AUDIO PLAYING, COPYING AND SOUND EDITING FROM THE KEYBOARD BY JOHN WILSON Second Edition Copyright 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS (To find a particular section or heading, use your word- processor's or editor's search facility, e.g. type ">section 6" to find that section. Putting a > sign (capitalised full stop) before the word section will ensure that you do not stop on an earlier cross-reference to that section. Type the string "Using the Winamp Media Library" to find that subheading or just type "11.5." to find it via its paragraph number. Additionally, all main sections are separated by a centred row of eight asterisks.) Foreword and Restrictions Available Manual Formats Target Group Conventions Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Types of CD Drives, DVD Drives and Disks 2.1. Types of Recordable CD Disks 2.1.1. Write-Only Compact Disks 2.1.2. Re-Writable Compact Disks 2.2. Compact Disk and DDCD Capacities 2.3. Types of CD Drives 2.3.1. CD-ROM 2.3.2. CD-R 2.3.3. CD-RW 2.4. CD Labels and Duel Case Inserts 2.5. Types of Recordable Digital Versatile disks (DVD) 2.5.1. Write-Only DVDs 2.5.2. Re-Writable DVDs and DVD-RAM Disks 2.6. DVD Capacities 2.7. Types of DVD Drives 2.7.1. DVD-ROM 2.7.2. DVD-RW 2.8. Combined CD and DVD Drives 2.9. CD and DVD Cleaning Section 3: Installing an Internal CD Drive 3.1. Hardware components 3.2. CD Drive Description 3.3. Installation Procedure Section 4: Basic Compact Disk Music Playing Directly from the CD Drive 4.1. Features of the front Panel of a CD Drive 4.2. Enabling the AutoPlay Feature of Windows 4.3. Windows Music CD AutoPlay 4.4. Changing CD Playback Volume and Quality Section 5: Windows CD Player 5.1. Playing a Standard Music CD with the CD Player 5.2. The View Menu--CD Player Volume Control 5.3. The Options Menu 5.4. The Disk Menu 5.5. The Playlist 5.6. Windows CD Player Shortcuts Section 6: Sound Cards and Windows Volume Control 6.1. Sound Cards and Their Capabilities 6.1.1. Types of Sound Cards 6.1.2. What Does Such as 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound Mean? 6.2. Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep 6.3. Enabling a Multi-Channel Sound Card 6.4. The Windows Volume Control 6.5. Example of Changing a Sound Property--The Microphone Settings Section 7: What are MP3 Files and Where can They BE Downloaded From? 7.1. What is MP3? 7.2. Where to Find MP3 and Other forms of Compressed Audio Files 7.3. Sources of Legitimate MP3 Listening and Downloading 7.4. Commercial MP3 Download Sites where MP3s are Sold 7.5. MP3 Specific Web Search Engines 7.6. Peer-to-Peer Music Sharing Sites 7.7. The Ask MP3 Link Portal 7.8. MP3 Lyrics Databases 7.9. The Wavethemes Theme Music Download Site Section 8: Using Stand-Alone Encoders to Create MP3 and Other File formats from Standard Digital Compact Disks--the CDEX Audio Ripper 8.1. What is an Encoder or Ripper? 8.2. Why use a Stand-Alone Encoder? 8.3. The CDEX Freeware Encoder Version 1.51 8.3.1. System Requirements to Run CDEX 8.3.2. Downloading CDEX 8.3.3. Installation 8.3.3.1. Installing CDEX 8.3.3.2. Installing the Adaptec ASPI Manager 8.3.4. Launching and Initial Configuration of CDEX 8.3.5. Extracting Tracks to WAV Files with CDEX 8.3.6. Extracting Tracks and Encoding/Converting them to Compressed Formats with CDEX 8.3.6.1. Ripping Tracks to MP3 Format with the Lame Encoder 8.3.7. Where Did My Extracted or Encoded Tracks Go To? 8.3.8. Obtaining Album and Tracks Information from the Online Compact Disk Database and Saving this Information to Your Hard Disk 8.3.9. Uploading Details of Your Own CDs to the CDDB Database 8.3.10. Normalising Tracks to make them all the Same Volume 8.3.11. Viewing and Making More Changes in the Configurations Dialogue 8.3.12. Recording Vinyl, tape and other media from Analogue Input 8.3.13. The Main CDEX Menu Features 8.3.14. Using the CDEX Help System 8.3.14.1. Help Contents 8.3.14.2. Searching in Index Help 8.3.15. List of CDEX Keyboard Shortcuts 8.4. Other Stand Alone MP3 Players and Rippers Section 9: The GoldWave Digital Audio Editor Version 5.1 9.1. Introduction 9.2. System Requirements 9.3. Downloading and Installing the GoldWave Demo 9.4. Launching GoldWave 9.5. Registering and Purchasing GoldWave 9.6. Pen-Picture of the GoldWave Screens 9.6.1. The Main Window 9.6.2. The Control Window 9.6.3. The Sound Windows 9.7. A Few Essential GoldWave shortcut Keystrokes to Get you Started 9.8. GoldWave Configuration 9.8.1. General Configuration and Configuring GoldWave to Work with Screenreaders from the Keyboard 9.8.2. Script, Set and Map Files for GoldWave 9.9. Recording 9.9.1. How to Make a Recording from Microphone, Turntable, Cassette Recorder or Other Sound Source Plugged into Your Sound Card 9.9.2. Recording Streaming Audio from the Internet 9.10. Saving and Resaving a sound File to Different Formats 9.11. Opening a Sound File 9.12. Checking Your Position in a Sound File 9.13. Editing a Whole Sound File and Applying Special Effects 9.13.1. EchO 9.13.2. Dynamics 9.13.3. Pitch 9.13.4. Reverb 9.13.5. Stereo 9.13.6. Time Warp 9.13.7. Sample 9.13.8. Compressor/Expander 9.13.9. Filters 9.13.10. Inverting a Sound 9.14. Editing Part of a Sound File 9.14.1. What are Start and Finish Markers and How Do They Work? 9.14.1.1. Manually Inserting markers 9.14.1.2. The Set Marker Dialogue and Goto Facility 9.14.1.3. Recording and Recalling Marker Positions 9.14.2. Example of Editing Using the Square Brackets 9.14.3. Making Fine Adjustments to Edit Selections and Changing the ZOOm ratio 9.14.4. Recording More Material to the End of an Existing Sound File 9.15. Speeding up Editing by using GoldWave in RAM Rather Than