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| DAK's V4.2 Microsoft Vista compatible plus XP, 2000, ME and 98SE Wave and
MP3 Editor pro brings Vista capabilities to your recording and editing. But we've
added many new features and programs to dramatically enhance your recording experience
and abilities. You'll find lots of ways to make better, faster and more professional
recordings in this all new tutorial eBook. I just want to list a few of my favorites
here. But you'll find this program to be the easiest ever to use and the most
powerful I've ever seen by far. Effects and Filters Automated – Now instead of presets when you add echo, amplify or use filters, you'll have sliders to set just the exact amount of the effect or filter you want. PLUS use the Preview to hear and adjust your settings before changing the file. Just click and change till you have what you want. This will save you hours and give you precision never before available. WMA and OGG support is added. Open, record, edit and save these formats too. 4 Track Trackers Added – Separate Tracks as before with enhanced interface that stays on top for easy use. PLUS I've added 4 new Tracker Interfaces. Separate your tracks, book chapters or anything else by Tracker Interface 2, Time, Tracker Interface 3,. Size, Tracker Interface 4, Silence, Tracker Interface 5 or by Sound. Now you'll have 5 Tracker Interfaces to separate tracks fast and easy. Speed Decode – Converting 78s by playing them at 45RPM was a DAK innovation. Now we've added 2X and 1/2X cassette decoding. Play tapes at double speed and one click decode them to normal speed. Got 1/2 speed cassettes? Decode those to normal too. Batch Convert, Tag & More - Wav to MP3 and MP3 to Wave converting has been enhanced. And I've added Batch convert of effects and filters so now you can normalize, add echo or filter, not 1 file, but 100 or even 1000 tracks with a click. For Converting MP3 files now you can batch tag them all with the album and artist tags so you don't have to do it manually. You can do batch renaming and convert sample rates too. Recent File One Click – I love this. Now the last 6 files you've opened or saved are just one click away on the File Menu. No more looking for lost files. Tune Library Jukebox - Now keep your tracks on your computer and access any track you want effortlessly. Hook your computer to your stereo and play hundreds of tracks in any order you like. One Click Sort for Name, Artist, Album or Title. Much more. Voice Over PRO - This program for mixing 2 or even 3 stereo tracks LIVE while you narrate or sing, has been so popular it's gone full screen for full size editing and mixing of 3 sets of stereo tracks at a time. Timed And Scheduled Recording IMPROVED – Now you get the same ability to do count down and scheduled record in the editor as always. Plus I've added 2 real time recorders to record right to your hard drive for larger files and much greater versatility. Set Right & Set Left - When you are editing it's always been hard to get to the very beginning or end of the file. Now use the Set Right & Set Left buttons to instantly put your cursor at the exact beginning or end of the loaded file. There's lots more, but I didn't want you to miss some of the new 'power tools' you have at your command. Now it's time to look through the tutorial and start using your DAK Professional In-Computer Digital Recording Studio to make great sounding recordings and to do totally professional editing. Enjoy . . .Drew |
Rollover Any Part For Quick Description. Click On It For A Detailed Step-By-Step Guide.
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And Hot Links To Get You Going. 5 Minute Get Started Guide – Read this first to get the highpoints of using the editor. 78 RPM Converter – Use your 45 RPM turntable to convert 78s. CD Ripper – Grab all the tracks from a CD to your hard drive. Find It Print It Send It - Never Lose Files Again. Now you can create lists of your Music Files, Picture Files and Even Document Files. Print Them. List Them and Copy Them. Optional Audio CD Burner - Burn 1 file, 10 files or all your files to Audio CDs, Easy. Optional MP3 Burner - Burn 10 hour MP3 CDs for your car, or Home Theatre. Live Recording – All the tricks. Edit even part of a word, do sound on sound and mix your voice with music. MP3 Batch Converter – Convert MP3s to Waves and Waves to MP3 by the 10s, 100s or 1000s automatically. Playlist Manager – DAK's Preserve Playlist Order plus 5 audio tools included. Read this page. Schedule Timer – Record at a later time or day. Set & Forget Length Timer – Don't baby-sit your recordings. Use the set and forget timer to stop the recorder after your LP, cassette or Internet broadcast is finished. Song Stalker – For Internet recording, it actually senses the silence between tracks and creates automatic track breaks, names and saves the tracks. Track Tracker Programs – DAK's most important tool. 1st time every time automated track separation. Names and numbers the tracks from your LPs, cassettes and Internet Recordings. Your Computer's Audio Properties Selector – Instant access to all your computer's sound properties from within the toolbox section. Voice Over PRO Multitrack Recording - Mix your voice over one or several tracks live in perfect sync. Then Mix the tracks. This is Multitrack recording. |
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Which Icons Do I Use To Install
The Programs & Which Do I Click To Use Them. |
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The Main Screen |
| It's easy to record, just click the Red Button. To stop recording, click the
square Stop Button. And to play back what you've recorded, click the Arrow Play
Button. What do you want to record? Click the Record Source Button. See the next picture below for the details. But in short, do you want to record from the DAK Mixer Interface, a microphone or from the Internet? To record on your computer, all you do is select the input you want to use. How Loud is your recording? Set your record volume using the Input Level Slider. That's basically what you need to know. Make Some 2 Minute Recordings. Just make some 2 minute recordings to get the hang of it. Record, Stop, Play. After you do a few tests you'll be ready for broadcast quality studio recording. You don't learn anything by recording for an hour that you can't learn in 2 minutes. So, record for a minute or 2 as a test, then clear it and get ready for great recordings. |
Vista - Selecting
And Setting Your Recording Input |
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XP-98
- Selecting And Setting Your Recording Input |
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Setting
Your Recording Input Choice. |
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Here are the input names to choose and what to do with each. 1. For Internet Recording- Choose What You Hear. Your Sound Card may call it Stereo Mix, Wave Out Mix, or Wave. But they are all the same. 2. For Recording LPs, Cassettes or anything connected to the BLUE JACK in the back of your computer- Choose Analog Mix. Your computer may call it LINE IN or AUX. NOTE: Use the Blue Jack in back for this. It's usually blue and it's right next to where you plug in your speakers. If you have front mounted inputs, you can use them but they may have some other name like Aux 2 and you'll have to figure that out. That's why I want you to use the blue jack in back. Remember the easy way to know if you are recording is, no waves, no recording. 3. Live Microphone Recording- Choose Microphone. Your Sound Card might call it Mic. This is the Pink Jack in back. 
