PART 1. Using USB Mixer with a Computer

Transcription

1 PART 1. Using USB Mixer with a Computer Universal Serial Bus Mixers The USB mixer is equipped with either one or two USB ports that allow you to play and record audio directly from your computer! Just hook up a USB cable, and the software drivers will automatically install. You can then play MP3, WMA, WAV or any other audio format that your computer is capable of, through your mixer. Or, you can record your performance from your mixer to your computer s hard drive and burn it to a CD later. Each USB port can record and play at the same time. The USB interface on your mixer works with your computer just like a standard USB sound card. Therefore, you can use almost any audio software on the market to play and record from your computer to your mixer. No lengthy installation process or custom drivers are necessary. Simply plug it in and go! Recommended system requirements: - Current processor (as of 1 GHz) MB RAM - PC running Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, or XP Professional, with at least one USB port. Or, a Mac running OS 9.1 or X with at least one USB port. The USB port can be USB 1.1 or greater. PC Connection 1. Boot your computer (Mac/PC) and wait until everything has loaded completely, then turn on your USB mixer. 2. Connect your mixer to your computer using a USB cable. 3. Windows will immediately recognize the mixer as a USB Audio Device or USB Audio CODEC and automatically install the drivers if necessary. 4. The first time you do this, your mixer will de automatically assigned as the Default (or preferred ) Device for sound playback on your computer.all of your computer s sounds will be sent to the mixer via the USB cable. 5. You can now open any media players or recorders on your computer and they should play and record through your mixer. This includes Windows Media player and almost any other audio player that works on your PC. To prevent your computers system sounds (bleeps and bells) from going to your mixer, you may want to disable your computer s sounds or redirect them to your computer s speakers (see below for how to do this). (Note, for Windows 98SE, you may need to insert your need to insert your original Windows 98SE CD ROM during the installation process.) Changing Your PC s Default (or preferred Sound Playback Device) If you are not hearing sound from your mixer, you may need to tell your computer to send audio to your mixer instead of another sound card or the computer s onboard speakers. Here s how to do that: 1. Click Start, Settings, and Control Panel and double-click the Multimedia icon (Windows 98); click Start, Settings, and Control Panel and double-click Sounds And Multimedia (Windows Me/2000); or click Start and Control Panel, select the Sound, Speech, And Audio Devices link, and then click Sound And Audio Devices (Windows XP). 2. In the Sounds and Multimedia Properties dialog box, click the Audio tab. 3. Grab the pull-down selections under Sound playback. The mixer should appear as a USB Audio Device or USB Audio CODEC. (If you already have another USB Audio Device attached to you computer, then the mixer will appear as USB Audio Device (2)or USB Audio CODEC (2).) Select the desired playback device. 4. Similarly, under the Sound Recording pull-down, select the desired recording device. 5. Make sure the Use Only Preferred Devices box is not checked. 6. Click Apply or OK. 7. While using your computer with your mixer, it is a good idea to keep the Sounds and Multimedia box open in the background, since you will need to access this often. Note, some programs, like Windows Sound Recorder, give you quick access to the Sounds and Multimedia box. In Windows Sound Recorder, click under the Edit menu item and select Audio Properties. The box will pop up and allow you to change the preferred Audio Devices. Playing and Recording Once you have performed the above steps, you can immediately use your favorite playback or recording programs with your mixer! If you don t have any special DJ playback or recording programs, you can use Windows Media player and Sound Recorder, which come with Windows. Normally, Windows Media player starts when you double-click on an MP3 or other audio file.