in Hard Disk Mode 9.16. Inserting, Finding and Editing Que Points 9.16.1. Inserting Que Point Place Markers for Quick Re-Location in a Playing or Paused File 9.16.2. Inserting Queue Point Place Finding Markers in a File as You Record it 9.16.3. The Queue Point Markers List and Editing Dialogue 9.16.4. Automatically Dropping Que Points into Spaces in Music Files or at Specified Intervals in a file 9.16.5. Using Que Points to Split a file or Album into Several Separate Files or Tracks 9.17. Normalising Recording Levels with the Match and Maximise Features 9.17.1. Maximising the Volume of a Single File 9.17.2. Matching the Volume of several Sound Files 9.18. Working in More than One Sound Editing Window at a Time 9.19. Inserting One Sound File into Another 9.19.1. Inserting without Overwriting Current Data 9.19.2. Inserting and Overwriting Current Data 9.20. Mixing One Sound with Another 9.21. Changing the Volume of a Sound file 9.22. Fading a File in or Out 9.23. Cross-Fading One Sound File with Another 9.24. Inserting a Segment of Silence into a File 9.25. GoldWave Configuration Setting and Property Options 9.26. Editing or Applying Effects to One Channel Only of a Stereo File 9.27. Noise Reduction and Pop, Click and His Filtering 9.27.1. Removing Background Noise from Your Recordings 9.27.2. Removing Pops and Clicks from recordings 9.27.3. Removing Background Hiss from Recordings 9.28. Making Tonal Changes to Recordings with the Graphic Equaliser 9.29. Automatically Removing Unwanted Silence Gaps in Sound Files 9.30. Transferring Audio from a 4-Track Tape using a 2-Track Stereo Playback Tape Recorder and Separating the Tracks 9.31. the Delayed Automatic Recording Timer 9.31.1. Setting the time and Day for Recording 9.31.2. Starting Automatic Recording 9.32. Using Batch Processing to Convert a Set of Files from One Format to Another and to Apply Effects to a Set of files 9.32.1. Batch Converting a Block of Files to Other formats 9.32.2. Batch Applying Effects to a Block of Files 9.33. Step-by-Step Guide Consolidating the Previously Demonstrated Recording, Remastering and Editing/Effects Skills-- Restoring Your Old Vinyl and tape albums to Their Best for burning onto CD 9.33.1. Remastering Old Tapes and Records 9.33.2. Tidying up and Improving Voice Recordings 9.34. Creating Your Own GoldWave Presets from which to Run Routines 9.35. GoldWave's Music CD Tracks Extractor/Copier 9.35.1. Extracting Tracks from CDs to Hard Disk 9.35.2. Automatically Downloading Album and Tracks Details from the Online CDDB Database 9.35.3. Viewing Music Track Album and Tracks Information 9.36. Joining Files into a Single file with the File Merger 9.37. Using the GoldWave Help System 9.37.1. Help Contents 9.37.2. Help Index 9.37.3. Obtaining Dialogue Box Help 9.37.4. Using the on-Disk Help Manual 9.37.5. Changing the Font and Screen Colours for Help Text 9.38. List of GoldWave Keyboard Commands Section 10: Winamp Lite Version 5.0X 10.1. General Introduction and Configuration for Screenreader Users 10.2. Screenreader Support for Winamp--Sets, MAPS and Scripts 10.3. Winamp Minimum System Requirements 10.4. Downloading Winamp Lite from the Internet 10.5. Installing Winamp Lite and Disabling the Winamp Agent 10.6. Playing a Single MP3 or Other Format of File 10.6.1. Playing a File 10.6.2. Using the Jump To Command to Choose a File for Playing or go to a Place in a Sound File or Determine Where You are or How Long the File is 10.7. Playing all of the MP3 or Other Tracks in a Folder 10.8. Playing Standard HI-FI CD Audio Disks 10.9. Playing Non-Consecutive Tracks 10.10. Playing MP3 Tracks from the Internet 10.11. Playing Streaming Audio Radio from the Internet 10.12. Making Personal Tone Changes in The Winamp Graphic Equaliser 10.13. Making PreSet Tone Changes in The Winamp Graphic Equaliser 10.14. Using the Playlist Editor to Create Playlists of Media for Playing Together 10.14.1. Creating and Saving a Playlist 10.14.2. Opening a Playlist for Playing its contents and Deleting 10.14.3. Changing the Title or Position of a Media File in the Playlist Editor 10.15. The Winamp Menu Structure 10.16. Obtaining Attribute Details of a Sound File 10.17. Winamp Preferences 10.18. Manipulating a File via the Winamp Context Menu 10.19. Sending an MP3 File as an E-Mail Attachment 10.20. Increasing the Winamp Playback Volume without Increasing the Volume of Your Screenreader Speech 10.21. Making Winamp Your Default Media Player 10.22. Using MP3 ID3 Tags to View and Record Track Information 10.23. Winamp Shortcut keys Section 11: Winamp Full Version 5.0X 11.1. Downloading the Full Version of Winamp from the Internet 11.2. Installing Winamp Full and Disabling the Winamp Agent 11.3. What Do You Get with Winamp Full which is Not in Winamp Lite and What are its Main New Features? 11.4. Playing media without using the Winamp Media Library 11.5. Using the Winamp Media Library 11.5.1. Screen View and Layout of the Media Library 11.5.2. Opening the Media Library Window 11.5.3. Contents of the Media Library 11.5.4. Adding Items to Your Media Library 11.5.5. Playing Media from Within the Media Library 11.5.5.1. Playing Media From your Hard Disk or from A CD or Other Disk Drive 11.5.5.2. Playing Streaming Audio and Video Radio and TV Stations from the Internet 11.5.6. Searching for Music, TV and Radio Station Media Files in Your Media Library 11.5.7. Using the Enqueue feature to Queue Selected Files to a Playlist Before Playing Them 11.5.8. Burning Files, Folders and Playlists to a CD 11.5.9. CD Ripping from CD to CD With Winamp 11.5.10. The Winamp Media Library Context Menu of Commands 11.6. Bookmarking Items for Quick Location 11.6.1. Inserting