by Duane A. Biever, Mid-Hudson Computer User Group
Published in the July 2001 issue of microCHIP
With the advent of more powerful PC's, cavernous memory modules (by yesterday's standards) and hard drives with seemingly unlimited capacity, music editing has become a possibility for all PC users. Now, those 33-1/3 RPM Long Play records whose sounds have remained interred in the micro-grooves of your old platters can now be hauled out of the garage storage space. There is now hope that they can bring back our (at least memories of our) mis-spent youth.
Nostalgia for the good ol' days and the music we remember from those days will rise again like the Phoenix. A now-scratchy 78 RPM draws forth once again the honeyed voice of a young Tony Bennett crooning "Because Of You."
The mellow trombones of Les Brown's Band of Renown teaming up with The Ames Brothers on "Sentimental" and "Undecided Now" emanate from our newly purchased and digitally frougged* boom-box.
Paul Weston plays the plaintive "Laura" and we weep.
The Weavers' frisky rendition of "Tzena Tzena Tzena" causes us to wonder yet once again… "What the @#$%^*() does THAT mean?"
Sinatra belts one out with Harry James and we wonder where all of the good guys went.
I met her dancing to the Castle Rock,
I held her tight and danced around the clock
We rocked to romance to the Castle Rock,
She kissed me and I kissed my heart goodbye.
Ah! The good old days. Don't you just wish.
But it is happening. The resurrection, that is. It is happening because a lot of PC Users are discovering that there is more to computing life than financial returns, databases, photo enhancement, HTML and Web design. Music editing is a whole new ball game for some of us and anyone can play.
Just what is music editing? You ask. Technically, it is too complicated for most of us to grasp. We can best describe it in terms of what it will do for us.
You can move music from any analog source into your computer as a digital file. You can play that music file through your computer's sound system. Or, you can record those sound files on compact disk so that they can be played on any standard CD player. You can load a CD with up to twenty-four of your favorites without running to the player every twenty minutes to flip that LP, or every three minutes to change that old 78. That CD will pack more than hour's worth of playing time into the smaller and more convenient CD.
What do you need to perform the miracle? The very good, but not the very best is needed. Minimum requirements would be a computer with at least a 500 MHz processor, at least 128 MB memory, and the biggest hard drive you can afford, say 20 GB for starters. With anything less, you will spend a lot of your time juggling files and waiting for the computer to finish its tasks.
Be sure to use either a USB connection to your CD-Writer or an I-Link (PCI 1394 Firewire.) The Firewire connection is better for ultra-fast transfer of your files to CD. Writing twenty songs to CD with USB will take about twenty minutes, during which time no multi-tasking on your computer should be undertaken.
The CD writer should be the fastest one you can afford, with maybe an eight MB buffer. Two megabytes is OK, but longer write times must be expected with a cheaper writer chugging along at 4X.
For disks, use only CD-R's. They are now very inexpensive and whatever you record is going to find a permanent place on your bookshelf.
Music will create WAV files of terrifying proportions. A three-minute song will result in a file of 25 MB. An LP with six cuts on each side will build to 300 MB. Only WAV files can be used to write to a CD, but once you have created the CD, those files can be converted to MP3 for permanent storage on another CD or on a spare hard drive. They can be converted back to WAV format if ever needed again. MP3 will reduce them to less than 20% of their original (WAV) file size.
A record player that will spin out the songs from your LP's will be needed. If you need something to play 78's, you will have to go seek. Esoteric Sound in Downers Grove, IL, sells turntables of quality for amateurs and professionals alike. You can buy from their Web site. If you buy only the turntable and tone arm from them, you will also need a small, inexpensive amplifier like the RCA Model SA-155 that is sold through Radio Shack.
You will need software that digitizes your analog music. Several packages are available and are listed below. The following will work just fine and will cost about $49. LP Recorder captures the songs. It comes from Australia (does that make you a little jumpy?) It is very simple to use. Its companion and little brother, LP Ripper will be needed to separate the tracks on LP's into individual files. It can also be used to trim start/end positions on 78's. Dart Pro will record and, additionally, is capable of removing those annoying pops and hiss'es from cracked and worn records. Included also in Dart Pro is a MIDI-to-WAV file converter. You can download free trial versions of all of these.
Your own record collection is the best source of music. Napster is pretty much a dead deal, but there are several Web-sites that provide downloadable music. If you like New Orleans style jazz from the early days, 1917 to 1935, go to redhotjazz.com.
Your next-best sources of what you want would be at garage and estate sales and flea markets. Also, strike up a friendship with someone who would not hesitate to defy the "music police." Sharing and copying copyrighted material is, of course illegal. You must own and possess the original recording for which you have made a CD, and even gifting copies is illegal (wink-wink.)
To play music stored on your computer or from a CD, click on START, then Programs, Accessories, Entertainment and Windows Media Player. RealPlayer and WinAmp will also do the job if you have downloaded them. Connecting and playing music from the analog source requires cable connections to the line input or microphone ports on your computer. I can work with you on that via e-mail at dbiever@hvc.rr.com.
Music editing can be a highly entertaining addition to your knowledge of computers. It will add scope to your already formidable digital skills. And just when you feel you have gone as far as you can go in this direction, you haven't. Log on to the Web site sonicfoundry.com/default_acidlaunch.asp to discover what else you have to learn and to accomplish with music.
[*Note: the word "frougged" was coined especially for use in this article. You are cordially invited to use it without fear of litigation from me or of violating copyright laws.]
1.) PaperWare: Bruce & Marty Fries' book, a download at mp3handbook.com/index.htm for $9.95 (PDF) or $19.95 (paperback.); or a 1986 E-book on How to do Music Videos at timtv.com/mv-101.html
2.) ShareWare for audio editing: .cfbsoftware.com.au/lprecorder/lprecorder.htm (523 KB for the LP Recorder and 586 Kb for the LP Ripper); and dartpro.com/new.asp (6.777 MB)
3.) Record Players: esotericsound.com
4.) WAV/MP3/WMA Converter: dbpowerAMP Converter. Free at admin.dbpoweramp.com. This is one of those must-have utilities, indispensable for converting audio files from one format to another (WAV, MP3 (Lame & Blade) and WMA (Windows Media Audio))
5.) Media Players: REALPLAYER, a free download from www.realplayer.com (look for RealPlayer 8 Basic. The Plus version will cost you $20); and Nullsoft WINAMP, also a free download at www.winamp.com.