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In-Computer Pro Recording Live, Internet & LPs & CDs
Drew's Wave (.WAV), MP3 & WMA
Editor PRO v7.1
Recording & Editing Tutorial
OK this is old material, but if you wanted a refresher to using your Wave Editor, keep reading. The info might be a bit dated, but I'd rather keep the information available to you than have to take it down for good. OK, let's do it. . . . Sol
Look at some of what's new.
Effects and Filters Automated – Now instead of presets when you add echo, amplify or use filters, you'll have sliders to set just the exact amount of the effect or filter you want. PLUS use the Preview to hear and adjust your settings before changing the file. Just click and change till you have what you want. This will save you hours and give you precision never before available. The new preview is 3 clicks faster than even our prior breakthrough.
I Wish Recorder – This is my favorite new program. Imagine that you are listening to your favorite online music and they play a song you really love. But did you get the name? Can you ever hear it again? We'll now you can. This awesome new little recorder will quietly sit in the background of your computer. And it constantly records everything that is played through your computer using the standard Stereo Mix, Wave Out or What U Hear source. Anyway, without loading down your computer with big files, anytime you hear a song you like, or a phone number you want or anything at all, just hit the Keep Button. The recorder will save the last 5 minutes of what you've heard. You can also preset it to 10 or 15 minutes. But the neat thing is that you can leave it running 24/7 if you like and just hit the Keep button to save the last 5 minutes anytime you like. And it's got a super sexy spectrum display too. Try this out.
Pre-Record Wizard – Now in one place you can select the source you want to record from and set and test your input recording level. Then just click finish to have the editor clear the screen and save the settings so you're ready to record. This is a great time saver and puts all you need on one small easy to navigate interface.
Test Tone Generator – Now you can test your computer, your speakers and what you hear. This professional test tone generator you'll have on your own computer will generate any tone between 20hz and 20,000hz for you. So start with 1000Hz and see what your speakers produce, what your equipment records, and what you hear. You might be surprised and I'll bet you'll be looking for new speakers very soon.
Sexy USB MP3 Recorder – OK you'll use this recorder for lots of things. But its reason for being is because we designed it for all of you using USB adapters with notebook computers. Up till now you couldn't hear the sound of the music during the actual recording process. It's a shortcoming of USB sound cards. But no more. So all of you with notebooks and or those with USB turntables can now hear as you record. It's a special enhancement called Playthrough and it works perfectly. I just love to watch the recorder as I record because it has such a great display. But hey, I'm a kid when it comes to tech, so you'll use it because it does a great job.
NEW Record Pause – Yes now you can click pause and pause the editor while you're recording. This is primarily for narration recording. It works perfectly, but because the editor has to reanalyze what's already in it, there is a delay when you click Record again, dependant on how big the file is and how fast your computer is. So just keep in mind as you use this to click record and wait for the editor to start recording before starting to speak or play your content to be recorded. Then the record pause becomes the super valuable tool that you've wanted it to be.
New Audio Player – Just cute. It looks like a robot and plays the tunes on your computer. I liked it so I added it for you. Give it a try.
Get File Info – Every look at a track and wonder what format it is, or want to see its tags and bitrate? Well check out the Tools Menu and click on Get It (File Info) and you'll know. Plus it's it plays the file with a great looking player of its own.
WMA and OGG support is added. Open, record, edit and save these formats too.
4 Track Tracker Interfaces Added – Separate Tracks as before with an enhanced interface that stays on top for easy use. PLUS I've added 4 new Tracker Interfaces. Separate your tracks, book chapters or anything else by Tracker Interface 2, Time, Tracker Interface 3, Size, Tracker Interface 4, Silence, Tracker Interface 5 by Sound. Now you'll have 5 Tracker Interfaces to separate tracks fast and easy. I actually introduced these last time, but now with the no pause burner (next) the timed and size trackers are immensely more valuable so check them out.
No Pause CD Burning Added – Yes now you can burn CDs with no gaps or pauses. So your favorite live recordings and LPs with no breaks can now still have tracks, but with no pause between them. So in short you'll have seamless listening with the ability to jump from place to place.
Special note to Church Ministries, Motivational tape producers and meeting planners. Now you can use DAK's new no pause CD Writer and use the Timed Track Tracker to put in 10 breaks instantly and automatically and let everyone hear uninterrupted CDs still with the ability to effortlessly jump from place to place.
Speed Decode – Converting 78s by playing them at 45RPM was a DAK innovation. Now we've added 2X and 1/2X cassette decoding. Play tapes at double speed and one click decode them to normal speed. Got 1/2 speed cassettes? Decode those to normal too.
Batch Convert, Tag & More – Wav to MP3 and MP3 to Wave converting has been enhanced. And I've added Batch convert of effects and filters so now you can normalize, add echo or filter, not 1 file, but 100 or even 1000 tracks with a click. For Converting MP3 files now you can batch tag them all with the album and artist tags so you don't have to do it manually. You can do batch renaming and convert sample rates too. This is all new with the ability to add multiple effects at one time and even choose the exact amount of effect with handy pull down menus.
Recent File One Click Open– I love this. Now the last 6 files you've opened or saved are just one click away on the File Menu. No more looking for lost files.
Tune Library Jukebox – Now keep your tracks on your computer and access any track you want effortlessly. Hook your computer to your stereo and play hundreds of tracks in any order you like. One Click Sort for Name, Artist, Album or Title. Much more. Added direct to burner of a loaded playlist and more.
Voice Over PRO – This program for mixing 2 or even 3 stereo tracks LIVE while you narrate or sing, has been so popular it's gone full screen for full size editing and mixing of 3 sets of stereo tracks at a time. And new Voice Over PRO 2 just added.
There's lots more, but I didn't want you to miss some of the new 'power tools' you have at your command. Now it's time to look through the tutorial and start using your DAK Professional In-Computer Digital Recording Studio to make great sounding recordings and to do totally professional editing.
Enjoy . . .Drew
Interactive Index
Rollover Any Part For Quick Description.
Click On It For The Step-By-Step Guide.
Advanced Editor PRO Tool Menu Hot Clicks
Click For Direct Links To These Detailed Sections.
These are the Separate Programs & Utilities You Access Through The Tool Menu in the Editor.
More Hot Clicks
More Special Sections
And Hot Links To Get You Going.
Here are some more Links to speed you on your way to easy recording and editing with the all new DAK Wave & MP3 Editor PRO.
5 Minute Get Started Guide – Read this first to get the highpoints of using the editor.
78 RPM Converter – Use your 45 RPM turntable to convert 78s.
CD Ripper – Grab all the tracks from a CD to your hard drive.
MP3 Burner – Burn 10 hour MP3 CDs for your car, or Home Theatre.
Live Recording – All the tricks. Edit even part of a word, do sound on sound and mix your voice with music.
Batch Converter – Convert MP3s to Waves and Waves to MP3 by the 10s, 100s or 1000s automatically.
Playlist Manager – DAK's Preserve Playlist Order plus 5 audio tools included. Read this page.
Schedule Timer – Record at a later time or day using DAK's Direct to Disc scheduled recording program.
Set & Forget Length Timer – Don't baby-sit your recordings. Use the set and forget timer to stop the recorder after your LP, cassette or Internet broadcast is finished. Now in the editor and 2 Real Time Recorders that write directly to your hard drive for longer recordings.
Song Stalker – For Internet recording, it actually senses the silence between tracks and creates automatic track breaks, names and saves the tracks.
Track Tracker Programs – DAK's most important tool. 1st time every time automated track separation. Names and numbers the tracks from your LPs, cassettes and Internet Recordings.
DAK Super Mixer Mix your voice over one or several tracks live in perfect sync. Then Mix the tracks. This is Multitrack recording and editing. It's 3 full editors that you can mix and sync and even Nudge to perfection.
Auto-Gain Automatic Recording Volume Control – Here's how to set the volume automatically with high and low limits and controlled attack time
System Resources – How Much Memory and CPU power do you have? Now you can see real-time with a click.
Drew's 5-Minute Wave Editor
Recording Tutorial
It's really simple to record. I'll show you how to make your first recording. Then check out the main tutorial to learn all the really cool things you can do to record, edit and manipulate your music and spoken word recordings.
3 Basic Recording Rules To Get Started
1. No Sound, No Recording – When you are recording from LINE IN or any source OUTSIDE your computer like Mic or Internet Radio, you should hear the sound of what you want to record playing through your computer speakers or you probably won't be recording. Exceptions – USB audio adapters for laptops don't allow sound while recording and a very few desktop sound cards are simplex and don't allow sound while recording. They still record perfectly.
2. No Waves In The Editor, No Recording – You must see waves in the two big windows or you are not recording. Record a 2 minute sample to make sure you are recording. No exceptions to this rule.
3. Select Your Source – Choose Mic for the pink microphone jack, LINE IN/Analog for the BLUE jack in the back of your Sound Card or What You Hear/Stereo Mix or Wave Out for Internet Recording. It's like turning on a light switch. Turn it on in the room you want to light.
Here's all you need to know to get started.
Quick 5-Minute Guide Index
Major Tutorial Sections
Which Icons Do I Click On To Install And Use My Programs?
How Do I Set The Colors For The Editor Skin
How Do I Choose My INPUT Recording Source?
How Do I Set My Input Volume?
How Do I SAVE What I've Recorded?
How Do I SAVE A SELECTED PART Of A Track?
How Do I Record BOTH SIDES of my Records & Cassettes?
How Do I Use The Timed No Babysitting Recorder?
How Do I SELECT to use all the Effects & Filters?
How Do I Use Keyboard Shortcuts?
How Do I ZOOM IN?
How Do I FIND & OPEN A File That's Already Recorded?
How Do I UNDO Something I Don't Like?
How Do I Minimize, Close and get Full Screen?
How Do I Edit ONE CHANNEL ONLY?
How Do I Copy & Paste Parts Of A File From 1 Place to Another?
How Do I Append New Info To The End Of A File?
How Do I MIX 2 Or More Files For Sound On Sound & Harmony?
How Do I Record CDs That Play On My Car & Home CD Players?
How Do I Send Files By eMail From The Editor?
Which Icons Do I Use To Install The Programs & Which Do I Click To Use Them.
When you download programs you get a program icon. You only use that icon (see top left) to install the program. Then after you install the program on your computer, you use the actual Launch Icons you see on the right to use the programs.
The eBooks and Tutorial Movie icons in the bottom 2 sections don't need to be installed. As soon as you download them, you just click them to use them. They will show you everything you need to know to use the programs in the top section.
Return To: 5 Minute Guide Index
The Main Screen
It's easy to record, just click the Red Button. To stop recording, click the square Stop Button. And to play back what you've recorded, click the Arrow Play Button.
What do you want to record? Click the Record Source Button. See the next picture below for the details. But in short, do you want to record from the DAK Mixer Interface, a microphone or from the Internet? To record on your computer, all you do is select the input you want to use.
How Loud is your recording? Set your record volume using the Input Level Slider.
That's basically what you need to know.
2 Minute Recording Rule
Make Some 2 Minute Recordings. Just make some 2 minute recordings to get the hang of it. Record, Stop, Play. After you do a few tests you'll be ready for broadcast quality studio recording.
You DON'T learn anything by recording for an hour that you can't learn in 2 minutes.
So, record for a minute or 2 as a test, then clear it and get ready for great recordings.
Your Recording INPUT Choices. . .
This is where you choose what you want to record. Think of it as a light switch in your home. If you want to turn on the bedroom lights, you don't turn on the switch in the living room. You turn on the switch in the bedroom. So here is where you select (turn on the switch for) what source, coming into your computer, you want to record.
Arrow 1.) This is the direct link to the Windows Mixer where you simply select Line In to record from a DAK Mixer Interface, Mic to record from a microphone or Stereo Mix, Wave Out or What You Hear to record from the Internet.
Arrow 2.) This is your link to the DAK Pre- Recording Wizard. You can access the Windows mixer from it too, plus check your recording level and test your recording too.
The new W7/Vista Operating system is very different from the old XP/ME/98 systems. You can no longer simply select what you want to record from the Editor Interface. Now you actually have to go to the Windows Mixer and change it there.
In Short To Choose Your Recording Source
Step 1.) Click the Set Record Source Button In the Editor.
Step 2.) Choose Your Recording Source in the Windows Mixer.
Step 3.) Start Recording.
Think of it like airline security. I guess Microsoft doesn't want anyone hijacking your inputs without your permission, so although it's a bit of a pain in the form of a few extra clicks, it works fine and we implemented it for all Windows systems so as you upgrade your computer to Windows 7/Vista, you won't have an obsolete editor from DAK.
There is nothing wrong with your computer. Your sound card, not Windows and not the DAK Editor determine what choices and names for input choices you'll see here.
What you see in the screens below are the recording choices and names that my sound card offers. The Windows Mixer displays all the choices for your sound card. Your sound card may be different than mine, so your choices will have different names, but for the most part, you will be able to record from Line In, from Microphone and for 99% of all sound cards, also from the Internet.
DAK's editor simply polls your sound card from what your sound card calls each of the inputs to your computer. Your computer generally has the same inputs as mine; it just might just call it something different. Don't worry, virtually all computers have what you need.
W7/Vista – Selecting And Setting Your Recording Input
This is the 1st Screen You'll See. Click the Recording Tab.
