Dear Gary & Tweeters
Demuxing (the term used to separate audio and video / or combining both streams would be remux) the audio stream from a video clip is possible. This is typically done on a computer (MAC or PC) that offers video editing software. There are numerous choices such as Corel Video Studio for the PC in which you have the option of stripping only the audio and saving as an MP3, AIFF or WAV file as some examples.
The far easier option is using Voice Recording software that likely came with your iPhone. It's called Voice Memo. Locate the app, do a recording, then save the file as an MP3 or WAV (ebird's only two options).
WAV files are usually much larger and of better quality.
If you prefer, you can go one step further with the newly recorded file (vs. uploading to ebird straight off your phone) and send to your PC or MAC. Then cleanup the file in a variety of ways such as increasing the volume, cleaning up wind or simply truncating the file. An excellent software program for this is Audacity which works on many OS's such as Windows, MAC, Linux and so on. Best of all it's a free download with numerous free plugins.
Lastly, if you are seeking perhaps the best option of all, this would be to get a hand held recorder which is far superior than what's on an iPhone or Android. The one I use is a 4 track hand held recorder by Zoom , model H4N. It comes with a wind screen, built in mics that swivel to 90 degrees or 120 degrees with the option of adding 2 more mics, a cone handle (to hold the device) but also has a tripod mount and USB cord. The newer model is an H4N Pro but there's also an H5 and H6 which you may wish to investigate. The sound off this device is simply remarkable. It serves well for a variety of uses such as band practice, speeches, bird vocalizations, etc.
It uses a SD card and double AA batteries. You can simply eject the SD card and place in your computer's card reader or use the USB cable that comes with the kit and connect to a computer.
The device offers 24bit x 96K high resolution WAV files for the ultimate sound as well as the lesser quality MP3 files in either stereo or mono recording.
If this has your interest, you can read more here:
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/field-recording/zoom-h4n-handy-recorder
Anthony G.
Camano Island
From: Tweeters [mailto:
tweeters-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Gary Bletsch
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 8:43 AM
To: Tweeters Tweeters; Gary Bletsch
Subject: [Tweeters] eBird audio question
Dear Tweeters,
It seems easy to add photos to eBird. Adding audio is another story. I have tried to read up on this topic, in eBird's own help menu and FAQ's, but I don't see a simple set of instructions. Searching online, I do see all sorts of YouTube videos, but I think that YouTube video is a poor way to instruct people, compared to a set of written instructions.
The two things that I would like to do are these:
1. take audio from a video recording made with my camera, and put it into an eBird checklist;
2. take audio from a video made with my iPhone, and put that into an eBird checklist.
I have zero knowledge or experience with handling videos and audios with a computer. My computer is has Windows 10, and I do see that it comes with Microsoft Photos, which supposedly includes something called Video Editor, which supposedly allows one to convert a file to a WAV file. It seems that eBird accepts only audio recordings in the form of WAV files. What that means is Greek to me, however. Meanwhile, I have quite a few interesting audio recordings of various birds from all over the world, sitting in computer files, heard by no one!
Is there a set of instructions somewhere?
Any hints would be appreciated.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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