NCH Software SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder This user guide has been created for use with SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder Version 3.xx NCH Software
Technica Support If you have difficuties using SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder pease read the appicabe topic before requesting support. If your probem is not covered in this user guide pease view the up-to-date SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder Onine Technica Support at www.nchsoftware.com/soundtap/support.htm. If that does not sove your probem, you can contact us using the technica support contacts isted on that page. Software Suggestions If you have any suggestions for improvements to SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder, or suggestions for other reated software that you might need, pease post it on our Suggestions page at www.nch.com.au/suggestions/index.htm. Many of our software projects have been undertaken after suggestions from users ike you. You get a free upgrade if we foow your suggestion.
SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder Contents Overview... 2 Using SoundTap... 3 Keyboard Shortcuts... 5 Reated Programs... 6 Support... 7 NCH Software Suite... 8 Software License Terms... 9 Genera Find and Pay Recordings... 10 Screen References Backup Audio... 12 Launch URL... 13 Options ~ Genera... 14 1
Overview SoundTap Overview Thank you for using SoundTap. SoundTap is an audio recording program which speciaizes in recording streaming audio such as internet radio, webcasts and VOIP conversations conducted with softphones ike Express Tak or Skype. SoundTap uses a specia driver that wi intercept the audio without configuring any other software. Features Records audio payed from any other program. Supports saving to 2 fie formats: wav (mutipe codecs) and mp3. Supports mixing the microphone and speaker into the same stream. Uses a specia audio driver to intercept audio so no specia configuring is required. System Requirements Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 and 8 Pentium or above with 32MB Ram A sound card 2
Using SoundTap If you have successfuy instaed SoundTap then you are ready to make your first recording. Your First Recording Foow these steps to make your first SoundTap recording: Open the Options window. Seect the recording desired settings with regards to both the output format and the seected microphone. Next pay a source of audio, such as some internet radio, a CD, or some other kind of audio source using your choice of audio software. You shoud receive a message in the status window indicating that audio streaming has started. To start recording the audio source, cick on Start Recording. SoundTap wi notify you that recording has started and show the name of the fie it is creating. You can change the name of this fie ater. To pause recording, cick the Pause icon to the right of the start/stop recording button. Once recording is paused, you can resume recording by cicking the Pause button again. To stop recording, cick on Stop Recording. Your fie shoud have now been created. Note: Aternativey, you can start SoundTap recording before paying any audio sources. SoundTap wi continue to isten for audio sources, but wi not actuay commence recording unti an audio source is started. Viewing Your Recordings To view recordings cick on the button abeed Find and Pay. SoundTap wi dispay a window which you can use to browse your fie system for recorded fies. It wi aso aow you to pay, edit, rename and burn your recordings. For more information pease see the hep section on Fi nd and Pay. Recording a VOIP conversation SoundTap is perfect for recording VOIP conversations - such as those conducted with programs ike Express Tak or Skype. Because SoundTap can record an audio stream with perfect digita reproduction, your recording wi be exacty as you heard it. In order to record a VOIP conversation you must check the Aso record from microphone check box. This wi ensure that you record the caer and the caee. Note that SoundTap cannot record from the microphone uness it is aso recording an audio stream. Running SoundTap from the System Tray By seecting SoundTap-->Cose to tray 3
from the SoundTap menu you are abe to eave SoundTap open and recording in the background. The SoundTap icon wi appear in the system tray whie SoundTap is running in the background without cuttering up your taskbar. You can right cick this icon to reopen SoundTap. Running SoundTap from the command ine You can run SoundTap from the command ine with severa options. This is usefu if you pan to use the windows scheduer faciity to record. Avaiabe options are: -shutdown (shutdown SoundTap) -start (start SoundTap recording) -stop (stop SoundTap recording) -aunch [ur] -m (aunch the specified URL with microphone turned on. Note: -m is optiona) 4
Keyboard Shortcuts The foowing keyboard shortcuts can be used to contro certain functions in Soundtap: Ctr+R : Start or Stop recording F1 : Hep Ctr+O : Open the Options window Ctr+F : Open the Find and Pay window Esc : Cose to tray At+F4 : Exit Soundtap The foowing keyboard shortcuts can be used to contro certain functions in the Find and Pay window in Soundtap: F9 : Pay recording Ctr+A : Seect a recordings Ctr+E : Edit audio with WavePad Ctr+S : Save fie as Ctr+N : Send seected fie(s) to emai Ctr+B : Burn seected fie(s) to CD-ROM Ctr+T : Transcribe seected fie with Express Scribe Ctr+M : Convert seected sound fie format Ctr+G : Compress and back up seected fie(s) Ctr+Deete : Deete seected fie(s) F2 : Rename seected fie F5 : Refresh the recording ist Esc : Cose the Find and Pay window 5