Note: Your names may be different, but they do the same things.
All you need to do here, is click on the recording tab.
Then Choose LINE IN Or Another Input Here. Click On your choice and Click Set Default to activate your choice.
Then Choose LINE IN Or Another Input Here. Click On your choice and Click Set Default to activate your choice.
To choose the source you want to record from, Click DAK's Set Recording Source Button and navigate to the Recording Tab of the W7/Vista Sounds and Audio Devices. Then
Arrow 1.) Click on the New source you want to record from so it's highlighted.
Arrow 2.) Click the Set Default Button.
XP-98 – Selecting And Setting Your Recording Input
This is the 1st Screen You'll See. Click The Audio Tab.
Note: Your names may be different, but they do the same things.
Just Click the Audio Tab here and go onto the next Screen.
Then Click The Record Volume Button Here. Click the one as shown in the MIDDLE, NOT THE TOP one.
Then Choose LINE IN Or Another Input Here
To choose the source you want to record from, Click DAK's Set Record Source Button and navigate to the Audio Tab of the Win XP, 98, ME or 2000 Recording Slider Screen of the Windows Mixer shown here.
Arrow. ) All you need to do here is Check the box for the input source you want to use for recording. I've chosen Analog Mix which is the same as Line In. Or you can choose Microphone or What U Hear, Stereo Mix or Wave Out for Internet recording.
Do you see waves? With digital recordings, this is what counts. If you don't see waves in the big wave windows of the DAK Editor, YOU ARE NOT RECORDING. No waves in the big wave windows, no recording.
1. Have you chosen the correct input (that you're actually plugged into)?
2. Is the jack from your music source actually an output jack? (Aux jacks are inputs).
3. Is your music source actually working?
Here are the input names to choose and what to do with each.
1. For Internet Recording– Choose What You Hear. Your Sound Card may call it Stereo Mix, Wave Out Mix, or Wave. But they are all the same.
2. For Recording LPs, Cassettes or anything connected to the BLUE JACK in the back of your computer- Choose Analog Mix. Your computer may call it LINE IN or AUX.
NOTE: Use the Blue Jack in back for this. It's usually blue and it's right next to where you plug in your speakers. If you have front mounted inputs, you can use them but they may have some other name like Aux 2 and you'll have to figure that out. That's why I want you to use the blue jack in back. Remember the easy way to know if you are recording is, no waves, no recording.
3. Live Microphone Recording– Choose Microphone. Your Sound Card might call it Mic. This is the Pink Jack in back.
4. This is the Play Control. On the left side of the editor is the Play Control. It looks just like the Record Control, but normally you don't need to use this. It's more of a system volume and it's best to just use the system volume.
Return To: 5 Minute Guide Index OR Interactive Index
But How High Do You Set Your levels?
This is probably the most common misconception in digital recording. That's why I want to spend just a minute on recording levels. Everyone wants to record too high or too hot.
OK, to show you, I didn't record what's in the picture above. What you see here is the waveform from a commercial CD that I loaded in the editor. Look at the recording level. Do you see in the wave windows that it's set to about 60% of the vertical height of the 2 Wave Windows?
I've put in the red lines so you can see. And you can see a few lines pop up above and below. That's fine. But if you want your recordings to be at the same level as commercial CDs (and you do) set your levels to about 60% of the level like you see here. And, the wave windows, not the VU meters are how to set your levels in a wave editor.
IMPORTANT NOTE: PROBLEMS? If when you record, the playback sounds muffled or distorted, it's only because you have recorded at too high a level and overloaded the digitization. Just lower the input level slider above and your sound will be perfect. Your CDs will end up with the same volume as commercial CDs. And most important, your sound will be flawless.
NOTE Level Doesn't Change: When you move the recording level control, the volume doesn't actually change till you release the control.
Here's a 2 minute recording tip again. Make a test recording. Happily, recording digitally isn't like using a tape. You can stop and start and clear and delete any time you want. So at first, just play a minute or so of whatever your source is to see if you are comfortable with the level and playback in the editor. After you make a recording, just click stop. Then click play and you'll hear what you've recorded instantly.
Good News: Don't worry. All of this about input levels is really just for the first time you record. Most records and tapes are recorded at about the same level. You just need to know not to record too high and you're all set. And I wanted to be sure to get this idea across to you.
Left & Right Channels: Above on the left, I've marked the Left and Right Channels for you. The Left is the top and the Right is the bottom wav window. You can record on one or the other. I've put a section on that below.
How Do I Save What I've Recorded?
OK, like a word processor, nothing is saved till you tell your computer to save what you've written or in this case the music you've recorded. So when you Click Record, everything is TEMPORALLY put into your RAM and to a temp file you can't really get to again on your hard disk. So here's how you save what you've recorded.
Click Record and Record, whatever you want. Click Stop.
YOU MUST Wait until the hourglass (See Arrow A To Right) disappears or wait till the Green Progress Meter (See Arrow B To Right) stops moving and jerking across the screen under the wave windows. You'll also see the Editor form the file across your screen. This can be instant for a small file or even several minutes for a large (long recording) depending on the speed of your computer and how much RAM you have. IF you don't wait till the editor is finished forming your file, some or all of the recording won't be saved.
An Idea Before You Save. When you are first using the editor, check to make sure you actually recorded what you wanted. In short, if you don't see waves in the big windows while you record, you are not recording. But just to be sure, hit the Play Button after the waves have formed to hear a few seconds of what you recorded. It's just a good little test to do when you are first getting started. There's no reason to do this when you are actually saving your LPs and cassettes, but while you are learning it's just an easy thing to check.
Finally, The Arrow Above. You've made and checked your recording. Now, go to File/Save As. (If you just use save, you might overwrite something you want.) So usually use Save As.
This will Launch a dialog box.
The Save As Dialog Box
This Box is actually part of your Windows System and really easy to use.
Arrow 1.) At the bottom type in your file name. Don't use special characters like !?/.@. And No Periods. Just use letters and numbers and call your musical masterpiece anything you like.
Arrow 2.) Here's the File Type Box. This lets you choose to save as Wave MP3, WMA or OggVorbis files. Most of the time, leave this as Wav because that's the industry standard uncompressed file for the best sound and easy editing and restoration and for CDs. Or you can use MP3 or WMA for compressed files for your iPod or other MP3 Player. Ogg is good, but it's not supported by most players. We just want to provide our PRO users with anything they may need.
Arrow 3.) Now where do you want to save the file? This is important because we get so many calls from people who recorded something but can't find it. This is all about Windows, nothing to do with us or any other program you use. By clicking this button, you'll save your file to your desktop where you can see it. Later, save your files anywhere you like, but for your test, the desktop is a good place to start.
Just pick a spot that you'll remember and save it there.
What do I do? Easy. For Windows XP, the 2nd Icon down the left takes you to your desktop where you can actually see what you've saved. If you save your first few files here, you won't lose them while you get used to recording.
Then what I do is to create a folder on my desktop and save everything in there. It has the double advantage of keeping my tracks where I know where they are and not filling up my desktop with hundreds of music files.
Arrow 4.) Note. If you're not using Windows XP, open this pull down menu and select the Desktop from your choices. It's the same as clicking the Icon, just two steps instead of one.
Arrow 5. OK just click save and you're all set. That's all there is to saving a file.
Return To: 5 Minute Guide Index OR Interactive Index
The Save & Save As Shortcuts
You learned how to Save And Save As above. But there's no need to go all the way to the File Menu to save. I've put One Click Easy Shortcuts right on the Main Interface.
Arrow 1 and 1a.) You can open the menu or you can just click the shortcut to save.
Arrow 2 and 2a.) You can open the menu, or just click the shortcut to Save AS. Remember, we recommend using Save As so you keep your original file untouched. It's a good idea so you can always go back to it in case you do something that you don't like.
Return To: 5 Minute Guide Index OR Interactive Index
More Save As Settings Choices.
Don't Panic, normally, all you do with these boxes is Click OK. But if you want extra control over what you are saving this is the place to do it. In the previous Dialog Box, you had your choice of saving as Wav, MP3, WMA or OGG. Depending on which you choose, you will get one of the setting boxes above.
I've used the same numbering system on the boxes as they really work the same way. So learn one and you'll have them all
Arrow 1.) You can choose different frequency response characteristics for the files you save. Normally, CD quality is set at 44,100Hz. And that's the default. So leave it there. If you want more or less, just check another box. 48,000 is good, but CDs are 44,100, so there's no point in doing it for CDs as it won't affect the sound and will increase the file size.
Arrow 2.) For Wave Files you can choose 8 or 16 bit. Normally 16 bit is standard. For MP3s, the bit rate is far more important. The bit rate really determines the compression ratio and therefore the file size of the MP3. 128 bit is the standard. But you can increase it from 8 bit to 320 bit. 8 bit is OK for talking and the files are so small you can get hours of talking in just a few megs. 320 is just about as big as a Wav file so there's not much point, except MP3s can have tags and names. But, you can just leave these settings at their defaults for most uses.
Arrow 3.) Most digital is Stereo by default. You can change it to mono here.
Arrow 4.) Just click OK and your file will be saved.
Arrow 5.) WMA is different. It's a proprietary Microsoft file format that we support. You can open this pull down menu and choose settings to suit your needs. They are described by name, so they are easy, but in short again they are all about bigger or smaller files to fit in your players.
How Do I Save Just A Selected Part Of A Track
This is one of the super powerful parts of the Editor. Regardless of whether you recorded this track or just opened it, you can save any part you want as a new file.
Why would you want to save a part? Many reasons and you'll do it all the time. You might want to save a single track from a group of tracks when you aren't using the Track Tracker, or you might want to save just the opening or theme from some music or just a part from one of the DAK Sound Effects.
Arrow 1.) I'm showing you what I've selected. See the details on how to select if you haven't looked at it yet. But in short, just drag your mouse (Left button down) from one side to the other.
Arrow 2.) Just choose File/Save Selected As and only the part you've selected will be saved as a new file. The original file will remain untouched so you can always go back to it later.
Arrow 3.) You really don't need to use this here, but I wanted you to see that I was zoomed in. Whenever you are zoomed in you'll see this green bar showing you how much of the whole file you can see. Just grab this handle and drag it to the left or right to move to other parts of the file. And zoom in again if you like. And see the little dark part? That shows you exactly where you are in the total file that's loaded. Pretty neat.
That's it. Now you know how to select a part of a file in addition to knowing how to select and save an entire file or track.
Return To: 5 Minute Guide Index OR Interactive Index
How To Select.
How To Use Edit, Effects And Filters Menus.
Selecting is a basic Windows Function. It's the first step to using many of the Editor's powerful functions. So, spend a few minutes getting comfortable making and using selections.
You'll use selections to apply any of the filters, effects and editing powers. You'll use it to select a part of a file to delete or to copy. And, you'll select a part of a file or track that you want to save and then by going to File/Save Select As you will save just that one part without changing the original file at all.
How do you select?
Put your Mouse cursor in between the upper and lower tracks. Hold down the left button and drag till you have the part selected that you want to work on, delete or alter. It will turn red like you see above.
Then, just choose any function and Left Click it from any of the menus and the editor will perform the operation you want.
And remember, if you don't like what you've done? No problem. Just click the UNDO arrow and it will be undone so you can try again. This makes it really easy, fast and lets you experiment all you want because for most operations, you're just one click from undoing anything you've tried. So, don't be afraid to experiment. It's the best way to learn.
How Do I Know What I've Selected?
You will select by dragging. And you can click Play to hear what you've selected.
Arrow 1.) Select any area of the screen by dragging.
Arrow 2.) This Info Box shows you how much you've selected.
Arrow 3.) This Info Box shows you the start of the selection.
Arrow 4.) This Info Box shows you the end of the selection.
Selecting Dissected
When you select an area to work on, you can then adjust it fast and easy.
Arrow 1 & 1a.) This is the cursor at 1:29.55 seconds. The cursor (where the music is playing or paused will always give you the real time position. It's very precise.
NOTE: Grab any of the 4 yellow triangles you'll see in the selection corners to drag to increase or decrease the size of your selection.
Arrows 2.) Now I've selected an area. If you grab either of these yellow triangles with your cursor you can move the beginning of the selection forward or backwards.
Arrows 3.) This is the end of the selection. Grab these yellow triangles and you can move the ending selection larger or smaller. It's fast and easy.
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What Keyboard Shortcuts Are Available?
In the latest editor version I've added keyboard shortcuts due to a ton of requests. This should make editing and playing easier for you (and me too). Here's what we've got.
Control C – Copy anything that's sleeted.
Control V – Paste anything you've copied to where the cursor is located.
Control A – Select everything loaded in the editor.
Delete – Will Delete whatever is selected.
Spacebar – Will Play and Stop the loaded file.
Alt B – Will Pause whatever is Playing.
Control S – Will open the Save As Dialog Box.
Control M – Will set a marker even when the editor is playing.
Alt Left/Rt Arrows – Will move a marker slightly to get it just where you want it.
The Info Bar Explained
Yes all the little numbers at the bottom of the editor have a meaning. And they make it really easy for you to see just what's going on.
Arrow 1) Length. This is the length of whatever file you've loaded in the editor. It's really nice to always be able to see how long your file really is.