4. This is the Play Control. On the left side of the editor is the Play Control.
It looks just like the Record Control above, but normally you don't need to
use this. It's more of a system volume and it's best to just leave it in its
default settings. Unless you're using a USB laptop adapter, leave it on
Microsoft Sound Mapper or your sound card name which is usually its default. Yours
may be different from this and that's fine. Just don't change it most of the time.
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But How High Do You Set Your
levels? |
| This is probably the most common misconception in digital recording. That's
why I want to spend just a minute on recording levels. Everyone wants to record
too high or too hot. OK, to show you, I didn't record what's in the picture above. What you see here is the waveform from a commercial CD that I loaded in the editor. Look at the recording level. Do you see in the wave windows that it's set to about 60% of the vertical height of the 2 Wave Windows? I've put in the red lines so you can see. And you can see a few lines pop up above and below. That's fine. But if you want your recordings to be at the same level as commercial CDs (and you do) set your levels to about 60% of the level like you see here. And, the wave windows, not the VU meters are how to set your levels in a wave editor. IMPORTANT NOTE: PROBLEMS? If when you record, the playback sounds muffled or distorted, it's only because you have recorded at too high a level and overloaded the digitization. Just lower the input level slider above and your sound will be perfect. Your CDs will end up with the same volume as commercial CDs. And most important, your sound will be flawless. NOTE Level Doesn't Change: When you move the recording level control, the volume doesn't actually change till you release the control. Here's a 2 minute recording tip again. Make a test recording. Happily, recording digitally isn't like using a tape. You can stop and start and clear and delete any time you want. So at first, just play a minute or so of whatever your source is to see if you are comfortable with the level and playback in the editor. After you make a recording, just click stop. Then click play and you'll hear what you've recorded instantly. Good News: Don't worry. All of this about input levels is really just for the first time you record. Most records and tapes are recorded at about the same level. You just need to know not to record too high and you're all set. And I wanted to be sure to get this idea across to you. Left & Right Channels: Above on the left, I've marked the Left and Right Channels for you. The Left is the top and the Right is the bottom wav window. You can record on one or the other. I've put a section on that below. |
How Do I Save What I've Recorded? |
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| OK, like a word processor, nothing is saved till you tell your computer
to save what you've written or in this case the music you've recorded. So when
you Click Record, everything is TEMPORALLY put into your RAM and to a temp file
you can't really get to again on your hard disk. So here's how you save what you've
recorded. Click Record and Record, whatever you want. Click Stop.
An Idea Before You Save. When you are first using the editor, check to make sure you actually recorded what you wanted. In short, if you don't see waves in the big windows while you record, you are not recording. But just to be sure, hit the Play Button after the waves have formed to hear a few seconds of what you recorded. It's just a good little test to do when you are first getting started. There's no reason to do this when you are actually saving your LPs and cassettes, but while you are learning it's just an easy thing to check. Finally, The Arrow Above. You've made and checked your recording. Now, go to File/Save As. (If you just use save, you might overwrite something you want.) So usually use Save As. This will Launch a dialog box . |
The Save As Dialog Box |
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| This Box is actually part of your Windows System and really easy to use. Arrow 1.) At the bottom type in your file name. Don't use special characters like !?/.@. And No Periods. Just use letters and numbers and call your musical masterpiece anything you like. Arrow 2.) Here's the File Type Box. This lets you choose to save as Wave MP3, WMA or OggVorbis files. Most of the time, leave this as Wav because that's the industry standard uncompressed file for the best sound and easy editing and restoration and for CDs. Or you can use MP3 or WMA for compressed files for your iPod or other MP3 Player. Ogg is good, but it's not supported by most players. We just want to provide our PRO users with anything they may need. Arrow 3.) Now where do you want to save the file? This is important because we get so many calls from people who recorded something but can't find it. This is all about Windows, nothing to do with us or any other program you use. By clicking this button, you'll save your file to your desktop where you can see it. Later, save your files anywhere you like, but for your test, the desktop is a good place to start. Just pick a spot that you'll remember and save it there. What do I do? Easy. For Windows XP, the 2nd Icon down the left takes you to your desktop where you can actually see what you've saved. If you save your first few files here, you won't lose them while you get used to recording. Then what I do is to create a folder on my desktop and save everything in there. It has the double advantage of keeping my tracks where I know where they are and not filling up my desktop with hundreds of music files. Arrow 4.) Note. If you're not using Windows XP, open this pull down menu and select the Desktop from your choices. It's the same as clicking the Icon, just two steps instead of one. Arrow 5. OK just click save and you're all set. That's all there is to saving a file.
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More Save As Settings Choices. |
| Don't Panic, normally, all you do with these boxes is Click OK. But if you
want extra control over what you are saving this is the place to do it.
