Other Digital Audio Devices 627recordings) or by recording to MP3. The following paragraphs summarize the methods
used for computer manipulation of sound for any digital form of recording, mainly
CD-R and MP3. The computer must contain a sound card with a A-D converter that is
up to CD quality standards, and if you want to record your own CDs you will also
need a CD writing drive with appropriate software such as Adaptec Easy CD Creator.
For MP3 fi les you will need software such as Winamp.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive guide to using a computer for manipulating audio
fi les, as space does not permit a thorough treatment of such a large topic. If you are an
experienced user of a PC computer, this is a guide to its use for audio work, and if you do
not use a computer, it is a guide to what you are missing.
The fi rst step to the creation of either an MP3 fi le or a CD-R disc is to extract music
tracks and digitize them in an uncompressed format using a type of fi le distinguished
by the extension letters WAV, hence called a WAV fi le. Some software will carry out
this action automatically, reading in the audio tracks and converting to MP3 or to CD-R
without leaving a WAV fi le behind on the computer’s hard disc. As applied to a CD as
source, this action is often termedCD ripping. Whether you are aware of it or not, WAV
fi les are always created as an intermediary, and it’s an advantage if you can store them in
the computer, check them, and possibly edit them before you save them in MP3 or CD-R
format and delete the WAV versions.
You are not obliged to use a CD as a source, though, and many users of MP3 or CD-R are
more concerned with taking tracks from old 78s, from LPs, or from cassettes, even from radio
or private recordings. Remember, however, that no matter what source you use, working at
CD quality will require disc space on your computer of around 700 Mbytes for a full CD.
If you are using a CD as your source, you must use the digital output from the CD drive
or deck. It is certainly possible to connect the audio output of a CD deck to the line input
of the sound card on your computer and to create WAV fi les in this way, but this sacrifi ces
quality. Most computers fi tted with a CD writer will also have a fast CD reader, allowing
you to read digital data at 36 times (or more) the normal recording speed. This also
ensures that the digital output of the CD is used.
● The normal setting on most CD copying software gives you a 2-s gap between
tracks when you are working in “ normal mode, ” which is track-at-once. If you
specifydisc-at-once, you will not get any added gaps between the tracks, so if you
want extra time between the tracks you have to edit the WAV fi les so as to include