628 Chapter 21
silent intervals. If your list of tracks shows separate fi les, the recording will
always place track markers so that you can move to any track in the usual way.You can also create WAV fi les using any other audio source, such as 78s, LPs, cassettes,
and DAT tapes. The conversion quality will be lower, because these sources all
provide analogue signals of varying quality and signal level. You will need to do a few
experiments with connections and signal levels, and this is why it is such an advantage
to make a separate conversion to WAV, because you can play back a WAV fi le that is
stored in the computer without the need to waste space on CD-R with an unsatisfactory
recording or to make a useless MP3 fi le. You must, incidentally, use a modern 16-bit
sound card—do not try to work with analogue to digital conversions using the older
8-bit type of card. Any computer that is fast enough to cope with audio work will almost
certainly be fi tted with a 16-bit card. Remember, however, that the quality of A-D
conversion may not be as good as you would like.
The usual advice is to connect the audio output from the source device to the line- in
connector, usually a 3.5-mm stereo jack socket, on the sound card of the computer.
Depending on the sound card that you are using, you may fi nd that the line- in is much too
insensitive and that you hear virtually nothing when you replay the WAV fi le. The only
option, unless you have a spare preamp to connect between the signal source and the sound
card, is to use the MIC input. This, by contrast, may be too sensitive, leading to overloading.
The important thing is to try this out with a short piece of music before you start making
any recordings to CD-R or MP3. The typical software that you will be using for creating
the WAV fi le is Creative Wave Studio, which permits you to make a short recording to test
sound levels. Using the software control panel illustrated in Figure 21.3 , you can adjust
Figure 21.3 : A typical software mixer panel as seen on the computer screen.