Effects

[Guest Carrie Bennetti]

How do I add more bass or treble to my recording?

[jerry4dos]

Hi Carrie:

 

SELECT the portion of your recording that you want to change the EQUALIZATION for. (If you want the whole recording, press CTRL+A.)

 

From the EFFECTS menu, select EQUALIZER.

A funny window will open. Click on SET FLAT to straighten the yellow string.

 

The yellow string is a graph, with the BASS on the left end, and the TREBLE on the right end. If you left-click on the little square at the left end of the yellow string and push it UP, that will make the BASS louder. If you pull it down, that will make the BASS softer.

 

You can add more little click boxes by clicking along the yellow string with the left-button on your mouse. Those new boxes can be left-dragged up or down. Right-click on a box to remove that box.

 

You can hear your changes by using the PREVIEW button in the lower left corner. When you're happy with your adjustments, click on OK in the lower right corner.

 

Here are some tips I have learned by experimenting:

 

Tip #1: As you move your mouse around the graph, the FREQUENCY you are adjusting is displayed in the upper-right corner of the graph. So, for example, if you know you want to boost 7000Hz, you can move your mouse around until you're in the 7000Hz range.

 

Tip #2: If you're planning to apply the equalization to a LONG song, the PREVIEW button is going to try to Preview the whole song for you, and it's going to suck up a lot of your computer "resources" and make your computer operate sluggishly. You may even have trouble getting the STOP button to work. I find it handier to SELECT a small portion of the song for testing, then, when I get it right, I WRITE DOWN the positions of those little boxes along the yellow string -- because -- to get your new EQ to apply to the whole song (remember, I'm testing on a little portion), you're going to have to CANCEL the EQUALIZER WINDOW so you can use CTRL+A to SELECT the whole song. But, when you open the EQUALIZER window again, it will have forgotten your settings!

 

WISH LIST item for the WAVEPAD developers: Wouldn't it be nice if WAVEPAD "remembered" the last EQ setting used?

 

Now then -- how about a TOTALLY DIFFERENT approach? This may not work on your computer (it depends on how the Sound Card is configured). It works fine on one of my computers, and doesn't work at all on my other computer. We're going to PLAY the tune with one application, then RECORD it while it's playing with another application.

 

To PLAY my tune, I like VUPLAYER (freeware).

http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.php

It's got the best, easiest to tweak equalizer I've ever seen. You can make your adjustments on-the-fly while the song is playing, and know immediately when you've got it right. I can't tell you how much I wish WAVEPAD had an equalizer like this one!

 

Now, for your RECORDER, you can use WAVEPAD. Or, I can recommend a little freeware recorder called FREE HI-Q RECORDER:

http://www.roemersoftware.com/

Rick Roemer makes a "full" version and a "free" version. The "full" version is displayed most prominently. Scroll down for the free version.

 

Hope some of this helps, Carrie.

 

Jerry