In the previous Dialog Box, you had your choice of saving as Wav, MP3, WMA
or OGG. Depending on which you chose, you will get one of the setting boxes above. I've used the same numbering system on the boxes as they really work the same way. So learn one and you'll have them all Arrow 1.) You can choose different frequency response characteristics for the files you save. Normally, CD quality is set at 44,100Hz. And that's the default. So leave it there. If you want more or less, just check another box. 48,000 is good, but CDs are 44,100, so there's no point in doing it for CDs as it won't affect the sound and will increase the file size. Arrow 2.) For Wave Files you can choose 8 or 16 bit. Normally 16 bit is standard. For MP3s, the bit rate is far more important. The bit rate really determines the compression ratio and therefore the file size of the MP3. 128 bit is the standard. But you can increase it from 8 bit to 320 bit. 8 bit is OK for talking and the files are so small you can get hours of talking in just a few megs. 320 is just about as big as a Wav file so there's not much point, except MP3s can have tags and names. But, you can just leave these settings at their defaults for most uses. Arrow 3.) Most digital is Stereo by default. You can change it to mono here. Arrow 4.) Just click OK and your file will be saved. Arrow 5.) WMA is different. It's a proprietary Microsoft file format that we support. You can open this pull down menu and choose settings to suit your needs. They are described by name, so they are easy, but in short again they are all about bigger or smaller files to fit in your players. |
How Do I Save Just A Selected Part Of A Track |
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| This is one of the super powerful parts of the Editor. Regardless of whether
you recorded this track or just opened it, you can save any part you want as a
new file. Why would you want to save a part? Many reasons and you'll do it all the time. You might want to save a single track from a group of tracks when you aren't using the Track Tracker, or you might want to save just the opening or theme from some music or just a part from one of the DAK Sound Effects. Arrow 1.) I'm showing you what I've selected. See the details on how to select if you haven't looked at it yet. But in short, just drag your mouse (Left button down) from one side to the other. Arrow 2.) Just choose File/Save Select As and only the part you've selected will be saved as a new file. The original file will remain untouched so you can always go back to it later. Arrow 3.) You really don't need to use this here, but I wanted you to see that I was zoomed in. Whenever you are zoomed in you'll see this green bar showing you how much of the whole file you can see. Just grab this handle and drag it to the left or right to move to other parts of the file. And zoom in again if you like. And see the little dark part? That shows you exactly where you are in the total file that's loaded. Pretty neat. That's it. Now you know how to select a part of a file in addition to knowing how to select and save an entire file or track.
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How Do I Know What I've Selected? |
| You will select by dragging. And you can click Play to hear what you've selected.
But if you want to know the exact start time and end time of what you've selected,
you'll see that in 2 ways. Arrow 1.) Select any area of the screen by dragging. Arrow 2.) The Selection box will show you the exact beginning and end time of what you've selected. You can increase or decrease the selection area using the Yellow triangles at all 4 corners of the selected area. As you do, you'll see the numbers increase or decrease in this box. Arrow 3.) This selection tip will come up and follow your mouse after you've made a selection. It contains the same info as the Selection Box, but you may find it to be in a more convenient location. |
Selecting Dissected |
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| When you select an area to work on, you'll actually see a numeric representation
of what you've selected so it can be repeated. Arrow 1 & 1a.) This is the cursor at 1:31.9 seconds. The cursor (where the music is playing or paused will always give you the real time position. It's very precise. NOTE: Grab any of the 4 yellow triangles you'll see in the selection corners to drag to increase or decrease the size of your selection. Arrows 2 & 2a.) Now I've selected an area. This is the beginning of the selection. You'll see the actual real time position. It's at 1:20:57 seconds. Arrows 3 & 3a.) This is the end of the selection. It's at 2:05:82 seconds. Now there's no guessing as to where you are and what you've selected. You'll know it exactly and it's great for editing, mixing and overlaying your tracks.
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How Do I Record Both Sides Of My Record Or Cassette
To A CD? |
We get this question a lot and it's really easy. You can usually get both
sides of your records and cassettes on a CD. |
| How To Select. How To Use Edit, Effects And Filters Menus.  |
| Selecting is a basic Windows Function. It's the first step to using
many of the Editor's powerful functions. So, spend a few minutes getting comfortable
making and using selections. You'll use selections to apply any of the filters, effects and editing powers. You'll use it to select a part of a file to delete or to copy. And, you'll select a part of a file or track that you want to save and then by going to File/Save Select As you will save just that one part without changing the original file at all. How do you select? Put your Mouse cursor in between the upper and lower tracks. Hold down the left button and drag till you have the part selected that you want to work on, delete or alter. It will turn red like you see above. Then, just choose any function and Left Click it from any of the menus and the editor will perform the operation you want. And remember, if you don't like what you've done? No problem. Just click the UNDO arrow and it will be undone so you can try again. This makes it really easy, fast and lets you experiment all you want because for most operations, you're just one click from undoing anything you've tried. So, don't be afraid to experiment. It's the best way to learn. |
How Do I Zoom In To See Exactly What I Want To Do? |
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| YOU MUST SELECT AN AREA FIRST! You don't have to estimate where you want to make that change, take out that word or see if it's a track or a pause. Just Highlight (SELECT) the area in question as you learned in Selecting above. Then: Arrow 1.) Click The + Magnifying glass and you'll zoom in to see the exact detail you want to see. There's really no limit to how far you can zoom in. An Explanation. Zooming in is variable. You can zoom in a little or a lot and you can zoom in more once you are zoomed in. Here's the deal. Whatever you highlight when you click the Zoom Button will become the entire visible screen in front of you. So if you highlight 90% of the screen, you'll just zoom in a little. If you only highlight 10% of the screen then it will expand about 9 times so you'll see a really detailed view. Try this a few times. There's nothing you can do wrong. And once you are zoomed in, if you highlight part of what you see in the window, and if you click the + Magnifying glass again, you'll zoom in that much more. You'll get the hang of it in just a few seconds. Arrow 2.) Zoom Out - Click this button and you'll move back one zoom level. Special Zoom In Tip: If you click anywhere within the wave windows then scroll your mouse wheel you can zoom through the entire range of zoomed in states. It's very fast and the preferred way to zoom. Arrow 3.) In My Zoomed In Inset View toward the bottom of the picture, Grab this handle to move anywhere in the entire recording. Just because you're zoomed in doesn't mean you can't look at and work on the entire recording. You can. It's easy. You're just looking at a part of the entire file as you scroll from end to end. Arrow 4.) Play - At any time you can play anything that's shown in the window or whatever is highlighted. This way you never have to guess about what you are looking at. Just click play and you'll know 100% every time. It makes editing super easy.