2 Using Both USB Ports at the Same Time (For Mixers with 2USB ports Only) If you USB mixer has two USB jacks (like the DJ-10 USB, for example), you can attach a different computer to each USB Jack. Or, you can connect both jacks to a single computer. Each USB jack on the mixer will appear as a separate USB audio device to your computer. You can play two audio files simultaneously from one computer and send both of those audio streams to separate channels of your mixer by using two USB cables. If you do this, we suggest using one of the many commercially available software programs that support multiple sound cards. However, if you don t have software like that, you can use two separate software media players instead. To do this you need to Start the first media player, then change the preferred Audio Device to the second USB port, then start your second media player. Note that some applications (like Windows Media Player) will not allow you to have multiple instances running simultaneously. When you try to open a second file, the first one will stop playing and the second file will be loaded. TO get around this, you can use different players to play the second file. For example, use Windows Media player to play channel 1, and Musicmatch Juke Box player for channel 2. Also, not all will remember what sound card they were using at the time of launch. Mac Connection 1. Turn on your computer and mixer. 2. Connect a USB cable from your mixer and to your computer s USB port. 3. Click on the APPLE logo in the upper left corner of the screen. 4. Select System preferences. 5. Click on the Sound icon. 6. Select the Output box (or Input box if you want to record to your computer). 7. Adjust the volume and balance. Now, you ll need to re-direct your system sound effects to your computer s speakers so they won t go through your mixer. It is easy to do that on a Mac. Here s how: 1. Follow steps 1-4 above. 2. Click on the Sound icon. 3. Click on the Sound Effects box. 4. Choose Play alers and sound effects through: 5. Select Internal Speakers. Troubleshooting Problem: The computer did mot recognize and automatically install my miser. The mixer is not turned on. Turn on your mixer. The USB cable is not connected. Connect the USB cable to your computer and mixer. You have already installed a USB Audio Device before. In that case, your mixer should work without any installation process. Just plug it in.you may have to change your computer s Default Sound playback Device, however. You don t have the proper version of Windows or Mac OS. Make sure your OS is one that is compatible with this mixer. (For example, Windows 95 does not support USB, and will not work with this mixer). Problem: The recording quality is poor. The word length and sample rate are not set to CD-quality in your recording software. Change the word length to 16-bit and sample rate to 44.1kHz for CD-quality results. The audio is distorting. Turn down the gain on your mixer to reduce the audio level. The audio level is too low. Increase the level until you see activity in the meter LEDs. Problem: I m trying to play one song into channel 1 and the other into channel 2, but they both bet mixed together into only one channel. The Sound playback Device was not set properly for one of your audio applications. Close one of the playback applications, then change your preferred Sound playback Device as described above, then re-open the application. Note that this technique will not work with all media players like, for example, Real player. Use a dedicated audio program that supports 2 sound cards. Problem: The sound is coming out of my computer speakers instead of going to my mixer. The Sound playback Device was not properly set. Close your audio playback application, then change your preferred Sound Playback Device as described above, then re-open the application. Problem: My computer s system sounds (beeps and bells) are going into my mixer. The Sound Playback Device is still set to your mixer. Change the Preferred Sound playback Device as described above. Silence your computer s system sounds altogether by doing the following: Select Sounds and Audio Devices in the Control Panel and switch to the Sounds tab. Under Sound Scheme, Choose the No Sounds option and click OK. If you have a Mac, you didn t select Play alerts and sound effects through Internal Speakers. See the Mac setup section for how to do this.

3 PART 2. Help with Windows Sound Recorder Help with Windows Sound Recorder Setting up for Simple Voice Recordings Windows Sound Recorder is a simple audio recording utility included with all versions of the Microsoft Windows Operating System published since It hasn't changed over the years, so this tutorial should be accurate no matter what version of Windows you are running. After installing Sound Recorder, use it to record your voice for Distance Learning courses, such as Spanish 101 and Spanish 102. You can save the recorded files and send them as attachments. To do this, your computer must have a sound card (most do) and a you'll need a headset/microphone to plug into your computer. Other features of Sound Recorder include simple editing, mixing, and adding effects to sound files with ease. Let your imagination and creativity loose to create your own sound effects. Launching Sound Recorder In Windows XP, navigate to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder. In Windows 98 (Win98) or Win2000, navigate to Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder. In Win95 or WinNT 4.0, navigate to Start > Programs > Accessories > Multimedia > Sound Recorder. When the Sound Recorder pops on-screen, you ll notice that it looks a bit like a tape recorder front panel. In the center of the window is a flat, green line. As the sound plays or records, this green line oscillates to visually represent the sound. To the left is the Position indicator, represented in hundredths of a second. To the right is the Length indicator, showing the total duration of the sound file. Below these features is a Slide Bar indicator that shows where the sound file is playing, relative to its overall length. You can use the scroll bar to move through the sound file. The bar moves by either sliding it with the mouse or clicking on the right or left arrows. Finally, located below the Slide Bar, you ll see the universal symbols (from left to right) for Rewind, Fast Forward, Play, Stop, and Record. Now that you re familiar with Sound Recorder, we ll walk you through some tasks. Playing a Sound To play a sound, open the file and click on the Play button. 1. On the File menu, click Open. A dialog box will appear. 2. Navigate to the folder containing the sound file you want to play, select the file and then click Open. 3. Click the play button to start playing the sound. 4. Click the stop button to stop playing the sound. Navigating a File When working with long sound files, you ll want to move through them as quickly as possible. To move forward or backward, use the Sound Recorder scroll bar, or the keyboard left & right arrow keys. To move to the end of a file, click the Fast Forward button, move the scroll bar to the right or

