Free tools for editing VoiceQuilt voice messages, audio recordings and music

We often hear unexpected sounds during quality testing on VoiceQuilt keepsakes: dogs barking, babies gurgling and even a train whistle or two. We are also receiving quite a few questions about music. One gift giver asked how to include only the refrain of a popular song; another wanted to play a song in the background of voice messages. With these issues in mind, I reached out to Jim Phillips, our good friend and audiophile. I asked Jim to list his favorite tools for editing audio recordings, recorded voice messages and music.

Here is an excerpt from his tips.

1.) In radio, there was an entire catalog of sounds used to tell a story: a creaky door, howling winds, a cascade of falling objects (“Crash!”) and the ever-popular coconut shells that mimic the “clop-clop” of a horse’s hooves….

In movies, the person managing sound effects is known as a “foley artist”. If you want to be your own foley artist, check out this site on the Web.

http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html

You can download files as .wav or as .mp3. The .mp3 files are more compressed and smaller. The .wav sounds are much larger, but offer better audio quality. It would be easy to get the files needed to reproduce the ambient sounds of a walk down the street: wind blowing, lawn mowers starting, birds tweeting. Or you could have a stadium with cheering crowds and a voice booming over a PA system. You can also get enough car and highway sounds to reproduce your commute to work. You're only limited by your imagination.

2.) You can even get help with creating your own sound effects here:
http://www.marblehead.net/foley/specifics.html

3.) But how do you put all of those sounds together? There are many free MP3 editors out there for download. Most are shareware, where you pay after a trial use period. But some are free outright. They all have similar functions.

The best of the free mp3 editors is Audacity. It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It allows you to splice sounds together through common editing techniques like cut, copy, paste and delete. You can also use it for recording live audio or adding effects to sounds you already have (such as echo, phaser, wah-wah, etc.). You can speed up or slow down music or alter the pitch. You can also record multiple tracks and lay them on top of each other like a real recording engineer.

I could easily write a ten page article on the effects you can get using an editor. But the best advice is to get one and start playing around with sounds from the links above. It doesn't take much to get started. And with a little bit of trial and error, you can get some astonishingly interesting sound effects to amaze and fool your friends. As long as you save the sound tracks to either mp3 or wav format, you can upload them to a VoiceQuilt, too!

Also…If you want to explore other editors besides Audacity, a simple search for “mp3 editor” will give you a list of shareware alternatives.

BonaResponds collects volunteer thoughts and impressions with VoiceQuilt

I am so inspired by a group of volunteers called BonaResponds!

BonaResponds is a non-profit, community service organization based out of St. Bonaventure College in St. Bonaventure, NY. The group recently sponsored an “International Service Day” on March 27, 2010.

Hundreds of volunteers across the US and the world spent March 27, 2010 donating their time and talents to those less fortunate. The “BonaRespondites” helped with a student health fair in LA, cleaned up a park in Chicago and helped with tax preparation in Buffalo. Others held a festival for special needs children, worked in a food pantry or pitched in to help build a home. They also performed good deeds in Uganda and New Zealand.

One of the volunteer leaders asked participants to share their thoughts and impressions of the day. Take a listen and be inspired!

VoiceQuilt's Time Capsule Challenge...

This time of year, children are front and center. They’re finishing up preschool, high school or college, arriving home with diplomas, well-loved art projects or cherished personal essays. We’re awash in souvenirs of the school year and we’re absolutely sure we’ll never forget the way they talk, look and think. After all, we have all this STUFF.

But we will.

Why not set up a free, one day VoiceQuilt and create a quick verbal time capsule? To explain all that stuff!

That way, you’ll always have that sweet voice…or that enthusiastic voice…talking about highlights of the year. And when you’re done, just download it to your iPod and save it for those days when your progeny crabs at you – or rolls their eyes because you’ve done something embarrassing.

Just dial up VoiceQuilt’s toll free number with the phone on speaker and ask 3 questions – just like the local news reporter:

1.) What was your favorite thing about _____________th grade?

2.) Which of these items (pull out that class stuff) means the most to you and why?

3.) What do you want to be when you grow up?

