[bookport] Re: A Step-by-Step Guide For Converting four-trackhalf-speed cassette-based Data to MP3 Digi

Sorry, my mistake.  Should've read correctly.

Pratik
 


Pratik Patel
Interim Director
Office of Special Services
Queens College
Director
CUNY Assistive Technology Services
The City University of New York
     ppatel@xxxxxx
 
-----Original Message-----
From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Chris Hill
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 8:57 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: A Step-by-Step Guide For Converting
four-trackhalf-speed cassette-based Data to MP3 Digi

Nope, if you stick a nls cassette into a stereo player, it plays 1 and
4; that's why one track plays backwards.


On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 18:51:51 -0400, you wrote:

>All of this is correct.  The only information that needs to be changed is
>that the sides with the braille side up  are not sides 1 and 4 but rather 1
>and 3.  There are more efficient ways of working this out in Sound Forge as
>well.  When I have a little time, I'll write up the procedure for this
list.
>
>Pratik
>
>
>
>Pratik Patel
>Interim Director
>Office of Special Services
>Queens College
>Director
>CUNY Assistive Technology Services
>The City University of New York
>     ppatel@xxxxxx
> 
>-----Original Message-----
>From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>On Behalf Of MICHAEL MCCARTY
>Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 3:08 PM
>To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [bookport] Re: A Step-by-Step Guide For Converting
>four-trackhalf-speed cassette-based Data to MP3 Digi
>
>Nolan,
>
>Could I use your overview of turning a four-track cassette in to an MP3
>in Fred's Head?  I'd love this information to appear in our database. 
>You will receive full credit for the article of course.
> 
>Michael McCarty
>
>An Overview:
>
>This mini tutorial will provide the steps necessary for converting data
>from
>a four-track half-speed cassette to MP3 files used by the Book Port. 
>None
>of the steps here are screen reader specific, but all of the steps
>assume
>that you have Sound Forge, and this was written on the basis of Sound
>Forge
>8.0.
>
>WHAT YOU NEED:
>
>You'll need a stereo cassette player capable of playing both channels
>of a
>stereo cassette at the regular 1-7/8 Inches Per Second speed at least. 
>If
>you have a dubbing deck that can move the tape at an even faster rate,
>that's even better, provided the dubbing signal can travel from the
>deck
>into your computer's sound card.  You'll also need a half-speed
>four-track
>cassette recording such as Newsweek or the Reader's Digest, both
>available
>from the American Printing House for the Blind.  You'll need the
>appropriate
>cords to connect your tape deck or handicassette machine to your
>computer's
>sound card.  You'll need a computer with a sound card capable of
>receiving a
>line in signal.  I'm using a Live Value card from Creative Labs.  Prior
>to
>completing these steps, you'll need to create a 24 kilobits per second
>MP3
>template in Sound Forge.  You may want to opt for 24 KBPS and mono
>rather
>than stereo recording when you create this template.  The creation of
>such a
>template is outside the scope of this document, but virtually every
>version
>of Sound Forge from 5 to 8, and probably earlier, is capable of
>creating a
>24-KBPS mono MP3 file template.  This is important because it's what
>you
>will use when you save the final product we convert from the cassette.
>Also, make sure you've gone into the record options of your volume
>control
>and that you've checked your line-in volume to be one of the volume
>controls
>shown in the volume control settings of your computer.  I do this by
>running
>a program called sndvol32, which can be found on your computer.  Again,
>the
>details for doing this are outside the scope of this document.  By
>selecting
>the line in volume, you ensure that you will be able to hear a signal
>if you
>wish to do that.
>
>For the purposes of this little mini guide, I'll assume that you're
>using a
>stereo cassette machine capable only of playing tapes at the standard
>speed.
>
>THE STEPS:
>
>1.  Insert your four-track tape into the cassette machine, making sure
>the
>machine can play both stereo channels at once and that it is set at the
>high
>or standard speed of 1-7/8 IPS.  Cue the cassette the old-fashioned
>way--by
>rapidly finding the beginning of the voice track, stopping the tape
