Operating Manual for. RipEdit Burn Plus. and

Transcription

1 Operating Manual for RipEdit Burn Plus and RipEditBurn Copyright Singing Electrons, Inc

2 Table of Contents Keyboard Shortcuts inside front cover Requirements & Installation 3 Introduction & Organization 4 Starting RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn 4 Before You Begin Recording 4 Ripping Overview and Labeled Screenshot How to rip a track Analog Ripping The Menu System Rip Screen Controls CD-ROM Drive Selection Track File Name List Ripping Method (Digital or Analog) Rec Source Recording and Editing Recording Overview Editing Overview Labeled Screenshot The Menu System: descriptions of all menu items Setting Preferences Editing Tools Effects Options Additional Effects Inserting Silence Noise Reduction Effect Record Cleaner's Effects Edit Screen Controls Recording Controls Setting the Recording Source Streaming Audio Recording (RipEditBurn Plus only) Waveform Display Panel Burning Plus (RipEditBurn Plus only) Editing and Burning from Playlists Editing and Burning Files Purchased Through Music Stores Saving Files to WMP Database or itunes Library

3 Requirements A computer system running Windows with: a sound card installed; Windows Media Player (Version 7) or higher, installed; a CD-Writer installed if you want to burn CDs; a music source (CDs, LPs, tapes, internet, recording devices); a recordable CD if you want to burn a CD; RipEditBurn Plus Version 2.0 or RipEditBurn THE COMPUTER Hardware requirement: It must be a Pentium class machine. It must have a sound card, preferably SoundBlaster compatible. If you intend to extract ( rip ) your music from CDs, then it must have a CD-ROM (or CD-RW, DVD+CD-RW) drive. If you intend to write ( burn ) CDs, then it must have a CD-writer ( CD burner ). The sound card and the required CD-drives must be installed and running. The CD drive must support digital audio extraction if you want to rip the music from a CD. Software requirement: The operating system may be any one of the following: Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, or Vista. When you first run RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn, the software will determine if you need to download any software components. If so, it will point you to a website from where you may download the required components If you intend to Decode or Encode MP3 files, you will need a software program called a codec (short for compressor-decompressor, or, coder-decoder). If you intend to burn CDs, you will need CD burning software. Installation To install this program, run the installation program (named RipEditBurn Plus.EXE or RipEditBurn PlusTrial.EXE, RipEditBurn EXE or RipEditBurn Trial EXE) that you downloaded or received on disk and then follow the on-screen instructions. To begin the interactive installation process: 1. Point at the installation file with the mouse pointer, and double-click the icon representing the RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn installation file. 2. In most cases the installation program itself comes up with suitable values required to install the program. You are strongly advised to accept the normal values presented by the installation program. 3. On completion of its tasks, the installation program displays a message informing you that the installation process is complete. The installation program creates two shortcuts: one is placed in the group of startup programs, and the other is placed on the desktop. If you need help with this please consult your computer manual or send an to support@blazeaudio.com 3

4 Introduction Features: Extract digital copies of songs from your CDs Capture the output of any electronic audio equipment Record streaming audio (RipEditBurn Plus only) Convert files from analog audio sources to state-of-the-art digital audio formats Make backup copies of your precious music collection - vinyl LPs, records, tapes, the audio from videos, and similar media. Store the songs in the major computer-readable digital audio formats. RipEditBurn Plus Plus saves in Wave, MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and RealAudio formats. RipEditBurn saves in all these except Ogg Vorbis. Record your CD and record collections, save the files as MP3 files, and put them directly onto your ipod or other MP3 player. Edit (cut, copy, paste, mix) the songs Apply special sound effects through a full range of plug-ins Store your music on CDs Record live performances Access online help, Web-based tutorials, and discussion groups Organization RipEditBurn Plus consists of four basic modules: Ripping (Digital Audio Extraction), Editing and Recording, Burning (CD Recording), and Plus (puts music into itunes and WMP, and gets music from itunes and online music resources). RipEditBurn has three of these modules: Rip, Edit/Record, and Burn. A general description follows below. Specific explanations of each module begin on page 5. Ripping (Digital Audio Extraction) The ripping module allows you to extract digital audio directly from your audio CDs. It allows you to export your songs directly to the editing module for modification or directly to the CD recording module for burning onto your own CDs. Editing and Recording The Wave editor gives you full editing control of Wave and MP3 files. You can mix files, crop, adjust the amplification, and add effects such as echo, chorus, and reverse. It's also an audio recorder, allowing you to record from any source your computer supports (only RipEditBurn Plus records streaming audio)at a number of different quality levels. You can save files to the MP3 or RealAudio formats. Burning (CD Recording) The burning module lets you make your own CDs for playback in any standard audio CD player. Make a CD with all your favorite songs and leave it in your car for long commutes! Make a theme CD -- for example, fill it with songs about rain, or about love, or fill it with songs composed by artists with the last name of "Nelson"! It's your CD -- make it your own way. With our burning module you can directly burn Wave files and MP3 files without having to convert them first, and you can easily change the order of songs on the CD. Plus The Plus window allows you to edit and burn music from itunes, MSN, Yahoo!, emusic, and the Mercora Music Store. You can put music into your itunes and WMP libraries and edit and burn music from those libraries. Starting the Program There are three ways to start the program. Look for the program icon on the desktop. If it is there, move the mouse pointer to the icon, and double-click it. Click the Start button, then click All Programs. Position the mouse over the Blaze Audio folder. In the flyout menu, find RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn in the list and position the mouse over it. In the next flyout menu, click the name of the program. The program will start running. Click the Start button, then click Run. A small dialog box will be displayed. Browse to the drive containing programs on your computer. Double-click Program Files/Blaze Audio/ RipEditBurn plus or RipEditBurn/Rebplus32 or REB32. Click OK. Before You Begin Recording It is essential that you set the Preferences>Devices (see p. 13) and the Recording Source (see p. 26) so that your computer will record successfully. 4

5 RIPPING Ripping Overview The process of digitally extracting audio from an audio CD is often referred to as 'ripping'. Extracting the audio digitally produces a nearperfect copy of your CD audio, which is far superior to the results obtained by simply recording the CD output of your sound card. In addition, ripping audio can take place at a much higher speed--many times the standard playback speed in some cases--than you can get by recording standard CD playback through your sound card. RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn let you rip tracks from your audio CDs. You can rip these tracks straight into the Edit window, where you can manipulate the audio as much as you like (add an echo, reduce the amplitude, etc., or just save the file to disk in several different formats), or you can rip them straight to the Burn window where they will be added to your burn list so that you can later burn the song onto a mix CD. Menus p. 6 CD-ROM Drive Selection p. 7 Track File Name List p. 7 Refresh CD p. 8 Disc Lookup p.8 Ripping Method Selection p. 8 Track Audition Controls p. 8 Rip to Edit or Burn Screens buttons p. 8 Rip to Music Library button (RipEditBurn Plus only) p. 8 How to Rip a Track Insert the CD in the computer s CD drive. Select the Rip mode by clicking the Rip button. Select the correct CD-ROM drive from the drop-down menu in the upper left of the screen (if you have only one drive, it will already be selected for you). The names of the tracks will be displayed in the Track File Name list for your information. If the names are not available then RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn puts default names in place of the actual names, such as Disk0Track1. Click Refresh CD if no tracks names are visible, or if you just changed CDs. 5

6 Choose the tracks to be ripped by clicking the check box to the left of each track's name. You can check as many boxes as you like. Click Select All or push Ctrl-A to select all the tracks. Click in the check box again to deselect a selected track. Click Clear All to deselect all the selected tracks. To listen to a track, select the track and click the Audition button. The track will begin to play. To stop the track, click the Stop Audition button. Choose Analog or Digital ripping. Digital ripping is faster and produces better quality results. Analog ripping is useful (though slow) when the contents of the CD are protected by digital copy-protection schemes. See the next section for details about analog ripping. Click Rip to Edit if you want the ripped tracks to appear in the Edit window (where you can manipulate them or save them to disk). Click Rip to Burn to add the tracks directly to the burn list without making any changes to the audio. Click Rip to Music Library (only RipEditBurn Plus) if you plan to add the extracted tracks to WMP or itunes Music Library. The ripping process begins when you click one of these buttons. Once ripping begins, your CD will begin spinning and you will see a process indicator that will show you the status of the ripping. As soon as the audio is extracted it will be displayed in either the Edit window or the Burn window, depending on your selection. Analog Ripping There are some circumstances where you may not be able to rip digitally. Either your CD drive has a problem with digital extraction, or your source CD uses some form of copy protection that may block digital extraction. In this case, you can use Analog Ripping. Analog ripping is a time consuming process because the whole song has to play out (twice, if calibration is performed). However, it is necessary when digital extraction is not possible. Select the tracks you want to rip by clicking in the check boxes, then click the Analog button in the Ripping Method panel. The Rec Source (recording source) selection box will appear in the lower right corner of the screen. Select the source for analog ripping. When recording from your computer s CD drive, the audio source will be named something like CD Audio or Wave Out Mix. Every sound card is different, so you may have to experiment. Select the destination for the file. Click Rip to Burn to send it directly to a CD, and Rip to Edit to send it to the Wave Editor. Click Rip to Music Library (RipEditBurn Plus only) if you plan to add the extracted tracks to WMP or itunes Music Library. Calibration: Now RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn will ask to "Calibrate" the selected tracks. This process prevents overloading the recording input. You are strongly advised to let RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn calibrate the tracks and accept the calibration. After calibration is done, click the Start Ripping button. Why Use Calibration? The song you want to rip is played as a regular song over your computer system's sound sub-system (its sound card). The output of the soundcard is "captured" by RipEditBurn Plus/RipEditBurn and converted to a Wave-format file. A Wave-format file denotes each sample as a number in a certain amplitudinal range. Your sound card has a small preamplifier and amplifier built into it. The gain of this preamplifier-amplifier may be set at such a level that the audio output exceeds the amplitude limit of a Wave-format file, resulting in clipping. Since the limit is exceeded, the Wave-format file cannot faithfully follow and represent the audio track at this point. It just plugs in the maximum value and goes on to the next sample. The actual audio value is "cut off" or "clipped" at the maximum value. This produces a raspy sound in the recorded audio file. This is called "clipping" distortion and it is quite audible and disturbing. Calibration actually reads all the sample values as the track plays. If any sample exceeds the limit, RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn automatically lowers the recording (input) level so that the sample value remains within the range limits of a Wave file. In this way calibration ensures that the recording is free of clipping distortion (see definition of clipping in the Definitions section near the end of this manual). Rip Window Menus The Rip window s file options are: File, Window, CD Info.Download, and Help. The File menu option lets you access the Preferences menu or Exit the program. 6

