This
Month’s Topic
Problem Solving
Future
Meetings
Below is a list of dates the for 2008, these dates have been confirmed.
April 9th
May 7th
June 4th
July 2nd
August 20th
September 17th
October 15th
November 12th
December 10th
Subscriptions
Your subscription is now due, this will be your last newsletter
unless you have renewed your subscription. The rates will remain
unchanged again at £12:00 for full membership and £1.00
for associate members.
If you are unable to attend the meeting please post your cheque
to Derek at the address given below.
59
Tamar Road
Melton Mowbray
Leics
LE13 0EN
Please make cheques payable to “Melton Computer Club”.
This month
We
are going to have a question and answer evening. If you are having
any problems or you have a question then we will try and answer
it for you.
Last Month …
We
made another foray into converting music files from vinyl into
a medium that can be used on the computer or modern stand alone
.MP3 players etc. It’s been a couple of years since we last
looked at this topic, so I thought it may be good for those who
missed the last presentation and an opportunity for newer members
to see how relatively easy it is to revive those old favourites
long ago stored in the cupboard or loft.
The
basic requirements are a record turntable with a line output.
There are numerous on the market for around £50. The latest
models have a USB input which makes life considerably easier.
There are some turntables on the market that will even play your
old 78rpm records, so all is not lost. My turntable has a line
input connection and to ensure I have a decent input to the computer
I use a small pre-amplifier that cost around £20 to boost
the signal enough for a decent recording level. I have recently
seen a music centre that will convert Lps, Cds and cassettes to
.MP3 format without the need for a computer. This was a bit dearer
at around £250.
So why the big hype about .MP3 format?
MP3
is a revolutionary digital audio format developed by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
and Thompson Multimedia in the late 1980s and brought to the mainstream
through the Internet in 1997. MP3 is short for MPEG (Moving Pictures
Experts Group) Layer - 1, the group that helps make MP3 an international
standard.
MP3
is a compressed audio format that allows for smaller file sizes
with similar sound quality to PCM WAV format, the format found
on normal music CDs you would buy in a store. Thompson and Fraunhofer
helped develop the coding algorithm, or system of rules and processes,
that encoded audio to this incredible format.
The
popularity of MP3 comes from its practical uses. Music tracks
in WAV format are extremely large in file size, averaging around
50MB in size. Since it is so large, it is not practical to send
WAV files through email or offer them for download on the Internet.
MP3, however, compresses WAV audio on average of 10 to 12 times
smaller than the original size. The result is audio tracks around
3 to 4 MB in size, perfect for downloading and sending through
the Internet. Thus, custom MP3 format CDs can be created with
10 to 12 times the amount of tracks of a normal 12-15 track audio
CD, producing CDs with over 100 tracks easily. The format is also
popular for turning your PC into a jukebox of hundreds or thousands
of songs or loading them into a portable mp3 player and taking
your music collection wherever you want.
Once
you have the hardware sorted out, you need some proprietary software
to do the analogue to digital conversion into the standard uncompressed
.WAV format. There are plenty of packages about these days. I
personally use a package called “The Audio Cleaning Lab”
which is a suite of programmes that will copy the vinyl recording,
clean it up and export it as a .WAV file or if you have the deluxe
version you can also do the .MP3 compression conversion as well.
Audio Cleaning Lab has been around some time now and I have found
it very good with lots of added extras to make the conversion
simple and to clean up the crackles, pops and hiss that are associated
with vinyl. Tape recordings can also be converted in exactly the
same way but you have to clean up the inherent hiss that is associated
with these recordings. Audio Cleaning Lab does a very good job
with these. The best way to record an LP is to record each side
as one large single .WAV file and break it up into the individual
tracks afterwards.
It
is very important to ensure that your Line In signal does not
amplify too much and drive the input signal into distortion by
clipping the audio input signal. Audio Cleaning Lab allows you
to control this feature with a visual bar graph of signal strength.
Once you have made your recording and cleaned up the crackles
etc you can then chop it up into the individual tracks. Your recording
package will probably do this for you but I have a small programme
that originally came of a cover disc called “LP Ripper”.
I
use LP Ripper purely out of personal preference. The programme
gives me a visual display of my recording and allows me to select
the number of tracks I require. Once I have indicated how many
tracks it will make an intelligent choice on where the breaks
are and break up the large .WAV file accordingly. It is worth
remembering that most of the crackles and pops still on the recording
will be from the gaps between LP tracks so it is good practice
to get rid of these areas from the recording. I go through the
recording and fine tune where the programme indicates the starts
and ends of each track to remove these areas. Finally for good
measure and this is personal choice, I put a 2 second clean section
at the beginning and end of each track for good measure. It works
for me.
If
all has gone well you will now have a set of .WAV tracks corresponding
to the tracks from your original LP. Repeat this for side 2 and
you now have a digital copy of your original music. Our final
requirement if required is to convert these large .WAV files to
.MP3 files. The .MP3 conversion routines are licensed from Thompson
and Fraunhofer and either come with your software package or as
an optional purchased extra. Either way, the license has to be
purchased. Having said that, there are freeware packages around
that do a reasonable conversion. I use a Package called “Gamut”
that I have owned for a long time now. It is a suite of programmes
that will convert to and play .MP3 files. It also has a midi player
incorporated. I like Gamut because it allows you to use a variable
bit rate recording compression. The higher the rate, the larger
the file and the better the recording. I tend to use a minimum
of 128 Kbits/sec and get excellent results. The free conversion
programmes tend not to give you an option.
So by now you should have a set of .MP3 files that equate to the
tracks from your LP. Hopefully the quality is as good as if not
better (if your cleaning went well) than your original recording.
The process is I suppose a little time consuming but you do get
to listen to those long lost records put away for posterity and
maybe you will get more enjoyment from them again. As I said before
there are many packages that will do all this for you and I am
sure some are much better than what I use. Some things to remember
are :-
1.
Try and get your record as clean as possible prior to the session.
Washing carefully with liquid soap helps tremendously with the
removal of ingrained dirt. Permanent scratches can be masked but
not completely and anyway they add to the authenticity of your
recording.
2.
Ensure that your recording levels are not too high to cause clipping
and distortion.
3.
Use a high bit rate compression to ensure a good quality .MP3
track.
Dave
Robb
Windows
Vista Service Pack 1
The service pack is claimed to improve the stability, security
and performance of the software.
This update, or service pack, includes some fixes released before
now and adds many new ones as well.
Microsoft has issued a list of software that the update could
clash with, some security software and other programs customers
may have installed on their machine.
Handy help
Those using Vista can download the update directly from Microsoft
or wait for it to be automatically installed on their machine
in mid-April.
Microsoft's product manager for the software, said those installing
Service Pack One (SP1) may have to download and install some other
"prerequisites" before the update can be applied.
The pre-requisites are generally updates to other programs or
components of Vista to ease the passage of SP1.
In late February Microsoft released a list of programs that SP1
could break when it was installed. Among those listed were anti-virus
programs from BitDefender and Trend Micro.
A spokesman for Trend Micro said the issue had now been resolved.
Microsoft recommends that Vista users go to Windows Update to
get the service pack rather than use its download service.
The version available via Windows Update is only 65 MB in size
(compared to 434MB via download) and can diagnose driver problems
before installation.
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