The Top 1/0 (or how to digitize your music), Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Editing the tracks:

Open the music file you want to edit in the PolderBits Sound Editor. If you just finished recording a file in the Sound Recorder and pressed the stop button, the Sound Editor should already be open.

For most LP records, it's helpful to click the button that looks like scissors at the top of the editor.  This automatically splits the recording into tracks at the points where silences are found.  The version of PolderBits I used splits them where there are two second silences, but I think in the newer version you can change this. The splitting is almost never absolutely correct, but it does tend to save a lot of time.

1.            Click the scissors button.

2.            Check to see if the number of tracks that were automatically created matches the number you were expecting.  If it does, splitting the tracks for this record is probably going to be easy.  The playback position should now be at the start of the first track.

3.            Press the play button in the upper left corner (large triangle).  If it sounds like the track is starting where it should, you can go onto the next step.  If it doesn't, you need to adjust the start point for the track.  You can do this by sliding the start point indicator line in the visual representation of the music.

4.            Press the forward button in the upper left corner to go to the end of the track.

5.            Find a position that is just before the end of the track and press the play button.  If the track sounds like it ends in the right place, go on to the next track and check its start and end points.  If not, you need to adjust the end point for this track, which is pretty much like setting the start point.

6.            Continue until you have corrected the start and end points of all tracks.

Some other controls you should know about:

The plus sign and minus sign buttons to the right of the scissors.  The plus (+) button splits the current track into two tracks at the playback position.  The minus (-) button gives you several options for removing the current track, including merging it with a neighboring track or deleting it entirely.

The filters and the equalizer. The click and crackle filters help to remove some of the noise from pops and scratches on your record.  The noise filter takes out some background noise, but is more recommended for cassette tapes than records.  (You can use these same steps for converting your cassette tapes to digital too.  The main difference is that you hook up your cassette deck instead of your record player.) 

The equalizer lets you adjust the volume of various frequencies.  Since I'm not an audio geek, I can't explain to you how you should use this.  I only know that I was able to make some of my live Dead tapes sound a lot less like the Dead were playing underwater.  I did this by just experimenting with the sliders. Come to think of it, sounding like they were not playing underwater may not have been the effect the Grateful Dead were going for, but I like it.

To turn any of the filters on, check the box next to the filter name. Filters that are turned on will be applied to your whole recording (all the tracks.)

These are meant to be basic instructions, so I won't go into any more detail about editing.  Don't be afraid to consult the PolderBits documentation if you have any questions.  It is very good.

When you're ready to save your tracks, click the Save As button.  This gives you the option to name and save your tracks.  They will be saved as .WAV files, which is good because they're large, high-quality files.  On the other hand, they're very large files, which means you may want to convert them to something else before putting them on an iPod or MP3 player.

Next time, burning your music to CD or converting the format.

Part 4