7 The Window menu option lets you select the operating mode: Edit, Rip, Burn, Plus (RipEditBurn Plus only). The current mode is indicated with a bullet mark against the appropriate window. The CD Info.Download menu option has a number of sub-options: Download CD Information Now! Scans the audio CD in your system's CD drive to recognize it. If it does, it accesses a vast (Internet-based) database and downloads information about the CD, such as the name of the album, names of the tracks, and names of the artists. Display/Edit Extended CD Information Displays the information about the audio CD in your system's CD drive, and lets you change the information. Automatically Download CD Information Automates the first menu option. Registration Takes you to the Gracenote CDDB website for registration. Please note: Blaze Audio does not provide users of its products automatic registration with Gracenote. CDDB Options... Displays settings related to the Gracenote CDDB facility. You can change these settings. The Help menu option provides operational and functional information about RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn, and the Gracenote CDDB facility, and provides links to tutorials. The sub-options are: Help Topics (begins with the topic "Ripping Overview") Tutorial: Convert Your LPs and Tapes to CD (opens the Blaze Audio website online conversion tutorial) List of All Tutorials (opens the Blaze Audio website online tutorial menu) CDDB End User Instructions GraceNote CDDB- The #1 Music Info Source About CDDB About RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn RIP SCREEN CONTROLS CD-ROM Drive Selection Box Use this selection box to select the computer s CD drive to use for ripping. Click the downward pointing arrowhead at the right of the selection box to see the list of available CD drives. Then move the mouse pointer to the CD drive you want to use, and click the left mouse button. When you select a CD drive, the program reads the audio CD in the specified CD drive and attempts to retrieve the name and duration of the audio tracks. If it can (courtesy of the Gracenote CDDB service), the names are displayed in the list. Otherwise the program names the tracks as Disk0Track1, Disk0Track2,... Track File Name List The Track File Name list shows the tracks available on the audio CD in the specified CD drive. This list is filled automatically with the track names and durations from the audio CD. If the program is unable to see the names of the tracks, it defaults to Disk0Track1, Disk0Track2, etc. Each entry has three parts: a selection check box, the name of the audio track, and the duration of that audio track. Click in the check boxes to select the tracks to be ripped. You can check as many boxes as you like. Click Select All or push Ctrl-A to select all the tracks. Click in the check box again to deselect a selected track. Click Clear All to deselect all the selected tracks. 7

8 Ripping Method RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn offers you a choice of two ripping methods: Digital, and Analog. Digital ripping is a high-speed process, and the preferred method of extraction. To select digital ripping, click the option button to the left of "Digital". See p. 5 for detailed instructions on how to rip a track. Sometimes digital ripping is not possible. Some audio CDs are the copy-protected and cannot be ripped using this method. To select analog ripping, click the option button to the left of "Analog". See p. 6 for detailed instructions. Rec Source This selection box is visible only if you choose the analog ripping method. Select the audio source for analog ripping from a dropdown list. When recording from your computer s CD drive, the audio will be named something like CD Audio or Wave Out Mix. Every sound card is different, so you may have to experiment. Track Audition Controls The audition control buttons allow you to listen to a track. The Audition button starts playing the selected track. The Stop button stops playing the selected track. Rip to Edit Puts the ripped track in the Edit screen for editing or saving to your hard disc. Click this button to begin the ripping process. When ripping is completed, the ripped tracks are opened to the Edit portion of RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn. Please note that the tracks are NOT saved to the hard disk! You must explicitly save them to disk. Rip to Burn Puts the ripped track directly in the Burn list. Select the tracks you want to rip and burn to CD by checking the check boxes next to the track names. Click the Rip to Burn button to begin the ripping process. When ripping is completed, the ripped tracks appear in the Burn module for burning. Rip to Music Library (RipEditBurn Plus) Adds the ripped tracks to WMP or itunes Music Library. This option is only available in RipEditBurn Plus. Refresh CD Forces the program to re-read the tracks on the audio CD in your CD drive. Do this when you change the CD in the CD drive. Disc Lookup Queries the Gracenote CDDB for information about the audio CD sitting in your system's CD drive. Your computer must be able to access the Internet. 8

9 Recording and Editing Menus p. 10 Transport Controls p. 26 Position Indicators p.26 Effects Control Set p. 31 Zoom Controls p. 31 Recording Panel p. 27 Volume Control Panel p. 29 Recording and Playback Volume indicators Waveform Display Panel p. 29 Waveform Overview Window p. 30 Change Song Info button p. 13 Editing Timeline p.31 Workspace Status Bar p. 31 Program Status Bar p.32 Recording Overview Set up your recording equipment: microphone, phono preamp, mixing board, tuner, or other external sources. To record CDs, see the Ripping chapter, beginning on p. 5. To record from the computer s sound card with RipEditBurn Plus, see Streaming Audio Recording, beginning on page 27. Set the Preferences>Devices (see p. 13) and the Recording Source (see p. 26) so that your computer will record successfully. Set the recording volume. Recording volume is controlled by the vertical slider in the volume control panel. Relative volume of the two tracks in stereo inputs is controlled by the horizontal slider. Speak into the mic or start one of your audio devices playing, and observe the volume control indicators in the Recording Panel (see screenshot above). The columns will light up when the computer is detecting a signal. The average height should be about at the middle of the column. If the small squares at the tops of the columns light up, the volume is too loud. Click Record. The Record button turns red and flashes to indicate that recording is going on. When you are done recording, click Record again. The waveform appears in the window after you are done recording and the name of the recorded file appears on the Workspace Status Bar (it will be called untitled1.wav until you save it). Playback is controlled by the transport buttons in the upper left of the screen (see screenshot above). Saving: You can save files (File>Save As) in a variety of different formats, depending on how you plan to use them. Wave files can be burned to CD, MP3 files can be used on ipods and other MP3 players. You can also save in WMA or Ogg Vorbis formats, or export to RealAudio. Detailed descriptions of the Edit screen s recording and editing controls begin on p. 25. Editing Overview Editing tools include cut & paste, selection, delete, one level of undo/redo, crop, cut selection to file, copy selection to file, and add silence. Detailed descriptions begin on p. 14. x Effects are applied to audio files in the edit window. Detailed descriptions of the effects (such as reverb, reverse, echo) begin on p. x 9

10 The Menu System The menu is shown as a bar across the top of the program window. This bar contains the options of the menu system. Select an option by moving the mouse pointer to the appropriate option and clicking the (left) mouse button. Further options (if any) are displayed as a sublist or submenu. Keyboard Shortcut: Each of the menu captions contains an underlined letter, e.g. the letter T (in the Tools menu option) is underlined. A menu option may be activated by pressing the Alt-key (Alternate key) simultaneously with the key of the underlined letter. NOTE! Not all menu options are assigned shortcuts. FILE OPTIONS New Location: File Menu Choose New to create a fresh workspace in the program s memory. You will be prompted to enter format specifications for the new workspace such as sampling rate, bit rate (sample resolution), and number of channels. The sampling rate (ranging from 8000 Hz (samples per second) to Hz) can be selected from a list of sampling rates. The bit rate (or bit depth or sample resolution) can be set at either 8- or 16-bits per sample. You can select between monophonic (1 channel) and stereophonic (2 channels) modes of operation. Click the OK button to confirm the settings and proceed, or click the Cancel button to back out. The default name for this workspace is Untitled-n.WAV where n stands for a number. Note: It is not necessary to choose File->New when you first start RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn, as the program's memory will already be empty. This is unlike a program such as Microsoft Word where you must create a new document before you can begin editing. With RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn, a blank audio document is ready for you as soon as you start the program. Every time you click the New button a fresh workspace will be created. Multiple workspaces (audio files) can be open simultaneously. Open Shortcut: Control-O Location: File Menu Primary Workspace You can have as many files and workspaces as you want open simultaneously. The name of the file associated with each workspace appears in a separate tab in the Workspace Status Bar along the bottom of the program window. Only one workspace can be the primary workspace at a time. A white background indicates the primary workspace, a gray background indicates a non-primary workspace. Clicking the workspace tab makes it the primary workspace. As each file is opened, it is automatically granted the primary workspace status. Full-Screen mode You can go into full-screen mode while editing your audio file. Go to the View menu option, and click the "Full screen" sub-option. To revert, click the "Minimum size" sub-option of the View menu option. By default, the program looks only for files with the.wav extension. To open a Wave File: To load a previously saved Wave-format file into memory, click File/Open. You will see the Open dialog box. Select "Wave Files" from the Files of Type drop-down menu. All files with the.wav extension will be displayed. Click on a file s name to open. RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn can open standard Wave files in a variety of formats: 8 or 16 bit; 11, 22, or 44 KHz; and stereo or mono files. To open an MP3 File: To load a previously saved MP3-format file into memory, click File/Open. You will see the Open dialog box. Select "MP3 Files" from the Files of Type drop-down menu. All files with the.mp3 extension will be displayed. Click on a file s name to open. The MP3 file is converted into a Wave-format file for editing. In order to open the MP3 format audio files, you will need a supported MP3 'codec' to be installed on your computer. See p. 41 for more information about MP3 codecs, which codecs are supported by RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn, and how you can obtain a codec if you don't have one. 10

11 See the Definitions chapter for more information about: Wave and MP3 formats Quality after A-D (audio to digital) conversion Save Shortcut: Control-S Location: File Menu Select Save to save an open file (in the primary workspace) to disc. If there is more than one workspace open, you can make any one the primary workspace by clicking on the appropriate tab that appears along the bottom of the program window. If you have not yet specified a file name, the program will prompt you for a file name and location. If you have already specified the file, you will not be asked again for the location. RipEditBurn Plus opens a dialog box asking if you want to put the file in your WMP Database or your itunes library. You can choose one and check Save as Default to make the process automatic whenever you save. Save will not be enabled if no file is open, or you have not made any changes to an already saved open file. Save As Location: File Menu RipEditBurn Plus: use Save As to save the contents of the primary workspace as a Wave, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or WMA format file (with a new name and/or in a new location (use Export to save as RealAudio). RipEditBurn : use Save As to save the contents of the primary workspace as a Wave or MP3 format file (use Export to save as WMA or RealAudio). After you select Save As, a Save As dialog box will open, prompting you for a filename, file type, and location. The default file type selected in the Save As dialog box is "Wave". To save as MP3: In order to save audio to the MP3 format, you will need a supported MP3 codec to be installed on your computer. For more information about MP3 codecs, which codecs are supported by RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn, and how you can obtain a codec if you don't have one, see the Definitions section of this manual. To save a file to MP3 format, choose File/Save As, select "MP3" in the Save as Type box in the Save As dialog box, and specify the name and location to save the MP3 file. RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn will convert the data of the Wave-format file to an MP3-format file and save the converted file. The "MP3 Conversion" dialog box prompts you to select the Codec (see p. 41 for definition) and encoding bitrate, and saves your Wave-format audio files into the compressed MP3 format. The higher the compression bitrate, the better the quality of the MP3 audio, but the larger the size of the converted file. More information on Wave and MP3 formats and Quality after A-D conversion can also be found in the Definitions section of this manual. Export Location: File Menu This option allows you to "export" a Wave-format file. This actually means that you can convert the data of the Wave-format file to a RealAudio format file (RipEditBurn Plus) or RealAudio or WMA format file (RipEditBurn) and save the converted file. Clicking File/Export opens a flyout box allowing you to choose the format. Click "To RealAudio" or to WMA to convert to and save in the desired format. The RealAudio format is a "streaming" audio format that is particularly good for use on the Internet, as it allows listeners to hear the audio as it is downloaded, rather than having to wait for the entire file to download before playback. The RealAudio format is also highly compressed, so it downloads much more quickly than wave audio. In the Export to RealAudio window, optionally enter a Title, Author, and Copyright, and click on Browse to select an export path and filename. You may also choose to enable selective record, and/or perfect play. For more information on these options see the RealAudio website at 11

12 Import from WMA (RipEditBurn only) This option allows you to import WMA files directly into RipEditBurn's edit interface. The WMA-format file is converted into a Waveformat file for editing. To Import WMA format audio file to Wave format, you will need "Windows Media codec9" to be installed on your computer. For more information about how you can obtain a codec if you don't have one, go to Batch Export Use this window to convert a set of files from one format to another. Open the files in the editor and choose File/Batch Export. It has the following controls: Save Format selection combo box. Destination Folder (Key board shortcut: alt+d) Overwrite existing files (Key board shortcut: alt+o) Edit ID3 Tag for each file (Key board shortcut: alt+i) The Destination folder specifies where all the converted files will be stored. The Overwrite existing files option allows you to replace the original files with the converted format. Overwriting only occurs if the destination folder and file type match the original. The "Edit ID3 Tag for each file" is provided to save the file info with the MP3 files to be saved. This is enabled only if the filetype is "Mp3" selected. You will be prompted to enter the "ID3 Tag" info for each MP3 file before saving. Press the "Start" button to start converting all the files. An Export dialog box will appear to show the progress of the conversion. Change Song Information Shortcut: Control-I Location: File Menu. There is also a "Change Song Info button in the lower left corner of the Edit screen. When you "Save As" a file in Wave or MP3 format, the message "Do you want to enter/modify song information?" will appear. Choosing "Yes" opens the "Song Information" dialog box and allows you to enter or modify ID3 information for the current file. Choosing "No" saves the file. In the case of Save As, if you select "No" and the original file contains any ID3 information, the information will be copied to the new file. Selecting the "File>Change Song Information" menu option also opens the " Enter Song Information " dialog box.. For MP3 files the Song Information is stored in the form of ID3 tags. ID3 Tags are the information that accompanies audio files when they appear on an ipod or other MP3 player, giving such data as song title, artist, album, etc. For Wave files, the Song Information is stored in proprietary format. The ID3 information will be saved in the file when you select the "Save" option from the file menu. If you open a file and select "Change Song Information", ID3 information stored in the file will be displayed. After entering the "Song Information", click OK and a "Save As" dialog box will appear. Editing Song Information (ID3 Tags) To edit "Song Information" (ID3 Tags), open a file in the Edit window, and choose"file/ Change Song Information". The "Enter song Information" dialog box will appear with the following fields: "Title", "Track No", "Artist", "Year", "Album", "Link", "Genre", "Copyright", "Language", "Composer", and "Description". If the opened file already has the "Song Information", the dialog box will show it in the corresponding fields. You can change these entries. If a new file is opened or the open file does not have any song Information yet, the dialog box will be empty. Edit or enter new song information in this dialog box and click OK to keep the changes. This does not save the changes to disc. To cancel the changes, press the "Cancel" button. To save your changes, choose the File/Save option and the song information is saved along with the opened file. If you have opened several files in the editor, you can edit the "Song Information" for the currently Active file. Whenever you want to "Save As" a file in Wave or MP3 format, the message "Do you want to enter/modify song information?" will appear. Choosing "Yes" opens the "Song Information" dialog box and allows you to enter or modify ID3 information for the current file. 12

13 After entering the "Song Information", click OK and a "Save As" dialog box will appear. Close/Close All Location: File Menu Use Close to close the file in the primary workspace. If the file has not been saved to disk, RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn will ask if you would like to do this before closing the file. If you do not save the file to disk, all changes (from the last save operation onwards) will be lost. Use Close All to close all open files. Revert Location: File Menu The Revert sub-option discards the contents of the primary workspace and reloads the workspace with the contents of the last saved version of the disk file. This option is disabled if: 1) the primary workspace is absolutely new; 2) the data in the primary workspace has not been saved to disk as yet; 3) as far as the program can tell, you have not modified the data in the primary workspace since the time it was last saved. Preferences Location: File Menu Selecting Preferences opens a dialog box that will allow you to make changes to RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn 's configuration. The dialog box presents you with four tabbed pages. The first tabbed page is "General". On this page you set the folder to hold temporary files. The default is the Temp (temporary) folder maintained by Windows. Below the dialog box is a check box captioned: Always Show Test Levels. If you check this option, the LED level-meter monitors the selected recording source, even if you are not in recording mode. If this option is not checked, then the LED level-meter will not monitor the selected recording source unless you are in recording mode. The second tabbed page is "Devices": On this page you select the Playback and Recording devices that you want to use. This option is dependent on the devices (and their drivers) that you have installed in your computer system and will display options provided by the devices. For instance, if you wish to record from an external USB audio device, set the Recording Device to USB audio. If you wish to record from your sound card, set it to the name of your sound card. The selected recording device will also control the options that are displayed under Rec Source on the Edit screen (see p. 28. Setting the Recording Source ). To record streaming audio (RipEditBurn Plus only), you must choose your computer's internal sound card. The third tabbed page is "Save Setting". In RipEditBurn Plus, and RipEditBurn you choose to show or hide the song information dialog box. In RipEditBurn Plus, you can also select the media library where you want your music to be added. If you select "Save as default and do not show add song message", then it will always add the song to the selected media library without showing this confirmation dialog box. The fourth tabbed page is "Rip Settings". Browse for the location on your computer where you wish to save ripped files. You may choose a location (such as the desktop), or you may use the default setting, which will be in your documents. Always note where you are saving your files for easy recovery later. Exit Location: File Menu Click this to terminate the program. This is the preferred method to end the program. When you click this option, the program clears up its temporary work areas, and frees up system resources that were allotted to it. If you have one or more workspaces with unsaved data, the program will prompt you to save them one by one. You may selectively save the workspaces and assign them names. 13

14 EDIT OPTIONS Undo & Redo Undo Shortcut: Control-Z Redo Shortcut: Shift-Control-Z Location: Edit Menu Undo is used to remove the previous change that you made to your audio. For example, you might apply an Echo effect and then decide that you don't want like the way it sounds -- use Undo to remove the effect entirely. Redo is used after Undo if you change your mind and decide that you really did, after all, like the echo effect and wish to re-apply it! Undo and Redo are thus very useful editing tools. Try using them like this: 1) Apply an effect and then listen to your audio 2) Undo the effect and then listen to your original audio again 3) Redo the effect and listen to the audio with the effect once more 4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 indefinitely until you decide whether you like the new effect or not! Only one level of undo and redo is stored by RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn. If you apply an Echo effect and then apply a Chorus effect, for example, you won't be able to go back and undo the echo. Select All Select All Shortcut: Control-A Location: Edit Menu Use the Select All option to select the entire audio track in the current workspace. Actions will be applied to the entire song in the workspace. NOTE: The default selection status depends on whether the selection is to be used for special audio effects or for the normal (non-audio) editing operations. That is if you have selected nothing (in the audio track), and then you apply an effect, like ECHO, then that effect will be applied to the entire track following the current cursor position. However, if you have selected nothing (as above) and then choose to perform a normal editing operation like CUT, the operation will not happen because the normal editing operations (cut, copy, clear, crop) will be disabled. Select None Location: Edit Menu Use the Select None option to deselect a previously selected portion of the audio track in the current workspace. The selection status will return to its initial state: nothing selected. Cut, Copy, Paste, & Clear Location: Edit Menu Cut Shortcut: Control-X Copy Shortcut: Shift-Control-C Paste Shortcut: Control-V Clear Shortcut: Control-Delete Location: Edit Menu These tools work as they would in a word processor. In order to use them, you must first select a portion of the sound clip in the Waveform Display Window. To make a selection, click and drag in the Waveform Window. A highlighted area will indicate your current selection; to clear the selection entirely, click once anywhere in the window. Cut removes the selection from your audio but stores the music data in scratch-pad memory. The music data in scratch-pad memory can be "pasted" into another part of the same song or into a song opened in another workspace. Copy stores a copy of the music data specified by the selection in scratch-pad memory for later Pasting. Paste transfers the music data from the scratch-pad memory area into the sound clip. It can be repeated multiple times. If there is NO music data in the scratch-pad memory area, then the PASTE option will be disabled. Clear removes the selection entirely, without copying it into memory at all. Clear is useful for quickly removing unwanted parts of your audio. 14

15 Crop Location: Edit Menu Use Crop to remove unwanted audio before and after your audio selection. Crop is basically the opposite of Clear -- while Clear completely removes a selection from your audio, Crop removes everything except for the selection. Cut Selection to File Location: Edit Menu This option removes the selected portion from the audio track and pastes the portion into a new file, instead of into a Waveform Window. It opens the Save As dialog box, allowing you to save the selection. Copy Selection to File Location: Edit Menu The Copy Selection to File command pastes your selection to a Wave-format file without removing the selection from the original file or opening a new waveform window. This is very useful if you only want to save a small portion of a large file to disk, or if you want to split a large file into several smaller tracks. To do so, use the Waveform Window to select the part of your audio that you want to save. Then select Copy Selection to File and choose a location on your hard drive. Repeat this process until you've split the large audio file into as many smaller files as you like. Another application for this menu option is to focus in on the area of interest. This reduces the time-expense in processing a really large audio file. When the segment is finally done to one's satisfaction, the modified segment can be re-introduced in the original audio file. Mute Location: Edit Menu The Mute function reduces a selected portion of the waveform to absolute silence. That is to say, the sound in question is replaced with silence of equal duration. This is unlike the Clear and Cut operations which remove the selected portion from the sound file. Let's say you have a song with some objectionable language. To mute a portion of your audio, follow these steps: 1) Select the portion of the audio you wish to mute 2) Select Mute in the Edit menu and then choose which channels to apply the mute to (if your audio is in stereo, you may mute either the left channel, the right channel, or both; if your audio is mono, you won't be able to select a channel) 3) Click the OK command button. The portion of audio you selected has now been muted. Note: Mute does not temporarily suppress output audio, as with a television remote control. Rather, it permanently mutes the audio itself. For this reason, Mute should be used only selectively to permanently remove unwanted portions of your sound clip. Trim Silence Location: Edit Menu The Trim Silence command allows you to remove unwanted patches of silence from your sound clip. Please note that this operation removes the leading and trailing silent patches only! It does not remove intermediate pieces of silence. RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn will automatically delete any leading and trailing portion of the sound track which is quieter than a given threshold, leaving only the true signal. The threshold level used to determine a period of silence can be set and changed in a separate dialog box which pops up. Enter a value (as a percentage of the maximum signal) to determine the level below which any sound will be treated as silence. Insert Silence Location: Edit Menu The Insert Silence command allows you to insert a "patch" of silence into the sound clip, at the indicated position with the duration of your choosing. First move the cursor to the position where you want to create the gap. Then click this menu option. A dialog box pops up asking you for the duration (in seconds) of the silent patch. Enter the duration and then click the OK command button. The silent patch will be inserted into the audio track at the cursor position. Change Format Location: Edit Menu 15

16 A wave file may be recorded in a variety of formats, with each format representing a trade-off between file size and quality. Use the Change Format command to change the format of the file currently in memory. The supported sampling rates are: 8, , 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 64, 88.2, and 96 KHz. You may switch between 8- or 16-bit depth, and mono or stereo (See the Recording Panel topic for more information about these settings.) If you have opened or already recorded a low quality file (say, 8-bit resolution at a 22 KHz sampling rate), changing the format to a higher quality level will not improve the quality of the recording -- once the audio "information" is gone, there's no bringing it back. Conversely, switching to a lower quality level will decrease the quality of the recording, as you will be throwing away a certain amount of your audio information. There are practical reasons to convert to a lower-quality format: to reduce the size of a sound file. You may need to send a sound file over the Internet, or you may need to economize on disk space. That's when you convert to a lower quality format. (A case of half a loaf being better than none!) There are practical reasons to convert to a higher-quality format: To conform to working requirements and environments. You have a mono sound file. Unfortunately the research program you use to analyze audio files only accepts stereo sound files. That's when you convert from mono to stereo. VIEW OPTIONS Zoom In/Out Location: View Menu By selecting Zoom In or Zoom Out from the View menu, you can easily adjust the scale of your view in the Waveform Window. You can use the F2 and F3 function keys as shortcuts for Zoom In and Zoom Out respectively. Alternatively you can use the Zoom control group to manipulate the scale of your view. The Zoom control group can be seen to the top right of the main waveform display window. The Magnifier icon with the plus (+) sign signifies Zoom In, and the one with the minus (-) sign signifies Zoom Out. Zoom to Selection Location: View Menu Zoom to Selection allows you to quickly and easily zoom in so that the Waveform Window is precisely filled by however much audio you have selected. To use this feature, simply select a portion of the audio in the Waveform Window and then select Zoom to Selection from the View menu. Pressing the F4 function key is a convenient keyboard shortcut for this feature. Alternatively you can use the Zoom control group to manipulate the scale of your view. The Zoom control group can be seen to the top right of the main waveform display window. The Magnifier icon with the plus (+) sign inside a dashed box signifies Zoom to Selection. Zoom to Extents Location: View Menu Zoom to Extents allows you to quickly and easily zoom out so that the Waveform Window is precisely filled by the waveform of the entire sound file. To use this feature, simply select Zoom to Extents from the View menu. Pressing the F5 function key is a convenient keyboard shortcut for this feature. Alternatively you can use the Zoom control group to manipulate the scale of your view. The Zoom control group can be seen to the top right of the main waveform display window. The icon with two block arrowheads facing outwards signifies Zoom to Extents. Full screen Location: View Menu This menu option enlarges the program window to fill the entire screen. This effectively enlarges the waveform of the sound file so that you can observe minute artifacts. Minimum size Location: View Menu 16

17 This menu option sizes the program window to its normal dimensions. This is the default program window size. This is a very convenient viewing mode, providing you with the familiar floating "window" metaphor. Position displays Location: View Menu This menu option sets the units expressing the position of the sound file: the current position and the selection position. The program provides for two systems of position measurement: time and samples. Time positioning is expressed in minutes, seconds and thousandths of a second. Sample positioning is expressed as ordinal numbers specifying the sound sample When you click this menu option, the program presents you with a sub-menu offering you two further options: "Minutes/Seconds" and "Sample number". Choose the former for a position display in minutes and seconds; choose the latter for a position display showing sample numbers. Set Colors Location: View Menu This menu option provides the facility to change the color of most of the elements of you interface. Click this menu option to bring up a dialog box. Go to the selection box captioned Display Elements. Click on the name of the element whose color is to be set. Next click the Change Color command button. Select the color you want to apply to the display element from the color palette. Click the palette's OK button. If you want to see the effect of the color change, click the Apply command button. Finally, when you're through setting colors, click the OK button to close the color dialog box. EFFECTS OPTIONS When an effect is selected, in most cases a dialog box opens with instructions for applying the effect. Quick help is available for most effects by clicking the Help button in the dialog box. Be sure to make a backup copy of your original file before you start to apply effects. Some of the effects described below are only available with Record Cleaner, Noise Reduction Effect, or other special add-on packages and may not appear in your effects list. The affected effects are labeled. Effects Overview RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn allow you to apply special effects to an audio file or to a selection. Effects can be applied in two ways: 1) From the sub-options available in the Effects menu. 2) By clicking one of the popular effects button (positioned just above the Waveform Display window). You will usually be presented with a dialog box giving several options that pertain to the effect you have selected. Remember: if you apply an effect and don't like it, you can undo the change by hitting Control-Z. Undo is only back one level, so if you apply one effect and then another, you cannot undo the first effect. Amplify The Amplify effect lets you control the inherent 'loudness' of a sound. Use this effect to increase the amplification (loudness) of a quiet sound, or to decrease the amplification of a sound that is too loud. For example, you might record a whisper that's barely audible when played back, even with your amp at maximum volume. You can use Amplify to 'turn up' this sound until it's at a more reasonable level. Options Amplification Factor - the Amplification Factor controls the amount of amplification. A factor of 1 leads to no amplification, a factor of 2 doubles the sound's amplitude, a factor of 0.5 reduces the amplitude by half, etc. Stereo Options - if the wave file is in stereo, you may select which channel(s) to apply the amplification to. Be sure you understand the difference between amplification and volume! The volume slider (and also any volume controls on your computer's speakers) only controls how loudly your audio is played back; the amplification effect is used to permanently and fundamentally alter the inherent loudness of your audio. 17

18 Also be sure that you don't overdo your amplification and end up with a wave file that's clipped. Bass Boost The Bass Boost effect changes sounds by increasing the intensity of bass (low pitch/frequency) sounds such as drums and other percussion instruments. This can be useful in various situations, including preparing sounds which need to be played on speakers which do not have a good bass response. It is particularly helpful when it comes to editing music to play on MP3 players such as ipods, where the compression causes much of the bass to be lost. You can also use it in cases where the original recording has weak bass. Options: Intensity: This is the level of increase in bass intensity required. A value of 0 db means no increase. Center Channel Removal Often the vocals are recorded equally in both left and right channels on a stereo recording, making them sound like they are in the center. Center Channel Removal removes sound that is present equally in both channels and will eliminate or reduce the vocals from many recordings. Reverb cannot be removed, but will create an attractive fullness to your voice when you record over the accompaniment. On many recordings the voice is mixed equally into the right and the left channels. Recording engineers call this the "center channel" since it sounds to the listener as though it is in the middle between the two speakers. It is possible to completely remove the center channel from stereo recordings, and, if the vocal has been recorded equally on both channels, it will be much reduced or even completely removed. However, there are usually other instruments in the center channel, so it's best to narrow the range that is being removed. That is done with the range sliders. You can use the presets to set it to remove the standard male or female range, or you can set a custom range for yourself. The disadvantage to center channel removal is that it leaves you with a monophonic version of the song. Vocal Reducer automatically copies the one channel into two channels, but that will still sound like a mono recording. The next step after removing the center channel is to apply our Mono to Stereo tool. Chorus The Chorus effect adds a second voice to your audio in a slightly shifted timeframe, resulting in an effect much like a chorus of more than one voice. Chorus works with all types of audio, but is particularly effective with the human voice. Options Maximum Delay - controls the maximum amount of delay used by the chorus effect. Experiment for best results. Delay Step - controls the rate at which the delay changes in time. Experiment for best results. Stereo Options - if the wave file is in stereo, you may select which channel(s) to apply the chorus effect to. Compression and Limiting A compressor reduces the level of an audio signal if it becomes louder than a set threshold. The amount of level reduction is determined by the ratio control. That is, with a ratio of 3:1, if the incoming audio level is 3 db over the threshold, the outgoing audio level will only be 1 db over the threshold. Audio level compression is used to make audio levels in different parts of a recording consistent with each other, by making the louder sections soft, while keeping the softer sections as they are. Options: Attack Time: Attack time controls to how fast the compressor responds to changes in input level. This value is set in milliseconds. This should be kept low, usually a value between 1 and 10 milliseconds. Threshold Level: Threshold level determines the level above which the compressor starts reducing the sound level. This is specified as a negative value, as a ratio of the maximum value. To reduce only the very loud sections, make this a small value (towards -1). To also reduce the level of medium sections, make this a slightly larger value (-6 db to -12 db). To reduce anything above very soft sections, make this a large value (-30dB or above).compressor Ratio: This determines the reduction ratio. To get a slight reduction, set it 2:1 or 3:1. To get a drastic compression, set it to 10:1 or higher. Having a high compression ratio is also called "limiting". 18

19 Echo This effect generates an echo in your wave file by taking the original sound, reducing its volume, and mixing it back into your audio with a slight delay. Experiment to see what values work best for different types of files. Options: Repeat Delay - the amount of delay time between the sound and its echo. Repeat Strength - the loudness of the echo, as a percentage of the original sound's loudness. Stereo Options - if the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. Equalize This effect gives you graphic-equalizer control over your wave file. The different sliders correspond to different frequency bands. Move a slider upwards to increase the loudness of that particular band, and downwards to decrease its loudness. The slider on the far left corresponds to the lowest frequencies, the slider on the far right the highest. The equalizer has three ranges: bass, midrange, and treble. The bass is covered by four bands (31-, 62-, 125-, and 250-Hz). The midrange is covered by four bands (500-, 1000-, 2000-, and 4000-Hz). The treble is covered by two bands (8kHz and 16kHz). Note that this equalizer feature affects the wave file directly, not just the way your speakers respond to it, and any changes you make will directly alter your wave file. Options: Band gain: Each band has a slide control associated with it. The slide controls are marked with the center frequency of the band (expressed as Hz), and the band's gain (expressed in db or decibel). A gain of 0 db indicates no gain; positive values indicate amplification, negative values indicate attenuation. Please note that any scale marked in db is logarithmic, that is, non-linear. Note also that db expresses ratio. Hence it is not a unit of an absolute system of measurement, but is a unit of a relative system of measurement. The center position of the slider control represents 0 db, the topmost position represents +10 db, and the lowermost position represents -10 db. Stereo Options - if the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. Fade In Fade In allows you to gradually increase the amplitude of your audio, producing a gentle fading effect. This is generally used at the beginning of a song or piece of audio, but you can apply it to any part of your audio. To apply a fade to only a part of your audio, first select the audio you would like faded in the Waveform Window and then press the Fade In button. If you would like to apply the fade to all the audio in memory, make sure that no part of your audio is selected and then press the Fade In button. Options Maximum - This number is the amplitude of your audio at the beginning of the fade. To start your fade at zero amplitude (volume), choose To fade from half standard volume, choose The fade will always end at full amplitude. Stereo Options - If the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. Fade Out Fade Out allows you to gradually decrease the amplitude of your audio, producing a gentle fading effect. This is very useful, for example, if you Crop a song short but don't want the song to sound like it's been abruptly cut off. You would generally use Fade Out at the end of a song or piece of audio, but you can apply it to any part of your audio. To apply a fade to only a part of your audio, first select the audio you would like faded in the Waveform Window and then press the Fade Out button. If you would like to apply the fade to all the audio in memory, make sure that no part of your audio is selected and then press the Fade Out button. Options: Maximum - This number is the amplitude of your audio at the end of the fade. To end your fade at zero amplitude (volume), choose To fade to half standard volume, choose The fade will always begin at full amplitude. Stereo Options - If the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. Flange 19

20 This effect alters your audio to produce an odd techno-space-age swooshing kind of sound. The best way to learn about Flange is to experiment with it -- remember that unwanted changes can be undone back one level with Control-Z or Edit>Undo. In practice, Flange works similarly to Echo -- the original sound is mixed with a delayed version of the same sound. But the delay is extremely small (Maximum Delay has a 6ms default), and it keeps changing -- 0ms, then 6ms, then 0ms, then 6ms, etc. Options Maximum Delay - controls the maximum amount of delay used by the flange effect. Experiment for best results. Delay Step - controls the rate at which the delay changes in time. Experiment for best results. Stereo Options - if the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. Mix Mix allows you to mix two separate sound files (of the same type) together. This effect can be used to create overdubbed sound tracks for videos or podcasts, radio-style broadcasts, audio greeting cards, electronic music scores, etc. First, create the two sound files exactly as you want them to be when mixed. You can create a smaller file from your long file by selecting the portion of the file you wan to use, pressing Ctrl-C, opening a new file, pressing Ctrl-V to paste in the selection, and saving the file under a new name. To mix two sounds together, open the first wave file and then position the cursor where you want the second wave file to start. Choose Effects>Mix or click the Mix button at the top of the Edit screen. Choose the second sound file from the dialog box that opens. The files will be mixed, beginning at the cursor. You can mix the files in two different ways: back-to-back, and merged. Back-to-back: If the cursor is at the end of the first wave file, then the second wave file will be appended to the first wave file. Merged or Overlapped: If the cursor is somewhere in the middle of the first wave file, then the second wave file will be mixed with the first wave file when you open the second file. You will now hear sound from both files in the overlapping portions of the two files. RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn support the mixing of stereo and mono sounds. If you would like the mixed sound to be in stereo, open the stereo file first and then mix in the mono sound. The mono sound will be spread to both channels and the resulting mixed sound will be in stereo. If you would like the mixed sound to be in mono, open the mono file first and then mix in the stereo sound. The stereo sound will be "compressed" into a single channel and the resulting mixed sound will be in mono. Mono To Stereo The Mono To Stereo tool takes a single channel of sound, splits it in two, and modifies the resulting data so it sounds like it was recorded in stereo. If you load a mono file in the converter will automatically create two channels. If you are using a file that has been worked on by the Vocal Reducer's Center Channel Remover, it will already be split into two channels. Mono to Stereo adds a small delay to the right channel. The default is 10 milliseconds, but you can make it more or less. Mono to Stereo can also add Equalization (EQ) to both channels. That gives each channel a slightly different sound, which increases the stereo separation. You can set each of the 10 frequency bands for each channel to determine which sounds you want to emphasize on each side. There are also several presets provided. There are other things you can do to alter the sound of each track. Each Effect can be applied to one channel at a time, so you can add just a bit of echo to one channel and a little bit different echo to the other channel. That will help create the aural illusion of sound bouncing off different walls in its path to your ears. Normalize Normalization automatically increases the amplitude of a wave file, if necessary, so that its maximum loudness is actually "loud." For example, if you have recorded the sound of a distant train whistle and it barely registers in the Waveform Window (it is too quiet), you may use Normalize to automatically increase the sound's amplitude so that it really is loud. A mix CD with a number of tracks from different recording sources will need to be normalized so all the tracks are similar in loudness. 20

21 Options If the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. Note Scrubber Note Scrubber allows you to use a tool called an Equalizer (sometimes referred to as an EQ) to reduce the amount of sound in a particular range of notes. In order to use Note Scrubber, you need to set two things- the range to be removed, and the amount to be removed. You can use one of the presets to remove the range used by female voices or the range used by male voices. Alternatively you can customize the range to any values you wish. You can also use the Individual Note slider to remove a single pitch. This is the same as removing a very narrow range using the range sliders. The amount of sound that you remove is called the scrub depth. Moving the slider towards More is like using a stronger scrub brush when cleaning dishes. With a very soft brush you won't damage your pan, but you might not get everything off. The stronger the brush the more you will remove, sometimes including sounds you would rather leave in. You will have to experiment with each song to find the best scrub depth. In most songs the singer is silent part of the time, and you don't need to remove anything when there's no voice. Use the editing tools to select the section of the song that you want to work on, then invoke Note Scrubber. You can even go through the song selecting one note at a time and using Note Scrubber to remove it. That takes quite a bit of time, bit it allows you to get the sound as good as it possibly can be. The sound of a singer's voice often contains more than just the main note. It often has many overtones, which must be scrubbed out individually. For example, a C4 may also contain sounds of C5, G5, and C6 along with other pitches. For best results you should experiment with taking these pitches out also. Pitch/Frequency Changer The Pitch/Frequency Changer modifies voice or music recordings by changing the pitch (frequency) without affecting tempo (speed). It's possible to raise or lower the pitch of voice or music. Options Pitch Value: Specifies the change in Pitch in semitones (positive or negative). A value of 0 indicates no change. A positive value will result in a higher pitch, making the voice or music sound thinner. A value of 4 raises the pitch by 4 semitones. A negative value results in a lower pitch, making the voice or music sound heavier. A value of -4 lowers the pitch by 4 semitones. Use the slider to change the values, or click on the slider's thumb and use the arrow keys on the keyboard for fine control. Reverb The Reverb effect adds Reverberation to the voice or music. It helps simulate a feeling of different types of acoustic spaces by simulating multiple echoes of sound that decay over a period of time. This can be used to recreate the feeling of the sound being produced in different kind of structures. Options Presets: This list can be used to quickly set the values required for simulating different types of acoustic spaces. To set your own parameters, use the tools described below: Room Size: Use this parameter to specify the size of the room to be simulated. Low values give the feeling of small room size, large values give a feeling of larger room size. 21

22 Damping: Use this parameter to specify the reflectiveness of the surfaces of walls, floor, and ceiling. Small values represent less reflective material such as carpets, drapery which absorb the sounds. High values represent more reflective material such as metal and stone which do not absorb the sounds so well. Width: Use this parameter to differentiate reverberations coming from left and right channels. Higher values provide more differentiation, lower values provide less differentiation. High Pass Threshold: This controls the high-pass filter in the Reverb effect. The high-pass filter allows high frequency (high pitch) sounds to pass, while blocking low frequency sounds. This option allows you to specify the cut-off frequency for the high pass. The control can be used to simulate surfaces that reflect higher frequencies more than lower frequencies. Low Pass Threshold: This controls the low-pass filter in the Reverb effect. The low-pass filter allows low frequency (low pitch) sounds to pass, while blocking high frequency sounds. This option allows you to specify the cut-off frequency for the low pass. The option can be used to simulate surfaces that reflect lower frequencies more than higher frequencies. Dry Level: This controls the level of the original (non-reverberated) sound to be allowed. Specify 0 db to pass the original sound unaffected. Use a higher value to increase the level of the original signal. Use a lower (negative) value to reduce the level of the original sound. Wet Level: This controls the overall level of the reverberated sound. Specify 0 db to use the reverberated sound normally. Use a higher value to increase the level of the reverberated sound. Use a lower (negative) value to reduce the level of the reverberated sound. Dry and Wet levels can be used to increase or decrease the overall "reverb-ness" of the effect. Reverse This effect reverses the order of a sound, giving you the ability to hear what songs sound like played backwards, what people sound like talking in reverse, etc. Options If the wave file is in stereo, you may apply the effect to one channel or both channels. SceneFX The SceneFX effect adds a delayed version of sound with some feedback to the existing voice or music. It helps simulate a feeling of acoustic space by simulating multiple echoes and early reflections of sound that decay over a period of time. This can be used to create a wide variety of environment simulations, from a concert hall to a cave to a stone hallway in a castle. Options: Output Gain: This can be used to amplify the overall sound. A value of 1.0 leaves the output unchanged. A value bigger than 1.0 makes the output louder; a value of less than 1.0 makes the output softer. Reverb Time: This is the total amount of time that the reverberations will last before decaying into silence. The value is specified in milliseconds. Delay: This value specifies the amount of time it takes before the reflections are heard. The value is specified in milliseconds. A value of zero corresponds to no reflection or echo. Note: This value should be smaller than the Reverb Time that is specified. At least one of the Delays have to be non-zero for the Reverb to work. Presets: This list can be used to quickly set the values required for simulating different environments. Sound Warmer The Sound Warmer works by adding a little bit of resonance to the sound. It's like a simple reverb. It is very effective on vocal and non-electronic instrumental sounds. Use the slider to indicate whether you want more or less of this effect applied to your sound. Options: Warm - The loudness of the warmth, as a percentage of the original sound's loudness. Stereo Options - For stereo wave files, you may select which channel(s) to apply the warm effect to. Noise Gate A noise gate is a filter that analyzes a sound, looking for sections that have only noise, and filters all sound until there is some useful audio signal. It is especially helpful for soft sections that have certain kinds of noise. 22

23 Tempo/Speed Changer The Tempo/Speed changer modifies voice or music recordings by changing the tempo (speed) of the sound without affecting pitch. Options Tempo Value: Specifies the change in Tempo (positive or negative). A value of "1.0 x" indicates no change. A higher positive value indicates an increase in tempo, making the voice or music play faster. A value of "2.0 x" would increase the tempo two times (doubles the speed, halves the time). A negative value requests a decrease in tempo, making the voice or music play slower. A value of "-2.0 x" would decrease the temp two times (halves the speed, doubles the time). Use the slider to change the values. Click and drag the slider to the left to slow down the recording and to the right to speed up the recording. To use the keyboard to change the speed, click on the slider's thumb and use the arrow keys. Voice Changer The voice changer modifies audio or music by varying the level (amplitude) of recorded sound very quickly. Depending on how fast the changes are, it can change the voice in a variety of interesting ways. Experiment with different settings to get variety of effects. Options Modulation Frequency: Modulation Frequency controls how fast the amplitude should be modified. This value is set in Hz (cycles per second). Amplitude: The amplitude of the modulation signal. This controls how the overall level of the output signal is modified. A value of 1.0 will leave the signal at the same level. A lower value will reduce the level, and a value higher than 1.0 will amplify the resultant signal. Technospeak: The modulation signal that's used is a Sine Wave of the specified frequency and amplitude. ADDITIONAL EFFECTS Inserting silence If you find you have to create a "gap" between two sections of an audio track, you'll need to plug in some silence! First decide the duration of the gap you want to create. Second, position the audio editing cursor at the point where you want to create the gap. Go to the main menu's Edit option. Then click the Insert Silence sub-option. A dialog box pops up. Enter the duration of the gap (in seconds) in the text-entry box. Click the OK command button. The gap will be created. The following effects are added to RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn's effects lists when you have installed Blaze Audio's Record Cleaner program or the Noise Reduction Effect plug-in. NOISE REDUCTION EFFECT The Noise Reduction Effect allows you to remove unwanted sounds such as tape hiss, sounds of wind, rain, hum, or crackle from recorded voice or music. The Effect profiles the pervasive noise in your audio files and removes it from the file. Select a short section in your audio file which contains only noise (hiss, hum, crackle). This is often found at the beginning of a file, or at a place in the file that should be silent. The Noise Reduction Effect analyzes the noise and creates a Noise Profile that you can save for future use. 23

24 If there are no noisy "silent" places in your recording to sample for a noise profile, you can use one of the 8 noise presets. They were created from common noise problems, such as hum, hiss, audience noise, and crackle, encountered when cleaning vinyl, tape and other recordings. Select the part of the audio file that needs to be cleaned, or select nothing if the whole file needs cleaning. Choose Effects>Noise Reduction Effect. In the dialog box that opens, you can select Save Profile and enter a file name, so you can use the profile in the future. Click Calculate Noise Profile. The dialog box will close. Select the portion of the file to be cleaned, and choose Effects>Noise Reduction Effect again. In the right side of the dialog box, you will see Load Noise Profile with Last Calculated Profile entered as the default setting. If you want to apply the profile you just created, set the Noise Reduction Level slider to 3 or 4 and click Remove Noise. You can also choose a preset or another profile you have created yourself from the Load Noise Profile text box drop-down menu. Click Remove Noise and the noise will be subtracted from the audio file. Listen to the file, and if the remaining audio is distorted, Undo the operation, and reduce the Noise Reduction Level. It is not necessary to calculate the Noise Profile again for the same file. Experiment until you are satisfied with the result. Options Noise Reduction Level: This controls the strength with which the noise components are removed. A high value will remove the noise more aggressively, but might also affect the original voice or music. A low value will remove the noise less aggressively, affecting the original voice or music a little less, but at the cost of leaving some noise in the signal. RECORD CLEANER'S EFFECTS: Low Pass Filter A low pass filter removes all sound above a set frequency. It is useful in removing certain kinds of hiss. Noise Gate A noise gate is a filter that analyzes a sound, looking for sections that have only noise, and filters all sound until there is some useful audio signal. It is especially helpful for soft sections that have certain kinds of noise. The Noise Reduction Effect plug-in (available from is a dedicated noise removal tool that works by creating a profile of the noise and removing it from the file (see page 24 ). Notch Filter The Notch Filter modifies voice or music by completely removing (or drastically reducing the loudness of) a specific range of frequencies/pitch from the sound. So, it's possible to eliminate hum of a specific frequency or scrub out a specific note. Options: Center Frequency: Specifies the frequency of the sound that needs to be removed. BandWidth: The range of frequencies to remove above and below the center frequency. A lower value removes less sound. A higher value removes more sound. Pop and Click Removal This tool uses sophisticated DSP algorithms to detect abrupt changes in the waveform that indicate a pop or a click. It then removes only the portion that is causing the undesired sound. Scratches, dirt, and wear on the surface of a record can cause pops and clicks in playback. Live recordings sometimes have unwanted loud noises, and tapes can wear in such a way as to have pops and clicks. Unfortunately, those pops and clicks are really annoying when they make their way onto a CD! This effect will help remove them. Back up your file before starting to use this effect. Our editor provides one level of undo, but sometimes you need more than that, so it's important to be able to go back to the original. 24