Arrow 2.) Start. If you have made a selection, this box shows you the starting time of the selection. If you haven't selected anything, this will show you the cursor position.
Arrow 3.) End. If you've made a selection, this box shows you the ending time of the selection. If you have not selected anything, you'll see the cursor position.
Arrow 4.) Position. This box shows you the current position of your cursor.
Arrow 5.) Duration. This box shows you in time, the total amount of any selection you've made. If you want a 27 second selection for example, this is where to look to see if you've got just want you want.
The Title Bar Explained
When you load a file, you'll see the name of the loaded file here and if you look at the end, you'll see the type of file that it is. In this case, it's a .wav, or WAV file.
The Cursor Bar Explained
Now you can easily see where the cursor is as the new cursor location bar moves along during Play. Plus when you're in stop, just drag the handle to move the cursor wherever you want to start recording or playing. Plus while you're in pause, if you move it to a new location it will automatically begin playing as if you'd hit the pause play again.
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Trim – The Fast Way To Grab Part Of A File.
Trim is great. If you want to work on or save just part of a file, sure you can use Save Selected As and then reopen the new file you saved. But with Trim, it's even easier. Trim will delete from the editor everything that IS NOT SELECTED. So in short whatever you have selected will be all that's left after you click Trim.
Note: Always be sure you've saved the entire file first, because you can't undo Trim.
But you'll find that Trim is a real time saver. And if you're going to email a part of a file to a friend, then just use Trim, then click the my new eMail Sender Thingy and you'll be all set. Try Trim, once you've tried it you'll find you use it all the time, just like I do.
Spectrum Volume Meter.
Now in play, you can see a spectrum meter showing you your playback sounds. It's not there in record or stop. But during play and pause you'll see what percent of your music are highs, lows and midrange. It's very cool. Below the Spectrum meter is a live Wav meter. It's the actual sound in wav form which you'll see grow to the right, disappear and start over again. It's easier to see this type of meter than a standard wave meter, so we added it too.
Arrow 1.) This is the editor during stop and record.
Arrow 2.) Both the Spectrum Meter and the moving Wav Meter pop up during play and pause to make it easier to analyze your music.
How Do I Record Both Sides Of My Record Or Cassette To A CD?
We get this question a lot and it's really easy. You can usually get both sides of your records and cassettes on a CD.
But, don't think 20th century analog, think digital CDs and MP3s. There are no more sides. Every song, track, movement or chapter (if you're copying books) is a separate file in digital recording.
After all, you want programming and random access from your CDs. Plus if you don't have tracks there's no way to fast forward from one song/chapter/section to the next. Plus with digital you don't have to keep tracks you don't want, and you'll also keep them in any order you like. It's a whole new freedom for you to enjoy your music.
OK, so let's do it. So an average record or tape probably has 6 or 7 tracks per side and here's how to record both sides.
Simply record side 1 as a single long track, just as you learned to do in the How to Save in the pictures above.
Remember to:
Arrow 1.) Record
Arrow 2.) Stop.
Arrow 3.) Go to File/Save As and Save it.
That's the end of Side One.
Now BEFORE you start to record Side Two,
Arrow 4.) Click The New Button Above. This clears Side One out of the Editor and you're ready to record Side Two. If you don't do that you'll record Side 2 over side 1 which is called sound on sound and you don't want to do that here.
That's all there is to it. After you've recorded Sides One & Two, then you open the Track Tracker Visual in the Tracker Menu and get your Tracks separated. It's fast and easy and covered by another tutorial and a movie too.
Naming Your Sides Special Note: When you name Side 2, don't use the same name that you used for Side 1. In Windows, you can't have two files with the same name. So for side 2, just add a 2 to whatever name you are using. So if it's MyArtist.wav for side one, use MyArtist2.wav for side 2. All it takes is the one character to tell Windows that it's an entirely new file.
Note 2 Don't Normally Do This: Everyone thinks they want to Record Side One, Pause and then Record Side two as One Long File. It doesn't Work that way in digital. The files get really big and harder to manage. Do it as I described above and you'll get all your recordings onto the CD easily and quickly.
But if You do want to Pause, now you can. Click Pause at the end of side 1. Then change sides. Then click the Record button, not the Pause button to start recording again. But note that there will be a delay after you click Record until the editor analyzes the part you've already recorded and can start recording again. After you've finished recording, you can just highlight the part that was silent and choose edit delete to remove it with no sounds, bleeps, clicks or artifacts.
Your CDs hold 72 minutes worth of your music and you can put as many tracks from as many records and cassettes as fit in 72 minutes onto a single CD.
NOTE NOT 80 MINUTES. Many CDs say 80 minutes but don't. You can record and play 80 minute CDs on your computer with no problem. But they many not play on your card and home CD players because the standard is 72 minutes. So keep to 72 minutes or less.
How Do I Zoom In To See Exactly What I Want To Do?
Just watch this animation to see how to zoom in and scroll. You'll see how easy it is. Note the green bar which you grab to scroll also shows you how far in you've zoomed, and where you are in the total file.
You don't have to estimate where you want to make that change, take out that word or see if it's a track or a pause. Just Highlight (SELECT) the area in question as you learned in Selecting above. Then:
Click The + Magnifying glass and you'll zoom in to see the exact detail you want to see. There's really no limit to how far you can zoom in.
An Explanation. Zooming in is variable. You can zoom in a little or a lot and you can zoom in more once you are zoomed in. Here's the deal.
Whatever you highlight when you click the Zoom Button will become the entire visible screen in front of you. So if you highlight 90% of the screen, you'll zoom in just a little. You've zoomed in about 10%.
If you highlight only about 10% of the screen then it will expand about 9 times so you'll see a really detailed view. Try this a few times. There's nothing you can do wrong. And once you are zoomed in, if you highlight part of what you see in the window, and if you click the + Magnifying glass again, you'll zoom in that much more. You'll get the hang of it in just a few seconds.
Special Zoom In Tip: If you click anywhere within the wave windows then scroll your mouse wheel you can zoom through the entire range of zoomed in states. It's very fast and the preferred way to zoom.
Special Zoom In Tip 2: In My Zoomed In pictures above, Grab the green handle to move anywhere in the entire recording. Just because you're zoomed in doesn't mean you can't look at and work on the entire recording or any part of it. You can. It's easy. You're just looking at a part of the entire file as you scroll from end to end.
Special Zoom In Tip 3: Play – At any time you can play anything that's shown in the window or whatever is highlighted. This way you never have to guess about what you are looking at. Just click play and you'll know 100% every time. It makes editing super easy.
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Vertical Zoom Too
You can control the height of the waves in the windows by clicking on the V zoom button. Then just choose the amount of zoom you want. If you have a low level signal and you want to see it clearly, vertical zoom is for you.
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track?
We get lots of emails about missing or lost tracks. It's really just Windows Organization that's the problem, but here's all you do to open any track you've recorded, or any .Wav, MP3, IGG or CDA track you have in your computer.
Arrow 1.) Go to the File Menu
Arrow 2.) Choose Open
Arrow 3.) NEW – Now you have 1-Click access to the last 6 tracks you've opened or saved. Just look down at the bottom of the File Menu and click on the track you want. This was added in 2007.
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track – No.2?
This is the Windows Open File Dialog Box. It's the same for all your programs, not just ours.
Arrow 1.) This is telling you what folder you are looking in. And you need to know where you've saved your files to find them. Often it will be in My Music or My Documents. I recommend at the beginning that you just save them to the desktop so you can see where they are.
Arrow 2.) Click on the file you want to open.
Arrow 3.) You can type the file name in here, but clicking on it is easier and faster.
Arrow 4.) Click Open.
BUT MY SONG ISN'T IN THIS FOLDER. WHAT DO I DO? Scroll Down.
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track – No. 3?
OK if you look at the top box that says Look In, again, you'll see to the right there's an arrow (Not mine, the down arrow that's part of the box).
When you click on that arrow, you'll see all the folders on your computer. Just scroll down till you find the folder you have your music in. If you don't see the folder, then click on one of the folders you do see to go into the subdirectory to find your folder. A sub directory isn't anything fancy. It's just a folder within another folder.
This really is just Windows Navigation
Arrow 1.) Click the Pull down menu and you'll see that you can navigate anywhere on your computer.
Arrow 2.) In Win XP, if you click this button you'll always go right to your desktop. Then you can navigate to a folder on your desktop.
Arrow 3.) Click My Computer to access all the other folders and drives on your computer. This is the gateway to all files on your computer.
Arrow 4.) I like to put a 0 in front of some of my file names so when I open a dialog box like Open File, I can see the folder I want right at the top of the list.
Arrow 5.) You can type in the file name you want to open or just double click it when you find it.
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track – No. 4?
But I Still Don't See My MP3, WMA, OGG & CDA Tracks.
The DAK editor recognizes all 5 major audio file formats that you might want to use. Depending on the location in your computer, the top line, which includes all 5 types, will appear or just one type will appear. Just open the File Type box to access the other types.
So if you see no files listed in a folder where you think you have stored a file, just open this box and choose the file type that you want.
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How Do I Find & Open A File/Track – No. 5?
YOU CAN DIRECTLY OPEN CD AUDIO (cda) FILES FROM YOUR CDs.
Directly Open Tracks From CDs. OK, this is hot. Up till now you needed to get a CD Ripper to transfer music tracks from your CDs to your computer so you could copy them or edit them. Many DAKonians open CDA files to shorten them for dance or gymnastic routines. CDA files are just wav files on CDs. They call them CDAs (Compact Disc Audio) and normally they can't be opened or copied from CDs without special software.
It's been a bit of a headache but, Wave Editors don't come with CDA opening capability. Now the new DAK Wave & MP3 Editor/Recorder PRO does.
Arrow 1.) Just navigate to your CD drive.
Arrow 2.) Click the track number of the track you want to load.
Important Note: Choose CDA from the drop down File Type Box at the bottom.
So, now it's as easy to open CDA files as Wave, MP3, OGG & MP3 Files.
NO TRACK NAMES ON CDs
Important Note: Do you see the track numbers Arrow 2, not names in the picture. People think that the names of the tracks are actually on the CDs they buy. But, they are not. Only the track numbers are there. The names weren't part of the CD format when it was invented back in the 80s. In fact, 8 character DOS was about all you had.
But I see names when I load a CD in my computer? Yes, usually you do. But the program playing your CD goes out to the Internet and accesses a free database usually FREEdb that volunteers like you and me have added CD album info to. It usually gets about 80% of the CDs right. But it just matches an ID number.
When you convert albums and cassettes from analog there's no database to query, so we've added a naming function in the DAK Playlist manager you'll find in the Toolbox for you to name your tracks. But remember if you're just burning CDs your names won't be there. For the tracks you keep on your computer, I'd name them so you can know what they are. And for your MP3 files, we name and add tags to those too.
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How Do I UNDO Something I Don't Like?
Don't worry about what you do. If you've selected, deleted a selection, added a filter or just about anything, you can UNDO what you've done.
Don't be afraid to try new things. All you need to do is try it, then UNDO it if you don't like the effect.
Arrow 1.) Just Click UNDO to return to where you were before the last operation you performed.
Arrow 2.) If you decide you did like what you've just undone, no problem. This is REDO to put it back.
YOU CAN GO BACK 99, steps so even if you've gone 2 or 3 steps into a project, just click the undo as many times as you like. Most, but not quite all, functions can be undone.
How Do I Make Changes To Only 1 Channel?
Just Click LC, RC or BC to get Left only the Left, or only the Right, or Both channels.
Sometimes you may want to work on only 1 channel at a time. With the editor, it's easy. You can add echo, increase or decrease volume or remove sounds from only one of the channels.
Note: In Digital Recording, you cannot delete a channel or part of a channel because in digital files the two channels must maintain the same time base because they work together.
But, if you want to minimize or reduce the sound or even eliminate the sound on only one channel, then just select that channel and use Amplify- a number of times till the channel is totally blank. That protects the time base and still eliminates the sound from either channel. OK, now that you know, here's how to work on only one channel at a time.
Arrow 1.) Just move your cursor up or down till you see the L for Left Channel or the R for Right Channel appear. Then left click it and as you'll see, the other channel will go dark and you can edit only the channel you want.
Arrow 2.) Here I clicked the L and now only the top Left Channel will be active for anything I want to do.
Arrow 3.) Here I clicked the R and now only the bottom Left Channel will be active for anything I want to do.
NOTE: To return to two channel editing, just left click your mouse about 1/2 way into the channel that's been turned off. Then you'll have both channels working normally again.
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How Do I Copy And Paste Any Part To Any Other Or The Same Effect?
OK, There's a lot here, but there's really nothing to it. I've just tried to put this all in one picture. Don't worry, this is super simple.
What we want to do is extract/copy a part from a track and put it in another place or in the middle of another track. Here's all you have to do.
Arrow 1.) Select the part you want.
Arrow 2.) You can either use the Copy Icon as shown or open the Menu and choose Copy.
Arrow 3.) OK, just click your Cursor where you are going to want to paste your copy of what you've selected. The dotted yellow line shows where the cursor is at any time. It doesn't matter if it's in the same effect as you copied or in another effect or musical track. When you copy anything it's on your Windows Clipboard and it will stay there till you put something else on it.
