The Easy Guide to Recording an Audio CD
to a Wave file using
AudioView
PREPARATION:
1) Make sure that you can play audio CDs through your soundcard.
If not, please check in the soundcard's manual for instructions
on how to remedy this, or contact the soundcard manufacturer for
technical support.
2) Make sure that the CD Audio Input has been enabled as an active
recording input in the Windows Volume Control. Here's how:
- Open the Windows Volume Control mixer applet by going to
Start | Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Volume Control.
- Make sure the Mute box for the CD Audio fader is not checked.
- Click on Options | Properties, then click on the Recording radio button.
- Make sure the CD Audio (or CD-ROM) box is checked.
- Click OK. Close the Volume Control.
OKAY, HERE WE GO...
1) Insert your audio CD in the CD-ROM drive. Click the play button in
your AudioStation CD Player and make sure you can hear it playing.
2) Open AudioView. Click on File and choose New. The Sound Selection
dialog box will open. In the Name: field choose CD Quality.
The Format: field should say PCM and the Attributes: field should say
44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo 172kB/s. Click OK.
3) Now switch to AudioView and click on the big red Record button.
- The Record button and the Pause button (light blue double bars) should
be flashing. This means AudioView is in Record/Pause mode, where
you can monitor the recording level of the audio without actually
recording.
- In AudioStation CD Player, start the CD playing.
- Switch back to AudioView. The LED-style level meters to the
upper right should be moving side to side, indicating the level of the
incoming audio. If not, then go back and check that you have enabled your
CD-ROM drive as a recordable input (as in step #2).
The meters should venture into the yellow region fairly often, but if
they hit the red area often you will probably find that the final file
is distorted. Go to your Audio Mixer and adjust the CD-ROM Audio volume
fader for best level in AudioView's meters.
4) Once you have found a good level, go back and stop the CD.
- Switch to AudioView and press the Record button again.
This time the Record button and the Play button (light blue arrow)
will stay lit and the time display will count the time since
recording started.
- Switch back to AudioStation CD Player and start the CD track playing.
- Switch back again to AudioView and listen for the end of the CD track.
When the song is finished, click the Stop button (black square).
The waveform will be displayed in AudioView like this:
- Switch back to the AudioStation CD Player and stop the CD.
- Switch back to AudioView and play your new recording (hit the Play
button, a right facing arrowhead). Make sure that it came out OK.
If the level is a little low, don't worry. We'll fix that in a minute.
- Save the file (File | Save, or Ctrl + S).
POST-PRODUCTION (or "Fun for Tweakers"):
This is where you can edit your new Wave file. You may want to have exactly
two seconds of silence at the beginning of each file so that there will be
that much silence in between the audio tracks if you burn a CD of your own
in a CD-Recordable drive. You may also want to have the audio fade in at the
beginning or fade out at the end. Here are a few audio processes explained:
1) Normalize
You may find that your newly recorded Wave file is a little too low in
volume. To bring the whole file up to its maximum level (without
distorting), do this:
- Select the whole file by double-clicking on the waveform display, by going
Edit | Select All, or by pressing the Ctrl and A keys on your keyboard.
- Choose Normalize from the Tools menu.
- This will bring the 'peaks' in the audio file to 0.0 dB, which is
the loudest level a digital audio file can be. The waveform will
look 'bigger' in the display.
2) Crop
You may have a few seconds too many of silence at the beginning and ending
of your audio file. You can quickly remove these unwanted silent areas
using the Crop command. Here's how:
- Click on the + or - buttons to the lower right in the waveform
display to zoom your view in or out. Make sure you can see the
entire desired area of the audio file that you wish to keep.
- Using the mouse, click to the left of the area you wish to keep,
and drag to the end of the desired area. The 'selected' area of
the Wave file will now be bright yellow on a white background (if
you have left the view color settings at the defaults).
- Crop to the selected area - in the AudioView menu bar, go
Edit | Crop, or press Ctrl + R.
Only the selected area will remain. You may now save this file as a 16 bit,
44.1 kHz PCM Wave file.
3) Fade Out / Fade In
If you are making a compilation for a dance mix to play at a party, you may
want to fade in at the beginning or fade out at the end of a song. Here's
how to do it:
- Open your song as a Wave file in AudioView.
- Select the portion of the waveform that you would like to fade in or
fade out. You select an area by clicking on the beginning of the
desired area and while holding down the left mouse button, swipe the
area of the file to be selected. When you get to the end of the desired
area to be selected, let go of the mouse button. The selected area will
be a different color than the original (unselected) area of the
waveform. Here is what the selected area will look like:
- Now go to the Tools menu and select Fade In (or Fade Out). The fade
will be applied only to the selected portion of the waveform.
FADE IN:
To fade in the beginning of a sound, select from the beginning (left side)
of the file to where you want the sound to reach full volume. Then click on
Tools | Fade In. This will make the file start in silence and fade up where
the selected area ends.
FADE OUT:
To fade out the end of a sound, select from the very end and work your way
back to where you want the fade out to start.
Then click on Tools | Fade Out.
There are many ways to enhance your audio files in AudioView.
Don't be afraid to explore!
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