If you are borrowing equipment for audio recording, here are some tools that you might find helpful.

Free/Open Source Audio Editing Software:

• Audacity
  • ​Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. The interface is translated into many languages.
• Ardour
  • Ardour is an open source, collaborative effort of a worldwide team including musicians, programmers, and professional recording engineers. Multi-track audio recorder and editor for Linus, OS X, and Windows.
• LMMS
  • LMMS is an open source digital audio workstation application program that allows music to be produced by arranging samples, synthesizing sounds, playing on a MIDI keyboard and combining the features of trackers and sequencers. Compatible with GNU/Linux, OpenBSD, OS X and Windows.
• ocenaudio
  • ocenaudio is a cross-platform, easy to use, fast and functional audio editor that is available for all major operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
• WavePad
  • WavePad is a full-featured professional audio and music editor for Windows and Mac. It lets you record and edit music, voice and other audio recordings.

Other Resources and Tutorials:

• Audio + Music Training and Tutorials from LinkedIn Learning
  • Your University of Pittsburgh log-in gives you access to vast array of digital learning resources via LinkedIn Learning. To access LinkedIn Learning tutorials, follow these simple instructions: Log on to linkedinlearning.pitt.edu 
• Transom
  • Transom is a showcase and workshop for new public radio. Their website has shows, tools, techniques, and ideas all related to making radio content.
• Blue Yeti Review and Setup Guide
  • A quick 10 minute video by JayzTwoCents demonstrating the basic settings of the Yeti microphone used in the Podcasting Kit.
• Zoom H1 Tutorial
  • A video tutorial for using the Zoom H1 Digital Audio Recorder. Produced by the College of Communications at Penn State.
• Tascam DR-100 MKII: Getting Started
  • A video tutorial for getting started with the Tascam DR-100 MK II portable field recorder by Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries.

If you are borrowing equipment for video recording, here are some tools that you might find helpful:

Free/Open source video editing software:

• Lightworks
  • Video editing software, Lightworks offers a free license version with all the tools – the only restriction is on output formats.  Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
• iMovie 
  • With a streamlined design and intuitive editing features, iMovie lets you enjoy your videos and tell stories like never before. Browse your video library, share favorite moments, and create beautiful movies that you can edit at resolutions up to 4K.  Only available for Mac OS X and iOS.
• Avidemux
  • Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.  Available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Windows.
• OpenShot
  • OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
• Blender
  • Is a professional, free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Blender's features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, camera tracking, rendering, motion graphics, video editing and compositing. It also features an integrated game engine.
• Handbrake

  • HandBrake is a free and open-source transcoder for digital video files to make ripping a film from a DVD to a data storage device easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions. HandBrake is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Other Resources and Tutorials:

• Video Training and Tutorials from LinkedIn Learning 
  • Your University of Pittsburgh log-in gives you access to vast array of digital learning resources via LinkedIn Learning. To access LinkedIn Learning tutorials, follow these simple instructions: Log on to linkedinlearning.pitt.edu
• Hero5 Black Quick Start Guide
  • A short video by VideoLane that walks you through the basics of using the Hero5 GoPro
• eBooks on vlogging available through the University Library System
  • YouTube Channels for Dummies by Rob Ciampa and Theresa Moore
  • Hands-on Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting by Lionel Felix, Damien Stolarz & Jennifer Jurick
• LUMIX LX10 How To
  • YouTube Playlist produced by Panasonic USA that include short tutorials on different features of the Lumix DMC-LX10.

If you are borrowing equipment for photography, here are some tools that you might find helpful.

Free/Open source photo editing software:

• GIMP
  • GIMP is a free cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and more operating systems.
•  Inkscape
  • Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format.
• Krita
  • Krita is a free-software and an open-source raster graphics editor, designed primarily for digital painting and animation purposes. It features a low-distract UI, high-quality OpenGL accelerated canvas, color management support, advanced brush engine, non-destructive layers and masks, group-based layer management, vector artwork support and switchable customization profiles. It runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and macOS.
•  Paint.NET

  • Paint.NET is an image and photo editing software free for download onto any Windows computer.

