By Louise Anderson

Most of us may have the idea of disguising our voice once in a while for some purpose, especially small kids. Today, a wide range of voice changing tools are developed, both for kids and business purposes. Simple ones are masks for kids that can change voice to some other voices, and a small box used for mobile phones which can switch among 4-6 voices or so.

Digital voice changers make a great step further. Any voice or sound that goes through a computer can be changed dramatically thanks to the voice changing software, i.e. voice chat, IP phoning, computer recording, music playing, internet streaming,… There are more great possibilities you might want to discover:

Change voice freely by adjusting voice values. Some voice changing software can change voice by adjusting voice pitch rather than choosing among a limited number of voices. Voice Changer Software (www.audio4fun.com) provides more adjusting possibilities: voice pitch, voice timbre, and voice frequency.

Change voice in real time. Perhaps the coolest function of voice changer software is that it can change voice right a way. Speak to the microphone and you may laugh the first time hearing your strange voice. Chat addicts now can have tons of fun: they can disguise themselves in voice chat.

Change any audio that goes through the computer. If you want to change voice or audio that is played or recorded from an audio device, say, a CD/DVD/karaoke machine, then all you need to do is to get it lined in to your computer and voice changer software will do its part.

Fake identity? So far Avnex, the author company of Voice Changer Software, claims this possibility as an advanced achievement in voice manipulation, although there are still many different opinions on the morality of its applications. So if you can fake someone’s voice, what do you think you would do with it?

Louise Anderson is the Marketing Associate of http://www.Audio4fun.com She works on customer-based market research, product development, and relationship management. Contact her at media@audio4fun.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Louise_Anderson

By Bradley James

There are just a few audio compression formats out there, just like there are only a few image compression formats (you may have heard of them: JPG, GIF, BMP). Two of the most popular audio formats are WMA, or Windows Media Audio, and MP3 (Short for MPEG, Moving Pictures Experts Group, Audio Layer 3). WMA is the older audio format, produced by Microsoft, to work with Microsoft’s Windows media player. The WMA compression format was designed specifically for this format, and thus can not be converted to other audio formats.

The audio quality of WMA and MP3 audio formats tends to be noticeably different. WMA is a decent quality audio format when streaming at phoneline speeds (maybe 30kbps or so). At such speed WMA almost reaches an FM level of audio quality, although not quite. At 128kbps, Microsoft claims the WMA is nearly CD-quality, although many would deny this. WMA, however, is not to be completely looked over. The compression provides relatively small audio files and they require less processing power to execute. It thus retains a deminishing niche as MP3 has become more popular and widely used.

The MP3 audio compression was developed in Germany in 1991 by the Fraunhofer Institute. MP3 typically provides higher quality sound than WMA because it uses perceptual audio coding to compress CD-quality sound by a factor of 12. As a result, MP3 has become almost the universal standard among audio usage and broadcasting. It provides CD-quality sound at reasonable compression sizes and high streaming speeds. Watch out, however, at low bitrates, as MP3 quality will likely suffer.

Bradley James is a senior editor at SciNet.cc, a website containing many helpful consumer electronics review articles. For more information on MP3 and WMA audio formats, please visit our MP3 vs. WMA webpage.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bradley_James

By Alan Twigg

My name is Alan Twigg and I’m writing this article to offer advice to anyone thinking of creating their own professional audio books.

In the New Year I came up with the idea of creating professional children’s stories and offering them for download on the internet. The thing was, however, while I had someone to write the stories – my mother – and someone to market the stories – me, I knew nobody who knew about how to record the stories professionally. I knew it must be reasonably easy, since I only wanted to create an audio book containing speech.

I started doing research on Google – but all the articles I found contained so much technical gobbledygook – I was soon put off. So I went to my local music store for advice on what to buy. I decided to use my computer to create the audio books and this is what I bought:

1 microphone stand

1 pop-screen (that’s a piece of material that is placed just in front of the microphone to stop your “Ps” from popping)

1 studio microphone

1 software program (Wavelab)

1 USB Audio/MIDI interface (TASCAM US 122 with phantom power)

1 pair of heaphones

It all came to 650 euros (800) dollars.

I connected my Audio/MIDI interface (this is basically a really good sound card in an external case) to my computer using the USB cable provided. I then set up my microphone and attached the microphone cable to the MIDI interface. After installing the software, I was ready to go.

The results have been great and I find Wavelab software powerful and incredibly easy to use.

Some Audio Book recording tips

I first get my entire copy ready before starting the recording. I pin the sheets of paper with the text that I am going to read in front of me onto the wall. Then, at about 8 inches away from the microphone, I start to talk. The more natural you can be the more interesting you will sound to your listeners. I found that the best thing to do is to stand in front of the microphone and make gestures in the same way as you would when talking to a close friend. If you stand there stiff like a statue, you’ll come across in the same way in your recording.

Another thing that I like to do before starting the recording is to get myself into a really good mood. Again, this will add to the impact of your recording. I always listen to a few uplifting songs and get enthusiastic before starting. You should also try to make sure that you keep the same distance from the microphone.

And that’s it – I hope that this article will save you a little bit of time setting up your own home recording studio and I wish lots of success with your audio books.

The author of this article is Alan Twigg. My business is Playtime books, which offers new and contemporary audio books for the 3 to 10-year-old age group. You will find this site at http://www.playtime-books.com.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_Twigg