Audio Projects

The Student Multimedia Design Center has a number of studios available for high-quality sound recording. Studios 2, 3, 4, and 6 all have microphones and acoustical foam installed. Recording in any of these studios is easy as reserving the studio, opening Audacity and pressing the record button. To reserve a studio, just stop by our service desk in the lower level of the Morris Library or give us a call at: 302-831-8832. Studio reservations can be made up to one week in advance, and for up to two hours at a time.

To record audio with your own laptop, you will need two things:

• Recording software. We recommend Audacity, which is available to download for free on Windows and Macs.

  If you'll be working with files recorded on Zoom or a smart phone, download the FFmpeg Library as well. See this video for help or this screenshot of the ffmpeg library links to download, For more on using Audacity, please see the Edit > Audacity Tutorial tab to the left.

• USB Microphone. To borrow one from the SMDC, just ask for a USB Microphone Kit at our service desk. We have Blue Yeti and Blue Raspberry microphones available for three-day loan. To use the microphone, just plug it in with the supplied USB cable and choose it by name in Audacity.

There are a number of situations (live events, interviews, etc.) where you may need highly mobile audio recording equipment. For this purpose, we have both digital voice recorders, and microphones that connect to your smartphone.

• Digital Voice Recorder: record WAV or MP3 files directly to the recorder using the built-in mics. When finished, transfer the files to your computer with the supplied USB cable.
• Rode VideoMic Me: connect this to the microphone/headphones port on your smartphone and use an audio recording app (for example "Voice Memos" on iOS) to record directly to your phone.

Recording equipment varies in audio quality; generally a laptop/computer will have the lowest audio quality, headphones are a good intermediate option, and a USB mic and/or recording in a studio is the best quality.