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BOOT CAMP 452 (28/11/06)
Vinyl and Tape to CD and MP3, part 3
Having dealt with connecting your record player
or cassette deck to your PC (part 1) and downloaded the free Audacity recording and editing
program (part 2), we are now ready to use it to make a recording on your
computer.
With everything connected and switched on pop
on a record or load a tape, open Audacity and select the correct input from the
drop-down menu on the top right hand corner (normally ‘Line In’).
We‘ll start by making a short test recording to
set the recording input level, so pick a track with a representative variation
in loud and soft passages, start the record or tape playing and as soon as the
music begins click Audacity’s red Record button.
The timeline bar starts moving across the
screen displaying the waveform of the signal it is recording. Adjust the Input
Volume slider (next to the Input drop-down menu) so that the bar graph display
peaks just below the red line on the right.
Leave it to record for a few minutes then click
the Stop button and ‘rewind’ to the beginning by clicking on the scroll bar at
the bottom of the screen and dragging it to the left as far as it will go. Click
the mouse pointer into the start of the timeline display; press the Play button
and playback begins. Listen (and watch) carefully for distortion, ‘clipping’ or
excessive background noise and if necessary repeat the input level adjustment
until you are happy with the recording.
While the test recording is still on the screen
it’s worth familiarising yourself with a few simple editing functions that
we’ll be using next week. Move the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen to the
end of the recording. Click and hold the mouse button immediately after the end
of the recording timeline then drag it to the left and release and that part of
the recording will be highlighted.
Audacity now works just like your word
processor. You can Copy, Paste or Cut the highlighted section in exactly the
same way that you would a word or section of highlighted text. Try it. Click
the Delete button on your keyboard and the highlighted section disappears.
Click the Undo button (or press Ctrl + Z) and it returns. Press Ctrl + C (or
Copy on the Edit menu) and the highlighted section is copied to the Clipboard.
Move the cursor to another part of the recording, click to insert a timeline
bar and press Ctrl + V (or Paste on the Edit menu) and the section you’ve
copied is inserted into the recording.
If you want to hear what it sounds like
(probably very odd…) click a timeline bar just before the new pasted section
and press the Play button. Obviously this is not something you would normally
do but to illustrate how useful this feature can be go back and highlight a
longer section of the recoding. Select as little or as much as you like by
moving the cursor whilst holding down the mouse button, Alternatively you can
use the ‘Select’ functions on the Edit menu (Start to Cursor, End to Cursor).
Press Ctrl + C (or Copy). Now go to New on the File menu and a new Audacity
desktop opens. Press Ctrl + V (Paste) and your highlighted section appears as a
new recording, which can be named and saved, like a new document. This
technique can be used to ‘split’ or separate tracks if you elect to record the
entire side of a record or tape in one go (see also this week’s Top Tip).
Before we move on there are a couple of other
features in Audacity’s extensive range of special effects that are worth getting
to know. Highlight a 2 or 3 second segment at the end of your test recording.
On the Effects menu select Fade Out and the waveform or volume smoothly reduces
to zero. This is useful if you need to shorten a track but don’t want it to end
abruptly; you can also do the same sort of thing at the beginning of a track
with the Fade In effect. Changing the length of the highlighted section will
make the fade progressively longer or shorter. Notice also on the Effects menu
there are options for ‘click’ and ‘Noise’ removal, we’ll be looking at those in
more detail next week.
It’s time now to get your hand dirty and make
your first proper recording. Personally I like to keep things simple and record
each track separately but there’s nothing to stop you recording the whole of
one side of album. When you have finished play it back to make sure it’s all
there. Listen out for any imperfections and if you find any make a note of the
time index. Next week we’ll edit and process your recording in preparation for
copying to a CD or an MP3 player.
Next Week -- Vinyl and Tape to CD and MP3, pt 4
JARGON FILTER
BARGRAPH
Graphical
display representing the relative level of an input or output signal
CLIPPING
Excessively
high volume level setting causing the peaks in a recording to be cut or
‘clipped’ resulting in a distorted sound
TIMELINE
Graphical display representing time on the horizontal axis and
signal level on the vertical axis
TOP TIP
Audacity has a handy ‘plug-in’ called a ‘Silence Finder’, which
can help you split up a continuous recording of one side of an LP or cassette
tape. Simply highlight the whole recording (Edit > Select > All or Ctrl +
A) then go to Analyze > Silence Finder. On most recordings you can safely
leave the dialogue box that appears on its default settings; if it doesn’t work
properly and fails to identify the gaps between the tracks go back and adjust
the Silence Level and Time Duration settings accordingly. Click OK and after a
few second the silences between tracks are flagged up on a timeline bar that
appears beneath the main track timeline.
---end---
© R. Maybury 2006, 2211
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