a Bookmark 11.6.2. Finding and Playing Bookmarked Files 11.7. Using Winamp Plugins 11.7.1. How to Convert an MP3 File to a WAV File Section 12: Basics of Burning Data and Audio disks with Nero 5.5 12.1. Introduction 12.2. Burning Data Files via Windows Explorer 12.3. Converting .CDA HI-FI music Tracks to .WAV Files Before Burning Them Appendix 1: List of Shortcut Keystrokes for all Software Covered Appendix 2: Glossary of Audio and General Computer Terms Appendix 3: Other Tutorials Written by and Available from this Author ******** FOREWORD AND RESTRICTIONS I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TARGET GROUP Visually impaired computer users are the target group for this tutorial. Keyboard access methods and descriptions, using screenreaders and no mouse or monitor, are the basis of this work. The guide assumes that the user has a basic understanding of Windows operating systems and an understanding of how to use the Internet would be an advantage when working through a few of the sections. ******** CONVENTIONS In the writing of this tutorial, terms have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the control key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the enter key. When a key combination such as ALT T (for Tools), O (for Options) is suggested to go into the "Tools" menu and run the "Options" menu option, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key and release it, right ARROW to the "Tools" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Options" line is spoken, then press ENTER. ******** Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial It is, of course, entirely up to the individual as to how they glean information and work through this tutorial, but a few suggestions might assist the learner who is relatively new to computers. I would propose that you read through the whole of a section before attempting to practise it to obtain an overview of what is being done. There are a number of approaches which might be taken to make reading the tutorial as a text file and simultaneously carrying out the instructions more fluid and easier to follow. Try one of the below methods. Ideally, if you have two computers, you can load the tutorial into your text editor or word-processor on one PC and have the software program running on the other. You can then listen to the directions on one computer whilst practising them on the other. Alternatively, as is likely to be the case, if you only have the one computer, you could launch your word-processor and load the tutorial into it for reading. You could then simultaneously launch the program you wish to learn how to use in order to practise the lessons. You would have to keep cycling between each running program by pressing ALT TAB in this case. Yet another approach might be to take a tape recorder or dictaphone and get your screenreader to read the contents of a given section or sub-section onto the tape. You could then play the tape back and follow the instructions through on your PC without having to keep moving from one running program to another. Other options would be for you to print out a copy of the tutorial in large print if you can use this and work from this hard copy, or you could get your local library or resource centre to produce a Braille version for you to work from if you have one in your area and you are a Braillist. ******** >SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION This tutorial aims to introduce the beginner to computer generated sound files, including playing standard CD music, playing MP3 music files, converting standard CD, tape and vinyl disk music to compressed MP3 music files, recording music and speech to disk, and so forth. It will also cover an introduction to sound and speech editing with programs such as Sound Forge and Gold Wave. These sound programs will be operated without the use of a mouse or monitor, so a keyboard only plus a screenreader will be used. You may, of course, additionally or as an alternative wish to use a Braille display or screen magnification program together with keyboard commands. You will learn how to find and download MP3 audio files from the Internet and play them on your PC as well as making your own standard CD music audio files for playing on a regular HI-FI system. You will also learn how to convert an MP3 file to a HI-FI audio wave (.wav) file to play on your home or car stereo. You will additionally learn how to create an MP3 file from other formats and how to save audio files to several other formats. Many of the programs reviewed and demonstrated are the most common which are supplied with modern compact disk read/write drives, e.g. the essentials of Nero Burning-ROM. Others will be shareware or freeware programs, such as CDEX and the free version of Total Recorder. Remember, as many of the packages covered here will have tool tips, you should run your screenreader's automatic graphics labeller on them for maximum speech feedback, e.g. INSERT G with JAWS and Window-Eyes and left CONTROL right BRACKET with HAL. Be aware that, whilst you can download many types of files directly to your hard disk or floppy disk (if it has sufficient capacity), you cannot normally download a file from the Internet and immediately get it copied to a CD. To do this you must firstly download the file to your hard disk and then use your CD burning software, such as Nero or Easy Cd Creator, to burn it from the hard disk to the CD-RW drive. These days more and more music CD production companies are employing copy protection methods to stop you from copying CDs. There are several Websites which specialise in helping you to get