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How
To Zoom - Animated Example |
| Just watch this animation to see how to zoom in and scroll. You'll see how
easy it is. Note the green bar which you grab to scroll also shows you how far
in you've zoomed, and where you are in the total file. |
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track? |
| We get lots of emails about missing or lost tracks. It's really just Windows
Organization that's the problem, but here's all you do to open any track you've
recorded, or any .Wav, MP3, IGG or CDA track you have in your computer. Arrow 1.) Go to the File Menu Arrow 2.) Choose Open Arrow 3.) NEW - Now you have 1-Click access to the last 6 tracks you've opened or saved. Just look down at the bottom of the File Menu and click on the track you want. This was added in 2007. |
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track - No.2? |
| This is the Windows Open File Dialog Box. It's the same for all your programs,
not just ours. Arrow 1.) This is telling you what folder you are looking in. And you need to know where you've saved your files to find them. Often it will be in My Music or My Documents. I recommend at the beginning that you just save them to the desktop so you can see where they are. Arrow 2.) Click on the file you want to open. Arrow 3.) You can type the file name in here, but clicking on it is easier and faster. Arrow 4.) Click Open. BUT MY SONG ISN'T IN THIS FOLDER. WHAT DO I DO? Scroll Down. |
How Do I Find & Open A File/Track - No. 3? |
| OK if you look at the top box that says Look In, again, you'll see to the
right there's an arrow (Not mine, the down arrow that's part of the box). When you click on that arrow, you'll see all the folders on your computer. Just scroll down till you find the folder you have your music in. If you don't see the folder, then click on one of the folders you do see to go into the subdirectory to find your folder. A sub directory isn't anything fancy. It's just a folder within another folder. This really is just Windows Navigation Arrow 1.) Click the Pull down menu and you'll see that you can navigate anywhere on your computer. Arrow 2.) In Win XP, if you click this button you'll always go right to your desktop. Then you can navigate to a folder on your desktop. Arrow 3.) Click My Computer to access all the other folders and drives on your computer. This is the gateway to all files on your computer. Arrow 4.) I like to put a 0 in front of some of my file names so when I open a dialog box like Open File, I can see the folder I want right at the top of the list. Arrow 5.) You can type in the file name you want to open or just double click it when you find it. |
| How Do I Find & Open A File/Track - No. 4? But I Still Don't See My MP3, WMA, OGG & CDA Tracks.  |
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| The DAK editor recognizes all 5 major audio file formats that you might want
to use. Depending on the location in your computer, the top line, which includes
all 5 types, will appear or just one type will appear. Just open the File Type
box to access the other types. So if you see no files listed in a folder where you think you have stored a file, just open this box and choose the file type that you want.
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| How
Do I Find & Open A File/Track - No. 5? YOU CAN DIRECTLY OPEN CD AUDIO (cda) FILES FROM YOUR CDs.  |
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| Directly Open Tracks From CDs. OK, this is hot. Up till now you needed
to get a CD Ripper to transfer music tracks from your CDs to your computer so
you could copy them or edit them. Many DAKonians open CDA files to shorten them
for dance or gymnastic routines. CDA files are just wav files on CDs. They call
them CDAs (Compact Disc Audio) and normally they can't be opened or copied from
CDs without special software. It's been a bit of a headache but, Wave Editors don't come with CDA opening capability. Now the new DAK Wave & MP3 Editor/Recorder PRO does. Arrow 1.) Just navigate to your CD drive. Arrow 2.) Click the track number of the track you want to load. Important Note: Choose CDA from the drop down File Type Box at the bottom. So, now it's as easy to open CDA files as Wave, MP3, OGG & MP3 Files.
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How Do I UNDO Something I Don't
Like? |
| Don't worry about what you do. If you've selected, deleted a selection,
added a filter or just about anything, you can UNDO what you've done. Don't be afraid to try new things. All you need to do is try it, then UNDO it if you don't like the effect. Arrow 1.) Just Click UNDO to return to where you were before the last operation you performed. Arrow 2.) If you decide you did like what you've just undone, no problem. This is REDO to put it back. YOU CAN GO BACK 99, steps so even if you've gone 2 or 3 steps into a project, just click the undo as many times as you like. Most, but not quite all, functions can be undone. |
How Do I Make Changes To Only 1 Channel. |
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| Sometimes you may want to work on only 1 channel at a time. With the editor,
it's easy. You can add echo, increase or decrease volume or remove sounds from
only one of the channels. Note: In Digital Recording, you cannot delete a channel or part of a channel because in digital files the two channels must maintain the same time base because they work together. But, if you want to minimize or reduce the sound or even eliminate the sound on only one channel, then just select that channel and use Amplify- a number of times till the channel is totally blank. That protects the time base and still eliminates the sound from either channel. OK, now that you know, here's how to work on only one channel at a time. Arrow 1.) Just move your cursor up or down till you see the L for Left Channel or the R for Right Channel appear. Then left click it and as you'll see, the other channel will go dark and you can edit only the channel you want. Arrow 2.) Here I clicked the L and now only the top Left Channel will be active for anything I want to do. Arrow 3.) Here I clicked the R and now only the bottom Left Channel will be active for anything I want to do. NOTE: To return to two channel editing, just left click your mouse about 1/2 way into the channel that's been turned off. Then you'll have both channels working normally again.
