DIY Tips
A Frequently Asked Question is "Can't I just record my own music?" The short answer is: You probably can!A cautionary note here, however. There is more to recording and mixing a skating competition music track than just copying a song off a CD and stopping it at your program time limit. This music will be representing your skating just as much the elements choreographed into your program. I often hear or read of judges' comments regarding the recording quality of a skater’s music. Morry Stillwell, skating judge and former president of the U.S. Figure Skating Association has noted "Poorly recorded music is distracting for a judge and interferes with that judge’s ability to evaluate the skater’s program." * Also, there are many coaches that do their own recording of music for their skaters. While no one is better qualified to select the music piece that is best for their skater, many coaches are less skilled and experienced in current digital music recording and editing techniques. That said, if you have a good ear for music, the time to devote to doing precise editing, with a few computer software tools you can usually produce quite acceptable basic music tracks for your skating programs.
To that end, if you would like to try recording your own skating music tracks or, if you or your coach would just like to become more knowledgeable about today’s digital recording techniques and technology, V.U. Sound Studio is pleased to add this Tips page to our web site.
2.0 Getting Your Music Ready to Edit
Welcome to the second installment of Tips and Techniques for recording your own skating program music! In the first installment we listed a couple of free downloadable software packages which you can use for your recording and editing project. This article is written referencing that software. If you have another CD ripper or audio editor, the procedures will be similar allowing for differences in function and naming of controls and indicators.
Also in keeping with the "Tips" format of this web page, we are giving you an outline or "Quick–Start" look at these procedures and techniques. For more in–depth information consult the software's Help function.
After you decide what song you want for your skating program, you have to get your source music (CD or audio tape) onto your computer hard drive in a format that your audio editor can use (typically a .wav file). If your source is a CD the task is pretty simple. If, on the other hand, you source is an audio tape, there are a few more steps and techniques involved.
CD – Insert your source CD in your computer's CD ROM drive. Open Audiograbber or the ripper you have on your computer and from the screen listing, select the track you want to record. Right click on the Track Number and select rename from the dropdown. This allows you to type in the name of your song. Otherwise it will just show up in your file with the track number. Click the Grab icon and Audiograbber will rip your song onto your hard drive file. After closing the ripper, you can open your recorded song file in Audacity and verify you have a good recording.
Tape – First you must get your Tape Player hooked up to your computer. Inputs to your sound card will be located on the back of your computer. Typically, the connectors will be 3.5 mm mini jacks. Depending on your tape player, you could have 3.5mm, 1/4" phone jacks, or RCA phono type jacks. Use only shielded connecting cables. (Local electronics parts stores and audio equipment retail outlets will usually have cables with whatever connectors you need.)
Using cables and connectors appropriate to your equipment, connect your tape player's Audio Out connectors (NOT THE SPEAKER CONNECTIONS) or Headphone jack to your computer sound card's Line In connector as shown in the figure below. With your equipment properly set up and connected and with a tape playing, your should be able to hear the music coming from your computer's speakers.
Audacity Preference Settings – Sample Rate – 44,100 Hz, Sample Format – 32 Bit, Floating
Volume or level – Recording levels to high will cause "clipping" or distortion in your music.
Starting and Stopping Recording – Always start your computer recording before starting your tape. Stop your computer recording before stopping the tape.
Now you are ready to do a test recording. With your song playing on your tape deck, Click Audacity's record button. You should see the left and right channel record level meters start to move with the varying music levels. As your song records, closely watch these meters, particularly during the louder passages, and adjust the recording level to prevent clipping as indicated by the lighting or flashing of two small windows just past the ends of the left and right level meters. Adjust the recording level with the slider control on Audacity's tool bar. The record level should be set at the highest possible level without inducing clipping.
Play back your test song to verify it recorded as you planned with volume levels that are adequate without any distortion. If your recording sounds Ok you can delete it clear Audacity for your master source recording.
Without changing any of your previous settings, complete the following steps to record your master source music track.
- 1 – Cue your tape. (Play it to just after the end of the previous song and press your tape deck's Pause button.
- 2 – Click Audacity's Record button
- 3 – Press Play on your tape
- 4 – After the song ends, stop your recording and then stop your tape.
- 5 – Play back your recording and verify its sound quality.
- 6 – Click Audacity's Edit>Save Project As and give your new master source recording a file name. I also recommend you save another back–up file just in case.
The primary thing to know about digital audio is that the editing processes are not all that dissimilar to editing text in Microsoft Word or other text editing program. The difference is you are looking at waveforms instead of words and sentences and using your ears as well as your eyes. Digital audio waveforms can be selectively cut, pasted, inserted, deleted, etc. just like text in a Word document. With the proper software tools you can even change the sound characteristics and levels sort of like changing text font type and size.
When you opened your ripped CD file in Audacity or while recording your song from tape, you saw the digital waveforms start to display on Audacity's main screen. They represent the actual audio content of your music. Highlight a small portion of the waveform with your mouse and click the magnifying glass icon to expand the waveform. Magnified enough the waveform can be isolated to individual notes or sounds. In our next installment we will get into the techniques and procedures for actually editing your music.
SEE ALSO: Jo Ann Ferris' excellent web page on Choreographing Your Own Skating Routine.
If there is a subject about Skating or Sports Music recording, mixing or producing that you would like to see covered on this page, please let us know. Also, copies of previous installments of these Tips & Techniques pages are available, free of charge, upon request. Just ask us.
Previous Tips and Techniques Subjects:
- 1.0 - What You Need (Minimum equipment, software, and skills required)
- 2.0 - Getting Your Music Ready To Edit and The Basics of Digital Audio (From CD or tape to your hard drive)
- 3.0 - Some Do's & Don'ts For Selecting Your Music Source (Supplement for 2.0).
- 4.0 - Getting Started Editing Your Skating Program Music (Basic editing procedures)
- 5.0 - Creating a Seamless Cut and Paste Edit (The core of digital music editing)