>immediately at the beginning, then removing the cassette and rewinding
>it
>slightly with your finger, re-inserting the cassette, putting the
>pause
>control on, and activating the play button.
>
>2.  Make sure your cords are properly connected between the cassette
>unit
>and your computer's sound card.
>
>3.  Open Sound Forge
>
>4.  Activate the record preparation control in Sound Forge with
>Control+R.
>When you check your record attributes, make certain that you're
>sampling at
>44,100 Hz. and that the stereo channel radio button is selected.  You
>can do
>that by tapping the Alt+C key combination, then moving through the
>radio
>button selections with your arrow keys.  You have only two selections
>here--mono and stereo.  Make sure you've selected stereo.  The sampling
>rate
>designation is a combo box, so your Up and Down Arrow keys should let
>you
>see your choices.  Make certain 44,100 Hz. is selected.
>
>5.  Simultaneously do an Alt+R key combination to start the recording
>and
>release the pause button on your player.  The Time Recorded information
>in
>Sound Forge should begin to show the number of seconds and eventually
>minutes and seconds the machine is recording, and you should hear the
>signal
>through your computer speakers.
>
>6.  At the conclusion of the recording, between 30 and 45 minutes from
>when
>you start, depending on whether you're converting a magazine or
>full-fledged
>book, do an Alt+F4 to terminate the recording.  You should now have
>two
>tracks recorded on your hard drive--track one, which will sound normal
>except for the double speed component that will give it a chipmunk
>effect,
>and track four, which will sound reversed.  Please remember when
>you're
>using a stereo machine to convert four-track half-speed cassettes, the
>braille side of the cassette will include tracks one and four while
>the
>non-braille side will include tracks two and three.  Since we recorded
>the
>tape with the braille side up, we're working on tracks one and four.
>
>7.  Do a Control+Home key combination to move to the top of your
>recorded
>file and tap Spacebar to hear the beginning to make sure it sounds
>relatively ok so far.  Remember, you should be hearing both tracks
>with
>voices that sound like a speeded up cassette.  You may not hear track
>four
>immediately at the same time you hear track one.  This is because of
>the
>mastering process.  Eventually, however, you'll hear track four nice
>and
>loud and backwards.
>
>8.  Activate only the channel that includes the reverse track four. 
>For me,
>it's my right channel, so I would tap the Tab key twice--once to
>activate
>only the left channel and again to activate only the right one. 
>Whatever it
>takes, this right channel must be the one you hear when you tap the
>Spacebar.
>
>9.  With the reverse track four channel activated, open the Process
>menu
>with Alt+P and activate the mute channel menu item by simply tapping
>M.
>After a few seconds of processing time, the reverse track channel,
>again for
>me the right channel, is muted entirely.
>
>10.  Tap your Tab key two times to activate the relatively
>normal-sounding
>track, track 1, and tap your Spacebar just to make sure that's the one
>you
>have activated.  
>
>11.  Now execute a Control+A key combination to select all the audio in
>the
>channel from the beginning to the end.  Then do a Control+C key
>combination
>to copy the selected material to the clipboard.
>
>12.  Open a new sound window with Control+N and make absolutely sure
>you do
>the two following actions.  Failure to do either of these could result
>in a
>less-than-successful outcome.
>A.  In the sample rate combo box that comes up first thing when you
>open a
>new sound window, up arrow until you have selected 22.050 Hz. as your
>new
>sampling rate.  Notice this is exactly half of the sampling rate you
>used
>when you created the original recording.
>B.  Change the channel selection radio button from stereo to mono with
>Alt+C
>then Up Arrow to Mono.  Tap Enter to accept the new settings.
>
>13.  Paste the text you selected earlier into this new window with
>Control+V.  When you do, a dialogue opens, asking if you're sure you
>want to
>do this, since the resampling will alter the pitch of the voices. 
>Activate
>the Yes button, and the paste process will go forward from there.
>
>14.  You're almost ready to save this as an MP3 file.  But if you're a
>bit
>of a perfectionist, as I am when it comes to this audio stuff, you'll
>want
>to trim the ends and possibly get rid of the unnecessary instructions