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| How Do I Copy And Paste Any Part To Any Other Or The Same Effect?  |
| OK, There's a lot here, but there's really nothing to it. I've just tried
to put this all in one picture. Don't worry, this is super simple. What we want to do is extract/copy a part from a track and put it in another place or in the middle of another track. Here's all you have to do. Arrow 1.) Select the part you want. Arrow 2.) You can either use the Copy Icon as shown or open the Menu and choose Copy. Arrow 3.) OK, just click your Cursor where you are going to want to paste your copy of what you've selected. The dotted yellow line shows where the cursor is at any time. It doesn't matter if it's in the same effect as you copied or in another effect or musical track. When you copy anything it's on your Windows Clipboard and it will stay there till you put something else on it. Arrow 4.) Click the Paste Button on the Menu or the Icon. Arrow 5.) How does your Computer know what to paste? This is what's in your computer memory; normally you can't see it unless you use the View Clipboard tool in Windows. But all you need to do is click EITHER the Paste Icon as shown or go to Edit and choose Paste. Then your selection will be pasted exactly where you want it. It's clean it's fast and it's a perfect digital copy. You can use the same copied selection to copy and paste 100 times if you want. Once it's there, each time you click Paste, it will put a new, clean digital copy exactly where your cursor was positioned. Now you know how to copy and paste any selection from any effect or any musical track into the same or any other effect or musical track. It's very powerful but very, very simple to do. |
Get
To The Very Beginning Or Very End Of Your File |
| It's always been hard in the wave form to get to the very beginning or end
of the file. Now it's easy. When you want to get to the very beginning or end
of the file to insert something or delete something, now just click one of these
buttons and you're there. Arrow 1 & 1b.) This sets the cursor all the way to the Left. Arrow 2 & 2b.) This sets the cursor all the way to the Right. |
How Do I Append Or
Add To The End Of An Effect? |
| OK, so you've got one effect loaded and you want to put another effect at
the end. Of course you can add onto music tracks, voice narrations or anything,
anywhere you put your cursor in an open track. Let's append a track. Here's all you do. Arrow 1.) I put my cursor at the end. Remember that's the dotted yellow line. Arrow 2.) I open the Edit Menu and choose Paste from File. |
| What File Do You Want To Append Or Put At The End?  |
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| Just choose any effect or music. Nothing could be easier. Arrow 1.) Click on the name of the effect and it will show up in the File Name box. Arrow 2.) Choose Open. That's it. You've appended, in this case, or added anywhere in the file a 2nd track. It's super fast and easy.
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| Mixing
Sound Effects Or Anything - Easy Let's Get A Cat & A Dog Together To See What Happens.  |
| OK, let's mix two sound effects together. It's easy. I've already loaded in
a Dog barking into the Editor, let's add a Cat meowing. Arrow 1.) I'm just going to go to the Edit Menu and choose Mix From File. Arrow 2.) Shows you were your cursor is right now. That's important because when you mix sounds or paste in a second sound you control exactly where you want it to start by putting your cursor in the exact spot you want to paste. |
| Mix
In The 2nd, 3rd or 10th Sound. OK, Here Comes The Cat  |
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| Now you can use any track on your computer. You can even mix MP3
and Wav. But right now, let's just add the cat. Arrow 1.) Here's the Cat. Just click it and it will show up in the File Name Box. Arrow 2.) Click Open. That's all there is to mixing a file.
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| The
Final Mix Is Done Boy It's Noisy Here  |
| Here's the result. Arrow 1 shows you where the dog is and Arrow 2 show you
where the cat is. This is called sound on sound and you can use it to record a
music track then add your narration or singing. It's all very fast and easy in
the Editor. But it's even faster and easier if you use the new DAK Voice Over
Pro option in the Toolbox. |
How Do I Loop Continuous
Play Forever? |
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| Here's another powerful extra ability you have. It's called loop play. You
can have a selected part of your file play continuously. Arrow 1.) Select what you want to play. Arrow 2.) Click the Loop Play Button. It will continuously play the selected section, without pausing, forever. This is very useful for musical backgrounds or effects that you want to keep playing behind other effects. And you can make a stress removing, tension melting, environmental control machine using this feature too with the DAK sound effects. Plus, it's great for learning something. Just loop the lyrics, words, phone numbers or just the measure or passage you want to study and you can easily hear it 100 times while you learn and absorb it.
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| How Do I Burn/Write CDs
That Play On My Home And Car CD Players?  |
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| This is your audio CD burner. But aren't all CDs audio? No Audio
is the standard set in the 80s. It's called Redbook and it's comprised of files
like Wav files actually called CDA. (Computer Disc Audio). Any audio CD will hold
up to 72 minutes. NOT 80, or it won't play in all players. 72 is the standard.