around this copy protection by giving advice about how to circumvent it or letting you download programs to assist in beating copy protection. Two such sites are: www.gamecopyworld.com www.cdmediaworld.com ******** >SECTION 2 TYPES OF CD DRIVES, DVD DRIVES AND DISKS 2.1. Types of Recordable CD Disks There are two main modern kinds of recordable blank CD disks: 2.1.1. Write-Only Compact Disks Write-only disks, once written to and closed or finalised, cannot be used again. However, if you do not close a disk after half filling it, you can normally write more to the end of where you last copied MP3 or data files but you will not be able to play an audio disk until you close it. An Audio (HI-FI music) disk falls into the write-only category. It is a disk capable of holding digital audio tracks recorded in CDDA format (compact disk digital audio). Such audio files have a .CDA extension. These audio CDs are usually 74 or 80 minutes long and can hold up to 99 separate tracks--but the tracks would have to be very short to get this many on in the 74 or 80 minutes! 2.1.2. Re-Writable Compact Disks A re-writable disk, as its name implies, can be used over and over again in the same way that a hard disk or floppy disk can be re-used. You can either write music files straight to the disk with a program such as Easy CD Creator or you can configure (format) the disk and use it like a hard or floppy disk by creating folders or directories and sub-folders and sub- directories, for instance, with Adaptec Direct CD or Nero IN-CD software. 2.2. Compact Disk and DDCD Capacities Typically a 74 minute write-only or re-writable CD disk will hold around 650 Mb of music or data files. From a music point of view this means that it can hold 74 minutes of regular audio, HI-FI style music tracks. Some CDs, if your copying software and/or Cd drive will support this, can hold 80 minutes of traditional music or around 760 Mb of data. Very recently 90 minute CDs have come into being but, again, your software and CD-RW drive will have to support this new standard. On the other hand, if you wish to format a re-writable disk, in order to create folders and use it in the same way as you might use a floppy diskette, then the resultant disk space is reduced, because the formatting itself takes up some of the disk's capacity. After formatting a 650 Mb re-writable CD, you will be left with around 545 Mb of disk space to copy files to. Another kind of CD, which is a kind of halfway stage between a CD and DVD, is a "DDCD". this is a double density compact disk (DDCD) and can hold 1.3 Gb of data. 2.3. Types of CD Drives There are three main standards for modern CD drives: 2.3.1. CD-ROM A CD-ROM drive (compact disk read-only memory) is only able to play sound files and allow you to remove programs and other data from it. It cannot itself record onto blank CD disks. This is the traditional CD drive which has been supplied with most computers for a few years now. The CD-ROM is the type of drive which you would install your Windows programs and other software from. You can play traditional HI-FI music CDs from a CD-ROM, as well as speech or music compressed MP3 files. The first CD-ROM drives were very slow at reading data from a cd disk but modern ones are much faster. 1-speed CD-ROMs can only read data on a disk at around 150 kilobytes per second and it is this benchmark reading figure which is multiplied to derive the speed of faster CD-ROMs, e.g. a 50 speed CD-ROM would read data at a maximum speed of about 50 X 150 Kb per second. Modern CD- ROMs can read a CD at 50 or 60 times faster than the first drives. Today's CD-ROM drives run at typical speeds of 52 or 60 speed but it is true to say that the increase in speed is not exactly proportionate to the number a drive carries, as there are diminishing performance returns the faster a CD drive is rated. You must also be aware that, when using a CD-ROM drive to burn (copy) audio tracks from such as a music CD to a second CD drive (a CD-RW drive), the copying speed is likely to be much slower than the 40X or 50X speed which can be obtained when copying plain data files. Some CD-ROMs can only achieve a speed of 2X or 3X when copying audio tracks by this drive to drive method. 2.3.2. CD-R CD-R (compact disk recordable) drives have now mainly been replaced by CD-RW drives. A CD-R can read files as with a CD-ROM but, in addition, it can write (copy) music and other audio media and data to a blank disk, such as copying HI-FI music or MP3 files. However, it cannot re-write to a re-writable CD disk in the way that a CD-RW can. 2.3.3. CD-RW A CD-RW drive (compact disk re-writable) is a drive which can read, write and re-write to a compact disk. This means that, in addition to being able to perform what the above two drives can achieve, you can insert re-writable disks into this type of drive and use them over and over again. For example, you can format a CD disk in a similar way to formatting a floppy disk and copy files to it, make folders/directories on it, etc, and then delete these later and re-write other files or folders to the same disk to over-write the space which the first files occupied. CD-RWs typically quote specifications such as 12X8X32 speed. These figures mean that the drive is able to read the information on a disk at 32 speed, write data to a blank write-only disk at 12 speed and write data to a re-writable disk at 8 speed. The speed at which data can be written is also based on multiples of the 1-speed benchmark of 150 Kb per second, e.g. a 12-8-32 speed CD-RW drive can write data to a disk at approximately 12 X 150 Kb per second. Thus, it would typically take around 7 minutes to completely fill a 700 Mb CD if writing at 12-speed. 