• Fotor
  • Fotor is a free online photo editing suite that is also available for download on Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android devices.
• Blender
  • Blender is a professional, free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Blender's features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, camera tracking, rendering, motion graphics, video editing and compositing. It also features an integrated game engine.
• Greenshot
  • Greenshot is a free and open source screenshot program for Microsoft Windows.

​Other Resources and Tutorials: 

•  Photography Training and Tutorials from LinkedIn Learning
  • Your University of Pittsburgh log-in gives you access to vast array of digital learning resources via LinkedIn Learning. To access LinkedIn Learning tutorials, follow these simple instructions: Log on to linkedinlearning.pitt.edu
• Panasonic Lumix G7 Full Body Tour
  • Brief video tour of the Lumix G7 camera by Omar Correa

Looking for music, sound effects, videos or images to use in your projects?  Try these sites*:

Music:

• Dig.ccMixter
• Internet Archive
• Free Music Archive
  • Podington Bear
• Sound of Picture

Sound Effects:

• Partners in Rhyme
• AudioBlocks

Images or video:

• Creative Commons Search
• Internet Archive
• Morguefile
• Pexels: Free stock photos you can use everywhere.  Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
• Pixabay
• USA.gov photos and images
• All-free-download
• Free Images

*Please note that each of the sites may have different policies on how you may use their content.

Borrowing the Stream Capture Card, here are some tools that you might find helpful.

Elgato Game Capture Software:

• Elgato Game Capture Software
  • Available for Windows and Mac devices
• Open Broadcaster Software
  • (OBS) is a free and open-source streaming and recording program maintained by the OBS Project. The program has support for Windows 7 and later, OS X 10.10 and later, and Ubuntu 14.04 and later.

Other Resources and Tutorials:

• Game Capture HD60 S tutorials by Elgato
  •  Short tutorials on how to connect the stream capture card to a PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, or iOS devices
• Connecting Yeti USB Mic to Playstation 4 - Twitch Streaming and Chat by Blue Microphone and The Papadum Geek
  • ​Want to use the the Podcasting Kit and the Stream Capture Card together with your PS4?  This 2 minute video will walk you through how to connect the mike, the stream capture card, and the PS4 console

The Digital Scholarship Commons has a computing area with 12 PC workstations, each with an ultrawide monitor.  Use your Pitt computing account to log on. The following software is available on each of these machines:

Adobe Creative Suite/Cloud DC (media creation and editing)
Anaconda 2  (data science platform for python)
ARCGis  10.6  (commercial desktop GIS)
Arduino 1.8.3
Audacity 2.1.3  (open source audio editor)
Blender 2.78 (3D modeling)
Chrome (web browser)
DB Browser for SQLite 3.9.1  (open source relational database manager)
Docker with Hyper-V  (software containers)
Fiji (scientific image analysis)
Filemaker Pro 16 (commercial relational database manager)
Firefox (web browser)
Garmin VIRB Edit (360 video editing)
Gephi  0.9.1 (network analysis and visualization)
Git 2.13.3 (source control management)
Github client 3.2.0.0  (source control management
Google Earth Pro 7.3 (global digital map)
JetBrains PyCharm
MALLET  2.0.8 (text analysis / topic modelling)
Microsoft Office Professional 2016 (documents, spreadsheets, presentations)
Nvivo  11 (transcription and qualitative analysis)
Open Refine  2.7(tabular data cleaning)
oXygen  19 (XML creation and editing)
Panopto  5.7 (video platform for teaching and presenting)
PixPro 360 Stitch
Processing  3.3.5 (computational visual design)
Protege (ontology creation and editing)
Putty (SSH client)
Qgis  2.18.2  (open source desktop GIS)
Ricoh Theta SC (360 video capture)
RStudio  (data science platform for R)
Sculptris Alpha 6 (3D sculpting)

Looking for some help beyond the user guides?  The sections on Audio Production, Video Production, Photography, or the Stream Capture Card may be of interest.