It was considered long enough to record a Beethoven Symphony, so that's how it
was established. If you put MP3 files on a disc, it's no longer an Audio disc. It's considered data and we've added a burner for that below. And most CD players won't play it. But all computers will and all home theatre systems will. And if you have a car with Navigation it may too. OK we have a whole tutorial on using the burners, but in short, Top Arrow) Add a track, several tracks or lots of tracks by clicking the Add Files Button. Bottom Arrow) This meter you how much you've added. This is awesome and we spent a lot of time developing this. You'll see the loaded amount in minutes, not megabytes and we've color coded our meter so you can be sure how much you can put on a CD.
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Home And Car - CDs That Play Everywhere. |
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| There are just 2
TRICKS to making sure the CDs you burn will play on your car and home
CD players. Of course when you play them on your computer CD player they will
play, but you want them to play everywhere. Above is the DAK CD burner screen
that makes it easy to make sure you are setting your preferences correctly. You can play CDs that aren't Finalized/Closed on a computer but not on any other CD player. So we've made our burner ALWAYS CLOSE YOUR CDS. Now you won't have to worry about closing your CDs any more. Arrow) Here's the pull down window showing all the burn speeds. Most CD Burning programs will have this type of speed choice but it can be really hard to find. NOTE: If you see multiple burn speeds here, we recommend using about 1/2 the Max speed for making your audio CDs. In this case I'd use 16X or 24X. Important Summary: How to make your CDs play everywhere. 1. If your burner allows it, always burn at about 1/2 the max speed of the burner. This is a rule of thumb for all audio CD recording. Do it for your LP and Cassette conversions and do it even if you are just copying a CD. It really does make a difference. 2. Always finalize or close your CDs so they will play on just about any CD player anywhere you are. They'll play in the car, in your home or on your portables. If you're using the DAK burner it's automatic. If you use another, be sure to find the checkbox so you can close your CDs. These are the only two tricks you need to know to get your CDs burned and playing wherever you want them to play.
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MP3 CDs for Drew's New C6 Corvette Too. |
| I just got my new C6 Corvette (400 horse wow, great). I had Navigation put
in it so there was no CD changer. Bummer. So how could I live without by 12 disc
changer? Well, the Corvette CD player plays MP3 CDs. and you can put 10 hours
on a single CD of MP3 tracks. That's why I've added this MP3 burner to the editor. Now you can burn 10 hour CDs for your car, home theatre or computer CD ROM drives so you won't need changers either. As the new cars come out, you'll have 10 hours on a single CD and you can carry 2-3 CDs for 20-30 hours of your favorite music, no problem. I've covered using the MP3 burner in the Burner Tutorials, but in short, just load your MP3 AND ONLY MP3 tracks, be sure to limit yourself to about 700 Megs, and burn at about 1/2 the max speed of your burner. NOTE: You also get DAK's color coded meter for telling how full your CD is getting. In this case we use Megs because minutes don't count with MP3s. That's pretty much your solution for effortlessly making CDs with up to 10 hours of your favorite MP3 tracks. |
In Editor Length Time Recorder First what does In Editor Mean. I've provided 2 completely separate sets of Timed and Long Term Programmed recorders with the DAK editor. They look identical but the are very different. The In Editor Timed Recorders are described here and the SEPARATE Timed recorders are described in the Mode/Toolbox section. For Short recordings, the In Editor Timed Recorders are best to use. While they are operated by time, they actually record right in the editor and you'll see the waves and save normally. They create a temp file as they record and are really more or less limited, depending on how much RAM you have to about an hour or 2. Since they record right in the editor, they are really just an automated way to stop and start the editor in recording. And if you're going to edit what you record, the recording will be right there in the editor ready to edit when the timers stop. BUT, what if you want to record for several hours and you don't want the super large temp files. The Separate Timed Recorders you'll find in the Toolbox will record for as long as you have hard disk space to fill. You can record in Wav or MP3 of course. The only problem is that if you want to edit one of these files you won't be able to open them in the Editor because Windows has a limit of around 2.5 gigs and that's about 2-3 hours of Wav files. MP3 Caution. The 2-3 hour limit is the same for MP3 because although the saved MP3 file is smaller, when the editor opens it, without you having to worry about it, the file becomes a Wav file so it becomes 10 times bigger. You see MP3 is compressed and you can't actually edit a compressed file. Don't worry when we open an MP3, and then later when you click save. It saves as an MP3 so you don't have to worry about it, but it was a wav file when it's open in the editor itself. Pretty smart program isn't it? |
| OK, back to the pictures. Here's how to use the In Editor
Timed Record It's really easy to use (forgive all the numbers above, but I want to show you everything). With this set and forget timer you can record a side of an LP, a side of a cassette or an hour from the Internet. The timer will stop the Editor's recording and sit and wait for you to return. This truly is hassle free no babysitting recording. Arrow 1.) This section is the Length Timer (Below is the Advanced Schedule Timer). Arrow 2.) Just pull down this menu to choose a recording time. Most LPs run about 22 minutes, so you can use 24 or 25 minutes to be safe. Then you'll just delete the extra recorded time with one click when you're separating the tracks. Special Internet Radio idea. When I'm listening to Internet Radio, often I really don't listen to the live broadcasts. What I do is record for an hour or so and then I play back my recording so I can select the music and content that I want to keep as I listen to it. As you're listening, just highlight and select whatever you want to save and then choose 'Save Select' in the file menu. It's really great. Arrow 3.) Then just Click Start. This Window will automatically close and the recorder will record for the time you have selected. Arrow 4.) Pre-planned for easy use. Note: I've got 33 and 47 minute choices for cassettes. Often 60 minute cassettes run 62 minutes (31 minutes per side) and 90 minute cassettes are often 47 minutes per side. So I've got that covered too. Then just effortlessly delete the blank at the beginning and end when you separate the tracks. Anyway, just select the time you want. This system is built to make all your converting of LPs to CDs, Cassettes to CDs and Internet to CDs easy, fast and frustration free. And as you can see it's done by someone (me) who has done a lot of it and knows what you need to get it done easily and fast. ***Special Note: Does your cable TV have lots of music channels? If yours is like mine, you can choose all the digital channels you want. Each has a certain type of music. Anyway, just connect the audio from your cable system through our Mixer Interface and record all you want. Then, listen later and save the tracks you want. Now, isn't that a great idea to build some compilation CDs of music that you really love? Imagine just selecting a few tracks at a time till you have the world's greatest collection of what you love. It's really a great idea. |
