Notes from Jamie Leben's "Audio Recording on a PC" presentation 5-12-2007 Installing Audacity and LAME: - Audacity is an open source program, free for use by anyone! - Ensure you have a functional sound card - connect a source to the "Mic" input on your sound card - microphone, tape deck, radio, VCR, any standard line level signal - LP record players usually need a pre amp - Download and install Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - Download "LAME" MP3 plugin under :optional downloads - Unzip "Lame...zip" to C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins Recording: - Run Audacity - Choose an input from the input pulldown menu (microphone, analog stereo, etc) - click the "record" button to begin recording - click the "stop" button when recording is finished - play the recording to check for quality - adjust input gain as needed (slider next to microphone icon) - delete and start over if needed (click the X in the upper left to close a recorded track) - edit out unwanted sections (use cut, and trim tools) Save recording for later editing or adding to it: - "file" menu - "save project as" - select save location, name and save Saving finished recording: - "file" menu - "export as .wav" (best sound quality, largest) - "export as .mp3" (good sound quality, smaller, can store name and other info) - "export as .ogg" (good sound quality, smaller, open standard file format) - select save location, name and save What to do with your new recording?? - email .wav, .mp3, .ogg as an attachment - store on a digital music player (follow player directions) - record .wav and .mp3 to a CD - Open Windows Media Player - "Copy to CD or Device" - drag and drop audio file into the "items to copy" window (up to 70 minutes) - insert a recordable CD into the CD drive - click the "record" button