2.4. CD Labels and Duel Case Inserts A CD label is the small round sticker which you would stick to the centre of the back of a CD with the CDs title, artist's name, etc, on it. A duel case insert is the double-sided information insert which you read through the see-through plastic case, with such as CD title, artist's name, individual track titles, artist's picture, etc, on it. You can create and print out such labels and inserts on plain or coloured A4 paper and then cut them out with scissors or you can purchase specially printed and die-cut labels and inserts which do not require cutting with scissors from shops such as PC World, Staples, etc. Most CD burning programs like Nero Burning-ROM and Easy Cd Creator provide software to permit the creation of these labels and inserts but not all of them are very accessible. You can also buy all-purpose packages from PC World and no doubt other computer suppliers which contain the die-cut labels and inserts plus a round spindle or template to use to ensure that you get your label onto the back of the CD in the correct centred position. You place the label onto the spindle in its centre, adhesive side up, and then lower the CD down onto the spindle to pick up the label. There is also a Website where you can go to create or download CD labels and to produce paper inserts from A4 paper. Its URL is: www.papercdcase.com 2.5. Types of Recordable Digital Versatile disks (DVD) As with CDs, there are several types of DVD disks. 2.5.1. Write-Only DVDs Similarly to with CDs, you can only fill a write-only DVD once, after which it can no longer be used again. The standard capacity of a disk is 4.7 Gb, allowing it to hold around 1.5 to 2 hours of video in the usual mpeg-2 format. You can obtain disks with larger capacities, which are double sided and even double layered, but these will normally only play on recorders which are enabled for playing double layered recordings. 2.5.2. Re-Writable DVDs and DVD-RAM Disks rewritable DVDs can be used over and over again just like a rewritable CD or floppy disk. You can clear the disk by burning its contents off (erasing it) and then refill it by burning new data to it. In this category of DVD disk comes the DVD-RAM disk, which is a rewritable disk but which has the added facility of you being able to edit video directly on the disk. However, be aware that DVD-RAM disks will not work on most DVD players, unless the manufacturer states that they will. 2.6. DVD Capacities A DVDs capacity ranges from 4.38 Gb to 15.95 Gb. This depends on whether it is single sided, single layered; single sided, double layered; double sided, single layered; or double sided, double layered. However, the most common capacities are single sided 4.7 Gb disks and double sided with twice the capacity. 2.7. Types of DVD Drives At present there are two format standards with DVDs, one being DVD+ and the other DVD-. Most computer drives can normally play both formats, but external DVD recorders can usually only play their own format and not the opposition's, although there are some more expensive stand-alone external DVD units which can deal with both formats. 2.7.1. DVD-ROM A DVD-ROM drive (digital versatile disk read-only memory) is only able to play sound and video files from a DVD disk and allow you to remove programs and other data from it. It cannot itself record onto blank DVD disks. This is the first kind of DVD drive which has been supplied with most computers for a few years now. You can play traditional HI-FI music and video DVDs from a DVD- ROM drive, as well as speech or music compressed MP3 files. The benchmark single speed which DVD drive speeds are calculated from is different from that of CD drives; it is a faster starting point. The original 1-speed DVD-ROM drive could read at 1.25 megabytes per second, so 4 times DVD-ROM speed would mean that it could read data at 5 Mb/s. In comparative terms in relation to the speed of a CD drive, this means that a 1 times speed DVD is approximately equivalent to an 8 times CD-ROM. 2.7.2. DVD-RW A DVD-RW drive (digital versatile disk re-writable) is a drive which can read, write and re-write to a DVD disk. This means that, in addition to being able to perform what the above drive can achieve, you can insert both write once only disks and also re-writable disks into this type of drive. If using rewritable disks, you can use them over and over again. You can fill a disk and then erase its contents and refill the disk with new data at a later date if you like. The typical speed of a DVD-RW drive would be something like 20 times 12 times 8. The way the speed figures are written is often the opposite to how CD drives express them. So, with a 20 times 12 times 8 specification, you would have a DVD drive which reads DVDs at 20 speed, writes to write-only DVDs at 12 speed and can write to rewritable DVDs at 8 speed. Note: Some DVD drives only specify two speeds, e.g. 16 times 8, in which case this drive would have a 16 speed reading ability and an 8 speed ability for both writing to write-only and rewritable disks. 2.8. Combined CD and DVD Drives You can purchase drives which will read, write and rewrite to both CDs and DVDs. Such a drive will not normally be as fast as dedicated stand-alone CD or DVD drives, as there is usually a trade-off or compromise in speed with combination drives. For example, a combination drive may have a specification of such as 16 times 4 times 2.5 for DVDs and it may have such as 16 times 12 times 24 for CDs. 2.9.CD and DVD Cleaning Remember, you can purchase special CD and DVD cleaning fluid from many outlets. If you cannot get hold of any of this or prefer to keep your cash in your pocket you should try the following. Always follow the specific cleaning and general maintenance instructions which come with a particular make of CD or DVD. In the absence of any instructions, the below-described means of cleaning CDs and DVDs when they are not performing correctly should work fine. 1. Take a very soft, clean cloth and wet it with warm clean water. 