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BOOT CAMP 152
MUSIC WHILE YOU WORK part 1
As recently as ten years ago a great many PCs were virtually
silent, apart that is from the whine from the cooling fan, an occasional bleep
from the internal speaker during boot up and a not so occasional screeching
sound when programs crashed… For a surprisingly long time sound cards and
external speakers were considered frivolous optional extras but Windows and the
burgeoning games market changed all that.
A stereo sound system is now an integral part of the modern
multimedia PC but few users realise just how good the audio quality of their
computers can be, thanks to the sound mangling properties of the cheap and nasty
speakers supplied with most systems. Most PC owners know that that they can play
audio CDs in their computer’s CD-ROM drive but those who bother to try are
usually disappointed because it sounds so awful, fewer still go on to explore
the many other possibilities, that can turn an ordinary PC into a versatile and
accomplished audio system.
We’re not about to suggest that the average home PC is a
serious alternative to a top-end hi-fi set up, it’s not, but if you’re sat in
front of a computer all day, and you enjoy listening to reasonable quality music
then there’s no sense in installing a separate sound system or hi-fi, make use
of your PC.
This week we’ll be taking a broad look at what your PC can do
and some simple steps you can take to improve its sonic performance; next week
we’ll delve deeper into the controversial area of music and sounds on the
Internet.
Playing audio CDs on the CD-ROM drive is only the beginning,
in fact PCs make excellent recording devices. Sounds are stored as digital data
on the hard disc drive which makes it much more versatile and flexible than
magnetic tape. Sound files can be accessed more or less instantaneously and with
the right software, sounds can be edited, mixed and manipulated faster and more
easily than is possible using conventional analogue tape recorders and sound
mixing equipment. However, on a more basic level, you can record music from any
external source to playback on your PC, and that includes a microphone, vinyl
record deck, cassette tape CD or MiniDisc player, even a radio, VCR or TV. The
only proviso is that your PC has to have an audio or ‘Line’ and microphone input
sockets. Virtually all models do – including most laptops -- usually on the back
panel, close to the socket for the external speakers.
All versions of Windows come with a Sound Recorder utility
(Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment) but it is very basic
and you have to mess around with the filing system to get it to record for more
than a minute or so. Fortunately there
are plenty of very well equipped freeware and shareware sound recorder programs
available from the Internet, and we’ll be looking at some of them next week. In
the meantime if you want to carry out a few experiments and see what your PC is
capable of, have a play with Sound Recorder, or better still, download a small
program called Total Recorder 2.2 from shareware sites like Tucows
(www.Tucows.com). This makes high quality recordings in standard Windows sound
format (*.wav files) from internal sources, such as your CD-ROM, or any external
device, it can also be programmed to record or playback sound files at specified
times. All you need is the appropriate connecting lead (usually stereo minijack
to stereo minijack), which you can obtain from most video, hi-fi or PC accessory
dealers.
If you have the radio on when you’re working at your PC then
why not fit an FM radio card or adaptor module? There used to be quite a few of
them on the market though nowadays they’re harder to find but several TV tuner
cards have built-in FM radios. Tuner cards – if you can track one down -- cost
from around £20, combined TV and radio tuner cards sell for £46 upwards (see
Magic TV Tuner, www.jungle.com).
Installing extra software or hardware devices won’t do a
thing for actual sound quality, which is determined by the PC’s loudspeakers
you’re using with your PC. You can instantly improve the sound of your PC by
replacing the speakers, either with higher quality PC sound systems with
built-in amplifiers speakers and a sub-woofer; you can expect to pay to the
region of £200 for something approaching hi-fi quality. Alternatively you could
resurrect a pair of bookshelf speakers from a redundant hi-fi system. The sound
card/adaptors in most PCs have an amplified output, enough to drive a small
speaker directly; you can obtain a suitable lead from most video and audio
dealers. It probably won’t be very loud but this doesn’t usually matter, as
they’ll normally be sited quite close to you, either side of the screen.
Incidentally, avoid putting hi-fi speakers right next to the monitor as the
magnets inside can cause colour ‘staining’ on the screen, which the monitor’s
‘degauss’ system may have trouble removing.
Next week – Music while you work, part 2
JARGON FILTER
DEGAUSS
De-magnetise. A coil around the outside of the monitor screen
induces a collapsing magnetic field that eradicates any magnetic build up on
metal components inside the picture tube
SUB WOOFER
Loudspeaker designed specifically to reproduce low frequency
bass sounds, used extensively in ‘shoot-em-up’ PC games to produce gut-rumbling
effects and explosions
WAV
Short for waveform; the file extension .wav denotes digital
sound files used by Windows and most Windows games and applications.
TOP TIP
This week’s tip is for advanced Windows users with
troublesome PCs. Scanreg.ini is an undocumented utility in Windows 98 that
automatically makes a backup of the Registry every time the PC boot up
successfully. Up to five known good copies (rb001.cab - rb005.cab) are stored in a Windows folder
called Sysbckup, which Windows will use to replace a corrupted or damaged
Registry.
Scanreg.ini lets you can change the number of Registry
backups and it can also be set to backup other vital system files in the Windows
directory or the Windows System folder.
Go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘Scanreg.ini’, which
will open as a text file in Windows Notepad. The command line that sets the
number of Registry backups is:
MaxBackupCopies=5
Unless you have a compelling reason to do so – such as
persistent Registry problems -- it’s best left on the default value of 5.
To backup other system files you need to add the command line
‘Files=’, (without the inverted commas of course) to the end of scanreg.ini,
followed by a folder code. For example, to backup the Windows System directory
the line would read:
‘Files=11’
You can add extra folder codes, separated by commas, and even
the names of system files, so if you also wanted to backup config.sys, for
example, the line would read:
‘Files=11, config.sys
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