25 The slider adjusts how aggressive the program is at removing pops and clicks. When the slider is at the top much less severe clicks will be removed. In general, try to use the slider in as low a position as possible since the click removal algorithm also removes a little bit of sound quality. The Noise Reduction Effect plug-in can also remove mild clicks and pops (see page 24 ). If most of a recording is OK but there are a few spots with clicks, select those spots and apply the click removal tool to each one. That way you only affect the part that has the click. Experiment until you find the right combination for each recording. You may find that it is impossible to remove some clicks using this effect. In those cases we suggest you magnify your view of the area around the click and look for very steep changes in the waveform. These cause the click. You may be able to cut out just a tiny section and remove the click without audibly changing the timing of the music. Professional sound editors may spend many hours cleaning up each section of a recording. We have tried to make the process as easy and automatic as possible, but sometimes you will have to do quite a bit of experimentation. Make sure you back up your file often as you work, so you can go back to a previous version. TOOLS This menu option displays utilities and tools that are part of RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn or programs you have purchased from Blaze Audio, allowing you convenient access to these programs functions from the program interface. Vocal Reducer is included with RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn. Other Blaze Audio programs that display in the Tools menu are Wave Breaker (referred to in the menu as "Split File Into Tracks"), Record Cleaner, and Overdub. If these names are grayed when there is a file loaded in the editor, then the programs have not been installed on your computer. WINDOW This menu option shows the status of the windows managed by the program. There are three main windows: Rip, Edit, and Burn. Only 1 out of these 3 is active, indicated by a small black dot to the left of the window's name. There are any number of workspace windows including none. If there is one or more workspace windows, then again, only one of them is the active (primary) workspace; this fact is indicated by a small black dot to the left of the window's (workspace file's) name. HELP This menu option has the following sub-options. 1) Help Index (Shortcut: function key <F1>) 2) Help Contents 3) Quick Help Tips (how to record streaming audio) 4) Contact Blaze Audio Support (links to the Blaze Audio website, with all the addresses for various support departments) 3) Online Tutorials (links to the Blaze Audio website's tutorial index page) 4) About RipEditBurn Plus or RipEditBurn (the version number of the program will be found here) EDIT SCREEN CONTROLS Opening a Sound File Click the File> Open. The file selection dialog box opens. Find the sound file you want to play. Click the OK command button. After a few seconds of processing (preparing the workspace and waveform), the waveform of the specified sound file will be displayed in the waveform display window. Playback buttons The Playback Control Panel is the topmost panel in the stack at the left of the program window. These buttons function like the transport buttons on most VCRs and electronic audio players. 25

26 From left to right: Stop, Play from Beginning, and Play are in the top row, and Return to Start, Rewind, Fast Forward, and Skip to End are in the second row. Once playback begins, the Play button changes to a Pause button. The icon changes to a pair of parallel vertical bars. Press this Pause button to pause playback. Press it again to resume playback. Rewind moves the playback cursor a fixed interval backwards. It functions only when playback is taking place or is paused (not when it's stopped). Fast Forward moves the playback cursor a fixed interval forwards. It functions only when playback is taking place or is paused (not when it's stopped). Transport Controls Keyboard Shortcuts Start Playback Stop Playback Pause/Resume Space Bar / P Space Bar / Esc P Position indicators The position indicator panel appears directly below the playback control panel. This panel has 3 indicators: (1) Current position; (2) Start of selection; (3) End of selection. The position indicators help you to establish a reference point in the audio file. The position is indicated in either one of two units: (1) time units; and (2) sample units. Time is expressed in minutes, seconds, and milliseconds (1 millisecond = 1/1000 of a second) Sample position is expressed as an ordinal number. The correlation between sample position and time is given by the sampling rate. The current position indicator indicates the exact point which is currently playing or which will play when playing is resumed. The visual indicator for this position is the vertical green cursor which extends across the height of the display window. This cursor moves from left to right when the audio file is played. The selection indicators are set only when you have selected a portion of the audio track. The start indicator marks the point from where the selected portion begins. The end indicator marks the point at which the selected portion ends. You can edit both positions. Recording panel The recording control panel appears directly below the position indicator panel. All the recording-related controls are grouped in this panel. In the Recording Control Panel, you choose your recording source and control the volume of recording. From the drop-down menu, choose whether you are recording from a Device such as a microphone, turntable, USB audio device, or your computer's sound card, or from an Application such as itunes, Pandora, Mercora IM Radio, or other streaming audio. Setting the Recording Source The recording source button changes the source that will be used to record an audio track. The label above this button indicates the current recording source ("Microphone" in the image). If you want to change the recording source, click this button. The equipment you are using will determine the choices that are available. For example, select CD as the recording source if you want to record songs from an audio CD (using your system's CD-ROM drive). Select Line In (or Aux In) if you have some audio equipment connected to your sound card's Line/Aux In socket. Select Stereo Mix or 26

27 Wave Out Mix if you want to record whatever is playing on your sound card, such as streaming audio. Select Microphone to record from a microphone. Your equipment may provide different labels, and require some experimentation. Record button and Recording Settings Dialog Box Keyboard shortcut: start recording: R ; stop recording: R/Esc Click the Record button to start recording. The button becomes red and flashes during recording. Click the record button again to stop recording. When the Record button is clicked, the Choose Format dialog box opens, allowing you to choose the parameters of recording. The sampling rate (ranging from 8000 Hz ((samples per second)) to Hz) can be selected from a list of sampling rates. The bit rate (or bit depth or sample resolution) can be set at either 8- or 16-bits per sample. You can select between monophonic (1 channel) and stereophonic (2 channels) modes of operation. Click OK to confirm the settings. The sampling rate and the sample resolution directly impact on the quality of the digitized sound. The original analog signal is a continuous series of values representing a sound continuum; this is also called a linear (or breakless) representation. The digitized representation of the sound as created by the computer is a series of values representing discrete sounds a finite interval apart. The smaller the interval, the greater is the approximation (fidelity) of the digitized sound to the original sound. Hence a higher sampling rate equates to better sound quality. The greater the sample resolution, the greater is the dynamic range, and, consequently the fidelity of the digitized signal to the original sound. The higher these values, the larger the digital files. Streaming Audio Recording (RipEditBurn Plus only) Streaming Audio recording requires following the steps below in order: 1) Launch RipEditBurn Plus. Set File>Preferences>Devices and select the computer s sound card as the recording device. 2) Connect to the internet using your preferred browser (such as Firefox or Internet Explorer). Find the streaming audio you want to record. Don't start playing it yet you have to start the recording process first. 3) Return to RipEditBurn Plus and select Application from the Record From dropdown menu on the left side of the screen. Click Record. The "Stream Recording" window will open. Read the comments and click OK. 4) Next you will be asked to select the "Process" from which you wish to record. The Process you are using (your browser, itunes, etc.) will probably already be selected in the dialog box. If not, click "Get Full Process List" and select the one you want to use. 5) Click Start Recording and then begin playing the streaming audio. The Record button will turn red and flash when recording is taking place. Click the Record button to stop recording, and stop the streaming audio if necessary. 6) You can save files (File>Save As) in a variety of different formats, depending on how you plan to use them. Wave files can be burned to CD, MP3 files can be used on ipods and other MP3 players. You can also save in WMA or Ogg Vorbis formats, or export to RealAudio. 27

28 Recording level and balance sliders The vertical slider in the Recording Control panel controls the recording volume. Use this slider control to adjust the level of the incoming (source) signal during a recording session. Use in conjunction with the LED Level meter (Volume Display) for distortion-free recording (see Volume Control section below). The horizontal slider in the Recording Control panel controls the pan, or the relative balance, of the two stereo tracks during recording. Volume control panel The Volume Control Panel has two slider controls. The vertical slider controls the loudness (volume) of the sound during playback. The horizontal slider controls the pan, or the balance between the two tracks of a stereo recording, during playback. The twin column of LEDs indicate the playback and recording volume levels. During playback, the lights of the Volume Display indicate the loudness of the sound being played; during recording, they indicate the level (strength) of the sound being recorded. If the sound is in stereo, the loudness of the left and right channels may differ. To avoid getting distortion while recording, you should adjust your recording level (in the Recording Control Panel, see above section) so that the Volume Indicators rarely enter the red range. If the red lights are constantly lit up, you'll need to reduce your recording level. If the input sound is so quiet that most of the lights are never going on, you'll probably need to increase the recording volume level. Immediately above the level meters are 'clipping' indicators, one for each channel. These indicators flash red when a signal exceeds the maximum signal level that can be handled by your sound card. It's OK if these clipping indicators flash on occasionally; but if they're on for extended periods then you should reduce the level of the signal. The Volume Display indicates the inherent loudness of the sound, not the volume of your computer's speakers. Adjusting your computer's speakers will have no effect on this display. See Amplify to adjust the inherent 'loudness' of your audio. THE WAVEFORM DISPLAY PANEL The waveform display panel visually displays the audio file, giving you a graphical view of your audio. The waveform display panel has two windows: a) the waveform display window; and, b) the waveform overview window. The waveform display window is your primary tool for making selections, applying effects, monitoring playback, and interacting with your wave file in general. The waveform overview window allows you to move and scan over larger spans of the audio track. 28

29 Waveform Display The waveform display window is arranged so that the far left part of the display indicates the beginning point of the sound, with time increasing to the right. Audio will thus play from left to right in this window. The horizontal blue line represents absolute silence. This is the baseline for the signal waveform. If your audio is in stereo, you'll see two parallel baselines representing stereo sound's left and right channels -- otherwise, with mono audio you'll only see a single baseline. The other blue lines represent the amplitude of your audio; in other words, increasing deviation above and below the baselines indicates increasing sound intensity. Translation: Big squiggly lines mean loud audio; little squiggly lines mean quiet audio. Vertical Green Line The flashing green cursor represents a precise point in time -- while playing back a sound, you can see the cursor move to the right as the playback progresses. You may also move this cursor manually. i) Point-and-click with the mouse to move the cursor exactly where you want it. ii) The cursor can be moved in steps of 0.02 seconds with the help of the cursor movement keys on your keyboard: tap the right arrow key to move the cursor right, tap the left arrow key to move the cursor left. iii) For larger (0.2 second) steps, press the Control key (captioned "Ctrl") on the keyboard along with the appropriate right/left arrow key. iv) Press the Home key to go directly to the beginning of the track, and press the End key to go directly to the end of the track. The Current Position Indicator shows exactly where the cursor is in the current file. Making a Selection The Waveform Window may be used to select a portion of your audio. By selecting a small part of your audio, you can selectively apply any of RipEditBurn Plus and RipEditBurn's effects wherever you want them in your file. To make a selection, click and drag in the Waveform Window. A highlighted area will indicate your current selection; to clear the selection entirely, click once anywhere in the window. Another way of making a selection is to press the Shift key on the keyboard while at the same time pressing the appropriate right/left arrow key. Pressing the Shift and Control key together with the appropriate arrow key to make the selection in larger (0.2s) steps. Playing a selected portion of the current song: Select the portion of the song you want to hear and click the play button. Editing Cursor Vertical Green Line The flashing green cursor represents a precise point in time -- while playing back a sound, you can see the cursor move to the right as the playback progresses. You may also move this cursor manually: Point-and-click with the mouse to move the cursor exactly where you want it. The cursor can be moved in steps of 0.02 seconds with the arrow keys on your keyboard: tap the right arrow key to move the cursor right, tap the left arrow key to move the cursor left. 29

