Recording Music On Your PC Part 2
Written by Dan Monk
 

In Part I we explained how to hook up your sound sound to the computer. So, now you should have the line or stereo out from your mix down deck connected to the computers sound card line in jack. It's time to fire things up. Start your computer and your stereo source. If you haven't installed your audio software program do so now (follow the manufacturers instructions), and then start the audio software program.
Click record on your program and start your audio deck playing. Odds are there will be a red button somewhere, and usually that means record. I have a close up view of the Cool Edit control buttons to the left. The red button on the bottom right is the record button. You may need to read the manual or help file and find out which button or menu selection enables recording. If, however, the computer starts recording, you're in business, and one lucky SOB. If it doesn't you need to check some things.

1. Is your audio source, in fact, playing?
Plug in a set of headphones or attach a set of speakers to the source machine you are recording from. If you have sound then go to step 2; If not then the problem is with your deck and you have to figure out what's wrong yourself.

2. Are you sure you have the cables attached correctly?
Make sure the RCA plugs are firmly seated in the mix down decks line or stereo out, and that the mini plug is firmly connected to the computers soundcard in the line in jack.

3. Is the software program and the computer set to recognize your soundcard?
In Windows 95/98 go to the Control Panel and click on Multimedia. If your soundcard is listed under Recording Device, then you're okay. If not, change it from the pull down menu. Next, in your audio editing software, look for a "Preferences" file option. Usually it is under "Edit" or "Options". Again, you may have to open the manual or help file to locate how to set your software program to recognize your soundcard.

Once you have your song recorded you will probably want to do a little editing on the file. First, save the file. Name it something you will remember and put it in a directory where you can find it again. I keep all my songs in the My Documents music directory. Click on File, then Save as... . A dialogue box should pop up on the screen. Select the directory where you want to keep your files, choose a name for your song, and click OK.

Music Manipulation

Welcome to the world of digital audio!

Editing
You can do some pretty amazing things with a digital editor; Swap sections around, delete parts you don't like, get rid of hiss in the beginning and end, etc. But I wouldn't advise that you do that right away. For now, just stick to the basics.

First, if you are putting your songs on the computer to encode into mp3 files, then you don't want to take out all of the "dead air" at the beginning and end of the song. Leave a second or two of silence. Even if you edit out the hiss from the beginning, add in some silence. When your mp3 encoder compresses your wav file to the mp3 format, very often it will strip some information from the start and end of the song. If, however, you want to put your music on CDs, then remove all unwanted "dead air".
Both Cool Edit and Goldwave make this process fairly easy. It's simply a matter of highlighting the area and pressing delete. Your software program may differ, but just be sure not to take out any of the music.

Finally, don't succumb to the pressure and use all the effects that come with most digital audio editors. A little bit goes a long way and very often you won't need to do anything to the song. Remember the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Advanced Editing
As I mentioned before, it is fairly easy to "cut and paste" your songs. This is very similar to cutting and pasting on a document, but it does take patience and practice. One trick I use is to copy the part I want to move elsewhere then overlay it to the new location. Once I have it synched, I make note of the time code location, silence (not delete) the part that is to be replaced, and copy in the new audio.

You can also copy a section of song A and copy it to song B. Synching them together can be hard, because you want the new section to fall right on a downbeat. Initial recording with a click track will help everything to fall on beat.

One area in which digital audio editing shines is noise reduction. Most noise reduction software requires that you take a snapshot of the noise. It uses the digital signature of the noise, compares it against the sound file, and removes any sound that matches. To get the best noise reduction, record a second or two of the offending noise (such as tape hiss) when there is no other music playing ( i.e. to reduce cassette tape hiss record a couple of seconds of the silence from a cassette tape). Then use that as the baseline for you noise reduction.

Mastering
Mastering is a term that is very overused. Basically, mastering refers to an album and consists of 5 things:

1.  Putting the songs in order
If you are putting your songs on a CD, the CD burning software will handle this.
 

2.  Making each song have the same overall volume
You can do this by "normalizing" the song. Most audio programs have a Normalize function. You can usually find it under the "Options" or "Tools" menu. All normalizing does is make the song as loud as possible without clipping. No, it won't be as loud as a commercial CD, they use some pretty high dollar equipment to do that. Plus several years of experience.
 

3.  Equalizing to get the same "feel"
Equalization is sometimes necessary to give all the songs the same "feel" and to equalize the volume levels. Some frequencies release more sonic energy than others and may need to be reduced so the apparent levels are the same.

4.  Compression
In my opinion compression is very rarely needed at the mastering stage. Compression should be used at mixdown. But sometimes light compression can add that extra sparkle to a song. Also, compression can be used alongside equalization to give the songs the same feel and can also be helpful in normalizing volume among your songs.

5.  Putting "space" between the songs
There is usually about 2 seconds of silence between songs on an album. Using your audio editor you can add 2 seconds to the beginning of a song, or at the end. I have a 2 seconds of silence saved to a file. I load that file with the song I'm working on. Then I paste it onto the end of the music file. Also, if your cd burning software allows it, be sure to use the "Disk at once" option when you create the music CD. You will notice fewer errors when recording and the songs sit better on the CD.

To sum up:
Editing digital audio files is not as hard as one may think. In many ways digital audio is much easier to work with than analog. The main stumbling block for most folks is getting over the fear of computers. And learning to do things the way some programmer thinks is cool can also be a challenge. However, if you find you enjoy doing audio on your PC, you may want get into multi-track recording on your PC. Unfortunately, that will have to be another article.

From Here To There
Well now that you know how to get your music into the computer, you probably want to get it out right? We'll cover that briefly. Basically it's a matter of connecting the cables correctly. First you'll have to open your soundcard documentation. You need to have an output (usually a mini jack) that is un-amplified. Get another cord that has a mini jack on one end and RCA jacks on the other. Connect the mini jack to the line out on your soundcard, and the other end of the cable to the stereo in jack on your sound system of choice (DAT, cassette, reel to reel, minidisk, etc.). Remember above I said that there would be more on the stereo in jacks?

That's all there is to it, but there is a couple of things you will want to be careful of. First, mute the sound coming into your computer. In Windows 9x click on Start, then Programs, Accessories, Entertainment then Volume Control. Click the box under the Line In control slider that says Mute. The reason for this is to prevent the sound from looping back onto itself and introducing some really nasty distortion.

Also, you need to watch out for ground loops. Use the same precautions here as you do in your studio. Try to plug in everything to the same outlet as long as you don't exceed the outlets capacity. Don't coil power cords, rather bunch them up. And keep all the power cords as far away from signal cables as you can. If you have to cross them try to do so at a right angle. Also, use 3 prong or grounded electrical plug-ins.

That's all Folks!
I hope this article has helped you make the leap to recording audio on you computer, if not going to a full fledged DAW. However, it's not the last article in this series. 

(c) 1999, Dan E. Monk, All rights reserved. Reprinted here by permission.

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