sound recording

[Starlord]

I would like to record some sounds and songs from my old LP's to use on my
computer. I want them in wav formatt to use with my ICMail program. Trouble
is the one program I tried out made files that for 5 secs of song where 8+
megs in size and I need small ones. Is there anything like what I need in
the way of free/shareware?



--

The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
About my Car
http://www.bishopcarfund.netfirms.com/

 

[old jon]

You don`t say what program you used to make your files. That would help a
bit. However wav files are Big. You need to have your files in MP3 format.
That will reduce the file size for you. So, what program ?. best wishes..J

 

[Starlord]

I forget what it was, I had it on my old machine that got wiped out when the
trailer I lived in had a major leak in the celeing right over the computer.
Total lost, but it had been a program I found via google that allowed a 30
day testing time and stopped at 8megs anyway.

Incredamail ( what I use for personal / e-lists email ) can't use MP3, only
wav and MiDi and I've got almost whole music songs that where sent to me in
wav format that are under 800kb's some of them are maybe 300kbs even. If you
want to see / hear a sample, use this return address and I'll replay with
ICMail with sound.

 

[Paul B.]

I would like to record some sounds and songs from my old LP's to use on my
computer. I want them in wav formatt to use with my ICMail program. Trouble
is the one program I tried out made files that for 5 secs of song where 8+
megs in size and I need small ones. Is there anything like what I need in
the way of free/shareware?

Raw .wav files are the original uncompressed standard, and they
are big. You want to go to a compressed format to save space. You
can do that with .wav, but you - and your recipients - will need
the codecs. See
http://members.aol.com/citizenbio/pchelp/mpeg.html for a primer.

p.

 

[dadiOH]

I would like to record some sounds and songs from my old LP's to use
on my computer. I want them in wav formatt to use with my ICMail
program. Trouble is the one program I tried out made files that for 5
secs of song where 8+ megs in size and I need small ones. Is there
anything like what I need in the way of free/shareware?

Waves are 10.5+ MB per minute of playing time when sampled at 44.1 MHz,
16 bit stereo which is the norm. However, you don't *have* to sample at
that rate. If you can change it in your program, fine. If not, save
and resample by opening it in Windows Sound Recorder and selecting "Save
as..." from the file menu. That opens a new window where you can select
"Type" (you want PCM wave) and "Format" by pressing the "Change" button.
Exactly what formats will be available to you depend on what codecs are
on your system. On mine, they go down to 8,000Hz, 8 bit mono which
makes an itsy bitsy file. Quality goes down too, of course.

More info in my dandies (see sig)

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Starlord]

I've bookmarked that page and will have to test it out later on, I'm running
XP on this donated machine that replaced the w98 one I had.

 

[Starlord]

I'll read your page later on, BUT, as stated before Incredimail doesn't play
mp3 sound files, it can play wav and MiDi files.

 

[Dick Hazeleger]

Waves are 10.5+ MB per minute of playing time when sampled at 44.1
MHz, 16 bit stereo which is the norm. However, you don't have to
sample at that rate. If you can change it in your program, fine. If
not, save and resample by opening it in Windows Sound Recorder and
selecting "Save as..." from the file menu. That opens a new window
where you can select "Type" (you want PCM wave) and "Format" by
pressing the "Change" button. Exactly what formats will be available
to you depend on what codecs are on your system. On mine, they go
down to 8,000Hz, 8 bit mono which makes an itsy bitsy file. Quality
goes down too, of course.

More info in my dandies (see sig)

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

DadiOH,

Question related to this: I have seen 3 minute wave files of quite good
quality, and only 600 or so KB in size. These seem to be compressed
wave files... any idea how these are made?

Thanks in Advance for the reply

Dick

 

[dadiOH]

DadiOH,

Question related to this: I have seen 3 minute wave files of quite
good quality, and only 600 or so KB in size. These seem to be
compressed wave files... any idea how these are made?

Other than a low sample rate, one can use various lossless compression
schemes on waves - things like APE, FLAC, SHN - but those only compress
about 50%.

A wave as small as you say had to have been made with a low sample
rate...and that diminishes the "quality". Whether that can be heard or
not depends on your ears, what you use to play them and the content.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Mike Bourke]

The following information might be useful/relevant:

1. Selecting one of these small wav files, right click and select
properties. On the details tab, what is the audio format?

2. Open the same wav file in Windows Media Player and stop it playing. Under
"File" select Properties. On the Advanced tab, it will identify the filters
and codecs used for the playback of the file.

By the way, you can rename an mp3 to a wav and it will usually play just
fine on most Microsoft computers - it just uses the default media player
associated with Wav files instead of the one associated with MP3 files. This
is because Windows doesn't know beans about the file, it just knows how to
handle a file EXTENSION - the three(-or-four)-letter bit after the full stop
in the name.
I have just done so to a file of mine. It lists no Codecs but, under
filters, "Default DirectSound Device" AND "MPEG Layer-3 Decoder". When
playing a PCM-type WAV file, the second item is missing. And (from item No 1
above), Windows lists the file as "unknown format" instead of the usual PCM,
sampling rate, etc.
However, don't use a renamed MP3 for system sounds, it can cause
problems. Windows Media Player understands the MP3 format; Windows does not.

Mike Bourke

 

[dadiOH]

By the way, you can rename an mp3 to a wav and it will usually play
just fine on most Microsoft computers - it just uses the default
media player associated with Wav files instead of the one associated
with MP3 files.

True, the extension isn't what determines the file and it will play
*IF*...

A. the player has a decoder
- OR -
B. there is an installed ACM (audio compression manager) codec in the
system (there normally is) and the player can use them.

One way or another, an MP3 has to be decoded to wave for it to play.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Dick Hazeleger]

Other than a low sample rate, one can use various lossless compression
schemes on waves - things like APE, FLAC, SHN - but those only
compress about 50%.

A wave as small as you say had to have been made with a low sample
rate...and that diminishes the "quality". Whether that can be heard
or not depends on your ears, what you use to play them and the
content.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

DadiOH, and the others: Thanks for replying!

Dick