Tonbridge Folk Club (Nellie's)
Traditional music and song at Tonbridge Folk Club, Rose and Crown, 125 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1DD. First and third Mondays of each month, 8-11 pm. Musicians, singers and audience welcome.
www.tonbridgefolkclub.org | info@tonbridgefolkclub.org
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home/programme > music software and gadgets
Music software and gadgets
A short resumé of PC software and gadgets which the author has found useful for capturing and learning folk songs and tunes.
Noteworthy Composer (NWC)
Commercial notation program
Uses conventional musical notation. You can input your own scores from scratch or copy them from books or, easier still, grab MIDI files from the Web and edit them. You can strip away unwanted accompaniment, correct/adjust melodies and then hear the result. Also useful for trying out chords and noting your arrangements.
Abc Navigator 2
Freeware notation program
Edit and play files in the ingenious text-based ABC format and print conventional scores. Although I prefer using NWC, I use Abc Navigator to 'audition' ABC files downloaded from sources such as The Session.
ABC2NWC
Shareware conversion program
Convert ABC to NWC and vice versa.
Amazing Slow Downer
Commercial audio utility
Although Windows Media Player now has a slow-play option, ASD provides much more granularity for catching the notes in those fast jigs and reels while retaining normal pitch.
Audacity
Free audio editor and recorder
General recording and converting audio files to MP3. I also record the sound from Youtube videos and MIDI files to MP3 so I can listen to them on an MP3 player.
Samson Zoom H2
Pocket digital recorder (hardware)
Good for capturing a whole session and then chopping into sections on the machine itself. These devices are the modern equivalent of cassette recorders and minidiscs but aren't as well-known. There are others but I find this to be quick to operate and quite adequate.
WavePad Sound Editor
Commercial sound editor
Good for dividing and trimming large audio tracks after transfer to a PC. Some audio programs make heavy work of this. Will also boost volume.
Windows Vista tip
If you are using Windows Vista you may have encountered difficulty with recording from audio sources. One possible solution is to split your soundcard output, feeding one stream to your speakers and the other back into your soundcard input socket. Worked for me.
I do or have used all of the above, but I am not expert in their use or capabilities and I prefer to spend my free time singing and playing rather than on a computer!
Richard - 19 February 2010