[bookport] Re: A Step-by-Step Guide For Converting four-trackhalf-speed cassette-based Data to MP3 Digi
- From: "Pratik Patel" <pratikp1@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 21:17:57 -0400
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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