Arrow 4.) Click the Paste Button on the Menu or the Icon.
Arrow 5.) How does your Computer know what to paste? This is what's in your computer memory; normally you can't see it unless you use the View Clipboard tool in Windows. But all you need to do is click EITHER the Paste Icon as shown or go to Edit and choose Paste. Then your selection will be pasted exactly where you want it. It's clean it's fast and it's a perfect digital copy.
You can use the same copied selection to copy and paste 100 times if you want. Once it's there, each time you click Paste, it will put a new, clean digital copy exactly where your cursor was positioned.
Now you know how to copy and paste any selection from any effect or any musical track into the same or any other effect or musical track. It's very powerful but very, very simple to do.
Get To The Very Beginning Or Very End Of Your File
It's always been hard in the wave form to get to the very beginning or end of the file. Now it's easy. When you want to get to the very beginning or end of the file to insert something or delete something, now just click one of these buttons and you're there.
Arrow 1 & 1b.) This sets the cursor all the way to the Left.
Arrow 2 & 2b.) This sets the cursor all the way to the Right.
How Do I Mark Areas So I can Go Back And Work On them?
If you're just copying an LP or cassette, you don't need markers or to mark areas. But, if you're doing a narration and you want to copy and change parts, now all you have to do is play the file and wherever you want you can click the Check Mark to add a marker so you can come back to the exact spot you want without having to search for it.
You can Mark spots, (2a and 2b) or you can mark selected areas (2c). It's super easy. Mark spots when the editor is stopped or playing. You can then open the Marker Interface and see all your marked spots, delete any you don't want or clear them all. Marking is a session level so it won't be saved when you exit the editor. Just watch the animation for the whole animated story.
How Do I Adjust The Playback Pitch or Key?
Pitch/key gives you the power to change the pitch during real time playback. This doesn't change the speed of the file that's playing. It just makes a voice go up in key or down in key as you slide the slider. Of course if you push it much it will sound like Donald Duck. But most of the time you'll use it to alter your music from say A to A# or something like that.
This is in real time so you can alter it for an entire file or just for part of a file. If you want to sing along, this is great. Plus as you'll see below, we have a special new built-in recorder so you can capture the new pitch and your singing or playing at the same time. There's nothing special you need to do, just slide the slider till you get just the pitch or key you want.
How Do I Adjust The Playback Tempo Without Changing the Pitch Or Key?
OK so what if you want to slow down some lyrics so you can transcribe them? Something like "I am a Major General" from the Pirates of Penzance? Or anything you want to slow down or speed up without affecting the pitch or key at all.
Well now, just slider the Tempo slider up or down and the speed will change in real-time. Plus, you can alter an entire file, or you can alter just part of a file that might be running fast or slow. You're in total control. Just adjust the speed anyway you like whenever you like. Plus, you can make a real-time recording with the special new playback recorder, see below. You'll find lots of uses for the playback recorder. You can sing along and record yourself and much more.
DAK's Real Time Playback Recorder Gives You The Power To Alter Pitch/Key & Tempo For The Total File Or For Parts Of A File And Make A New Recording.
OK this is slicker than slick. I've never seen anything like my new Real Time Playback recorder. Now you can make real-time recordings of anything in the editor and you can alter what's playing back in real-time as the playback proceeds and the recording is made. It's fun. It's useful. And it's the only one on the block I've ever seen.
Plus it's totally automatic. When you click the Record Button and give it a name, the editor will immediately begin play. And it can automatically begin play of the entire loaded file or just a selection if you've selected a part of the loaded file. Plus when the Editor gets to the end of the selection or file, the recorder will automatically stop on its own. This really is slicker than slick. 🙂
Arrow 1.) Once you've chosen what you want to record and loaded it in the editor or selected just a part of the file you want to record, just click Record and give it a name and all the automation begins immediately.
Arrow 2.) The Full Spectrum playback meter opens a new peak reading recording meter on the right. So you'll see both meters. But you'll use the Peak Reading Meters at the right to set your recording levels. To record using this Real Time Recorder, you must set your source to Stereo Mix, Wave Out, or What U Hear. Most sound cards support this, a few don't.
Arrow 3a & 3b.) Recording from your sound card requires both enough playback volume and setting the input recording volume. Here's the thing. Set the playback volume on the high side (you can turn down your speakers if they are too loud) then set the input level to get 50% height or so on the Peak Reading Meters. This is the proper way to record any time you're recording from the Internet or using the Stereo Mix, Wave Out or What U Hear part of your sound card
Arrow 4.) Adjust the Pitch to get just what you want for the entire file or change it for great effects as the file plays. Whatever you hear, is what you'll be recording. It's a very powerful new feature for you to use.
Arrow 5.) Adjust the Tempo to get just what you want for the entire file or change it for great effects as the file plays. Whatever you hear, is what you'll be recording. It's a very powerful new feature for you to use.
How Do I Append Or Add To The End Of An Effect?
OK, so you've got one effect loaded and you want to put another effect at the end. Of course you can add onto music tracks, voice narrations or anything, anywhere you put your cursor in an open track. Let's append a track.
Here's all you do.
Arrow 1.) I put my cursor at the end. Remember that's the dotted yellow line.
Arrow 2.) I open the Edit Menu and choose Paste from File.
What File Do You Want To Append
Or Put At The End?
Just choose any effect or music. Nothing could be easier.
Arrow 1.) Click on the name of the effect and it will show up in the File Name box.
Arrow 2.) Choose Open.
That's it. You've appended, in this case, or added anywhere in the file a 2nd track. It's super fast and easy.
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Mixing Sound Effects Or Anything – Easy
Let's Get A Cat & A Dog Together To See What Happens.
OK, let's mix two sound effects together. It's easy. I've already loaded in a Dog barking into the Editor, let's add a Cat meowing.
Arrow 1.) I'm just going to go to the Edit Menu and choose Mix From File.
Arrow 2.) Shows you were your cursor is right now. That's important because when you mix sounds or paste in a second sound you control exactly where you want it to start by putting your cursor in the exact spot you want to paste.
Mix In The 2nd, 3rd or 10th Sound.
OK, Here Comes The Cat
Now you can use any track on your computer. You can even mix MP3 and Wav. But right now, let's just add the cat.
Arrow 1.) Here's the Cat. Just click it and it will show up in the File Name Box.
Arrow 2.) Click Open.
That's all there is to mixing a file.
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The Final Mix Is Done
Boy It's Noisy Here
Here's the result. Arrow 1 shows you where the dog is and Arrow 2 shows you where the cat is. This is called sound on sound and you can use it to record a music track then add your narration or singing. It's all very fast and easy in the Editor. But it's even faster and easier if you use the new DAK Voice Over Pro option in the Toolbox.
How Do I Make A Digital Album?
In most cases you take the side of a record, cassette, or an hour of recording from the Internet and separate it into Tracks. But what if you want to group 2, 3 or even 10 tracks or parts into one continuous digital file? We'll now you have the new DAK Album maker to let you 'JOIN' sections together fast and easy.
Pre-Note. Now with DAK's new advanced No Pause CD Burner, you can still have all the 'tracks' you want with virtually no audible breaks, so the digital album idea really can be great.
Pre-Note 2. You can join your tracks and parts with a 3 second silent pause or you can join them with no pause/silence between them at all. It all depends on your ultimate goal. Either way, now it's fast and super easy.
Arrow 1.) Load the 1st tack or part in the editor. Nothing special to do, but it's a good idea to put your cursor at the end of the file. Use the Set Right Button as that's the fastest way.
Arrow 2.) From the Tools Menu, choose the Album Maker.
Arrow 3.) Click Yes to the alert that reminds you that you are going to be using the editor.
How Do I Make A Digital Album 2?
OK, now we're ready to add the tracks and parts. Let's make our Album.
Arrow 1.) Check the 3 second box if you want a pause/silence between the parts. Uncheck it if you don't.
Arrow 2.) Click the Get Files/parts Button. This opens the Windows Dialog box that you use to navigate to the folder that has your tracks/parts in it.
Arrow 3) Click on the File you want to append to your album. It will be placed immediately following the 1st file or any additional files you've already loaded.
Arrow 4.) Click Open to load the file into the editor behind any files already loaded in the editor. It will be appended to the end with our without the space depending on what you've chosen.
How Do I Make A Digital Album 3?
OK, now keep adding as many files/parts as you like. You can add a number of files only limited to how much RAM you have to allow a file size that will load into the editor. So even an hour or more is usually no problem.
Arrow 1.) Nothing to do here, I'm just showing you that I used the 3 second box so you can see the silence/pause that I've had the Album Maker put into my digital album.
Arrow 2.) Just Click the Load File button to add the next file.
Disappearing Note: If the little Album Maker Interface goes behind the editor, you can either move the editor or look on the status bar at the bottom of your computer and click on it there to bring it back on top.
New Audio Player
This player is really very easy to use. You can play a single track or load a bunch. You can make playlists of the loaded files in the order you like, or you can load playlists.
Note: Most of its automated features work off playlists, not just loaded files, so make playlists to get the most of the automated features. Or just load a few tracks and enjoy.
Arrow 1.) Load a File by clicking on this button.
Arrow 2.) Remove a file by highlighting it and clicking this button.
Arrow 3.) Load a Playlist.
Arrow 4.) If you have files loaded, you can save the list by clicking this button and giving it a name.
Arrow 5.) Clear all files loaded.
Arrow 6.) Play.
Arrow 7.) Pause.
Arrow 8.) Stop.
Arrow 9.) Jump back
Arrow 10.) Jump forward.
Arrow 11.) Jump to Last song
Arrow 12.) Jump to next song.
Arrow 13.) Launch EQ.
Arrow 14.) Open Soundcard Interface.
Arrow 15.) Use EQ.
Pitch Bender Tool
The Pitch Bender is a small, but powerful tool to give you an effect like scratching records. All you do is click on the the Forward Arrows to make the pitch go up and the Reverse Arrows to make the pitch go down. It's an instant and temporary thing like you just held and released the record. It adds a lot of realism to your playing and recording too. Some people love it. Others don't. It's up to you, but it's something you could never do before on your PC.
Here's all you need to do.
Arrow 1.) Launch the Pitch Bender from the Tools Menu.
Arrow 2.) Start playing a track in the editor. .
Arrow 3.) Click the Reverse Arrows to get a slow effect.
Arrow 4.) Click the Forward Arrows to get a fast effect.
You'll hear the pitch go up and down for about a second. Try it. It's a very cool effect.
Instant Playlist Maker
So you've got a ton of songs. But even if you're like me and you've saved the ones you want and deleted the ones you don't, how do you get them to play in the order you want when you want?
It's called playlists. And it's a really simple system that you can use to play a series of songs in the order you want whenever you like. You can have the same song in several playlists. You can have a playlist for any mood you ever have. In short, all a playlist is, is a list of songs that you want to play in a certain order. The key it's the order you want them in. Not the order some record company put them in.
If you're doing really complex things with your playlists, you can use our Playlist Manager. See the Tool's Menu for a link. But for just making fast, easy, stable playlists, use this Playlist Maker. It's fast. It's easy, and it's a great player too.
Playlist Maker How-To.
Here's a brief How-To. You probably don't need it, but if you do, here's how it's done.
Arrow 1.) Load a Playlist you've already made. You can play it, you can re-order the list and save it as a new list. You can combine lists. In short, you're in control.
Arrow 2.) Add a song.
Arrow 3.) Remove a song (that's highlighted).
Arrow 4.) Move a song Up in the playlist. In short put it anywhere you like.
Arrow 5.) Move a song Down in the playlist.
Arrow 6.) Save your new list so you can use it or just save it.
Arrow 7.) If you are playing tracks in the playlist, you can move to the next song or the last song by using these arrows.
Saving Your Playlists.
After you click Save, you'll see this interface. This lets you give your playlist a name and decide where you want to save it.
Arrow 1.) Give your playlist a name
Arrow 2.) Choose where you want to save your playlist.
Arrow 3.) Save your playlist.
How Do I Burn/Write CDs
That Play On My Home And Car CD Players?
This is your audio CD burner. But aren't all CDs audio? No Audio is the standard set in the 80s. It's called Redbook and it's comprised of files like Wav files actually called CDA. (Computer Disc Audio). Any audio CD will hold up to 72 minutes. NOT 80, or it won't play in all players. 72 is the standard. It was considered long enough to record a Beethoven Symphony, so that's how it was established.
If you put MP3 files on a disc, it's no longer an Audio disc. It's considered data and we've added a burner for that below. And most CD players won't play it. But all computers will and all home theatre systems will. And if you have a car with Navigation it may too.
OK we have a whole tutorial on using the burners, but in short,
Top Arrow) Add a track, several tracks or lots of tracks by clicking the Add Files Button.
Bottom Arrow) This meter you how much you've added. This is awesome and we spent a lot of time developing this. You'll see the loaded amount in minutes, not megabytes and we've color coded our meter so you can be sure how much you can put on a CD.
NO TRACK NAMES ON CDs
Important Note: People think that the names of the tracks are actually on the CDs they buy. After all, You see the track names in the burner above as your burn. But, track names are not on the CD. Only the track numbers are there. The names weren't part of the CD format when it was invented back in the 80s. In fact, 8 character DOS was about it.
