Working with digital audio
(Last modified: 03/20/2002 )
1. Overview
This document is intended to provide the necessary information for you to
work with digital audio on the Windows platform. In particular, we will use
Audacity to make a digital recording and export it as an MP3 encoded audio file.
2. Before you start
Please make sure that the following pieces of hardware are available are properly
connected on your computer.
- Sound card
- Microphone
- Speaker or headphone
Note that all the lab computers have been set up properly for digital
recording.
3. Obtain and install Audacity (on your own computer)
We will use Audacity for digital audio
recording and MP3 conversion.
Audacity is an open-source software (or freeware) and can be downloaded from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.
Detailed documentation is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/contents.htm.
Note: Audacity is available on lab computers (along the wall). You do not need to run
installation if you are working in the language lab.
- Download the Windows version (audacity-win-0_98b.exe);
- Double click on the downloaded file and follow on-screen instruction to
install the software. In most cases, accepting the default should work on
your computer;
- Download Lame 3.91 DLL.
Lame is an MP3 encoder that converts other audio formats (e.g., WAV on
Windows) into MP3 format.
- What you have just downloaded is a zipped (or compressed) file. You need
the Winzip (http://www.winzip.com)
utility to uncompress the lame package. (If you do not have winzip installed
on your computer, simply follow the link to download and install it. The
installation process is straight forward. Simply follow the on-screen
instruction to complete the process.) Simply click on the downloaded
lame391_dll.zip file and click on the Extract button in the winzip window.
4. Start Audacity for the first time
Note: If you are using lab computers, you do not need to go through this
section.
1. Launch Audacity. Here is the screen
capture.
2. Set preferences
1. From the File menu, select Preferences.
2. In the Audacity Preferences window, click on the File Format tab and then
click on Find Library. You need to locate the lame_enc.dll file. At the same
time, set the bit rate to 96 (for better audio quality).
3. Click on the Directories tab and then Choose. Select a folder where audio
files (e.g., your own recording) will be saved.
4. Click OK to exit the Preferences window.
5. Choose Exit from the File menu and quit the
application in order to let the changes take effect.
After you finish the above steps, you are ready to make a digital recording
5. Make a digital recording with Audacity
To start recording, simply click on the red Record button.
To stop, click on the yellow Stop button.
To hear what you have just recorded, click on the green Play button.
After you are done with your recording, you need to save the sound file.
- To save your recording as an MP3 file, choose 'Export as MP3' from the
File menu.
- To save your recording as a .WAV file, choose 'Export as WAV from the File
menu.
6. Play audio recordings in the MP3 format
You can use many multimedia players to play an MP3 file. The following is a
list of software you can use:
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