630 Chapter 21
edit the sound and to provide a source for conversion to MP3 or CD-R. Conversion to
CD-R is a critical process because the recording will be ruined if digital data are not
available when the CD writer software needs it. By using the WAV intermediate you are
assured of this, because this is a fi le that is already in digital form, and there is no need to
wait for audio signals to be converted at the risk of not keeping up with the demand from
the CD writer.
To record the WAV fi les in CD form, place a blank CD-R disc into the recorder and use
a good piece of software such as Adaptek’s Easy CD Creator. This allows you to choose
to make a Data or a Music CD, to select WAV fi les to record, and put them into the
order you want. Once you have fi les ready, the software will test the fi les and then make
the recording. The disc will be ejected once the recording has been made. You can use
another option of the software to print front and back covers for the CD jewel case. A CD
made in this way will play in any reasonably modern CD player. On test, a CD I prepared
in this way worked even on a very old Philips CD deck (the fi rst model sold in the United
Kingdom) with no problems.
If you are preparing MP3 fi les you need no hardware, only software. All MP3 software
is not equal, and some are concerned much more with tricks than with quality or speed
of conversion. The software will usually allow a choice of bit rate, and the usual rates are
128 Kbits/s for fi les sent over the Internet and 198 Kbits/s for fi les to be stored on CD-R.
At 128 Kbits/s, a 4-min piece of sound will need 3.8 Mbytes of storage space, as distinct
from closer to 40 Mbytes for an uncompressed CD-quality fi le.
Recommended software includes MusicMatch JukeBox 4.1 , AudioSoft Virtuosa Gold 3.1,
and XingMP3.
21.8 DAM CD ...............................................................................................................
DAM is an acronym for digital automatic music, and a DAM CD is one that can contain
music both in MP3 format and in normal uncompressed CD format. The MP3 tracks
can be copied into any MP3 player, and the normal CD tracks can be played using any
normal CD player. It is equally possible to make a DAM CD that contains only MP3
tracks, so packing about 10 times more music on to the CD than would be possible using
uncompressed CD methods. If you use the computer extensively as a music player, you
can transfer your favorite music into this format for easy access and compact storage.