[bookport] Eric's 4 track tutorial
- From: "Barbara" <bcorner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:15:05 -0500
from Eric:
I originally wrote this tutorial for Cooledit 2000, but I had to rewrite it
when the company stopped selling the program. If anyone knows of a good
free sound editor that will work as good as GoldWave, please let me know.
This tutorial is published with no restrictions. Copy it, forward it, sell
it, I don't care.
Disclaimer: I do not condone the use of this method for copying works
without permission. What you do with it is up to you, and you agree to
take responsibility for your own actions. I won't be held responsible for
anything any of you crazy audio pirates do with this information yada yada
yada.
Arrrrrrrr matey!
Anyway, on with the tutorial.
I'm going to make a couple of assumptions. First, I'm going to assume that
you are at least moderately computer and electronically literate. If you
have any specific questions, please feel free to ask.
Before we try to convert 4-track tapes, we need to understand a few
things. Every single standard cassette tape ever made has four tracks or
channels. These shouldn't be confused with CD tracks, as they are totally
different. Each track on a cassette is virtually independent of every
other track. It's just like a TV with four channels. What's happening on
channel 2 doesn't have any effect on what's happening on channel 4.
In normal applications, you buy a cassette tape from the store (I guess
there are still people who do that, because they still sell them <g>), you
take it home, put it in your stereo, and hear beautiful stereo music (or
horrible stereo music, depending on your tastes.) That's because your
stereo is playing two tracks. One track is going to your left speaker, and
the other to your right. This is perfect for music, because it gives you a
nice sweeping stereo sound.
But what about an audio book? You couldn't care less if the readers voice
sweeps, so why should we use two channels to play the exact same thing. It
makes about as much sense as putting the State of the Union address on
every channel. Seems to be just a bit wasteful of good tape.
So, the first thing that the 4-track audio book standard does is it puts
different things on every channel. That's how we get the four sides on one
cassette. That's right; the four-track tapes that the NLS and RFBD use are
normal cassette tapes. They just have the information recorded to them
differently. By using this simple technique, they just effectively doubled
the size of a normal 90 minute tape to 180 minutes.
Here's how the four sides on a four-track tape match up to a normal
cassette:
Side 1 is on the left channel of side 1.
Side 2 is on the left channel of side 2.
Side 3 is on the right channel of side 2, but in reverse.
Side 4 is on the right channel of side 1 but in reverse.
So, that's why, if you put a four-track tape in a regular stereo, you'll
hear a fast talking person on the left channel, because that's side 1, and
you here a fast talking foreigner on the right channel, because that's side
4 backwards.
Also, in case you haven't figured it out yet, you can make copies of
four-track tapes on most cassette decks which support tape to tape
duplication. I say most because the cassette deck has to have good stereo
separation, which most do in my experience. But anyway, back to the
tutorial.
If you still don't understand what I've said so far about the 4-track
standard, let me explain it a different way.
When you put a cassette in your four-track machine and set the
side-selector switch to 1/2, you are playing the left channel of the
current side only. It doesn't matter if the tape has four-track
information recorded on it or not. When you flip the track selector switch
to 3-4, you will be playing the right channel of the other side of the
cassette. Remember that this right channel you're hearing is on the other
side of the tape, so it will be playing backwards if it is a normal
store-bought cassette.
I hope that you are not hopelessly confused by now. If so, keep reading
and rereading, and you'll get it. It's really not that complicated. Of
course, with my writing style, it might be. <g> Even if you don't get it,
go ahead and continue, and if you follow the following instructions
exactly, you can't go wrong. Also, don't be overwhelmed by the length or
seeming complexity of this tutorial. It's really quite simple and easy
once you get the hang of it. Most of you will probably find the following
instructions annoying in their over-simplicity, but I just want to make
sure that there is no confusion.
Anyway, another thing you should know about cassettes is they have a
relatively large range of frequencies they can store. This is great
because it allows you to enjoy the richest bass, as well as the shrillest
voices (Mariah Carey is a good example) with room to spare for those
frequencies that the dogs really hate.
But what about audio books, where even the most energetic of children's
narrators doesn't come close to hitting the upper limit? Again, it seems a
bit wasteful to have all that frequency available to us, and not use it.