2. Wipe the CD or DVD from the centre outwards. Do not clean in a circular motion, as this could damage the tracks. 3. If a disk is very dirty or sticky, you might also use a little mild toilet soap on the cloth as well and then thoroughly remove this from the disk with clean water. ******** >SECTION 3 INSTALLING An Internal CD DRIVE As a visually impaired person the idea of opening up your computer and installing a Cd drive may not appeal to you. Others may have sighted friends to help them in this and may relish the challenge. This section will help you install a new CD-ROM, CD-R or CD-RW into a desktop PC or at least give you an insight into what has to be done and the components involved. Alternatively, you may wish to take the easy way out, albeit a little more expensive, and purchase an external CD-RW instead of an internal one. This is also the route you are likely to have to take if you have a laptop and not a desktop computer. External drives simply plug into a port on the back of the computer, such as a USB or serial port, if you have a spare one. If not, you may have to purchase a port splitter or fit another port to the PC or connect it via a SCSI card. Whether you connect an internal CD-RW drive via the IDE socket on the motherboard or via a SCSI card in a slot on the motherboard there will be no difference in performance, although the latter method will be more expensive. By contrast, if you connect an external CD-RW using the parallel port, this will result in slower performance than if you had attached it with a SCSI card. Please note, however, that opening your own PC and installing new components may invalidate your hardware warranty, if it is still running. You should therefore check the warranty clauses to ensure that you do not invalidate this, unless, of course, you are confident of what you are doing and not too concerned about the possible ramifications of doing your own upgrade work. 3.1. Hardware Components The three types of CD drives all have the same essential components. These are: * The disk drive box itself. * Four securing screws. * A thin audio cable. * A wide IDE cable about 30 or 40 cm long. 3.2. CD Drive Description For a description of the front of a CD drive, see Section 4 below. For the present, a description of the back of the CD drive box is all that is required. If you hold the CD drive in front of you, with the back facing you, the right way up, the following plugs and switches can be observed: 1. At the very left side there is usually a small square or oblong hole, which can be ignored. 2. Moving right by a centimetre or so, will bring you to the plughole for the audio cable plug. 3. Now move a further centimetre or two to the right and you will encounter a small oblong cavity which holds a "jumper". A jumper is a small squarish, thin piece of plastic which has a thin vain of metal running through it and can therefore conduct an electrical signal. It slides between two small pins in this jumper bay, which grip it fairly tightly. Normally, a jumper will be factory set to the "slave" (SL) position, which is in the middle of the jumper bay. If the jumper is pulled out with the finger nails or a pair of tweezers, it can be reinserted a millimetre or two to the left to place it in the "master" (MAR) position. There is also a third jumper pin position to the right of the middle slave position but this does not affect this type of installation. 4. Another centimetre or so to the right of the jumper cavity is the biggest socket at the back of the CD drive box, which is a 40-pin IDE plug socket. It is about 5 centimetres long and quite thin. 5. Just to the right of the IDE socket you will find the last component at the back of the drive. This is the power supply plug socket. 3.3. Installation Procedure 1. With the computer switched off, remove the PC cover, after detaching the cables at the back. 2. To remove any static from your body, earth yourself by touching the box metal of the PC frame with both hands. 3. Remove one of the plastic covers at the front of the computer to reveal a spare drive bay. There may also be a metal plate-like tag behind this to pull off as well. 4. Slide the CD drive box into the slot at the front of the PC where you just moved the plastic facing cover from and use the four securing screws to hold it in place flush with the front of the computer box. They insert through the metal housings provided in the interior of the Pc case. You may not wish to fully tighten them up immediately, as you may have to slide the drive backwards and forwards a time or two whilst completing some of the below steps. Afterwards make sure that the drive box is flush with the front of the PC and the screws are tightened up. 5.A. If you do not already have a CD-ROM in your PC, you can connect your new CD-RW onto the same IDE cable that your hard disk is connected to. The IDE cable will have two identical plugs near its end. This means that you do not have to use the extra supplied IDE cable which came with your drive. Genteelly insert the second IDE cable plug into the IDE Socket at the back of the CD drive. It will only normally go in one way. This means of connecting the CD drive to your motherboard is the "slave" method, which means that the jumper should be in the slave position. This is likely to be the way it is set up when you receive the drive. 