But I see names when I load a CD in my computer? Yes, usually you do. But the program playing your CD goes out to the Internet and accesses a free database usually FREEdb that volunteers like you and me have added CD album info to. It usually gets about 80% of the CDs right. But it just matches an ID number.
When you convert albums and cassettes from analog, there's no database to query, so we've added a naming function in the DAK Playlist manager you'll find in the Toolbox for you to name your tracks. But remember if you're just burning CDs your names won't be there. For the tracks you keep on your computer, I'd name them so you can know what they are. And for your MP3 files, we name and add tags to those too.
Home And Car – CDs That Play Everywhere.
There are just 2 TRICKS to making sure the CDs you burn will play on your car and home CD players. Of course when you play them on your computer CD player they will play, but you want them to play everywhere. Above is the DAK CD burner screen that makes it easy to make sure you are setting your preferences correctly.
You can play CDs that aren't Finalized/Closed on a computer but not on any other CD player. So we've made our burner ALWAYS CLOSE YOUR CDS. Now you won't have to worry about closing your CDs any more.
Arrow) Here's the pull down window showing all the burn speeds. Most CD Burning programs will have this type of speed choice but it can be really hard to find.
NOTE: If you see multiple burn speeds here, we recommend using about 1/2 the Max speed for making your audio CDs. In this case I'd use 16X or 24X.
Important Summary: How to make your CDs play everywhere.
1. If your burner allows it, always burn at about 1/2 the max speed of the burner. This is a rule of thumb for all audio CD recording. Do it for your LP and Cassette conversions and do it even if you are just copying a CD. It really does make a difference.
2. Always finalize or close your CDs so they will play on just about any CD player anywhere you are. They'll play in the car, in your home or on your portables. If you're using the DAK burner it's automatic. If you use another, be sure to find the checkbox so you can close your CDs.
These are the only two tricks you need to know to get your CDs burned and playing wherever you want them to play.
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MP3 CDs for Drew's New C6 Corvette Too.
I just got my new C6 Corvette (400 horse wow, great). I had Navigation put in it so there was no CD changer. Bummer. So how could I live without by 12 disc changer? Well, the Corvette CD player plays MP3 CDs. and you can put 10 hours on a single CD of MP3 tracks.
That's why I've added this MP3 burner to the editor. Now you can burn 10 hour CDs for your car, home theatre or computer CD ROM drives so you won't need changers either. As the new cars come out, you'll have 10 hours on a single CD and you can carry 2-3 CDs for 20-30 hours of your favorite music, no problem.
I've covered using the MP3 burner in the Burner Tutorials, but in short, just load your MP3 AND ONLY MP3 tracks, be sure to limit yourself to about 700 Megs, and burn at about 1/2 the max speed of your burner.
NOTE: You also get DAK's color coded meter for telling how full your CD is getting. In this case we use Megs because minutes don't count with MP3s.
That's pretty much your solution for effortlessly making CDs with up to 10 hours of your favorite MP3 tracks.
How Do I Go To Full Screen Mode?
Because of space, I've shown all the Program pictures in their small or normal default size. But, if you click the Screen above, you'll see the program in full screen mode. I've made this 1024/768 but it will fill any screen size you use on your monitor.
Then you'll have an even bigger work area for editing. Above you can see the full size screen on your monitor by clicking the picture.
Arrow 1.) Minimize the editor to see your desktop other programs or the tutorial.
Arrow 2.) Go to Full Screen.
Arrow 3.) Close the editor. Be sure to save your work first.
Play 78 RPM Records On Your 45 RPM Turntable Like Magic.
If you're like me, you have a bunch of 78s that are just sitting around. And your really good turntable doesn't play 78s. So, until now, you've had no way to copy them to CDs let alone listen to them at all.
Now you can. DAK's all new 78 Automatic Converter lets you copy your 78s to your computer and then with a single click, listen to them again. It's great. It's easy and yes, you can easily restore them and burn them to CDs too.
OK, here's all you do. Get out your 78 RPM records. And put one on your turntable.
Select 45 RPM and you're set.
Click the Record Button on the Wave Editor/Recorder and then put the needle in the groove.
Just choose 45 RPM on your turntable and your 78s will soon be flawlessly copied to your computer and on CDs for you to enjoy from now on.After you've played one side of the 78, Click Stop, name and save the file.
OK, now the fun begins.
Arrow 1.) Click Effects
Arrow 2.) Click Speed Decode
Arrow 3) Click 78 RPM Converter.
And like magic, the 78 RPM record that you played at 45 RPM will be converted to the correct speed. Click Play and you'll see how GREAT it sounds.
Oh, and don't worry, when you play the 78s they will sound very slow. That's because they are being played at 45 RPM, not 78. But don't worry, they will sound perfect after the conversion is finished. Just wait till you hear your 78s again on your own system. So, how good are your 78s? How good will they sound? Well they will sound good, really good.
Virtually all the scratches your 78s had can be eliminated with the Click & Pop filter that's included with our LPs to CDs systems. Your 78s will sound great.
If the records have what's called crackle, you can clean it up using the Minimize Hiss Filter also included in the Click & Pop filter. It's amazing how good they sound. In short, you should be able to get the best possible recordings. From the results I've had on about 35 of my 78s that I've converted so far. I know you are going to be thrilled.
One note: In a perfect world, a 78 record should be played with a spherical needle that's somewhat wider than the Elliptical Styluses that we use today. But, I've tested the two side by side and really haven't been able to determine any difference. I guess that conventional wisdom would say that if you have 100s of 78s, you might want to get a different cartridge, but if it's any less I don't think you'll notice any difference at all.
The playing at 45 RPM is really good. In fact, I've found 0 loss of quality in any of my tests between playing at 78 and 45. It really is amazing.
You will finally be able to listen to and copy to CDs and MP3 all your 78s without investing in the space or expense of a 78 RPM turntable that's not very good for playing 45s and LPs anyway.
Enjoy your 78s and Enjoy them as you copy them to CDs.
Now all the great music from:
Glen Miller,
Tennessee Ernie Ford,
Bing Crosby
Nat King Cole
and so many more,
won't be lost to you and future generations of music lovers. Our new 78 RPM Converter is a real musical breakthrough.
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Delete Obnoxious *%#*& Talking & Applause Way One
OK, to me, this is like the biggest thing that I can do to enhance the enjoyment of all my music. I can't speak for you, but when I own an LP and I've listened to it hundreds of times, I get really tired of listening to the same jokes, the same inter-track talking and even the applause. Well, no more.
Now we can all effortlessly and easily remove it. It just takes a few seconds ONCE and it's gone FOREVER. Then when you make your CDs, you'll only have the music you love without all the interruptions.
So, how do you do it? Simple. Just select the part of the track that has the 'talking' Remember you can play what you've selected by just touching the play button. It's so easy, if you don't get it the first time, you will the 2nd time. And remember, you can just drag the little triangles at the top or bottom to increase or decrease the area you've selected.
Anyway, here I've selected the area of the track I don't want to be stuck listening to from now on.
Arrow 1.) Just go to Effects/Fade, — and as you can see by the arrow 3, I've faded to 0 to get rid of it all. This is the same way that the studios fade the music you hear and now you can do it too.
Arrow 2.) Here's the 'before ending' that the Artist wanted. There's both applause and talking here. And I'm tired of hearing it.
Arrow 3.) Here's the faded version with the applause and talking gone.
Also, You could of course have zoomed in if you wanted to and if you don't want to fade it, just click Edit/Delete Selected.
IMPORTANT FADE LENGTH NOTE: This is really great. Whenever you are fading part of a file, you can make the fade as long or as short as you like. The fade will begin at the beginning of the selection and go to 0 at the end. So the longer the selection, the gentler the fade slope. Have a 10 second fade or a 2 second fade. It's up to you.
Edit Out Any Part, Like Artists Talking.
Make Your Music The Way You Want It To Be Effortlessly
This talking is a really big thing for me. I hate all the talking. I hate it. I really hate it. Here the unnamed entertainer was talking again. And guess what, I Selected it. And I deleted it. It took me just a few seconds to save the music from all the *#@*&~ infernal talking. I'll never have to listen to it again as I play my CDs and MP3 files.
Here's how easy it is to get rid of the infernal talking that so many entertainers insist on putting on their LPs, 45s cassettes & CDs, especially their live in-concert CDs. Anyway, all you need to do is to select any part of the recording that you'd like to eliminate and then Just Click 'Delete Selected'
Is it really that easy? Yes, and here's what you do.
Arrow 1.) Simply highlight any area you'd like to delete.
Arrow 2.) Click Play. Is it the right area? It's great when you can see the waveform because you can see what you hear and that makes life really easy. Anyway once you've selected the area you want, how do you get it just right? The exact spot?
Do you see the little triangles at all 4 corners of the red selected area above? Just grab any of them with your mouse and move them in or out to enlarge or reduce your selected area.
Arrow 3.) Just click Delete on the Menu or use the Button on the Tool Bar and you're done.
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Play & Record Movement Buttons In The Editor
Here's A Quick Summary Of The Record & Movement Buttons.
Set Left moves the cursor to the extreme beginning of the file.
Scan Play (Reverse) moves the cursor 5 seconds back in the file DURING PLAY ONLY.
Play Plays the loaded file in the editor.
Scan Play (Forward) moves the cursor 5 seconds forward in the file DURING PLAY ONLY.
Play/Record Pause pauses the editor both during play and record. To resume play, click the pause button again. To resume record, click the record button.
Stop stops all action in the editor. Set Right, moves the cursor to the extreme end of the loaded file.
Loop Play plays the loaded file or a selection over and over again with no pause at all.
Record records whatever the inputs are set to. .
Timed Record Launches an interface that lets you set a timer to stop playing in any number of minutes you choose.
Set Right moves the cursor to the extreme end of the file.
High Speed Search And Scan Helps You Find What You Want And Get You Where You Want To Go Fast.
OK we just added these high speed search/find buttons. When you are looking for a spot or just want to move past a spot while you're in Play, use the high speed Forward Jump and Reverse Jump buttons. They will move you forward or back 5 seconds at a time.
They are also great to rehear something that just played to be sure you got it just the way you want it. Just hit Reverse Jump and it will replay the last 5 seconds. This is a super handy addition that you'll use all the time.
Loop Play, Infinite Play Part Or All Of A File.
Want to repeat play a section of a file? Just highlight what you want and click the Loop Play Button. It will play forever with absolutely no pause at all. So you can do a drum loop or anything. It plays it continuously. This can be really useful if you need a long recording of something that is shorter than you want it to be. Now you can have uninterrupted sounds either played in the editor, or you can record them to another file to burn to a CD or make as an MP3 file.
Play the whole file too. If you use Loop Play rather than Play, anything loaded in the editor will play forever with no pause between replays at all.
New & Cut, Copy & Paste Buttons
The New button and alert below it – This will clear the editor of all loaded information. Be sure to do this before every recording to be sure that you have an empty editor. Or, you might find that you are recording over the last recording you made and mixing the two.
Cut – This deletes whatever is selected.
Copy – This copies whatever is selected so you can paste it somewhere else.
Paste – This pastes wherever your cursor point is set whatever you have copied by using the copy button to its left.
Delete – This Deletes whatever is selected.
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The Editor Digital Counter.
The digital counter tells you the exact location of the cursor in your file while it's playing or paused. You can note this to get back to a certain part, or just see where you are. It's very useful for finding the part you want to edit.
Drew's eMail Thingy – Wow, You Can Send Anything In The Editor By eMail FAST.
OK this is my favorite new toy. Wait till you start using my all new eMail Thingy. It's slicker than slick. You'll see the very first time you use it just how fast, easy and fun it is to use. From a whole song to just a few measures, a few words or a whole speech. If it's in the editor, you can send it instantly.
As long as you have a local email address, not a webmail email like Hotmail or Gmail, (Use one of the ones that you got for free from your ISP along with your Internet connection if you normally don't use one on your computer. If you do use one on your computer, use the one you already use.) Now you can effortlessly send anything loaded in the editor by email, well to anyone, FAST. And you don't even need an email program on your computer to send your audio eMails. My new eMail Thingy does it all in Win 7, Vista and XP.
What if you want to send a few bars of a song? No problem. Highlight what you want to send. Click Trim, then click the eMail Thingy Icon.
How about an audio email using your voice? What a great way to share emotion with friends and family, or to give clarification for business. No problem. Just plug in your Mic, record whatever you like in the editor and click my eMail Thingy icon. Will you send Birthday or Anniversary greetings? Will you tell a story? Will you tell a friend how to do something? With my eMail Thingy, it's easy.
Working with a group and want to share? No problem. With my new eMail Thingy, you'll be sending the fastest best audio emails ever, using your own email address, right out of the editor.
There's nothing special you need to do. It's all automatic. As long as you have a local email address, (you don't even have to have it setup on your computer) you're all set. If you only have Hotmail, Gmail or one of the webmails that you have to go onto the Internet and sign in to, then this won't work. But you normally get a bunch of free email addresses with your Internet service. Use one of those, or use the one you use all the time. One email address is all you need.
OK, here's all you do.
Arrow 1.) It's easy. Load whatever you want to send in the editor. It can be something you've already recorded. You can record it now. You can edit it. You can cut it. You can Trim it, or do anything you like. Then, just Click the eMail Thingy Icon when you're ready.