>about
>turning the cassette over and such.  I do leave the side designations
>in mbo box, so your Up and Down Arrow k
>place as well as the table of contents material if it exists.  Just use
>your
>Sound Forge editing commands to trim the ends to your liking.
>
>15.  Open the Save File dialogue (Control+S) and make sure the 24 KBPS
>template you created earlier is selected.  Give the file an appropriate
>file
>name with an MP3 extension, make certain the file will go to a
>directory
>where your Book Port transfer software can easily find it, and activate
>the
>Save button.
>
>16.  Close the sound window; you no longer need this one open.  When
>you
>close the window, (Control+W works nicely for that), you'll be asked to
>save
>changes.  You already have saved the file, so opt for the no button at
>that
>point, and the window is closed and you're back in your original
>chipmunk-sounding recording with the track four reverse channel still
>muted
>out.
>
>17.  It's time to restore the channel you muted earlier.  Do a
>Control+Z key
>combination or open the Edit menu and select the undo option--either
>way.
>After a few seconds, tap the Spacebar to ensure that your reverse track
>four
>channel is indeed back.
>
>18.  Now it's time to mute out the track one normal-sounding (left)
>channel
>that you've already saved as an MP3 file.  Tap Tab twice to activate
>that
>channel and make it the dominant one.  If you only tap Tab once, you'll
>get
>both channels evenly.  With the normal-sounding channel now the
>dominant
>one, open the processes menu, (Alt+P), and activate the mute command
>by
>tapping M.  
>
>19.  Tap Tab once to make the reverse track four the dominant channel
>again.
>You'll be working with this channel for the rest of the time.
>
>20.  Select the entire contents of this channel with Control+A then
>copy the
>contents to the clipboard (Control+C)
>
>21.  Open a new sound window (Control+N), and remember that it will be
>unchanged from the other sound window you opened earlier in order to
>save
>track one.  In other words, this new window will also include a
>sampling
>rate of 22,050 Hz. and the channel selection will still be mono.  Tap
>Enter
>to accept these settings.
>
>22.  Now paste the contents of the clipboard into the new sound window
>you've just opened.  Again, the dialogue will open, appointing out
>that
>you're about to alter the pitch of your data.  Simply activate the yes
>button and the paste will commence.
>
>23.  Now that the channel is pasted, open the processes menu (Alt+P)
>and
>activate the reverse process with R.  After a few seconds, your track
>four
>will sound normal in pitch and certainly normal in terms of the
>content.
>
>24.  Because of the mastering process, this track will almost
>inevitably
>have lots of space at one end or another that you can trim.  This is
>the
>point at which you trim the ends if you want to.
>
>25.  Save this channel now as the second MP3 file.  I usually call it
>by the
>magazine or book name and then delineate track 4.  So it might say,
>Newsweek
>July 4 track 4.mp3.
>
>26.  Now close this sound window; you no longer need it once the file
>is
>saved.
>
>27.  Now close the window that contained the original
>chipmunk-sounding
>tracks.  You don't need to save it for any reason, so simply activate
>the no
>button when Sound Forge points out that the file is changed but not
>saved.
>
>28.  Now it's time to clean up after yourself a bit.  By that, I mean
>that
>you need to restore your sampling rate and channel selection settings
>in
>preparation for recording the non-braille side of the cassette.  To do
>that,
>open a new sound window with Control+N and down arrow in the sample
>rate
>combo box until you again hear 44,100 Hz.  Also, give focus to the
>channel
>selection radio buttons (Alt+C) and down arrow until stereo is
>selected,
>then tap Enter to accept the settings.  This is an extremely important
>part
>of the process.  It's too easy to just close Sound Forge and think
>you'll
>fix that part later, only to start a recording later having forgotten
>to do
>this fix.
>
>29.  Insert the cassette braille side down into your machine, cue it,
>and
>repeat steps 4 to 29.
>
>Congratulations!  You've successfully completed your four-track
>conversion.
>
>Nolan Crabb
>
>
>
>
>Michael McCarty
>Fred's Head Database Coordinator
>American Printing House for the Blind
>Phone: 502 895-2405
>Fax: 502 899-2363
>www.aph.org

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