Virtual Voices

Fellow voices, let us keep our voices sounding, harmonically raising praises to our Lord.

Suzanne has the capability to join our digitally recorded voices together into a virtual open square. She has suggested that we begin a project producing Africa 178. In order to blend voices, we need (1) one good recording of a reference track which all others can follow while they are recording their own tracks. We also need (2) a repository for uploading large files of audio and video. Email is probably not the mechanism. A few recordings would quickly fill a multi-gigabyte storage limit. We also need (3) your participation.

As examples, I have posted below recordings of my voice and image singing Africa. I do not intend my recording of the bass line to be the reference track. Someone else with a stronger voice, better pitch, steady rhythm, and a tenor voice should sing the melody as the reference. You may certainly, however, download these recordings and use them as practice for recording your voice and image along with the reference for maintaining pitch and rhythm.

These recordings below were made using a MacBook running QuickTime. The MacBook has a built-in microphone and webcam. I tried to find the quietest room in my house with a uncluttered background. If I were following a reference track, I would have been wearing headphones so that I could hear the reference track without the microphone hearing the same thing. The recording which which you see and hear was taken after much practice without recording and after more than a half-dozen takes which were too filled with errors to keep.

When I first recorded, the resulting file size was 144 MB. The video resolution reported itself to be 1280x720 (i.e. 720p). When I instructed QuickTime to Export to 720p, the resulting file size was only 75 MB. I don't understand the reason for the reduction in size. Audio for both is AAC stereo at 44.1 kHz.

Using iMovie '09, I converted the *.mov file to an MPEG-4 *.mp4 file. In doing so, the aspect ratio, resolution, and size were reduced. Of the clip below, resolution is 352x288 (288p); and the size is merely 5 MB. Audio remains as AAC stereo at 44.1 kHz.

P.S. To download the above files, first click on the "pop-out" icon in the upper right corner of the image. The "pop-out" icon looks like a square containing an arrow pointing to the upper right. After a new tab opens with the full sized video, you will see an icon in the upper right of that window for downloading. The "downloading" icon looks like a tray with an arrow pointing down toward it.

P.P.S. In his site for Virtual Choir 6, Eric Whitacre gives many good recommendations for making recordings. One such recommendation is listening from one device while recording on another. For example, one might listen from a computer, but record on a "smart" phone, or visa versa. Although I have overdubbed my own voice using Audacity on the same machine for both playing and recording, I have not yet tried such with video on the same device or on two separate devices.