The solution? Slow down the tape. Normally tapes run at about 1 7/8
inches per second. On the four track tapes, it runs at about 15/16 inches
per second.
Don't worry, I've already done the math. Four-track tapes are recorded
at half the speed of standard tapes. So, that means that when we play them
back in normal cassette players, they are twice as fast. This also means
that we've just doubled the size of our cassette again, from 180 minutes to
360 minutes or about 6 hours.
So, to copy them to the computer, we have to deal with the four tracks and
the doubled speed. Of course we could just connect the computer to our
four-track tape player and simply play the tape. That has the advantage of
being so easy that you didn't need me to tell you about it, but it's not as
fast as my method, and of course not nearly as cool. Instead of copying a
tape to your computer in 90 minutes or less, you're looking at a good 5
plus hours.
So, in short here's what we do. If you don't understand, don't worry, I'll
cover this step by step in a moment. This is just for those of you who,
like me, love to tinker with audio and already have a good grasp of the
concepts.
First we connect the computer to a stereo tape player, being careful to
only use stereo patch-cords. Then we record both sides of our 4-track tape
on to the computer, using 44100HZ, 16 bits, and stereo. If we wanted to at
this point, we could normalize the volume of the file to 100% as well as
cut off the silence from the beginning and end of the file, but we don't
have to. We could do this later on each individual file, or not at
all. It's really up to you. If you would like to do these things, consult
the instructions for your sound program, as it differs from program to
program.
We then adjust the sampling rate, so that it is half what it was
before. 44100 would be adjusted to 22050HZ, and so forth. It's important
not to convert the sample rate, but just to adjust the sample rate. If
your sound editor doesn't offer this option, you can decrease the speed to
50% of the original, and it will achieve the same result, but will take
twenty times longer to process.
After that, we select the left channel only, and save it as side one if it
is the first side of the cassette, or as side 2 if it is the second
side. Finally, we select the right channel, reverse it, and save it as
side 4 if we are working with the first side of the tape, or as side 3 if
we're working with side 2.
Trust me, it's really not that hard.
Now, as promised, the long and drawn out step by step description for those
of you who have better things to do with their time than play with the
sound card on the computer.
First you'll need to have a computer (duh) with a sound card. Almost any
sound card with line input will work fine. Most sound cards have these, so
don't worry if you're not sure. You'll also need a normal stereo cassette
player (the nls four-track players will not work because they don't have
stereo output), a sound editing program (in this tutorial we'll be using
Gold Wave V. 5, but other programs might work, though you'll have to figure
out exactly how to do it on your own), and a stereo patch-cord to connect
your tape player to your computer. You can get patch-cords from Radio
Shack and other electronics stores. If you go in and tell them that you
are trying to connect your tape player to your computer, and if you can
describe what size of connections you have on the back of your tape deck,
they should be able to get you the correct cord. I use a cord which has a
1/8 inch male headphone-type jack on the end that connects to my PC, and
two male RCA-type jacks (commonly used in connection with VCR's and DVD
players) on the other end that go into the line-out jacks of my tape
deck. This cord only cost $2.50, but I've seen it
for less.
Important Note! Don't connect your sound card to the speaker jacks of your
stereo. This could potentially damage your sound card and/or stereo. I
realize that the holes are the same size as the rca type connecters, but...
yeah, just don't do it.
You can obtain Gold Wave from
http://www.goldwave.com/ .
They have a trial
version available which has enough functionality to allow you to convert
around 50 4-track cassettes before it stops working. This may be enough for
most people. Or you could just buy the thing. It's a great value for $45.
You'll also need the lame mp3 encoder available from the Gold Wave download
page. Download and install both programs.
I should also mention now that you will get best results from a tape deck
with line-out connections, but it is possible to use a tape player with an
output for stereo headphones. Some people will tell you that sending
headphone output to a line-in jack won't work, but I can assure you that it
does. At least it does for me. But, it sucks because you have to fiddle
around until you have the volume control at the correct level to prevent
clipping (distortion
caused by too much volume). If, however, your tape deck only has speaker
outputs, then forget it. You'll have to find another machine to
use. Also, if you turn the volume up to loud on your tape player while
your computer is connected to it via the headphone jack, you could
potentially damage your sound card. I've never heard of this happening,
but I just have to mention the possibility just in case.
Oh yeah, if you don't have at least two gigs of free hard drive space, you
might encounter problems. These files are large until they're
compressed. Ok, well, two gigs is maybe a very generous estimate, but
better to have too much than too little.
Anyway, once you have everything connected, open up your volume control
panel (either from the system tray, or under start, programs, accessories,
entertainment, volume control; on windows 98, and similar locations under
windows xx) and turn the recording and playback line-in volume all the way
up. If you don't know, here's how to do this. Uh-oh, here we go, off on
another tangent.
I will assume now and throughout this tutorial that you are using
Jaws. Other screen readers might work similarly, but no guaranties.
So, you have the volume control open. You hit the tab key until you hear
"Line In Volume Control. Then hit the home key to turn it all the way
up. Also, if the mute button next to this control is checked, uncheck
it. At this point you should be able to play something on your tape player
and hear it through your speakers. Sometimes line in is called aux or
something different. You might have to fiddle around in here until you get
it right. If you just can't find the control, go to the options menu by
tapping alt and then pressing down arrow until you get to
properties. Press enter on properties. This brings up a dialog box where
you can select which sound card you want to configure, change from playback
controls to recording controls, and select which volume
controls appear in the main window. The last is what we need to do now, so
hit tab until you get to the list view. Then find "line-in" in the list,
press the space bar once on it to select it, and then tab to ok and hit
enter. Just be careful what you do in here because you can effectively
disable your
sound card. Don't worry, it's nothing that a computer savvy person can't
fix in about 30 seconds. It just might not be a bad idea to remember what
you're doing, and before you go on to try something else, put things back
the way they were.
Ok, if you can hear your tape deck through your computer speakers, you'll
know you're on the right track. You now need to go to the recording
controls and make sure the appropriate ones are turned on and turned up.
So, to do this, while you're still in the volume control window, go back to
the properties box. This time, however, you need to go to where it says
adjust volume for playback checked. Press the down arrow key until you get
to adjust volume for recording checked. Tab to ok and press enter.
Turn up the volume for the line in control and make sure that the select
button for line in is checked.
You can improve the quality of your recordings slightly by unchecking the
select buttons for the other unused controls such as cd audio, microphone,
wave, ETC. If after doing this you find that you can't record music from
your cd player or microphone, come back here and recheck the buttons for
the devices that you're trying to use.
On some types of sound cards, you can only have one input selected at a
time, so don't be surprised if you select one and all the others are
unselected.
To test things, leave your volume control window open, open windows sound
recorder (under start, programs, accessories, entertainment, sound
recorder), and try recording a little something from your tape
deck. Usually music is best for this test, as any distortion will be more
apparent. If everything sounds fine when you play it back, skip to step
1. If not, read on.
Now, up until this point, we've been assuming that you are using a tape
player with line-out capability. I'll discuss what to do if you only have
a deck with a headphone jack in a moment.
If and only if you are taking your output from line-out jacks, switch back
to the volume control window and turn down the line-in volume by about
20%. Then switch back to sound recorder and try again.
If you are taking your input from a headphone jack, you do basically the
same things as mentioned above. The only difference is that you start out
with the line-in volume on your computer all the way up, and you leave it
there. You don't change it. You also start out with your volume control
on your tape deck about a half turn from 0. If when you make the test
recording in windows sound recorder, the audio is distorted, turn the
volume control on your tape deck down about an eighth turn and try
again. If, however, the test audio is quiet in comparison to other sounds
on your computer, turn the volume up about an eighth turn and try again.
As you can plainly see, having a tape deck with line outputs is much much
much better, as you probably won't have to adjust anything. It'll most
likely work on the first try.
Ok, now that we've got everything set up, don't touch it, ever!!! Never
ever! Especially if you just spent ten minutes finding the perfect volume
on your tape deck because you don't have a deck with line outputs. Poor
you.
Ok, here we go.
1. Place the 4-track tape you want to copy in your machine on side
one. Don't worry, I won't insult your intelligence by reminding you to
rewind it first.
2. Make sure that the tape is rewound... Oh... Sorry.
3. if windows sound recorder is open, close it. Then close every other
program on your computer, except for your screen reader, of course. If
your computer has been on for a while, consider restarting. There's
nothing worse than having a system crash in the middle of a
recording. Finally, open Gold Wave.
