Welcome to part 2 of our 3-part series on basic recording. Last time, we talked about “Recording In”– ways to get audio into your computer, tablet or another device. Next week, we’ll talk about ways to share, edit and distribute audio. This week, though, I wanted to show you a couple of very useful tricks using iTunes. No matter how much you use this program, it might be a little deeper than you ever realized!
Remember: iTunes is free. If you own a Mac, you already have it installed. If you own an iPod/iPad/iPhone and have ever connected it to your computer (of any kind!), you already have it installed. If you own a Windows machine, you can download it.
If you own a Linux machine, you’re out of luck, but you probably already know other ways to do most of this stuff… 😉
MP3 Converter
First, iTunes is a pretty flexible MP3 converter. If your choir or individual singers are submitting audition recordings, MP3 is one of the standard file formats to use. It’s also a great way to e-mail, post or share audio with each other since MP3 is a great combination of small files and high quality audio. By configuring a couple of quick settings, and importing your files into the iTunes library (often directly from whatever you used to record them), you can convert them to MP3 very easily. Read this brief guide to learn more.
Your Practice Room Library
By putting a computer with iTunes in your practice room, you can build a library of practice recordings, vocal exercises and recorded accompaniments for singers to use while practicing. Use the comments box with each song to tag a recording to a specific ensemble or class, the title of the vocal method, or a student’s name. Then, a singer can walk in to the room, type in the respective tag word into the search bar, and get all of the recordings tagged with that label. You could also use Smart Playlists for each class/ensemble to automatically update the lists.
Shared Library
By turning on the Shared Library feature in iTunes, you can share your library with any other computers running iTunes on the same network. If you have a campus network, for example, you could create a library on your computer and make it accessible to any students accessing the network. This would mean that they could listen (but not download!) to any examples that you’ve specified. Obviously, this works beyond the choral rehearsal– for those of you who teach Music History or Music Appreciation courses, your weekly listening exercises can get published through an iTunes Shared Library as well. This one might need a little help from your friendly campus IT staff, but it’s not too complicated for them, either. And remember: Tech people always love cookies.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas of how you can use a powerful program that’s most likely already on your computer to distribute the audio that you and your singers can use. By giving singers more access to the sounds, recordings and exercises that you want them to hear, you build the “aural goal” throughout your group and give them more power to be prepared for great rehearsals. Next week, we’ll talk about spreading your recordings quickly and easily to any audience that you can imagine!
Joyce Keil says