In
Editor Record
Any Time You Want - - - For As Long As You Want. |
| OK, the timer we already looked at is a count down timer. You start it and
it stops by itself. This timer lets you set a preset time and day and it starts
on its own and stops on its own too. It's really easy and straightforward, but again, I want to be sure you see everything you can do. So that's why I have so many arrows and numbers. Arrow 1.) This is your Advanced Timer Scheduler Recorder. Arrow 2.) This is the current Date and Time in your computer. Check to see that it's correct. If it's not, just double click your system clock in the lower right tray of your desktop. Arrow 3.) Here's today's Date. You can change the date (see below) but now I'm going to record today. Arrow 4.) Here is your Start Time. Just click the hour and set the time you want. You can click the little arrows with your mouse. You can use your up and down arrow keys, or you can type in the hour you want. Then just do the same for the minutes. Arrow 5.) Do the same for your stop time. As you can see I'm recording from 11PM to 1 AM. Don't worry, I know and more important, the timer knows that we're changing dates. It's no problem. Arrow 6.) Click the Start Button to turn on the timer. Arrow 7.) Close this dialog box. That's it, you're ready to go. Important Note: The timer does not launch the program. (We don't want to take over your computer.) So, set the timer and minimize the wave recorder. Just don't close it or it won't record. The more you get into Internet Music, the more uses you'll find for our revolutionary new Wave Editor Timer and Scheduler Recorder. |
In
Editor Long
Term Scheduling |
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| OK, this is a new feature that I'm not sure you'll use very often. (Or, maybe
you will.) It gives you the ability to record tomorrow, next week, next month
or even next year. But, honestly even though it works perfectly, because you have to actually leave the program open, but minimized, and you can't turn off your computer, you're not likely to use this feature very often for really long term recording. However, if you're like me, the next day or middle of the night, or early in the morning recording can really be a lifesaver. Because I live in California, I tend to miss morning conferences and shows that come from the East. Now I don't. So, for next day and middle of the night recording, this is a real bonus to have. Just don't close it or turn off your computer. Arrow 1.) Pop open the box to see other dates. Arrow 2.) Choose the day you want. Arrow 3.) Go to another month. Then just start the timer as you saw above. Just remember that your computer needs to be on and the program needs to be active.
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How
Do I Go To Full Screen Mode?
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| Because of space, I've shown all the Program pictures in their small or normal
default size. But, if you click the Screen above, you'll see the program in full
screen mode. I've made this 1024/768 but it will fill any screen size you use
on your monitor. Then you'll have an even bigger work area for editing. Above you can see the full size screen on your monitor by clicking the picture. Arrow 1.) Minimize the editor to see your desktop other programs or the tutorial. Arrow 2.) Go to Full Screen. Arrow 3.) Close the editor. Be sure to save your work first. |
Play
78 RPM Records On Your 45 RPM Turntable Like Magic. |
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| If you're like me, you have a bunch of 78s that are just sitting around. And
your really good turntable doesn't play 78s. So, until now, you've had no way
to copy them to CDs let alone listen to them at all. Now you can. DAK's all new 78 Automatic Converter lets you copy your 78s to your computer and then with a single click, listen to them again. It's great. It's easy and yes, you can easily restore them and burn them to CDs too. OK, here's all you do. Get out your 78 RPM records. And put one on your turntable. Select 45 RPM and you're set. Click the Record Button on the Wave Editor/Recorder and then put the needle in the groove.
OK, now the fun begins. Arrow 1. Click Effects Arrow 2. Click Speed Decode Arrow 3. Click 78 RPM Converter. And like magic, the 78 RPM record that you played at 45 RPM will be converted to the correct speed. Click Play and you'll see how GREAT it sounds. Oh, and don't worry, when you play the 78s they will sound very slow. That's because they are being played at 45 RPM, not 78. But don't worry, they will sound perfect after the conversion is finished. Just wait till you hear your 78s again on your own system.
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78s Converted Perfect,
Easy And Fast. |
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| So, how good are your 78s? How good will they sound? Well they will sound
good, really good. Virtually all the scratches your 78s had can be eliminated with the Click & Pop filter that's included with our LPs to CDs systems. Your 78s will sound great. If the records have what's called crackle, you can clean it up using the Minimize Hiss Filter also included in the Click & Pop filter. It's amazing how good they sound. In short, you should be able to get the best possible recordings. From the results I've had on about 35 of my 78s that I've converted so far. I know you are going to be thrilled. One note: In a perfect world, a 78 record should be played with a spherical needle that's somewhat wider than the Elliptical Styluses that we use today. But, I've tested the two side by side and really haven't been able to determine any difference. I guess that conventional wisdom would say that if you have 100s of 78s, you might want to get a different cartridge, but if it's any less I don't think you'll notice any difference at all. The playing at 45 RPM is really good. In fact, I've found 0 loss of quality in any of my tests between playing at 78 and 45. It really is amazing. I just put the arrow at the bottom left to show you that after the conversion the files is shorter because it's now converted back to 78. Nothing you need to do, just interesting. You will finally be able to listen to and copy to CDs and MP3 all your 78s without investing in the space or expense of a 78 RPM turntable that's not very good for playing 45s and LPs anyway. Enjoy your 78s and Enjoy them as you copy them to CDs. Now all the great music from: Caruso, Glen Miller, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bing Crosby Nat King Cole and so many more, won't be lost to you and future generations of music lovers. Our new 78 RPM Converter is a real musical breakthrough.
