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BOOT CAMP 451 (21/11/06)
Vinyl and Tape to CD and MP3, part 2
Last week we looked at the first of the four or
five stages involved in copying or transferring vinyl records and cassette
tapes onto CDs or MP3 players and you should now be able to connect your record
turntable or cassette deck to your computer.
Stage 2 involves converting the analogue
signals coming from your audio components into digital data and recording it
onto your computer’s hard disc drive. Windows has a built-in Sound Recorder
utility but it is far too basic for our purposes and has no editing or
processing facilities to speak of so we are going to be using something a
little more sophisticated. There are plenty of recording and editing programs
to choose from but in my opinion one of the best ones is a free ‘Open Source’
application called Audacity. It’s an old friend that should be familiar to
regular readers but the point is that it does everything we need apart from
actually recording (‘burning’) the finished CD, so let’s take a quick look at
the key features.
Sounds coming into your CD, whether they are
from a microphone, record player (see part 1) or cassette deck are first
converted from their analogue form into digital data by the PC’s audio adaptor
or soundcard, and this is where Audacity comes in. It can record any sound
generated by your computer or passing through its sound system and this
includes ‘streamed’ audio from Internet radio stations and websites. Sound
files in the most common audio formats (WAV, AIFF, AU, Ogg Vorbis, MP2 &
MP3) can also be imported into Audacity.
The program has many advanced features that we
won’t be using in this relatively straightforward application but for the
record it can dub and record up to 16 separate audio channels (depending on the
PC hardware). Audacity has a wide range of effects, including the ability to
change pitch and tempo. For advanced users there’s a comprehensive set of
level, equalisation and compression controls and if you want to get creative it
also has Echo, Phaser, Wahwah and Reverse effects to play with.
However, the features we are most interested in
are the Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete editing tools and they are very easy to use
-- think of Audacity as the audio equivalent of a word processor. It’s safe
too, and if you really get into a tangle there’s an unlimited ‘Undo’ option.
Since we are going to be dealing with recordings that may not be in pristine
condition Audacity’s filters will come in handy for removing hiss, hum, fizz
and the multitude of unwanted sounds that crop up on old recordings.
You may be wondering why you need to edit your
recordings? In fact if you are well organised you won’t have to but many people
find it easier to record the entire side of a record or cassette tape in one
go, which means you end up with what is effectively one very long track. That’s
not a problem and you can transfer it to a CD or convert it into an MP3 file
but if you want to produce a proper CD with individually selectable tracks then
you will either have to record each track separately or ‘split’ the recording.
Edited tracks can be saved or ‘exported’ in a
variety of audio formats, including WAV, AIFF, AU, Ogg Vorbis and MP3, though
the latter requires a free plug-in, which due to patent issues has to be
downloaded and installed separately, but we’ll come to that in a moment.
The last thing to do this week is download and
install Audacity on your computer. The Audacity Home page is: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Be
careful, Audacity’s name and address is widely ‘spoofed’ and if you make a
mistake or add ’www’ to the URL you may end up on an undesirable website. Once
there click the Download button and choose your operating system (Windows, Mac
or Linux). Click the link to the Audacity Installer or Zip file (currently
version 1.2.5) and save it to your desktop or a folder. When the download has
finished click on the file to start the installation and follow the prompts.
If you want to be able to save your recordings
in MP3 format, so they can be heard on a personal digital music player then you
need to download and install the optional LAME MP3 Encoder. It’s very easy,
just click the link on the Audacity download page and follow the instructions.
Next week we’ll make a start on copying your
first album in the meantime you should familiarise yourself with Audacity by
making a short test recording (see this week’s Top Tip).
Next Week -- Vinyl and Tape to CD and MP3, pt 3
JARGON FILTER
OGG VORBIS
Free,
unpatented ‘Open Source’ audio compression/decompression algorithm comparable
in quality with rival systems like MP3
OPEN
SOURCE
Software
with minimal licensing and broad, often free distribution, which users are
encouraged to help develop
PLUG-IN
A data file or program that extends the capability or adds
extra features to a program
TOP TIP
Once Audacity has been installed on your PC click the desktop icon
(or the one on the Programs list) to launch the program. To make a test
recording first select the input source from the drop-down menu in the top
right-hand corner. If you are recording from an external source select ‘Line
In’, for an Audio CD select CD Player, for sound made by your PC, Internet
radio/streamed audio etc. use Wave Out Mix, or micophone, if you have one
connected to your computer. Now click the red Record button, the tracks display
opens, the timeline bar moves across the screen and the waveform of the
recording is displayed. When you have finished use the mouse pointer to move
the timeline to the start of the recording and click Play and if all’s well you
will hear the replay through your PC’s speakers.
---end---
© R. Maybury 2006, 1511
Part 1 3 4 5
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