30 For larger (0.2 second) steps, press the Control key (captioned "Ctrl") on the keyboard along with the appropriate right/left arrow key. Press the Home key to go directly to the beginning of the track, and press the End key to go directly to the end of the track. The Current Position Indicator shows exactly where the cursor is in the current file. THE WAVEFORM OVERVIEW WINDOW The Wave Overview Window displays a small panoramic view of the entire wave file and shows you at a glance which portion of the file is currently being displayed in the main Waveform Window. The two vertical gray bars represent (and control) the limits of what is displayed above, in the Waveform Window. You may move these bars individually, by clicking on them and dragging, or you may move them together by clicking on the area between them and dragging. This is an effective way of navigating along an extended wave file. If you do not see any vertical gray bars, they are probably hidden at the far left and right ends of the window. Try clicking and dragging them more to the center. Alternatively, use the magnifier tool (Zoom In, press the F2 function key) to get a close up view of the waveform. At the extreme left and right of the Waveform Overview window are simple slide controls, one facing right, the other facing left. Each slide control pans the audio waveform in the main Waveform Display window in its respective direction. This will happen only if the sound waveform exceeds the limits of the waveform display window. THE EFFECTS CONTROL SET The Effects Control set consists of 6 buttons. The set is positioned above the main waveform display window. The 5 effects controlled by this set are: Equalize, Fade, Normalize, Echo, and Mix. Click the appropriate button to apply the effect. These effects are fully described in the Effects section. The sixth command button is captioned "More...". Click on this command button to see a drop-down list of all the available effects. Click on the name of an effect in the drop-down list to activate it. ZOOM CONTROL CLUSTER The Zoom Control cluster consists of 4 control buttons in the upper right corner of the screen. The Zoom to Selection button has the magnifier icon with the plus (+) sign inside a dashed box on it. Click this button to zoom in so that the waveform window displays the selected portion of the audio track. The Zoom In button has a magnifier icon with a plus (+) sign on it, and the Zoom Out button has a magnifier icon with a minus (-) sign on it. Click the Zoom In button repeatedly to enlarge the view. Click the Zoom Out button repeatedly to reduce the view. The Zoom to Extents button has two block arrowheads facing outwards on it. Click this button to zoom out so that the waveform window displays the entire sound file. This is the default zoom mode. THE EDITING TIMELINE This is located at the bottom of the Waveform Display Window. The scale uses small tics and big tics. There are 10 small tics to 1 big tic. The timeline scale is graded according to the zoom factor in the units specified for the Position Displays. The minor grade is 1-tenth of the major grade. In this way, the highest resolution at maximum zoom (ratio = 1:1) is 2 milliseconds or 100 samples (major grade) and 0.2 milliseconds or 10 samples (minor grade). 30

31 This timeline is very useful for editing. You can tell the position of an audio segment at a single glance. You can determine the size of an audio chunk by reading the timeline values at the beginning and ending of the chunk. THE WORKSPACE STATUS BAR The Workspace Status bar, at the bottom of the screen above the Program Status bar, shows the currently open files. The names of the files appear on the tabs. Only one of these files can be edited at a given time. The tab of the file being edited has a white background; the other files tabs have gray bnackgrounds. Clicking a tab makes the file available for editing. THE PROGRAM STATUS BAR The Program Status bar runs right across the bottom edge of the program window. It lies just below the Workspace Status bar. The Program Status bar displays facts about the primary workspace. The first fact is the sampling rate. The second is the sampling resolution. The third is the number of channels. The fourth is the ratio of the number of samples in the display window and the total number of samples in the workspace. This ratio changes whenever the zoom factor of the view changes. The final fact is the total length of the workspace measured in time units. 31

32 BURNING Burn Window Overview Recording a CD is often referred to as 'burning'. The Burn Window shows the track list. This list includes all the tracks in the queue for your next CD in the order that they will be recorded onto the CD. Below the track list you will see a number indicating the total length of time for all the tracks you have selected. Generally, a CD will hold 74 minutes of audio. The controls are described in detail on the next few pages. Menu The File menu option has sub-options to clear, open, and save burn lists, and exit. Choosing the Exit option shuts down the program. The Window menu option lets you select the program s operating mode: Edit, Rip, Burn, Plus (RipEditBurn Plus only). The current mode is indicated with a check mark next to the appropriate window. The Help menu option provides operational and functional information about the program and provides links to tutorials. Track List The Burn Window shows the (Burn) Track List. The Track List appears as a table of six columns: Title Artist Time Album Genre File Path Select a track in the burn list by clicking its entry in the list. This window allows you to change the order of the songs in the list (see Sequence Control section below), add songs, remove songs, and clear the list (see Burn List Management Controls section below), audition tracks listed for burning (see Track Audition Controls section below), normalize tracks so they all have a similar volume level (see Normalize section below), and burn CDs (see Burn Control section below). Sequence control Changing the Song Order The Sequence controls allow you to change the order of the songs in the burn list. Songs will be burned onto your CD in the order that they appear in the list. To change the order of the tracks in the list, click on a track to select it and click either the Move Up or Move Dn button. The Move Up command button moves the selected track up one level in the burn list. The Move Dn command button moves the selected track down one level in the burn list. 32

33 Burn List Management Controls Adding and Removing Songs from the List Use these controls to add or remove songs from the Burn list. The Add Track command button opens the file selection dialog box, in which you can locate any song on your hard drive for inclusion on the list. Open or double-click on a file and it will be added to the burn list. Only Wave-format files can be burned to CD. To change a file to Wave format, open it in the Edit window and use Save As, specifying Wave as the file type, and then add the file to the burn list by clicking the Burn tab and following the prompts. The Del. (Delete) Track command button removes a file from the burn list. First select the file to be deleted by clicking on its entry. This will not remove the file from your hard drive, it will only remove it from the Burn queue. The Clear List command button clears the burn list; all tracks are removed from the list. Auditioning Tracks The audition control command buttons in the lower-left corner of the Burn window allow you to listen to, pause or stop a track. To listen to a song in on your burn list, first select it by clicking on its entry. Normalizing Tracks Click the Normalize All button to automatically adjust the volume of all the tracks so no track is significantly louder or softer than any other. The red square is illuminated when the tracks have been normalized. Burn Control Recording Your CD Recording a CD is commonly called "burning" a CD. Once you have assembled a list of songs to burn onto your CD, you can begin the burning process. Before starting the burn operation, satisfy yourself that the listed tracks are indeed the ones that you want to record. Make sure that the sequence of songs is that what you want. Ensure that the quality of the selected tracks is good. Ensure that the CD is indeed recordable, that it is blank, and that it is not flawed. Check the total duration of the tracks listed in the burn list: this must not exceed 74 minutes (or whatever the limit of your CD is), and there must be at least 1 audio track to record. Click the Burn CD command button to begin the burn operation. A dialog box will prompt you to select a "CD-writing Speed" from a selection list. The speeds available in this selection list vary according to the capability of the CD-writer. Click OK to begin the burning process. [XP users please note! Select the default CD-writing speed to write your CD.] Under certain circumstances the beginning or end of the file being burned may be truncated by the operating system. If you have trouble with this, check "Prevent Truncation" in the burn dialog box. Note that this option is not needed or available under Windows XP. Truncation (cutting the recording short) will be prevented if this checkbox is checked. Click the "OK" command button of this dialog box to proceed with the "writing", or abort by clicking the "Cancel" command button. You will see a window displaying your new CD's progress towards completion. Keep in mind that you can only burn a CD once and you cannot add songs to the CD later, so make sure that you have finalized your CD layout before hitting the Burn CD button. CD Recording Tips - Recording a CD can be a sensitive process. Try not to use your computer for other tasks while burning is taking place. - Before burning, close any programs that might automatically activate themselves while burning is going on. For example, you should close your client if it is set to automatically check every few minutes. For best results close all programs except for RipEditBurn Plus/ RipEditBurn. 33

34 PLUS (RipEditBurn Plus only) The Plus window allows you to edit and burn music from itunes, MSN, Yahoo!, emusic, and the Mercora Music Store. You can put music into your itunes and WMP libraries and edit and burn music from those libraries. Editing and Burning from the Plus Window Any file loaded into the Plus window may be selected and opened in the Edit window for editing or in the Burn window for burning. To do this, select the tracks you wish to edit or burn by clicking in the track's check box. Click the Load File in Editor button or the Add to Burn button at the bottom of the Plus window. Editing and Burning from Playlists In the Plus window, select where you keep your playlists from the box labeled "Show files from". In the dialog box on the right, select the playlist to be used for editing or burning. The tracks in your playlist will appear in the window. You may select all of the songs by clicking Select All, or select some of the songs by checking the individual files check boxes. Select the desired file(s) and click Load File in Editor to edit the track(s) and save them in different formats, or click Add to Burn to add tracks to the burn list. Clicking Load File in Editor opens the Edit screen with the song you purchased loaded in. Edit and add effects. When you are through, click Burn. A dialog box will open asking if you want to add the file to the list of tracks to be burned. Click Yes. If you clicked Yes in the Editor screen or the Add to Burn button in the Plus screen, the Burn window will open with the selected track(s) listed. Insert a blank CD and click Burn CD. Once you have burned the songs, you may save your unique playlist as a Burn list by clicking File->Save Burn List and naming the list. Doing so allows you to access your edited burn list anytime you want to burn another CD of it simply by opening the Burn window and clicking File->Open Burn List. 34