Arrow 2.) Type In Your eMail address.
Note Only Do It Once: Once you type it in, my eMail Thingy will remember it for you so you don't even have to type it each time.
Arrow 3.) Type In the person's email address that you want to send your audio masterpiece to.
Note Send To Lots Of People: Want to send it to 5 people? No problem. Just type in each email address separated by a semicolon and you can send them all at once.
Arrow 4) Type a subject for your email, or just leave the Audio Email Attached that will populate the Subject Line automatically. You can leave it, change it or do anything you like.
Arrow 5) Type a written message if you like. Not required, but it's usually a good idea to tell people what you're sending them and maybe why.
Arrow 6) Click Send. My eMail Thingy will do the rest for you.
OK of course you can open your regular email program and attach an audio file. But where's the fun in that? And it's a lot more steps. You have to actually save what you want to send in a file. Then open your email program. Then find where you saved your file and attach it. My eMail Thingy will do all that for you. It's a real time saver and it's a blast to use.
In short, with 'Drew's eMail Thingy', you'll send out lots of audio emails to lots of people where it was entirely too much of a hassle to do before.
Note Anyone Can Play Your Audio eMails: Oh, and all the recipient of your audio eMail has to do is click on the attachment and Windows Media Player or their default music player will play it for them. That's it. It's totally hassle free.
Drew's eMail Thingy – Fast, Easy Setup.
My eMail Thingy is actually a complete sending email program. You don't need any type of email program on your computer at all. And, if you do have an email program, no problem, my eMail Thingy will work right along side of it without bothering it at all.
There's very little you need to do to set it up. You don't have to worry about POP3 accounts and all that stuff that's involved with receiving email. All you need to do is enter the info for sending emails and you're all set.
And I've made the program remember what you enter so you don't need to do it each time you send. Just set it up once and you're all set.
OK, let's do it.
Arrow 1.) Fill in your own email address. Once you do it, you won't have to fill it in again because my eMail Thingy will remember it for you. Of course you can change it any time you like and it will remember the new address.
Arrow 2.) Click the toggle button to open the setup area. Normally it's closed so you don't have to look at it.
Arrow 3.) Enter your SMTP server info. Now don't worry. It's simple. If you're using Outlook Express, go to Tools/accounts, choose the server's tab. And you'll see it right there. If you don't know or don't have Outlook Express, just email your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and ask for your SMTP info. It's short and easy.
Arrow 4.) The User Name is probably your email address from your ISP. If you use that, just enter it here. If you don't use it as your main email address, likely they will want you to use that anyway.
Arrow 5.) You got or choose a password when you got your email or got an email password when you setup your Internet connection. Just enter it here and it will be remembered. Now you're all set.
From Here On, These are almost never used.
Arrow 6.) SSL is an encrypted connection that's sometimes used for businesses. If you're at home, you'll never see it. If you're at work and they use it, just check the box.
Arrow 7.) SPA is secure password authentication. It's almost never used. Same thing, if they want it, just check the box. You can't hurt anything and you'll see an alert if you've left anything out.
Now you're ready to send your audio emails using my new eMail Thingy. It's fast and easy and you'll use it a lot.
The File Menu
Most of these choices are self evident. But, if in doubt, here's what they do
Open – Opens a Wav, MP3, OGG, WMA or CDA file that's already created.
Open Text/ RTF file– Opens a standard text file and converts it to sound. Now you can read email and articles by opening them in the editor, saving them as MP3 files and taking them with you in your MP3 Player or iPod and playing them as you would play your music.
New – Clears out anything in the Editor so you can start a new file. An alert will display to be sure you want to clear any unsaved data.
Save – Saves the current open file over the original file. Caution: always use Save As if you want to preserve the current file.
Save As – Saves the current open file to a New File.
Save As ALWAYS USE NOTE: I recommend using save as rather than save because that way you never overwrite your file. The trick is as you work a file, just keep adding a higher number. So use My file1, My file2, My file 23 and so on. That way you can always go back. Then just delete all the extras when you are finished.
Save Select As – Very powerful often used way to save just what you have selected. So, highlight a part you want like a track, or a theme from a song, then choose File/Save Select As and give it a name. The original file won't be altered but you will save just the part you want.
Save Right Channel As – Saves the current open Right Channel to a New File
Save Left Channel As – Saves the current open Left Channel to a New File
Save Wave Image As Graphic – Saves a picture of the waves you see in the editor to a .bmp file that you can email to someone or study later.
Convert Sample Type – Allows you to convert from Mono to Stereo & Back Plus lets you set maximum frequency settings.
Exit – Closes Program.
Open Recent Files 1-6 – The last 6 opened and saved files are listed here for easy 1-click opening. The 7th file opened or saved will replace the oldest. This is a brand new '07 addition that will save you tons of time and you won't lose a file you've just saved because you don't remember where it is. The Recent Saved Files shows you the complete path to where the file is saved.
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The Edit Menu
Add Music to front of file– Load any file to the beginning of whatever file or recording is loaded in the editor. Check the Music Folder in the Editor Programs for the 18 sample files included.
Add Music to end of file– Load any file to the end of whatever file or recording is loaded in the editor. Check the Music Folder in the Editor Programs for the 18 sample files included.
Copy – Copies any selected part of the open file to memory.
Copy to Windows Clipboard – Copies any selected part of the open file to the Windows Clipboard for pasting anywhere.
Cut – Cuts any selected part of an open file.
Delete Selected – Deletes any selected part of an open file
Paste – Pastes to where your cursor is located any part of a file that you have copied and is therefore on the clipboard.
Paste From File – Pastes to where your cursor is located any file that you open through a dialog box that you get when you click this choice.
Select All – Selects all of the open file.
Mix – Mixes starting with where your cursor is located any part of a file that you have copied and is therefore on the clipboard. Note: Mix will not add the new file beyond the current open file. So add additional blank space to the 1st loaded copy if you want the mix to continue on beyond the original loaded file.
Mix From File – Mixes from where your cursor is located any file that you open through a dialog box that you get when you click this choice. Note: Mix will not add the new file beyond the current open file. So add additional blank space to the 1st loaded copy if you want the mix to continue on beyond the original loaded file.
Add Music Or Content To The Front Or End Of Any File. Check Out Your Included Intros & Exits.
Now it's fast and easy to drop professional musical intros and exits to your narrations or musical creations. We've given you 18 to get you started, but you can use any .MP3 or .Wav file as your own intro or exit. And wow is it easy to do.
Arrow 1.) Click the Edit Menu and choose Add Music to Front of File. You'll get a dialog box that lets you choose the music you want. And it will automatically be added before whatever is already loaded in the editor. It's just that simple.
Arrow 2.) Click the Edit Menu and choose Add Music to End of File. You'll get a dialog box that lets you choose the music you want. And it will be automatically added After whatever is already loaded in the editor. That's all you need to do.
These Are Your Included Intros & Exits. But You Can Use Any .MP3 or .Wav File On Your PC.
Here's the standard Windows Browse Box. It will take you to the music file in the Wave Editor program file. If not, you can navigate there and grab these included professional intros and exits. Or just choose any file, long or short on your computer.
Arrow 1.) Choose the file you want and click once on arrow 1. Or if you click twice it will automatically load.
Arrow 2.) If you've clicked once on the file, track, music you want, then click open and it will automatically load at the very beginning or very end of whatever you have loaded in the editor. It's up to you. It's fast and easy and of course it's a seamless addition to whatever is loaded. Then just do a Save As with your file with its new Intro, Exit or both and you'll be all set.
Here's You See An Added Intro. Now It's Fast & Easy To Add Intros & Exits.
This is what it looks like in the editor. The music you chose is loaded for you before or after whatever you have loaded and it's a seamless addition to your loaded file. Now you can have truly professional intros and exits faster and easier than ever.
Arrow 1.) Here I'm just showing you what your editor looks like after you've loaded one of our Intros. Use ours, use yours, use any .MP3 or .Wav file and you're all set.
Configure Your Editor To Make It Even More Useful & Easy To Use.
The Config File Menu allows you access to control the way your editor will look and to access these parts:
1.) Digital Wave View – The Waveform display where you can use Spectral view or the Digital Wave view.
2.) Configure Color Theme – New in V7, now you can configure colors in your editor. More than just a new skin, you can configure the parts of your editor with just the color that you want. Use colors you love, configure it for Christmas, Halloween or anything you like. Now you have complete control of the colors.
3.) Help Tool Tips– Now you can turn on and off the helpful balloons that tell you what each icon on the interface does. You really need these on when you start using the editor, but it's nice to get rid of them when you're a seasoned user.
4.) Recording 'Automatic Gain Control'– Now you can let the editor set upper and lower volume limits for you. Use the default or alter it the way you like.
5.) The Pre—Record Wizard which will give you one place to go to set your recording input and recording volume. You can test your recording settings here and then it automatically will clear the editor for you and keep your chosen settings when you exit the Wizard.
6.) Scales View – Set the vertical and horizontal Scales the way you want them.
7.) Set Temp File Path– With today's PCs having multiple drives and USB drives, now you can control where the TEMP files are placed as you record. You're no longer stuck with the C drive.
8.) Direct access to the Windows Mixer controls.
See below for details on using each of these configuration tools.
Choose Wave Or Spectral View
This is a wave editor and normally you look at the green wave view. But if you click Config and choose Spectral view you get this view of your music. Most people don't find the spectral view as useful as wave, but give it a try. It does represent the actual frequencies in color.
Skin, Background & Wav Colors Anyway You Like.
This is my new favorite part. Just go to the configuration menu and choose 'Configure Color Theme' and you can do so much.
It's not just preset skins that you might or might not like. You control everything. Play with it and see what you like. You'll be glad you did.
You control the main skin background, the foreground which is the text and highlights. Then you control the waveform back color and foreground color too. Finally, you control the color of the highlight when you make a selection.
I always loved the way the editor looked with my default colors. (Just hit Default to return the editor to the default color scheme) But now that I can change the colors, I think it was ugly. It's amazing just how much better it looks now with lots and lots of choices.
Added Tip. You're not stuck with just the default colors you see. Choose a color you like then click "Define Custom Colors>>" and you can adjust the hue to any shade you like. There's no limit to your choices. And you can do this for each of the choices above.
Enjoy, now the Editor can be, well beautiful.
Automatic Gain Control For Recording.
What if you don't want to manually set your recording volume? What if it's a lecture or something live where the levels change dramatically? Now you'll have built in auto-level control Just choose it from the Configuration menu and the editor will take care of input volume control for you. Now you can record without overloading or without worrying that your levels are too low.
Most times you'll set the level manually. But, when you can't, especially for live recording and speeches, auto-level recording is a lifesaver. It really can make the difference of getting a good recording or getting background noise and distortion.
Use The Pre- Record Wizard To Choose Your Source, Set and Test Your Input Recording Levels.
The neat thing about the new Pre-Record Wizard is that it puts everything you need to start recording in one easy to control place. To record, you just need to select if you want to record from the DAK Mixer Interface, from a Microphone, or from the Internet.
Plus, you need to set your recording level. Now you can do it all in one place and take the hassle out of setting up to record.
Arrow 1a and 1b.) Click the Direct Wizard Button on the main Editor interface or the Pre-Record Wizard Button in the Config Menu to launch the Pre-Record Wizard.
Arrow 2.) Click the Set Source Button to choose LINE IN, What U Hear or Microphone. More in setting inputs.
Arrow 3.) Use the Input Level Slider to set your input volume so that the waves you see during your recording test fill about 60% of the height of the 2 wave windows.
Now let's explore the details.
Pre- Record Wizard Details.
OK, here's how to do it.
Arrow 1.) Just go to the Windows Mixer to select your input recording source. It's like turning on the lights in the bedroom. You don't go to the kitchen light switch. You turn on the bedroom light switch. So, just click this button and select.
LINE IN/Analog In/Aux – Blue Jack In Back – To record from the DAK Interface Mixer.
Microphone/Mic – Pink Jack In Back – To record from a Microphone.
Stereo Mix/Wave Out/What U Hear – Internet Recording
Arrow 2.) Set the input recording volume with this slider after you start the test. Note: You must hear the sound of what you want to record playing through your computer speakers to be able to record with a desktop computer. For laptops you don't need to hear the sound.
Arrow 3.) Start the test recording in the editor. This button acts as the Start Recording Button for the test. The Stop Button to the right stops the recording.
Recording Level NOTE: A one minute or less test is all you really need to set your recording levels. Don't waste time recording a whole side. Do some short 1 minute or so tests the 1st time and you'll be up and running fast. Everything you need to know about what level to set you'll see in the 1st one minute of your test.
Arrow 4.) Play back your test to see how it sounds. You should not be able to hear any difference between the original and the recording as this is digital recording. If the sound is at all muddy, then lower your input volume slider (2) and try again.
Arrow 5.) When you are finished with your tests, click the Save Settings Button and the Wizard will lock in your settings, clear the editor and you'll be ready to do your broadcast quality recordings for real.
Set Your Scales For dB or Samples & Milliseconds or Samples
Set your scales for whatever you like. I use milliseconds and dB so that's the default for the program when you get it, but you can set it for whichever choice makes the most sense to you. It's totally subjective, just choose what you like to work with.
