I am not endowed with money — and have definitely been seriously broke and still wanted to make audio art. What’s a techhead to do? Read on for audio recording recommendations for voices and music on mac and even pc!

Programs

Audio on a PC has always been relatively easy because there are about a thousand good free programs out there for PC users to make music:

  • Start –>Accessories –>Entertainment –>Sound Recorder–>talk — aaaand done.
  • Being real, the last time I was on a PC [was when I made my first album using $40 of RAM I installed myself on a machine running Windows ME, but even though] my technology was crap, and I easily ran Modplug Tracker — great audio creation [not recording] software. So good and intuitive to use I sometimes bust out the PC virtualizer on my Mac so I can play with it.
  • And you have Audacity…

Audio on a Mac has gotten basically awesome in the last few years, in part because of Garageband, yes, but also you’ve got:

  • Audacity which is so perfect my friend who pays $$$ for techy grad school got taught it in class. It’s free and available for both Mac and PC and lets your record via your computer’s mic input and/or import all kinds of audio files to mashup and play with.
  • and if you want to get cray* and record audio in other ways, say an interview via Skype, you can use Soundflower** [brought to you by the makers of Max/MSP/Jitter, the A/V program I want to marry*** and spend all my time with. Someone give me $$ so I can, please]. With Soundflower you can record any audio from one program to another: iTunes to Audacity, for example.

Hardware

RAM you probably have enough memory [RAM] on your computer to record sound without crashing the thing and frustrating the shit out of you. But just in case, do you?

Microphone You can get a mic at many dollar stores for $2. You can get a mic at radio shack for $15. You can get a mic at a pawn shop / on ebay for  $50-$100. You can afford it! Just make sure it has a 1/8″ stereo plug. If it has the common 1/4″ mono no problem – you’ll need to get two adapters at radio shack / your local electronics corner stort for $3 a pop. One will decrease the jack to 1/8″ and the next will go from mono to stereo.

1/8 - stereo, note the double black lines


1/4 - mono, note the one black line

*a familiar form of “crazy”
** thanks to Sébastien McLaughlin for pointing me to this software!
***maybe marriage is the right goal after all?

]]> http://www.femmetech.org/2010/01/recording-for-free-sound/feed/ 0 Interview [part 2] about Femmes Fight Back w Sarah Mangle http://www.femmetech.org/2010/01/thingsthatpeoplemake/ http://www.femmetech.org/2010/01/thingsthatpeoplemake/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:07:07 +0000 femmetech http://www.femmetech.org/?p=21 Sarah Mangle is a musician and sweetheart who I hope to meet in person someday, but until then I’m really excited that we got to take time on a blizzardy Saturday to talk activism/organizing femme shop for her podcast:

The Things that People Make Interview – part 2

In this interview I talk about Sex Worker Activism [and my friend Sadie Lune], Femmes Fight Back and public femme rage, and the power of Taking Our Selves Seriously [TOSS: the wonderful concept originated by my friend Ally].

Sarah’s blog + podcast is These Things That People Make, and she’s interviewed a bunch of awesome folks, most recently including Mattilda.

]]> http://www.femmetech.org/2010/01/thingsthatpeoplemake/feed/ 0 Two segments on Canadian radio! http://www.femmetech.org/2009/12/two-segments-on-canadian-radio/ http://www.femmetech.org/2009/12/two-segments-on-canadian-radio/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:30:26 +0000 femmetech http://www.femmetech.org/?p=4 On December 24th, like a little Christmas miracle, the amazing musician Sarah Mangle played part one of an interview we did [during a blizzard in NYC!] on her show These Things That People Make on Guelph’s community station, CFRU. Listen here to These Things That People Make.

Then as if I wasn’t feeling magical enough, on Dec 28/09 the brilliant performer Jordan Arsenault, aka Aiden Kakenballz, guest-hosted CKUT’s Dykes on Mikes as part of their Montreal Queer Year In Review. During which he gave me a really sweet shout out and deemed me an honorary Montrealer, which – as an ex-Torontonian, is really exciting! Listen to it here:  Dykes on Mics Dec 28/09

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