5.B. Alternatively, if you already have a CD-ROM in your computer and are fitting your new CD-RW as a second CD drive, you will have to use the new cable which came with the drive. Insert one of the two plugs at the end of the IDE ribbon cable into the IDE socket at the back of the drive and plug the other end onto the second IDE socket pins on your motherboard. Most motherboards have two IDE sockets which are normally located very close together and parallel to one another. Just follow your hard disk IDE cable to where it is plugged into the motherboard and the second IDE plug connector should be next to that one. In this configuration, you will need to move the jumper from the slave position to the left and reinsert it in the master position. Note: A PC normally only has two IDE sockets on its motherboard (a primary and secondary connector) and each can only take two drives. This means that, if all four connectors are already in use, you will have to purchase a SCSI card to connect your new CD-RW drive to. Warning: Do not place your CD-R and CD-RW drives on the same single IDE cable, as this may cause your burning software to generate error messages when you try to fast copy on the fly directly from your CD-R drive to your CD-RW drive. 6. Take the thin audio cable and plug it into the audio cable socket on the back of the CD drive box, which is almost at the very left. The other end of the audio cable should be plugged into the sound card, if your sound card is separate from the motherboard and is the PCI type, or plug it onto the pins on the motherboard if it is the sort of card which comes as an integral part of the motherboard itself. If the latter, you may need sighted assistance to find these motherboard pins amongst all of the other cables and bric-a-brac as they are only small. Your motherboard manual will tell you which are the correct pins. 7. You should now take one of the unused power cables which sprout out of the side or bottom of your computer power supply at the back of the PC and plug it into the power in socket at the very right of the CD drive box. It should only go in one way round but if you find that it can be inserted both ways, then do not switch the computer on before getting sighted help to tell you which is the correct way to plug this in. Switching your computer on with this plugged in the wrong way is likely to damage the drive and may also damage your motherboard. 8. This is the end of the installation, so replace the computer cover, plug everything into the back, screw everything up and turn the PC on. If there is no blue flash or loud bang, chances are that you've done it correctly! 9. The plug-and-play facility of Windows 9X, ME or XP should find your new CD-RW and recognise the new CD drive automatically. It should be working OK at this stage. 10. If you also like your CD drives to be accessible from DOS, you should install a suitable generic or specific CD drive driver which permits access via the command line. It is likely that your new CD-RW came supplied with one of these on a standard floppy disk. Just insert the floppy and type "A:\install" and press ENTER to install it. If this does not work, consult the readme or other file which should be provided on the disk for instructions. Note: You are now ready to commence testing your internal or external CD-RW drive. You may have received at least two complimentary CD disks with your Cd drive purchase. Typically, one of these will be a standard disk which you can write to only once but the other should be a re-writable disk which you can use to practise on without wasting several standard disks. ******** >SECTION 4 BASIC COMPACT DISK MUSIC PLAYING DIRECTLY FROM THE CD DRIVE 4.1. Features of the Front Panel of a CD Drive Typically, your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive front panel is likely to be the same as or similar to this description, although some very basic CD drives feature only a CD drawer open and eject button. Usually the panel has one or two lights to show that it is powered up and working. Obviously, it also has a drawer which ejects to permit the insertion of a CD disk in the same way you would insert a music CD into your HI-FI CD player. On the left side of the panel you are likely to find a mini jack stereo plug socket where you can plug in headphones. Next to this will be housed a small wheel for increasing or decreasing the volume of the headphones only. On the right of the CD drive there is likely to be two press buttons, the right of which is the CD drawer close/eject button and the one just to its left is the skip/recommence play button for skipping from the current music track to the next one. Just above the close/eject button there is generally an emergency eject hole, which should only be used if the automatic eject button fails. You activate this by inserting something like the end of a straightened-out paperclip into the whole until the disk drawer pops out a little, then you gently pull it out the whole way by hand. 4.2. Enabling the AutoPlay feature of Windows The AutoPlay feature is what makes your audio music CDs commence playing as soon as you insert one into the CD drive and shut it. If you do not want AutoPlay to start up immediately, you should hold down the left SHIFT key and then shut the CD drive drawer and keep the SHIFT key down for several seconds before releasing it. AutoPlay for CDs should already be enabled by default but, if it is not, you can turn it on by: 1. Press Windows key followed by S (for Settings), then press C (for Control Panel) and lastly press S several times until you get to System, then press ENTER. 