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Where To Put Your Temp Files
You never see your temp files. They aren't for you. They are for your PC to use as you record, save and edit. But what you do need to know is that they are large, very large. Sometimes they can be several gigabytes. They go away when you're finished. But if you have limited capacity on your C: drive they can be a problem. So, we've added the ability to save them on any drive in your system. They will still go away when you're finished editing, but now you can put them wherever you have the most room.
For most of use, you'll never need to use this ability. But if your main C: drive is almost full, this will be a lifesaver. Just choose any other drive and you're all set.
Choose The Input You Want To Record From.
When recording on a computer, you need to choose what you want to record. It's like turning on the lights in your home. If you want to have lights in the dining room, you use that switch. For the bedroom you use the switch in the bedroom. Recording on your computer is the same. What I've given you here is a one-click quick way to get to the Windows mixer from the main editor screen any time you want to change your inputs. For the detail of how to do that in both XP and W/7Vista, please check out this page.
The View Menu
Marker List – You can mark parts of your file and return to them later. This is useful in a large file that you might want to edit several times. But later means within the current session. These are not saved when you unload or close the file. You'll use this all the time when you use DAK's new markers on the main interface. You can even mark the spots you want to edit while the file is playing.
View MP3 ID Tags and File Info- View the MP3 ID tags of the file that's loaded.
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The Effects Menu
Here's a list and description of all the Effects you can add and control. Try each one so you get a good feeling for what they do. The top picture of the direct access buttons lets you select effects without opening the effects menu. Or click effects and choose by name.
Add Noise – Gaussian – Gaussian Noise is an additive random white noise that's used for base line testing and background noise addition.
Add Noise – White – White Noise is good for testing and backgrounds. It has a uniform sound energy at all frequencies.
Amplify– – This Decreases the volume of the selected part (or all) of an audio file when it's time applied.
Amplify+ -This Amplifies the volume of the selected part (or all) of an audio file each time it's applied.
Chorus – Adds a choral sound to voices. Makes it sound like many voices.
Compressor – Reduces the overall dynamic range of music. Difference between loudest and softest parts. Use this for background music to make it less intrusive so you can listen without being distracted. It will be less dramatic and exciting, but, more relaxing and pleasing while you work.
Delay – This Creates a delay effect in a selected part of the file. Delay is an echo effect that replays what you have played one or more times after a period of time. This is very powerful because it adds pleasing depth to voices. I just seem to like the addition of the delay effect to singers.
Echo – This gives you the deep in the well sound.
Expander – Increases dynamic range of music. Difference between loudest and softest parts. This can make music sound more dramatic.
Fade- – This Creates a fading out (loud to soft) effect in the selected part of the file. It goes from the current level to 0. It's very powerful because you control the length of the fade. You can go from 1 second to 20 seconds or anywhere in between. It's determined by the length of the area you select when you apply the effect.
Fade+ – This Creates a fading in (soft to loud) effect in the selected part of the file. It goes from 0 to the current level of the file. It's very powerful because you control the length of the fade. You can go from 1 second to 20 seconds or anywhere in between. It's determined by the length of the area you select when you apply the effect.
Flanger – This is an odd sound that many people refer to as a "whooshing" sound, or a sound similar to the sound of a jet plane flying overhead. Flanging creates a set of equally spaced notches in the audio spectrum. Flanging is created by mixing a signal with a slightly delayed copy of itself.
Insert Silence – You can add different amounts of silence wherever your cursor is placed. Or you can also highlight a selection and cause the entire highlighted area to become silent. This is very useful for preserving a time constant for movies while eliminating sound you don't want.
Invert – This Inverts the selected part of a file.
Mix Stereo Channels – You can evenly mix two stereo channels to get two mono channels which can be very useful for some musical effects.
Normalize – This Normalizes the selected part of a file. It amplifies the selection part to within the specified percentage of the maximum level.
Pitch Shift — This isn't the pitch you using with singing. It's more of an interesting effect. For Pitch, use the Stretch +/- below with frequency change.
Pitch Shift + This isn't the pitch you use with singing. It's more of an interesting effect. For Pitch, use the Stretch +/- below with frequency change.
Reverb – Creates an effect like natural reverberations that occur in different rooms and environments.
Reverse – This reverses the file. It plays it backwards. It's a very interesting effect.
Speed Decode – This is DAK's utility for flawless conversion of speed. Copy cassettes at 2X speed and decode to normal speed with 1 click. Take tapes recorded at 1.875 and play them at 3.75 and correct the speed. 78 RPM Converter- All you do is Record your 78 at 45 RPM, then Click this converter and your 78 will be corrected from 45 RPM to 78 RPM sound flawlessly. It's amazing. And the sound is nothing less than perfect.
Stretch (w/o freq change) – NO PITCH OR KEY CHANGE. You can stretch a selected part of a file by time. Speech speed is increased or decreased without frequency changing. This is useful for dictation or copying the lyrics from a song. Or it's useful for speed listening where you can listen to a speech in less time without the key changing. It's very clear and again very useful.
Stretch (w/ freq change) – PITCH CONTROL Change Pitch or Key. You can stretch a selected part of a file by a time. Speech speed is increased and frequency changes. This effects pitch so you can use this to change the pitch of a singer or musical piece.
Time Shift – An effect that speeds up the sound without changing Pitch. It's like stretch without frequency change but more of an effect than just a speed change.
Trim Silence From Front And Back Of File – This new control will automatically trim both ends of a file to remove any silence/blank space from the front and end of the file. Caution: It is memory intensive so the size of the file you can trim is dependant on the amount of RAM that you have.
Vibrato – This causes a slight variation of pitch. Vibrato equals a cyclical changing of certain frequencies up and down like trembling.
Vocal Reducer – In a small percentage of music files it is possible to remove the voice from the music. But it's probably 10% or less of the files. It will work when the voice is the center channel and the music background is stereo on both Left and Right Channels. We have never found any system that will do more than this percentage. Try it but chances are it won't work. Try it, but please don't be disappointed when it doesn't work most of the time
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Super Easy Precise Perfect Effects
NOW WITH INSTANT PREVIEW & INSTANT VARIABLE CHANGE Plus Add Your Presets.
Now you can truly get the full value of the digital effects like never before. Yes, I'm excited, let me tell you why. In the past, with most good editors you had access to some or even many effects. But you'd have to choose the effect, maybe even the amount of the effect. Then you needed to listen to it and see if you got what you wanted. If not, you needed to hit undo and start over. Well, no more. Now it's fast easy effects the first time, every time FAST. Here's how.
Arrow 1.) Open the Effects Menu.
Arrow 2.) Choose the effect you want. In most cases you'll get a continuous slider control to let you choose how much of the effect you want.
Arrow 3.) This is your Select Amount control available on many effects. Just slide the slider to the right for more or to the left for less. You're not stuck with just a few presets. You have continuously variable control of how much of the effect you actually want. But that's not all. Click the Green Arrow.
Arrow 4.) This Button is your EFFECT PREVIEW. You'll hear your sample with the exact amount of effect you've selected. There's nothing else you need to load or do. Just choose how much of the effect you want, then click the Green Play arrow to hear if you like what you've done. Click the Green Stop Button to stop the Preview at any time.
Don't Like The Result? No problem. Change the amount of the effect slider, (Arrow 3) and then just hit the green Play Button again. You don't have to close the screens or anything. Now it's super fast and easy to get just what you want. And because it's so easy and so fast, you can make minor adjustments in seconds, so you'll always get exactly what you want.
Effect Setting Detail
It's really simple to use.
Arrow 1.) Slide the slider to any level of effect you think you might want.
Arrow 2.) Click the Preview Play Button. After the Preview begins, the button will change to a stop button so you can stop the preview at any time.
Arrow 3.) Click Apply to apply the effect to your file.
Arrow 4.) Click Cancel to cancel out or close the effect.
Arrow 5.) You can set your own presets so if you want to use the same amount of an effect, you can just click on your preset name. Slide the slider where you want it. Then enter a name here.
Arrow 6.) Click 'Create Custom Setting' and your preset will appear in the box below.
Arrow 7.) Click on any preset name and the slider will move to that setting.
Arrow 8.) Highlight any preset you don't want and click delete.
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The Filters Menu
You can correct problems in your music by reducing certain frequency groups. This is what's called destructive restoration. So, use it sparingly. But if you have these specific problems, you'll not hear the loss that occurs when you use these filters to help repair the audio problems.
Band Pass – This Applies a Band Pass filter to the selected part of a file. The Band Pass filter consists of BOTH a Low Pass and a High Pass Filter combined together, so it allows only the frequencies falling within a certain range to pass.
Low Pass -This Applies a Low Pass Filter to the selected part of a file. A low-pass filter eliminates unwanted high-frequency noise and interference. So, Low Pass means let the lows pass and stop the highs.
High Pass – This Applies a High Pass Filter to the selected part of a file. A high-pass filter eliminates unwanted low-frequency noise and interference. So, High Pass means let the highs pass and stop the lows.
Low Shelf – This Applies a Low Shelf Filter to the selected part of a file. A Low Shelf filter decreases the volume of the higher frequencies and lets the lowest pass.
High Shelf – This Applies a High Shelf Filter to the selected part of a file. A High Shelf filter decreases the volume of the lower frequencies and lets the highest pass.
Notch – This filter allows a set center point frequency to be filtered.
Peak EQ – This filter causes a peak or dip in the frequency response at the selected frequency.
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The Tool Main Menu
27 Major Tools and Programs Here
The Tools Menu contains your main added programs. All the additional Programs are located in the Tools menu. Please go to each individual tutorial to learn the best ways to use these programs. I've shown them here to give you a quick look at where to find these powerful programs.
Album Maker – This utility lets you join several tracks or parts into 1 continuous digital file. You can combine the tracks/parts with or without pauses between them.
Audio Player – A very neat looking and easy to use audio player to play tracks on your computer. It includes visualizations and automation.
Batch Transformer – Convert and transform Wave to MP3, apply effects like echo or amplify to batches of files and much more. Even batch add MP3 tags.
CD Drive Info– Tells you all you need to know about the capabilities of your CD ROM drives
CD Ripper – Advanced – Rip tracks from audio CDs with very advanced options. Include tags, names, preserve track order and more. Requires CD ROM fully compatible CD ROM drive.
CD Ripper – Simple – Rip tracks from CDs fast and easy. Works on virtually any computer and rips the tracks with no added options.
CD Writer – Audio and MP3. Write both standard audio CDs and MP3 CDs.
DAK Super Mixer– 3 super powerful editors joined so you can mix, nudge, sing along with and much more. DAK's Most powerful recording and mixing system ever.
DTMF Tone Generator– This program will provide standard telephone dialing tones for recording or effects.
Get It File Info – This program loads any music files and tells you the specs of the file and lets you play it.
I Wish Recorder – Unique DAK Internet (and other) Recorder. It continually records a 5 minute rolling record of the sound coming through your computer. So, if you hear a song you like, a phone number you need or anything you want to keep, just click the KEEP BUTTON and the last 5 minutes you've heard will be saved to your hard drive. You can leave this recorder running 24/7 so you're always just 1 click away from saving what you've already heard.
MIDI Tools – Loads a suite of MIDI tools with over 100 different instrument voices that you can add to your music. Need a trumpet, violins or drums or more? Now you can mix them right into your music. Now you can compose MIDI. Actually 4 separate programs/utilities but we just count it as one.
MP3 CD & DVD Advanced CD/DVD Writer – Now you can write to CDs and even DVDs (4 Gigs for backup is great). Now you can Make MP3 CDs with folder organization for your car MP3 CD player. Now you can even burn Blue-Ray with this top of the line super powerful new MP3 CD and DVD writer.
MP3 Tag Editor – MP3 tag manager lets you control all the tag possibilities, even add pictures.
No Pause Advanced CD Writer – New super sophisticated CD writer will write normal audio CDs PLUS write CDs with no pause/gap between tracks. Also lets you add CD TEXT for track and Artist name for the new compatible text reading CD Players.
Playlist Manger – Preserve Track Order, rename tracks, create playlists. It's all fast, easy and automated.
Real Time Recorder And COUNT DOWN Timed Record – This recorder records directly to the hard drive. No temp files and no limits except the hard drive space. Click record or use the Count Down Timed Record.
Ringtone Maker– A special editor so you can easily make MP3 Ringtones for your smart phones fast and easy from any of your favorite songs, or anything you create.
Song Stalker – Record Internet audio and get automatic tracks as you record. This recorder seeks the silence between songs played on the Internet and creates a new file each time it senses one. So it automatically creates tracks as it records.
Test Tone Generator – A professional Test Tone Generator for testing your system and speakers. Enter any frequency from 20Hz to 20,000Hz and test your equipment.
Text To Go Enhanced- A 2009 improved powerful text to speech program that not only takes written text and turns it into speech, it creates an MP3 or Wav file so you can take the spoken text with you and listen in your iPod or other MP3 Player. It's very powerful. Now also includes a text browser so you can instantly get hundreds of thousands of books for free right off the Internet.
Real Time Recorder And SCHEDULED Timed Record – This recorder records directly to the hard drive. No temp files and no limits except the hard drive space. This recorder will start recording and end recording at times and days you set. It's like a VCR for Internet Audio.