4 press END on the keyboard. To move to the beginning, click Rewind, move the scroll bar to the left or press HOME on the keyboard. To play part of the sound file, slide the scroll bar to any point in the file and click Play. Note that the Rewind and Fast Forward buttons work instantly; one click takes you immediately to the beginning or the end. Setting the Recording Format High quality recordings create large sound files. This could cause problems if you try to send those files as attachments. To avoid this, set the recording format in Windows Sound Recorder to create files that are of good quality but not so large as to choke your service. Step 1 In the File menu, click Properties. A dialog box will appear. Step 2 Use the Choose from: pull-down menu to select Recording formats, and click Convert Now... Step 3 In the "Sound Selection" window, use the Attributes: pull-down menu to choose khz, 16 Bit, Mono, 15 kb/sec. This will change the settings to create a recording that sounds comparable to a good cell phone call. A one minute sound recording should be just under 1 MB (megabyte) in size. To compare, an audio CD uses ten times as much data: 44.1 khz/16 Bit/Stereo, for a file size of 1 minute = 10 MB. Step 4 To save these settings, click the Save As... button. A pop-up will prompt you to "save this format as." Type in a name you'll remember, such as "Audio ," and click OK. Step 5 You'll return to the "Properties for Sound" window. Click OK on this window, then OK on the Properties window, and your next sounds will be recorded at the 8 khz/16 bit/mono format. If you've already recorded your voice at high-quality, you probably ended up with some large files. To reduce the file size of existing recordings: 1. Open the previously recorded sound, then click the File menu, and Properties.

5 2. Use the Choose from: pull-down menu to select Playback formats, and click Convert Now On the next dialog box, use the Name: pull-down menu to select Audio , the name of the quality level you created above. 4. Click OK on this window, then OK on the Properties window, and save your file with a new name. 5. Compare the original file with the new file saved at lower quality. The new file size should be much smaller. Here are 3 files created from the same recording, saved at different recording settings. Compare sound quality vs. file size. File Length Quality (khz/bits/channels) File Size A 8.65 seconds CD (44/16/stereo) 1,491 kb B 8.65 seconds Radio (16/16/mono) 271 kb C 8.65 seconds Cellphone (8/16/mono) 136 kb Setting the Microphone Record Level To record and play audio, you'll need a sound card, a microphone, and speakers or headphones. If your record button can be activated, your PC is equipped to record. To record your voice, hook the microphone into the audio-in jack on your computer's sound card. Before you begin recording, check your microphone settings for a proper volume level. 1. After starting Sound Recorder, click on Edit>Audio Properties. 2. In the Audio Properties dialogue box, under the Sound recording section, check to see that your sound card is the Default device (change this if necessary). 3. Below the Default device, click on Volume. 4. In the Recording Control dialogue box, be sure the microphone is the selected recording source, and turn its volume up full. 5. Close this dialogue box and return to the Audio Properties box. 6. Click OK. You have successfully turned your microphone level up to record your voice at a proper volume level.

6 Recording a Sound To record and play audio, you'll need a sound card, a microphone and speakers or headphones. If your record button can be activated, your PC is equipped to record. To record your voice, hook the microphone into the audio-in jack on your computer's sound card. (see above to set the microphone record level.) 1. Make sure you have a microphone connected to your computer. 2. On the File menu, click New. 3. To begin recording, click and speak into the microphone. 4. To stop recording, click. 5. To continue recording, click and speak into the microphone again. 6. When finished, click to stop recording. 7. On the File menu, click Save As. Type a new name for your file, select the location where it will be saved, and Click the Save button. You can specify the default sound quality before you record a sound (see above>>) Editing a File The editing tools are located in Sound Recorder s Edit menu. After you edit a file, click Play to listen to your changes. If you like what you hear, save the file. (You ll probably want to change the name.) If you don t approve of the new sound, and you haven t saved the file, choose Revert from the File menu to restore the file to its previous state. The editing options are: Insert File This inserts an entire sound file anywhere in the current file. An inserted file will increase the sound file s length. To insert Ding.wav into Chord.wav, you: Scroll to the desired location in the Chord.wav file. Select Insert File from the Edit menu. The Insert File dialog box appears. Select Ding.wav. Click OK. To listen, click Play. Remember, if you want to save the file, change the name. (You don t want to write over the original Chord.wav file.) Mix With File This mixes a second file with the original file. The sounds in the files will play simultaneously.. To mix the Chord.wav file with the Chimes.wav file: 1) Scroll to the desired position in the Chord.wav file. 2) Select Mix With File from the Edit menu. This brings up a dialog box. 3) Select Chimes.wav. 4) Click OK. Delete Before Cursor Position This deletes information from the beginning of the file to the current position in the file. Delete After Current Position This deletes information from the current position to the end of the file.

7 Adding Effects To give your file a little extra flavor, you can add special effects. These effects are available in the Effects menu and they manipulate the entire sound file. So if you only want a portion of the file to have a special effect, you ll have to copy the sound file, cut it into portions, apply the effect a portion at a time and then combine them again. The effects in Sound Recorder are: Increase Volume This increases the volume by 25%. (However, you can select this option twice for a 50% increase, three times for a 75% increase, and so on.) Decrease Volume This decreases the volume by 25%. Increase Speed This doubles the rate of a sound s playback. Decrease Speed This slows the rate of a sound s playback by 50%. Add Echo This adds an audio reverb. Reverse This reverses the sound so it can be played backward. Increasing The Maximum Recording Time Sound Recorder included with Windows 95 and Windows 98 has a default maximum time of 60 seconds of continuous recording. If you stop recording at any point before reaching the 60 second limit, you can then continue recording and have another 60 seconds of continuous time before Sound Recorder automatically stops. You can repeat this start-stop routine indefinitely if you need to record a long passage as one file. Here's an alternate method to increase the maximum recording time in Sound Recorder: 1. Make sure your microphone is muted so it will not pick up sound. 2. Click Record, and then let Sound Recorder run for 60 seconds (recording silence). 3. After Sound Recorder stops recording, click Save As on the File menu, and name the file Blank.wav. 4. To increase the maximum recording time in Sound Recorder, click Insert File on the Edit menu, and then insert the Blank.wav file that you saved in step 3. When you do this, the maximum recording time is increased by 60 seconds. You can repeat this step once for each additional minute of recording time that you want to add. For example, for a 5-minute recording time, insert the Blank.wav file five times. More Information Installation - If the Sound Recorder (sndrec32.exe) is not already installed on your system, you will find instructions for its installation by clicking Start>Help, then choosing the Index tab and typing "Sound Recorder". Display the instruction by double clicking on Installation. Also, install the Windows 95 volume control by placing a check in the volume control box when checking the Sound Recorder box during the Sound Recorder installation process. Microphone - To record sound, any inexpensive microphone with a mini plug that fits into your sound card microphone jack on your computer will do. An inexpensive stand microphone that you can buy in a computer store is nice, since it frees your hands for keyboarding. A slightly more expensive headset/microphone allows you to also listen in privacy without disturbing others around you.