Reated Programs You may find the foowing ist of software usefu in conjunction with SoundTap Wavepad Audio Editor. Perfect for editing your SoundTap recordings into smaer tracks, or for joining broken recordings. VRS Recording System. SoundTap can be configured to record conversations to a VRS server. Express Burn CD Writer. Burn your SoundTap recordings to CD with this easy to use CD burning software. Express Tak VOIP Softphone. Conduct Voice over IP conversations with Express Tak and record them with SoundTap. Tweve Keys Music Transcription Software. Learn to pay and transcribe your SoundTap recordings using this music transcriber. Express Rip CD Ripper. Rip fies from Music CDs to audio fies ike wav or mp3. Switch Audio Converter. Convert your SoundTap recordings to different audio formats using this fast and easy conversion too. A fu ist of great software products avaiabe from NCH Software. 6
Support You can contact NCH Software for support at http://www.nch.com.au/support/index.htm. You can aso get deveoper and community based support from the SoundTap forum page at http://nch.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=27 7
NCH Software Suite This is a usefu way to browse a the software avaiabe from NCH Software You can see a set of products by type ike Audio, Video and so on and view the product. From there you can try out the product and it wi downoad and insta it for you to tria. If you aready have the product instaed then you can cick "Run It Now" and the program wi be aunched for you. There is aso a ist of features for products in the category. Cick on a feature, such as "Edit a Video Fie", to insta a product with that abiity. Search Search our website for products matching any keywords you type. See more of our software Browse our website for more software. Subscribe to our newsetter You can subscribe to our newsetter for announcements of new reeases and discounts. You can unsubscribe at any time. See the atest discounts for purchase See the atest discounts we are offering for purchasing our products. 8
Software License Terms 1. The copyrights in this software and any visua or audio work distributed with the software beong to NCH Software and others isted in the about box. A rights are reserved. Instaation of this software and any software bunded with or instaed-on-demand from this software is icensed ony in accordance with these terms. 2. By instaing, using or distributing this software you, on your own behaf and on behaf of your empoyer or principa, agree to be bound by these terms. If you do not agree to any of these terms, you may not use, copy, transmit, distribute, nor insta this software - return it to the pace of purchase within 14 days to receive a fu refund. 3. This software, and a accompanying fies, data and materias, are distributed "as is" and with no warranties of any kind, whether express or impied except as required by aw. If you intend to rey on this software for critica purposes you must test it fuy prior to using it, insta redundant systems and assume any risk. 4. We wi not be iabe for any oss arising out of the use of this software incuding, but not imited to, any specia, incidenta or consequentia oss. Your entire remedy against us for a caims is imited to receiving a fu refund for the amount you paid for the software. 5. You may not use this software in any circumstances where there is any risk that faiure of this software might resut in a physica injury or oss of ife. You agree to indemnify us from any caims reating to such unauthorized use. 6. You may copy or distribute the instaation fie of this software in its compete unatered form but you may not, under any circumstances, distribute any software registration code for any of our programs without written permission. In the event that you do distribute a software registration code, you wi be iabe to pay the fu purchase price for each ocation where the unauthorized use occurs. 7. Use of statistics coected by the software is subject to the NCH Software Privacy Statement which aows automatic anonymized coection of usage statistics in imited circumstances. 8. The contract arising out of this agreement is governed by the aws and courts of the Austraian Capita Territory. 9
Genera - Find and Pay Recordings Find and Pay Recordings Open the Find and Pay Recordings diaog box from the Find & Pay menu item, or pressing the Find & Pay Toobar button. A recordings in the specified recording foder wi be isted. This Program ists the coumns associated with each recording fie. Paying a Recording To pay a recording seect it and press F9. When the Pay Contro Box opens you can move back and forward within the recording using the eft and right arrow keys. To pause payback press the spacebar. To stop and go to the beginning press Esc. To move to the beginning press Home. To move to the end press End. To go back to the ist of recordings press Enter. Edit Audio This wi open the seected recording in Wavepad: A fu featured professiona sound editor for Windows. When editing audio fies