(I am always amazed at my daughter’s answers to question 3. After years of answers like “a cheerleader” and “a hairdresser”, we’re on to esoteric answers like “an entomologist” or "an architect”…and it’s always changing….)

Just try it. You’ll like it.

For more on time capsules, visit these sites.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2154533_preserve-childrens-artwork.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_6637_make-family-time.html

VoiceQuilt and Save Their Story

Bridget Poizner is a personal historian that has a wonderful business called Save Their Story . She creates professional video biographies – usually by interviewing a family member and asking them to tell their life story. Her business has been so successful – and her travel so extensive – that she has been profiled by Southwest Airlines!



Bridget uses VoiceQuilt when she wants to add comments and stories from long distance family members. A while back, she created a tribute video and had the challenge of collecting 20 second toasts and tributes for a photo montage. Here are the “fill-in-the-blank” instructions she gave to the family's grandchildren.

When I think of you, the first thing that comes to my mind is_______.

Do you remember when you_____? Or do you remember when we_____?

I still laugh when I think of the time_____.

VoiceQuilt offers “Thought Starters” but we often hear that people closest to the recipient have the hardest time figuring out what to say in their message. If you've got one procrastinator that needs some special coaxing, why not try Bridget's "MadLibs" out?

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Traditional Quilts – and VoiceQuilt

Last week, I heard from someone who makes traditional quilts, Meg Cox. Meg is the author of The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, (Workman Publishing). She called because she had just created a VoiceQuilt for her spouse for his 70th birthday and was delighted with his reaction.

During the course of our conversation, Meg shared an example of a photo quilt she created for a one year old’s birthday. Check it out!

I’ve always been intimidated by the skill, planning and time associated with traditional quilting. However, Meg tells me that quilting has gotten much easier thanks to digital technologies. This photo quilt is certainly quite different from the traditional country quilts seen in markets across the Southeast. Be sure to check out Meg's site (and her book) to get more ideas.

When we were writing VoiceQuilt’s patent in 2003, the traditional quilt was an irresistable metaphor. Since the concept of a playlist was new, it was easiest to explain our process as "stitching voice memories together”.

During pioneer days, before the loom’s invention, fabric was so precious that each swatch in a traditional quilt came from clothing worn to special events like baptisms, weddings and funerals.

In a VoiceQuilt, each message is a precious “swatch” representing someone special in the recipient’s life. Unlike a traditional quilt, however, the sequence of messages doesn’t require intense planning. The sum of messages is what counts. It’s that collage of voices – that montage of memories – that gives a VoiceQuilt its “This is your life” impact.

Needless to say, I am in awe of traditional quilting. Frankly, a VoiceQuilt is so easy -- and so last minute -- in comparison!

VoiceQuilt - for Mother's Day

Interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal on Mother's Day. with this quote:

"Any mother," she wrote, "would rather have a line of the worst scribble from her son or daughter than any fancy greeting card."



We, of course, think that the Wall Street Journal is absolutely right.

Expressions from the heart are much more meaningful than a store-bought card.

Of course, we have to ask the following: Wouldn't Mom enjoy hearing her child's voice, too?

A young girl named Sofia won our Mother's Day contest last week with her rendition of "You are my sunshine".

Sofia's Mom tells me that her daughter's voice has changed even during the past few weeks. She's so glad she has Sofia's younger voice preserved so that she can enjoy it in years to come..."

VoiceQuilt - "Movin' on Up..."

Effective May 1, 2010, VoiceQuilt has a new location:

1827 Powers Ferry Road
Building 6, Suite 100
Atlanta, GA 30339
NEW Phone: 770-951-2560

I had a good laugh when a friend started singing the theme song from the famous 1970’s TV sitcom, the Jeffersons:

“We're moving on up, to the East Side, to a deee-luxe apartment in the sky" ...

It’s not exactly like that. We moved to a building that’s just down the street from our old office. In fact, the two offices are highly similar: same size, same kind of building, same part of town. After all, the real work at VoiceQuilt is done online – automatically.

For now, I’m really relieved the move is over. No more packing and schlepping! May is a busy month because of Mother’s Day, graduations and wedding anniversaries. I'm really glad to focused once again on helping gift givers create something magical -- with toasts, tributes and favorite memories