birding-aus

iPods for Bird Calls - portable speakers, editing software & the Ornitho

To: Bruce Cox <>, Birding-Aus <>
Subject: iPods for Bird Calls - portable speakers, editing software & the Ornithology of Rock Music ...
From: Robert Gosford <>
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 09:38:04 +0930
Bruce,

Thanks for the tips - I had a browse around and have dowloaded Audacity (as a live sound engineer in a past life it doesn't seem too daunting, though access to the manual [when in doubt, RTFM!] via the link at the Help page doesn't work) as it seemed to be the best and most popular of the free downloads.

From your note I image that the procedure might be as follows:
1 - download tracks from CD to Windows Media Player to compress to MP3;
2 - download the MP3 file to audacity to edit;
3 - Post edit download to IPod, or whatever;
4 - Play edited track ...

I'll try some today and advise if any problems - of course I can't download to my IPod yet because its still in Alice ... hopefully by Tuesday I'll have and can then start having some real fun ...

Further to Peter Marsh (Fumiyama FSP-505) & Alan McBride's $18 DSE) comments re cheap speakers the Fumiyama is still available in Singapore and looks small enough for the field (http://www.fumiyama.com/index.php?option=com_ecatalog&func=show_details&id=36&catid=3) a bargain at $S26) and next time I'm through Changi I'll have a look (or if the Logitech I've ordered is too big, has crappy sound etc) or get it over the net.

In terms of convenience I think the idea of having all of my local calls, in regional/language/State folders, on a device smaller and lighter than a pack of cards is very attractive - I doubt I'll use the full capacity of the 4gb iPod on bird calls so I'll use it for its original purpose and fill the rest up with my favourite music ... which turns me to Nick Cave & the bad Seeds - their last album (Abattoir Blues/the Lyre of Orpheus) is replete with bird references - anyone for a paper on "The ornithology of Rock Music"?.

Cheers and best,

Bob Gosford
Bruce Cox wrote:

From: "Robert Gosford" <>
To: "Bruce Cox" <>; "Birding-Aus"
<>
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus](was pocketPCs)iPods for Bird Calls - portable
speakers & audio editing software

Bob,

As previouly stated I use "Audacity" as an editing tool, it is a  free
download, another is "Dexter" which is again free but I find not as user
friendly as "Audacity".

The main problem is that the bird CDs (and in most cases music CDs) are .CDA
format which both "Audacity" and "Dexter" will not open, From  memory
"Audacity" will open .WAV, .AIFF (uncompressed Mac format), .MP3 and Ogg
Vorbis. You need to get to one of these to audit in "Audacity", I use
"Windows Media Player" to compress to .MP3 before editing.

Bruce Cox.

Dear all,

Further to this post I've ordered, but yet to receive, an iPod nano for
field playback - to resolve the playback issue I'm trying the Logitech
mm28 speaker, runs off AC & AA batteries - by all accounts and reviews
it might be a bit big but it may have the grunt to provide a decent
sound in the scrub.

I'd be interested in the views of anyone who has tried iPods for this
purpose - I'm also interested in any audio editing software that is (a)
easy to use and (b) free or cheap that will allow me to edit the
announcements and also record repeats of the calls ...

Cheers and best from n-w of Alice Springs, where it is raining and cool.

Bob Gosford




===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU