General Tips

Recording Sounds

Objective: To learn to record a song off a cd for editing and use in your project.

Click File -> New (ctrl-n)

Choose your quality settings
Sample Rates
-44.1khz: CD quality
-22.05khz: Usually acceptable for songs
-11.025khz and less: Okay for short sound f/x

If you're unsure of which to choose - choose 44.1khz - you can always resample and throw out some of that information later if your file size is too big.
Sample Size
-16 Bit: CD quality
-8 Bit: use this only if absolutely necessary
Channels
-Stereo: Use this if panning is required in the sound (if there is any flanging, it is required)
-Mono: Try and stay mono if possible. Remember, Stereo files are 2x the size of its mono counterpart.

If you're unsure of which to choose, choose Stereo - you can always convert the file from stereo to mono later if necessary. You can also go from mono to stereo - but to achieve true stereo sound is a bit more work.

Open your CD player. I recommend using the Windows CD player over WinAmp (for reasons I'll explain later)

Click on the speaker icon (or mixer icon) in your task bar (bottom right of the screen)

Choose Options -> Properties -> Recording

Choose whichever source you will be recording from (in this case, CD) and uncheck all the other boxes. The more you have checked - the more likely you are to accidentally record unwanted noise.

Switch back to Sound Forge. Be sure to leave the CD player and the recording properties open in the background - you're going to need them open in a second.

Click the Red Record Button (ctrl-r)

Check Monitor this will use the db Meters to monitor volume and make sure nothing is clipping

Click Remote this will switch Sound Forge to a small remote version so you can work with all your required programs much easier

Press Play on your CD Player. Keep your eyes on the db meter. At the top of the db meter is a number (or set of numbers if the file is stereo) this is the peak level. You want to make sure that this does NOT reach past 0db.

Either listen to the whole song or scrub through to the loudest part of the song and make sure that nothing is reaching past the 0db point. If anything does, a red CLIP indicator will appear above the db meters. Click on the CLIP indicator to reset it and using the recording properties window, pull the CD player level down a bit. You may also want to click the Reset button. This will reset the peak level indicator so you can find out what the peak level is now that you've adjusted your levels again. Listen to that section again and tweak your levels so that it the peak level is as close to 0db as you can get. Getting exactly 0db is near impossible with the relative inaccuracy of these faders - so don't get too worked up over it. We can fix the levels later on if we need to.

Once you're satisfied with your levels. Stop the CD player, and go back to your Sound Forge Remote. Click Reset and Prepare - this readies Sound Forge for recording (clicking Prepare is actually unnecessary - but I've noticed some performance issues if I don't click it).

Click the red Record button and then press Play on your CD player.

When the song is done - Press Stop on the CD Player First and then press Stop on the Sound Forge Remote. Often, it doesn't matter which order you do this in - but sometimes doing this in reverse will crash both your CD player and Sound Forge. This is more common with WinAmp, however, since WinAmp and Sound Forge try to use the same device drivers. (Which is why I suggest using the old seemingly antiquated Windows CD Player)

If you're happy with what you've recorded Click Close on your Sound Forge Remote. Otherwise, Click on the Mode drop down menu. The two options of interest right now are Multiple Takes and Automatic Rewind. Multiple Takes will create new regions for each one and will place each take one after another in your created file. When you click close, you can listen to each and pick which one you want and delete the others or create a new file from it. Automatic Rewind takes the record head back to the beginning of the file and erases the previous take.

Once you've recorded a take that you're happy with, click File -> Save As

Now is your chance to change your file formats. Right now, only a few of these menus are important to us. Under the Save As Type drop down dialog, you can choose what kind of file format you want to save as. Usually, this will be a .wav file. From the Format drop down, you can choose what kind of compression you want to use. This will usually be PCM - the native compression for .wav files. The last one of interest to us is the Attributes drop down. Here, you are given a number of choices for sample size and channel settings. So even if you recorded your file at 44.1khz, 16 bit stereo, and have now decided that you don't need it to be that high in quality (remember - high quality means really high file sizes) you can simply choose a new setting here and save it with your new choices of settings. Note that the menu doesn't give you choices for other sample rates. Sound Forge can't automatically resample for you. You'll have to do this on your own. For now, save your file with any settings you want to.

From the main menu, click Process -> Resample.

In this pop-up window, you can choose a new Sample rate. Choosing a higher sample rate will do nothing for your file since Sound Forge can't put something into your file that wasn't there before - in fact, sometimes it really screws up the file. So from here, you can only go down. Try halving your current frequency (if you're at 44.1khz - go to 22.05khz and if you're at 22.05khz go to 11.025khz) Note that the option is in Hz and not KHz - so you need to set your options in thousands instead of decimals.

The interpolation accuracy is how hard the computer will work at trying to figure out what is going to happen with the samples and their new sample rate. A medium setting is usually fine. The anti-alias filter will smooth out any really odd anomalies that may occur from resampling. Resampling, by nature inadvertently changes the pitch of your sound. Sound Forge (as well as most other programs that resample) is smart enough, however to correct the pitch back to its original state automatically. However, if you don't want Sound Forge to do that, click the set sample rate only (do not resample) option.

Click Preview to test your settings. It will play a short clip of your sound, but not the whole thing. Checking bypass will temporarily turn off the resampling so that you can compare the two settings in real time. If you're happy with the new settings, click Ok and then Save your file.

Making your CD Rom Autorun

Objective: To learn how to create an autorun.inf file which will automatically start your cd upon insertion.

Create a new text file in notepad.

Type the following lines of text:

[autorun]
open=myprojector.exe --file which will execute
icon=myicon.ico --icon file that will display instead of default CDROM icon.


These lines are instructions which will automatically execute upon insertion of the CD. The operating system assumes that the files myprojector.exe & myicon.ico are located on the root level of the CDROM.

Save the file as autorun.inf (you will have to manually add the .inf extension). At this point you should notice a small yellow gear symbol on the file icon; this means you did it right!

When you burn your CDROM you must place the autorun.inf file in the topmost (root) level of the CDROM, along with the necessary files.

Burning CD's Objective: To learn to create and update CD’s Burning for the first time: Insert your CD into the burner drive. In a few moments, the CD burning software dialog box should pop up by itself. If not, there should be a shortcut to it on the desktop. From the first dialog box, choose Data. From the second dialog box, choose Data. Adaptec EZ-CD Creator should start. Choose cancel if the wizard pops up. The top half of the screen is the local hard drive explorer. The lower half is the layout for your CD. Use the local explorer and navigate to wherever your files are. Drag whichever files you wish to add to the CD into the bottom right of the screen. Click the red “create CD” button in the toolbar. This will bring up a dialog box. Make sure the burner is set to 4x. We don’t want to test the CD, so make sure it is set to Create CD and NOT Test and Create CD. Lastly, if this is your Assignments CD, make sure you Close Session and Leave Disc Open. We need to be able to update this CD by making it a multi-session CD. However, if you are burning your final CD, click Close Disc. You are ready to click the Create CD button now. Updating Your CD: Insert your CD into the burner drive. Start Adaptec EZ-CD Creator. Click CD->Import Session. Choose the MOST RECENT session in the list. If this is your first time updating the CD, only one session should be present, but in the future - always choose the most recent one. In the CD explorer in the bottom half of the screen, the files you previously burned to the CD will now appear. You cannot change these files or move them. You can, however, add to the directories you already burned there. So drag your new assets into the appropriate directories in the bottom right half of the screen. Continue burning your CD as normal, making sure to close the session but leave the CD open.