Recording sound using SoundEdit 16

Please note: this document is intended to get you started. The documentation which comes with the program, and which is available in each Faculty Development Site in the box that SoundEdit 16/Deck II came in, is remarkably clear. I recommend you use it if you get stuck!

SoundEdit 16 is installed on Mellon One in each Faculty Development Site. Exactly where is another question: in the Finder, choose "Find" from the "File" menu and type in "soundedit" to find it. It is most likely in a folder called "Multimedia."

Recording:

1. SoundEdit can be found in the multimedia folderLaunch SoundEdit 16 by double-clicking the SoundEdit 16 icon.
2. Once SoundEdit is open, from the "Modify" menu, choose "Recording Options".
• If you will be recording into the microphone (recording your voice, for example), choose "Microphone".
• If you will be recording from the tape deck, choose "AV Connector."
• If you will be recoding from a CD in the computer's CD-ROM player, choose "Internal CD".
• If you want to record from a laserdisc or videotape, then we need to put SoundEdit on Mellon Two, or use VideoShop on Mellon Two to do your recording. Please contact the Assistant Director for assistance.
3. Pull down the "Window" menu. If there is not a checkmark next to the item called "Controls", select "Controls."
4. You should now have on your screen a little window called "Controls." It has a red record button, a stop button, a pause button, and a play button. To begin recording, click on the record button (marked with a round red ball). To stop recording, click on the stop button (marked with a black square).
5. To hear your sound, click on the play button in the "Controls" window. If you're reasonably happy with what you hear, you'll want to save your sound before proceeding to any editing.

Saving:

1. Choose from the "File" menu, choose "Save as".
2. Give your sound a name that will be meaningful to you later. That is, don't allow it to just save as "Untitled."
3. Under "File format," choose the appropriate format. If you don't know, then just save it as a "SoundEdit 16" file for now. If you're going to import your sound into the xMedia Engine template called "QTDictation," save it as a QuickTime movie.

Editing tips:

• You can select parts of the waveform which represents the sound you recorded and listen to them. Just drag over them with the mouse button down to highlight them, and then click on the "Play" button in the "Controls" window.
• You can use standard cut, paste and delete techniques to either eliminate unwanted material from your sound file or to create new sound files.
• Refer to pages 82 and 83 in the SoundEdit 16 manual for more information.

Troubleshooting:

• You digitized a piece of audio and found that after a few seconds the sound becomes distorted.

You probably tried digitizing with compression on. Sometimes SoundEditor doesn't work well with this. You need to digitize again. But first, turn off the compression. Choose from the "Modify" menu "Sound format". From the "Compression" drop down select "None". Now that the Compression is off, try digitizing again.

If the noise has disappeared and you want to compress the file now, just select from the "Modify" menu "Sound Format" and from the "Compression" drop down select your level of Compression.