Timed Recording Within Editor – This countdown timer gives you count down timed recording in the editor itself. Set it for the length of a record or cassette and forget baby-sitting. The editor will stop and wait for you when this timer stops it.
Tune Library Jukebox – A powerful jukebox to play your tracks and organize and process them. Take a look. Now your computer can serve up all your favorite tracks in any order that you like.
USB MP3 Recorder – A new powerful recorder primarily designed for people using USB turntables our USB audio adapters. This recorder not only records the sound but provides USB Playthrough so that you can hear the sound as you record. When recording from USB devices, your sound card is disabled so you can't hear what you are recording during the actual recording process. This recorder overcomes that shortcoming so you do hear as you record. It includes timed record functions as well.
User Defined Activation – You know how you always want to run another program after you finish recording? Well, if you do, User Defined Activation gives you a place in the Tools Menu to come to launch 3 separate programs. No more hunting around on your desktop, you can launch them from here.
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CD Player With All The Bells & Whistles Too.
Now you can play CDs just like MP3 files on your computer. Sure you can already do that with Media Player, but I like our player much better and I think you will too. It's super easy and very intuitive to use, but I've detailed it all below.
Arrow 1.) If you put in a CD or change CDs, click Refresh List to get the info updated.
Arrow 2.) After you put in your CD, Click Get Album Info to get the song titles and Album cover (if available) from the freedb database.
Arrow 3.) Here's a list of the songs and times that are on the CD. Click on one you want to hear or just play the whole list.
Arrow 4.) Click Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind or (Fast) Forward to play the songs
Arrow 5.) You'll see the album and author listed here.
Arrow 6.) You'll see the percent played here.
CD Info. Drive Information. So, What Can Your CD/DVD Writer Actually do?
We get so many questions. And honestly, it's hard to know what any particular CD ROM drive or DVD drive can actually do. You can't just look at it. So, now we've included this CD/DVD tester. It will definitively tell you just what capabilities your drive really has.
Arrow 1.) Often you have 2 or more drives. So select the drive that you want to use from the pull down menu.
Arrow 2.) Here you will see the Read features that are supported by your drive.
Important Drive Note: The information listed for all of the drive capabilities reflects your drive and the drivers you have installed. It has nothing to do with DAK or anyone else's CD/DVD Burning Programs.
Arrow 3.) Here you will find what drive features your drive has.
Arrow 4.) Finally, you'll see what modes you can write in.
Now you'll know just what your drive can do.
DTMF Touch Tone Dialing & Music Too.
I love this. I like gadgets. Now you can reproduce the DTMF touch tone dialing sounds for, well, dialing, sound tracks, and yes even music.
If you use Google to search for Touch Tone songs, you'll find sites that have all sorts of songs listed and what keys to click. For example the Picture to the left, is Deck The Halls and the one in the middle is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. OK, so it's not great music. But it is a ton of fun.
Plus, you can actual dial numbers if you have a modem connection or even if you put your phone's mouthpiece up to your computer speakers.
Anyway, it's not a big deal, but give it a try. I know I'm crazy. But it's just something I've always wanted to have.
How do you use it? No problem. There are two ways you can dial or generate the numbers.
Dialing Way 1. Just click the numbers and you'll hear the tones.
Dialing Way 2. Type in the numbers you want to dial and then click the dial button.
And now you know all you need to know about using my new DTMF Touch Tone Dialer.
In Editor Length Time Recorder
First what does In Editor Mean. I've provided 3 completely separate Timed recorders with the DAK Editor. They look identical but they are very different. The In Editor Timed Recorder is described here and the SEPARATE Timed recorders are described on their own pages. In Editor simply means that the editor itself is used for the timed recording while the other timed recorders use direct to disc recording so you don't see the waves. But the saved files for all of them will be the same.
For Short recordings like a side of a record, cassette or an hour of Internet recording, the In Editor Timed Recorder is great. While it's operated by time, it actually records right in the editor and you'll see the waves and save normally. It creates a temp file as it records and is really more or less limited, depending on how much RAM you have to about an hour or so.
Since it records right in the editor, it's really just an automated way to stop the editor at the end of the time you want recorded. And if you're going to edit what you record, the recording will be right there in the editor ready to edit when the timer stops.
BUT, what if you want to record for several hours and you don't want the super large temp files. The Separate Timed Recorders you'll find in the Real Time Recorder, Scheduled Recorder and USB MP3 Recorder will record for as long as you have hard disk space to fill.
The only problem is that if you want to edit one of these long files you record in the 3 direct recorders you won't be able to open them in the Editor because Windows has a limit of around 2.5 Gigs and that's about 2-3 hours of Wav files.
MP3 Caution. The 2-3 hour limit is the same for MP3 because although the saved MP3 file is smaller, when the editor opens it, (without you having to worry about it), the file becomes a Wav file so it becomes 10 times bigger. So, Wav or MP3, when it's opened in the editor, it's a Wav file.
You see MP3 is compressed and you can't actually edit a compressed file. Don't worry when we open an MP3 file in the editor, and then later when you click save. It saves as an MP3 so you don't have to worry about it, but it was a wav file when it's open in the editor itself. Pretty smart program isn't it?
OK, back to the pictures. Here's how to use the In Editor Timed Record timer.
It's really easy to use (forgive all the numbers above, but I want to show you everything). With this set and forget timer you can record a side of an LP, a side of a cassette or an hour from the Internet. The timer will stop the Editor's recording and sit and wait for you to return and give it a name and save it. This truly is hassle free no babysitting recording.
Arrow 1.) Go to the Tools Menu and click on Timed Recording Within Editor.
Arrow 2.) Just pull down this menu to choose a recording time. Most LPs run about 22 minutes, so you can use 24 or 25 minutes to be safe. Or if it's a 30 minute cassette, choose 32 to give yourself some extra time. Then you'll just delete the extra recorded time with one click when you're separating the tracks.
Special Internet Radio idea. When I'm listening to Internet Radio, often I really don't listen to the live broadcasts. What I do is record for an hour or so and then I play back my recording so I can select the music and content that I want to keep as I listen to it. As you're listening, just highlight and select whatever you want to save and then choose 'Save Select' in the file menu. It's really great.
Arrow 3.) Pre-planned for easy use. Note: I've got 33 and 47 minute choices for cassettes. Often 60 minute cassettes run 62 minutes (31 minutes per side) and 90 minute cassettes are often 47 minutes per side. So I've got that covered too. Then just effortlessly delete the blank at the beginning and end when you separate the tracks.
Arrow 4.) Then just Click Start Timer. This Window will automatically close and the Editor will record for the time you have selected. And it will stop and wait for you to name and save the recording you've made.
Anyway, just select the time you want. This system is built to make all your converting of LPs to CDs, Cassettes to CDs and Internet to CDs easy, fast and frustration free. And as you can see it's done by someone (me) who has done a lot of it and knows what you need to get it done easily and fast.
***Special Note: Does your cable TV have lots of music channels? If yours is like mine, you can choose all the digital channels you want. Each has a certain type of music. Anyway, just connect the audio from your cable system through our Mixer Interface and record all you want. Then, listen later and save the tracks you want. Now, isn't that a great idea to build some compilation CDs of music that you really love? Imagine just selecting a few tracks at a time till you have the world's greatest collection of what you love. It's really a great idea.
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Activate Other Programs From The Editor 1.
Lots of times you want to activate the click and pop filter, EQ or another program while you're working in the editor. Now without having to close the editor and hunt around on your desktop, you can set 3 additional programs to open from the User Defined Activation Button on the tools menu.
Arrow 1.) Open the Tools Menu.
Arrow 2.) Click the User Defined Button you want. You can use any of the 3 and you click this part to assign a program or open the program after it's assigned.
Activate Other Programs From The Editor 2.
This is the action screen you get when you click the User Defined button.
Arrow 1.) Click Select File to assign a file to this User Activation Screen. See below and I'll show you how to choose the file.
Arrow 2.) Click Activate It to launch the program.
Now you can easily activate up to 3 programs using the new User Defined Activation so you don't have to go hunting on your desktop to find the icons for programs you want to open.
Activate Other Programs From The Editor 3a.
This is the Screen you'll see when you click on the Select File Button in the User Activation Screen for XP. File really means Program Icon.
Arrow 1.) Actually, it will open in the Programs folder of your computer. Virtually all program launch icons are contained in the main Programs file which you can find, if you're not already there by going to C:/Programs.
Arrow 2.) Click on the folder for the program you want to open. Then after you click on the folder, look for the icon that opens the program and click on that. See the W7/Vista Below in 3b to see that part.
Activate Other Programs From The Editor 3b.
This is the Screen you'll see when you click on the Select File Button in the User Activation Screen for W7/VISTA. File really means Program Icon.
Actually it will open in the Programs folder of your computer. Virtually all program launch icons are contained in the main Programs file which you can find, if you're not already there by going to C:/Programs.
Arrow 1.) I'm showing you the main file list in W7/Vista. It's very similar in XP.
Arrow 2.) What you do is click on the folder of the program you want to open. Then once there, look for the launch icon that looks just like the one on your desktop and click on that.
Arrow 3.) Click Open and it will load the program into the Activate interface and from then on, just click the Activate It Button to use the program.
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The Get File Info Player. (Advanced Version Only)
This is really neat. If you ever wonder what the tags are on an MP3 file or what format a file is recorded in, or just about anything about a music file, DAK's new Get File Info is an instant lifesaver.
Plus it's a super, super neat player. I love the new analyzer display. It's, well, simply fun to watch. Oh and we heard this song at an Irish Rovers concert and It was so neat, I came home and bought it and downloaded it. OK to get the info:
Arrow 1.) Click tools and choose Get It (File Info).
Arrow 2.) Click Load, and then navigate to the file you want to load.
Arrow 3.) Here's a listing of all the info in the file. Just look down to see everything that is listed. MP3 files will have lots, Wave files just the format and number of channels.
Arrow 4.) Click Play to play the loaded file and watch the display.
Arrow 5.) Click Stop to stop the music. Note: This program has a special fade stop. So when you click stop, it will first fade, then stop.
The Track Trackers Menu
Separating Music Tracks
& Voice Tracks FAST!!!!
The DAK Track Tracker has been the most powerful way to separate tracks when you copy records and tapes to digital. It's given you a fast, easy first time every time way to quickly separate tracks into digital files. It's garnered worldwide acclaim.
Tracking via visual method (highlighted) is the best and fastest way to separate your tracks. But many of you have special needs so we've added 4 new ways to separate your tracks to give you maximum flexibility.
But remember, the visual method will probably be your best bet most of the time.
Here are your new choices.
Track Via Size Method – Separate a file into 10ths, 5ths, 1/4s or 1/3rds or in 1/2. Very fast, very handy.
Track Via Sound Method MP3 – Listen to the file and click wherever you want a track. Then the file will be separated into those MP3 tracks.
Track Via Sound/Detect Silence Method – This method is automatic. It 'listens' to the file and puts in tracks wherever it thinks there's enough silence to mean there's a track. This method is good for digital Internet recording but won't work on cassettes and records because there's too much surface noise for it to tell the difference between soft music and noise.
Track Via Time Method – When you load a file, this Tracker will compute the total number of seconds and give you 5 choices by number of seconds of how you want it separated.
Track Via Visual Method Preferred – All the other trackers work great, but this is still what you'll use 90% of the time for copying records and cassettes. It presents a view of the entire recoding that looks like an EKG. Where there are flat line parts is where the tracks will be. Just click on them and then the Track Tracker will create the separate digital files for you. It works 1st time every time.
The Help Menu – About
Sure you can see DAK's neat logo. But there's much more here in About than our logo. Now you can have instant access to your PC's system information and to the actual resources you are using. Let's explore below.
The Help Menu – All The Info.
Ever wonder what's in your PC? What programs, setup? Well now you can peruse it at your leisure. This is actually reading the info in your PC. No two PCs are the same. Not all PCs will let you see your info, but most will.
The Help Menu – What Resources That You Using?
Is your PC running slow? Takes too long to complete a task? You can look at your system resources here and find out how much RAM you have and how much is being used. How much of your CPU are you using? And how many processes are running right now. Don't worry, many of them are part of your operating system. But it's good to know and it lets you see just how your PC is functioning.
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A few last things that I want to mention.
Here's one more tip. I always make two copies of all my CDs. Just use any name brand stack that costs between $0.15 and $0.25 each. Since it gets really hot in your car, I don't take any chances. Make a backup. That's why I always make a spare to keep at home. I think it's always a good idea.
Oh, and need I remind you at this point that it's illegal, immoral and fattening to share your musical treasures with others? Don't make copies for friends. Don't sell them. And well, don't cheat. It's easy to forget that our old treasured albums are still under copyright. But chances are, they are still protected.
So why not head for the beach, the park or the hills and sit down and listen to your great sounding music. You've just given yourself a lifetime musical gift that you'll enjoy for many, many years to come.
Still have questions? Did I miss something? Probably. I'll add it if you write to me.
Enjoy. . . Drew
Tutorial Review Please.
So, What do you think? Good? Bad? Was this tutorial Helpful? Too detailed? Not Detailed enough? What would you do differently?
What do you want to know? What subject would you like me to write a tutorial about?