you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects ike echo, ampification and noise reduction. WavePad works as a wav editor or mp3 editor but it aso supports a number of other fie formats incuding vox, gsm, rea audio, au, aif, fac, ogg and more. The program is designed to be a very easy and intuitive to use for audio editing. Within minutes you wi be abe to open or record a fie and edit it. But if you take time to expore the other features you wi find many powerfu toos for editing audio designed with the professiona sound engineer in mind. Wavepad comes in two versions a free basic version and a masters edition. Downoading this software wi provide you with a free tria version. Save As This wi save the seected recording to a different position in a oca or networked foder. To save the recorded fie on your hard drive, seect the recording and cick the "Save" button. Enter the fie name and cick OK. Send to Emai Now The seected fie wi be attached to a defaut emai and sent to the address you specify. Burn to CD-ROM The seected fies wi be imported into Express Burn. Express Burn is aso the fastest CD/DVD writing program in the word using proprietary optimizing systems. It wi aso create an index fie which it wi begin burning immediatey to a data CD. 10
Compress and Backup Are your fie sizes getting too arge, or do you wish to ensure you have a backup of your audio? Compress and Backup wi provide you the choice of burning straight to a CD after compression or to a Backup Foder. It can compress in 3 different formats. The choice of compression depends on the particuar audio settings that determined the quaity of the sound fie that was recorded. Pease test that the compression type is sufficient in size and quaity of audio for a sampe fie. Compressing and backing up does not effect your origina audio recording. Convert Sound Fie Converts the audio fie(s) to a different format using Switch. Switch audio fie converter is very easy to use. With the seected fies added into Switch, seect the format you want to use, and then cick the convert button. Switch supports converting to wav (PCM, ADPCM+, alaw+, ulaw+, and others), mp3, au, aif/aiff, gsm, vox, raw, ogg, fac,.rss,.amr+ and more. Transcribe Aow simpe and easy dictation of fies using Express Scribe. This computer transcriber appication features variabe speed wave payback, foot peda operation, fie management and more. This program is free. Deeting a Recording To deete recordings, seect them and cick on the Deete button. You can seect more than one recording by hoding down the Shift key whie seecting. Foder Tab By defaut, Find and Pay ists ony recordings in the oca record foder. You can change the defaut foder for hoding your audio fies or you can change the aternative foder to suit your needs. If you want to pay fies over your oca area network, insta this program on the other computer and point it to the foder that the Find and Pay Window is referencing. View Fiter Tab The View Fiter Tab aows searching and fitering on what is dispayed in the ist view. You can search or fiter what is shown by the text in each coumn, by the duration of the audio or by the date of the recording. Pay Options Tab Set the sound device you use to pay your audio fie, aso set 'Variabe Speed Sow' and 'Variabe Speed Fast' to vary the speed of payback. Cicking 'Update Now (Rescan for new recordings)' wi add or remove any recordings that have been made or deeted since the ast update. 11
Screen References - Backup Audio The "Backup Audio" diaog can be used make a backup copy of an audio recording to a recordabe CD or a seected drive or foder. Note: Other data associated with the audio wi not be backed-up with the audio. Compress and Copy Seected Fies to Seect where to backup the audio: CD (using Express Burn) The compressed audio wi be recorded to a CD, as data fies, using Express Burn. If Express Burn is not aready instaed on your machine, it wi be automaticay downoaded and instaed for you. A shared network or oca foder The compressed audio fie wi be copied to the seected drive or foder. Audio Compression Seect the fie format and codec for compressing the audio. 12
Screen References - Launch URL This diaog is a shortcut way for you to aunch a URL which may contain a stream you wish to record with SoundTap. 13
Screen References - Options ~ Genera You can access the Options page by cicking the button abeed Options at the top of the SoundTap window. Recording Recordings Foder: Browse and seect the foder you woud ike SoundTap to create your recordings. Output format: Seect what format you woud ike your recordings to be made in. SoundTap currenty supports mp3 and wave formats. Change settings... Use this option if you woud ike to change the advanced settings of the wave/mp3 fies that SoundTap is recording. Record to a VRS Mutiine Ca Recording System If this option is seected, SoundTap wi record audio streams to your existing VRS instaation. Note: Recording to VRS is possibe ony to mono wav-fie with sampe-rate 8kHzVRS Server: This is the server address of your VRS instaation. VRS Access Code: You can set up an access code in VRS by right cicking the desired VoIP channe and seecting channe properties. Devices The device isted here is the device you typicay have your microphone connected to. This setting is important if you intend to record Voice Over IP conversations 14