1) Click the Record button on the Transport toolbar:

The Record dialog box will appear:

2) Click the New... button at the top of the dialog box to create a new sound file where your recorded sound will be placed.

The New Window dialog box will appear:

3) Set the desired recording attributes: sample rate, sample size, and channel settings. Just as with graphics, high quality and low file size must be balanced, based upon the situation.

• Sample Rate - The number of times each second the sound wave is measured. (It's similar to the number of frames per second in a film.) The higher the sample rate, the better the sound quality. But since you are storing more information about the sound wave, higher sampling rates take up a lot more disk space than lower ones. As a rule of thumb, voice recordings need a sampling rate of only 8,000-11,000 Hz, while high-quality CD recordings are sampled at about 44,100 Hz.
  
  
• Sample Size - The sample size refers to how much information is stored for each sound sample. An 8-bit sample means that 256 different levels can be stored; 16-bit means that over 65,000 levels can be stored. (If this sounds familiar, it's because this is very similar to the bit depth of graphics; 8-bit graphics can have up to 256 colors, while 16-bit graphics can have over 65,000.) Again, higher sample sizes mean bigger file sizes. However, when choosing 16-bit over 8-bit, the increase in sound quality is exponential, while the size only doubles.
  
  
• Channels - You can record sound in "mono" (one channel) or "stereo" (two channels). Since you have to store twice as much information when using two channels, the file size of a stereo recorded sound is twice as large as its mono equivalent.

When you are done setting the recording attributes, click the OK button. The New Window dialog box will disappear, and the Record dialog box will re-appear. (Notice that the title of the window into which you will record is displayed in the titlebar at the top of Record dialog box.)

4) To begin recording, click the Record button in the Record dialog box (not the one on the Transport toolbar). The word "Recording" will flash in red the entire time you are recording, and the Record button is replaced by the Stop button (the button with the black square).

5) When you have finished recording, click the Stop button. The waveform of the sound you recorded will immediately appear in the data window sitting behind the Record dialog box.

6) Click the Close button to close the Record dialog box and view your sound in the data window.

You can now play your sound clip to see if you like it before you save it as a file. (See the previous lesson, Playing a Sound, for details.)

Have some fun! Practice recording your voice, and then record a music clip from a CD. (See Lesson 1, Getting Started, if you need to be reminded how to change your sound input.)

If you like, record a selection of your choice and use it for the remaining lessons in place of the suggested sound files.

Copyright © 2002, Bloomsburg University Virtual Training Help Center.
All rights reserved. This material may not be used without permission.
Contact Dr. Mary Nicholson at mjnich@bloomu.edu