4. Make sure everything is connected well and correctly, and then press
control n to create a new sound file. Then tab to the presets list box,
push the down arrow until you find "CD quality, 80 minutes" and then tab to
ok and press enter.
5. Press control-f9. You should be recording at this point.
6. press play on your tape deck.
7. Let the tape run completely through. While the tape is being copied,
it's best if you leave your computer completely alone. Don't do anything
with it. Not even Jaws. Tell all those other people who wanna' play
solitaire that they'll just have to wait. If you don't leave it alone, you
can cause errors in the final recording. Not serious errors. Probably
just skipping, but I'm picky about the quality of my recordings.
8. When the tape stops, or when the chemically-stimulated-chipmunks stop
talking on both speakers, press control-f8 to stop recording.
8.5 (optional) Now might be a good time to save your work, just in
case. Go to file, save as, and save it in the .wav format where ever you
like, just don't forget to delete it after you finish, as the file will
take up a lot of space on your hard drive.
It also might be a good idea to normalize the volume of this
file. Normalizing basically makes your sound file as loud as possible with
out causing it to distort. In Goldwave, normalizing is known as
maximizing. Anyway, to do so, go to the effects menu by pressing alt-c, go
down to volume and press enter, and then find and press enter on
maximize. Your computer should take a few minutes to scan the file and
then you should land in the presets list, so press down arrow until you get
to full dynamic range. Tab to ok and press enter.
9. We're now going to adjust the sample rate (not convert the sample
rate). Go to the effects menu by pressing alt-c and hit the down arrow
until you get to playback rate. Hit enter on that, and you should find
your self in an edit box with numbers. Press the down arrow until you hear
22,050. Once you are there, tap tab and press enter on ok.
10. Now that we have slowed down the recording, we need to cut the silence
off of the beginning and end of the left channel and save it. To do that,
we need to first select just the left channel. So, press shift-control-l.
11. to cut off the silence, press alt-c, and then hit the down arrow until
you get to filters, hit enter on filters, and hit the down arrow until you
hear silence reduction. Push enter on that, and you should be in the
presets list. Once there, press the down arrow to select reduce silences
to half a second, and then tab to ok, and press enter.
12. finally, press alt-f to go to file, and press the down arrow until you
hear "save selection as" and press enter. It is important not to press
enter on "save as", but "save selection as". Then, type the file name you
want to save side 1 as, select the location, select the mpeg audio (*.mp3)
type, press tab until you hear attributes, and then press the down arrow
until you get to layer 3, 22,500 HZ, 32kbps, mono. Finally, only after
having done everything mentioned above, press save. You will probably have
to press the down arrow several times to get to the 22,500hz, 32kbps, mono
option, but it's important to do so, otherwise your final mp3 file might be
of poor quality or very huge. Also, if you are working on side 2 of the
cassette, then you would obviously type the name of side 2 instead of side
1 like I mentioned above.
13. Now that we have the left track saved, we need to take care of the
right track. So, press shift-control-r to select the right channel.
14. Repeat step 11, and only step 11. Then come back and continue with
step 15.
15. press alt-c to go into the effects menu, and then go down and select
reverse.
16. repeat step 12 exactly, except this time you will be entering the file
name that you want to use for side 4 if you are on side 1 of the cassette,
or side 3 if you are on side 2.
17. repeat the entire process for any additional cassettes in the book,
remembering to add 4 to all side numbers.
And you are done!!! Wasn't that the funnest thing you've ever done in your
life? You probably even learned something along the way. I promise that
it will get easier and faster the more you do it.
If you have any questions about this long long process (it's really not
though), you should feel free to contact me. I'll try to help as best I
can.
Good luck and have fun. Also, try to be content in the knowledge that most
people probably stopped reading after the first couple paragraphs. <g>
Aaron Cannon <
cannona@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
--
E-mail:
cannona@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: cannona
MSN Messenger:
cannona@xxxxxxxxxxx
(Do not send E-mail to the hotmail
address.)
Bar
The mission of a Toastmaster Club is to provide a mutually supportive and
positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to
develop
communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence
and personal growth.
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