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Delete
Obnoxious *%#*& Talking & Applause Way One |
| OK, to me, this is like the biggest thing that I can do to enhance the enjoyment
of all my music. I can't speak for you, but when I own an LP and I've listened
to it hundreds of times, I get really tired of listening to the same jokes, the
same inter-track talking and even the applause. Well, no more. Now we can all effortlessly and easily remove it. It just takes a few seconds ONCE and it's gone FOREVER. Then when you make your CDs, you'll only have the music you love without all the interruptions. So, how do you do it? Simple. Just select the part of the track that has the 'talking' Remember you can play what you've selected by just touching the play button. It's so easy, if you don't get it the first time, you will the 2nd time. And remember, you can just drag the little triangles at the top or bottom to increase or decrease the area you've selected. Anyway, here I've selected the area of the track I don't want to be stuck listening to from now on. Arrow 1.) Just go to Effects/Fade, -- and as you can see by the arrow 3, I've faded to 0 to get rid of it all. This is the same way that the studios fade the music you hear and now you can do it too. Arrow 2.) Here's the 'before ending' that the Artist wanted. There's both applause and talking here. And I'm tried of hearing it. Arrow 3.) Here's the faded version with the applause and talking gone. Also, You could of course have zoomed in if you wanted to and if you don't want to fade it, just click Edit/Delete Selected. IMPORTANT FADE LENGTH NOTE: This is really great. Whenever you are fading part of a file, you can make the fade as long or as short as you like. The fade will begin at the beginning of the selection and go to 0 at the end. So the longer the selection, the gentler the fade slope. Have a 10 second fade or a 2 second fade. It's up to you. |
| Edit
Out Any Part, Like Artists Talking. Make Your Music The Way You Want It To Be Effortlessly  |
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| This talking is a really big thing for me. I hate all the talking. I hate
it. I really hate it. Here the unnamed entertainer was talking again. And guess
what, I Selected it. And I deleted it. It took me just a few seconds to save the
music from all the *#@*&~ infernal talking. I'll never have to listen to it
again as I play my CDs and MP3 files. Here's how easy it is to get rid of the infernal talking that so many entertainers insist on putting on their LPs, 45s cassettes & CDs, especially their live in-concert CDs. Anyway, all you need to do is to select any part of the recording that you'd like to eliminate and then Just Click 'Delete Selected' Is it really that easy? Yes, and here's what you do. Arrow 1.) Simply highlight any area you'd like to delete. Arrow 2.) Click Play. Is it the right area? It's great when you can see the waveform because you can see what you hear and that makes life really easy. Anyway once you've selected the area you want, how do you get it just right? The exact spot? Do you see the little triangles at all 4 corners of the red selected area above? Just grab any of them with your mouse and move them in or out to enlarge or reduce your selected area. Arrow 3.) Just click Delete and you're done.
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Play
& Record Buttons In The Editor |
| Just click Play to Play. Continuous Play will play a selected part forever
with no break. Record records whatever the inputs are set to. Timed record opens
the dialog box for you to set timed or program record. And stops all play or record
in the editor. |
New
& Cut, Copy & Paste Buttons |
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| The New button and alert below it - This will clear the editor of all
loaded information. Be sure to do this before every recording to be sure that
you have an empty editor. Or, you might find that you are recording over the last
recording you made and mixing the two. Cut - This deletes whatever is selected. Copy - This copies whatever is selected so you can paste it somewhere else. Paste - This pastes wherever your cursor point is set whatever you have copied by using the copy button to its left.
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The
Editor Digital Counter. |
| The digital counter tells you the exact location of the cursor in your file
while it's playing or paused. You can note this to get back to a certain part,
or just see where you are. It's very useful for finding the part you want to edit. |
Set
Your Scales For dB or Samples & Milliseconds or Samples |
|
Go to the View Menu and set your scales for whatever you like. I use milliseconds
and dB so that's the default for the program when you get it, but you can set
it for whichever choice makes the most sense to you.
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The
File Menu |
| Most of these choices are self evident. But, if in doubt, here's what they
do Open - Opens a Wav, MP3, OGG, WMA or CDA file that's already created. New - Clears out anything in the Editor so you can start a new file. An alert will display to be sure you want to clear any unsaved data. Save - Saves the current open file over the original file. Caution: always use Save As if you want to preserve the current file. Save As - Saves the current open file to a New File. Save As ALWAYS USE NOTE: I recommend using save as rather than save because that way you never overwrite your file. The trick is as you work a file, just keep adding a higher number. So use My file1, My file2, My file 23 and so on. That way you can always go back. Then just delete all the extras when you are finished. Save Select As - Very powerful often used way to save just what you have selected. So, highlight a part you want like a track, or a theme from a song, then choose File/Save Select As and give it a name. The original file won't be altered but you will save just the part you want. Save Right Channel As - Saves the current open Right Channel to a New File Save Left Channel As - Saves the current open Left Channel to a New File Save Wave Image As Graphic - Saves a picture of the waves you see in the editor to a .bmp file that you can em |
