PC Directions: Spanish 202: Recording, compressing, and saving sound files on a Main Hall Humanities Lab PC

• FIRST CHECK THE SOUND LEVELS ON YOUR COMPUTER by double clicking the sound icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. The levels for every setting should be around the middle.

To Record

• Scroll up the Start menu in the bottom left-hand corner to Programs, then Class Programs, and then Audacity. A box with three buttons will appear.
• To record, click on the far right button with the red dot in the middle. Begin speaking immediately.
• When finished speaking, click the middle button with the yellow square in the middle.
• To play the recording, click on the far left button with the green triangle in the middle.

To Save an Analog Recording for Later Revision

• To save a file to work on later, scroll down File to Save Project As in Audacity.

• a. To save this file, click My Computer, double click the Local Disk (C:) drive and then Temp.
• b. The file name should resemble this: "Span202YourLastNameAudio#.aup." When finished,click Save.

• To reopen a saved file, start the Audacityprogram and then scroll down Fileto Open and browse for the saved file on My Computer. When the file name appears, click on it to put it as the File Name and then click Open.
• Remember to use the same computer to access the file.
• The Temp folders are erased periodically, so do not save anything there permanently. Do NOT save analog recordings (which can be very large files) to your network space.

To Save and Submit a Compressed Recording

• To compress and save a recording to put in the e-port, scroll down File to Export as MP3 while the recording is open in Audacity.
• The recording file name should resemble this: "Span202YourLastNameAudio#.mp3."
• Save the file in the Audio folder within your Spanish e-port folder on My Documents. When done click Save.
• If you get an error message stating "Audacity does not export MP3 files directly, but instead uses the freely available LAME Library . . .," click yes. A new box will appear in which you need to browse for the LAME Library by clicking on My Computer in the left-hand column, then Local Disk, Program Files, Audacity, Lame-3.93.1, and the file lame_enc.dll. Then click Open.
• If a gray box entitled "Edit the ID3 Tags for the MP3 File" appears, click OK without filling it out.
• If finished with an old analog recording, please drag it to the Recycling Bin on the desktop, open the Recycling Bin, and scroll to File and Empty Recycling Bin.
• Create a link on the Spanish 202 homepage on the e-port in Dreamweaver and connect it to the MP3 file. Save the Spanish 202 homepage, make sure the top folder is highlighted in the right-hand column, and upload the file to your e-port website. You should check the Spanish 202 homepage with a browser to make sure your assignment link is working properly.

To download a free version of Audacity

• go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and click on a download link on the left side of the page. Be sure to download both Audacity and a program called "LAME MP3 Encoder Library" on that page. Version 1.0.

Mac Directions: Spanish 202/Recording, compressing, and saving sound files on a Main Hall Humanities Lab Mac

TO RECORD

• At the dock on the bottom click on the Class Applications folder (the folder without the letter A on it). In the window click on Audacity. The program will open and a box with six buttons will appear. Open program before doing sound check.
• Check the sound controls by scrolling Appleto System Preferencesand then click on Sound. Click on the Input Tab and make sure the iMic UBS option is highlighted. Speak into the mic and check the Input Level for activity. Click the Output Tabto make sure the iMic USB option is highlighted. You may have to move the output sound bar to the middle or hit the sound button on the upper right side of the keyboard several times to hear anything. Close the sound controls window.
• To record, click on the button with the red dot in the middle. Begin speaking immediately.
• When finished speaking, click the button with the yellow square in the middle.
• To play the recording, click on the button with the green triangle in the middle.

TO SAVE AN ANALOG RECORDING FOR LATER REVISION

• To save a file to work on later, scroll down File to Save Project As in Audacity.
• Click o.k. if a warning appears. On the line with the word Where, click the triangle at the far right. Move the blue bar at the bottom all the way to the left, click on Macintosh HD and then Temp in the next column.
• b. The file name should resemble this: "Span202YourLastNameAudio#.aup." When finished,click Save.
• To reopen a saved file, start the Audacity program and then scroll down File to Open and browse for the saved file on the Macintosh HD. When the file name appears, click on it and then click Open.
• Remember to use the same computer to access the file.
• The Temp folders are erased periodically, so do not save anything there permanently. Do NOT save analog recordings (which can be very large files) to your network space.

TO SAVE AND SUBMIT A COMPRESSED RECORDING

• a. The recording file name should resemble this: "Span202YourLastNameAudio#.mp3."
• Save the file in the Audio folder within the Spanish e-port folder on My Documents. On the line with the word Where, click the triangle at the far right. Move the blue bar at the bottom all the way to the left, click on Macintosh HD, Users, Home, Username, Documents, the e-port folder and the Audio folder. When done, click Save.
• If a gray box entitled "Edit the ID3 Tags for the MP3 File" appears, click OK without filling it out.
• You may want to test your saved MP3 file before closing the original recording to make sure the quality sounds good. If it sounds tinny or muted, try resaving the original as an MP3 again.
• If finished with an old analog file, drag it to Trash on the dock, and scroll down Finder to Empty Trash.
• Create a link on the Spanish 202 homepage on the e-port in Dreamweaver and connect it to the MP3 file. Save the Spanish 202 homepage, make sure the top folder is highlighted in the right-hand column, and upload the file to your e-port website. You should check the Spanish 202 homepage with a browser to make sure your assignment link is working properly.

To download a free version of Audacity

• go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and click on a download link on the left side of the page. Be sure to download both Audacity and a program called "LAME MP3 Encoder Library" on that page. Version 1.1.3 for OS X.

Addendum

To save different segments of voice recordings in one single file

• Follow the usual procedures to record. If you then have a few different recordings, you can copy and paste them into one file just as you copy and paste in a Word document.
• On a pc, click on the mouse at the end of the main track and scroll down Edit to Insert Silence to add a pause. You might want to make this pause a second long. Click OK.
• On a Mac click on the mouse at the end of the track and scroll to the right the amount of time you want the pause to last. That area will be highlighted. Scroll Generate and then Silence to add the pause.
• Highlight the area of the track you want to copy and paste. Scroll down Edit to Copy.
• In the track into which you want to paste, put the cursor at the end and then scroll down Edit to Paste.
• When all tracks are in your main track, click the box with the X in the upper left-hand corner of all the copied tracks to delete them. You may have to delete any recording in those tracks first, and then click on the X. You are then ready to save your main track as an MP3.

To obtain a graded audio or text file

• On My Documents create a folder entitled "Spanish 202" to save all your graded assignments.
• Your language assistant will e-mail you comments as attachments. Please save all attachments in your "Spanish 202" folder on My Documents. You might want to save these documents as well as your 202 assignments until you graduate for further use in the e-port.