With today's high quality and affordable digital recording devices, with the power in today's computers, even in laptop computers, and with almost every computer today being sold with CD burning drives and software, it is within almost anyone's ability to produce a high-quality recording of your concert. All you need is to know how to do it.
This Mastering An Audio CD tutorial shows you how.
Picture this scenario: Your (or your child's) school band or choir or church puts on a concert, and they do a great job.
You recently got one of those new digital recorders, smaller than a deck of cards, less than $300, and you want to see how it works. So you turn it on at the beginning of the concert, and off at the end. Later, at home, you upload the recording to your computer.
You are amazed at the quality of your recording. Not only do you want a CD of that recording, but you know many other people (parents?) will want CDs of it as well.
But how do you go about it? How do you make "Tracks"? How do you cut out all the dead time between songs, and the noise of the audience? The concert lasted almost two hours, how do you fit all that onto one CD?
With this tutorial, you will learn how.
On this CD, you will get nearly three hours of video step-by-step instruction. showing you exactly what you need to do to produce a high quality audio CD, suitable for duplication and possibly even selling.
The information is provided in nine chapters and three bonus chapters. Here's an outline of the content of these chapters:
Introduction: This is a welcome and an overview of what the tutorial will cover, and what it won't cover. There are some things, like computer basics, we expect you to know already. We won't teach you that.
This is the only chapter specific to Windows. All other chapters in the tutorial are applicable equally to Windows, Mac, or Linux computers. This chapter shows you how to set up Windows Vista Explorer to be uniquely useful for working with sound file production. Much of the information in this chapter is also applicable to Windows XP.
This chapter convers such basics as starting Audacity, importing files, exiting Audacity, navigation buttons, zooming, and an effects overview.
Describes and demonstrates techniques for navigating through your sound files in Audacity, shows what an Audacity cursor is and how to use it to your advantage, and gives you an overview of and shows techniques for making selections within your sound file.
Starting with a recording of an entire concert, this chapter describes and demonstrates the correct way to split the one long track recording into individual tracks for each song in the concert.
Depending on the length of your concert, and whether you want to make a single or double CD master, you may need any of four or five different kinds of tracks. This chapter explains and demonstrates each type.
This chapter expands on the types of tracks described in Chapter 5, and demonstrates how to figure out which tracks you should put on your master CD.
This first part of track cleanup techniques explains and demonstrates how to boost the bass, how, why, and how much to amplify a track to get a proper master CD volume, the relationship between bass boost and straight amplification, clipping limits, how to ramp up or ramp down the volume, and how to eliminating silences.
The second chapter on cleaning up a track explains and demonstrates how to clean up such unprofessional sounding things as ragged tune starts, coughing from someone in the audience, and even eliminating narrator stumbles. We also cover the unexpected errors encountered when saving over existing files in Audacity, and show you how to get around these errors.
It all comes down to this - burning your Master CD. This chapter demonstrates why the naming conventions and directory structure explained in earlier chapters are so important; it also addresses CD burning software, disc labeling, and ensuring proper track order.
This chapter describes and demonstrates how to search out CD manufacturers on the web, and goes into what to look for and what to watch out for. It also points out one source that allows you to order a quantity of one copy for less than $2.
This bonus chapter may well be the most important chapter in the entire tutorial. It shows you actual copyright law from the U.S. Government copyright website, and explains what you are allowed to do and what fees you must pay, and to whom. It also illustrates some sample letters used to get the proper permissions from the copyright owners. Three Microsoft Word format sample letters are included in the resources folder of the tutorial CD.
This final chapter examines how you can figure out whether you will make any money if you produce and sell CDs, or if you'll lose your shirt. In this chapter, we demonstrate an Excel spreadsheet (included in the resources folder of the tutorial CD) how to calculate your Return On Investment (ROI).
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The SPECIAL GOOD DEAL!
I know you've been waiting for it -- so here it is!
The normal retail price of this CD is $39.97, just like it says on the ORDER NOW buttons you've seen thoughout this page.
But I'm taking $10 off that price.
Why? Mainly because the tutorial isn't perfect. If it WERE perfect, I would charge the full $39.97 price, and it would be worth every penny of it.
But this version of the tutorial has a few very minor errors in it. There's nothing at all that affects the content, your learning. But there are errors nonetheless. For example, in one place, we display the word "will" where it should be "with." This is very obvious and there's no confusion at all. In a couple of other places, the narrator got so wound up in what he was saying that there are some slips of the tongue, and he says one thing when obviously he means another. Again, there's no confusion to the person learning from the tutorial.
The older versions of this tutorial were compiled using an earlier version of Flash, and when Adobe updated their player, the audio became slightly corrupted. (People reported it sounded like "chipmunks" were chittering in the background.) However, in late 2008, we recompiled this tutorial using the latest version of Flash, and those problems are no longer an issue. But we decided to leave the good deal discount in place anyway.
Because of those few minor imperfections, I've decided it's easier to just give you $10 off the price rather than redo those entire chapters and the CD label artwork. I made the blunder, you get the bargain.
So when you click on the BUY NOW button, even though it says $39.97, you will receive the discounted price.
DELIVERY BY USPS
Since this product comes as a video tutorial on a CD, with nearly three hours of instruction, it would take you more than 2 1/2 hours to download the product digitally. Therefore, we only offer delivery of this product by mail.
If you order using the BUY NOW button on this page, the shipping and handling for your order will be (depending on where you live) as low as $4 if you order one copy, and less per copy if you order multiple copies. You can also elect to order faster shipping at additional cost. Of course, the faster you want it, the more it costs. We even have overnight delivery available, but it will cost over $30 in shipping charges.
Order your copy RIGHT NOW!
Take advantage of this 25% DISCOUNT and learn how to use Audacity to CREATE A MASTER CD from your own digital recordings!
Learn how to divide the recording into tracks, learn how to edit those tracks for length and content, and learn how to optimize the volume of the tracks.
Learn about the copyright law and recording licenses, learn what to look for in a manufacturer, and learn how to calculate the return on your investment.
All this, nearly three hours of video instruction, is yours for only $29.97, a full 25% off the retail price!
Order now! You'll be glad you did.
Special Discount!
Only $29.97
Order Now!
David,
I have finally had a chance to sit down and view your tutorial from start to finish, and am very impressed with the thoroughness as well as the essentially non-technical approach you have taken.
Anybody with a minimal amount of computer skills and an attention to detail should be able to produce high quality CDs if they follow your tutorials.
I consider myself technologically very savvy and have a long experience with recording concerts and I learned some new techniques to use which I shall put to good use on the next concert recording I do.
I am especially impressed with your coverage of copyright issues and the necessity for obtaining compulsory licenses, either through the Harry Fox Agency, or directly from the copyright administrators.
All in all, this is a very well thought-out and well-produced tutorial which brings together in one place all that anyone would need in order to produce fine CDs from their musical group's performances. And the great bonus is that it is done using no-cost high quality tools!
Thank you for producing this, David -- it is long overdue and now nobody will have an excuse for not producing excellent CDs.
Congratulations!
David H. Bailey
The David Bailey Music Studio
Conductor of the Hollis (NH) Town Band
Nashua, NH