2. You will land in the "General" property sheet, so press CONTROL TAB to get to "Device Manager" and then ARROW down or press C until you reach "CD-ROM". You then open this folder by pressing right ARROW. ARROWing down will now reveal your single or several CD drives by manufacturer names. With the focus on the one you wish to enable AutoPlay on you should TAB to "Properties" and press ENTER. 3. From Properties you should CONTROL TAB to the "Settings" property sheet and then press TAB until you reach "Auto Insert Notification" and if this is not already checked, press the SPACEBAR to check and therefore enable it. 4. After this TAB to "OK" and press ENTER and do the same on the next dialogue, followed by pressing ALT F4 to exit the Control Panel. 4.3. Windows Music CD AutoPlay 1. As stated above, when AutoPlay is enabled, all you need do to hear a standard HI-FI music CD is insert it into the CD drive drawer and press the close/eject button. It should start playing automatically within a few seconds without you doing anything else. If it does not start playing, just press the skip/recommence play button. The disk will play until the last track has been played and then stop. 2. Whilst playing, if you wish to skip to the next track, just press the skip button. Repeated presses will move you further into the CD track by track. 3. If you wish to pause the playing of a track, you can press the close/eject button once. To recommence the playing of the track, press the skip button once. 4. To eject the CD, press the close/eject button twice. Note: To hear music using the headphone socket at the front of the CD drive you do not need a sound card. On the other hand, if you wish to hear tracks via your PC external stereo speakers, you would require a sound card on your computer's motherboard. 4.4. Changing C D Playback Volume and Quality 1. Whilst a CD is playing you can alter the music volume in several ways: A. If using headphones, adjust the volume wheel to the right of the headphone jack socket. B. If listening to speakers, either use the volume knob on the speakers; or C. If the speakers do not have a volume knob or the volume knob does not increase the volume sufficiently, you may be able to increase the playback volume in a more permanent way via the Windows Volume Control. You can go straight to this from within the menus of some music playing programs, or through the System Tray or by navigating to it via: C:\Program Files\Accessories\Multimedia\Volume control in Windows 95, or C:\Program Files\Accessories\Entertainment\Volume Control in Windows 98. (See Section 6 below to discover how to use the Volume Control). 2. You can also make adjustments in volume and quality of music output from the Multimedia section of the Control Panel. Do this by: A. Press Windows Logo key followed by S (for Settings) and then C (for control Panel). B. Then press M several times until Multimedia is selected, then press ENTER to open it. C. You will fall on the "Audio" property sheet. TAB down this and make your desired changes to the "playback volume" and Recording Volume" with the ARROW up and down and PAGE up and down keys. D. Then TAB to "Preferred Quality" and ARROW through the choices. You should set this to CD quality for best quality playback results. E. Press ENTER on "Apply" and then press CONTROL TAB to look at the other three property sheets in this multi-sheet dialogue box. They include "Video", "MIDI", "CD Music" and "Advanced". Make any changes you think would suit your particular needs and set-up. For instance, if you can make use of large scale pictures/print on a monitor, you might wish to ARROW to the "Double Original Size" option in the "Video" sheet and therefore select this. In the "Advanced" sheet you have a tree of multimedia audio, video, mixer devices, etc, which you can change, select, view the properties of or remove, as you like, but you are likely to have to go into navigation or mouse mode to be able to use your right mouse key to open and thus view or change any of a particular device driver's properties. F. You should ensure that, in the "CD Music" sheet, "Headphones" is set to 100 per cent by pressing PAGE down to achieve this. G. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. ******** >SECTION 5 WINDOWS CD PLAYER If you are still running a copy of Windows 98(SE) or earlier, a basic but more flexible way of playing your music CDs rather than just using the CD drive front panel buttons is to launch the Windows CD Player to do this. You can then use keyboard shortcuts to play, skip, repeat play, pre-select which tracks to play and which to never play, etc. From Windows XP, however, the CD Player's duties have been taken over by the Windows Media Player and the old style CD Player is no longer supplied. The most up-to-date version of the Windows Media Player is a much more sophisticated and fully-featured piece of media playing and recording software. This section is about the older CD Player only and not Windows Media Player, which I may cover in some depth in a future edition of my series of audio sounds tutorials. If you do not have the CD Player in your Entertainment sub-folder, just skip this section, unless you simply wish to skim it out of interest. 5.1. Playing a Standard Music CD with the CD Player 1. Launch the CD Player from an icon on your Desktop if you know how to place one there. Otherwise, run it by navigating to it via: pressing Windows Logo key, then P (for Program Files), A (for accessories), E (for Entertainment) and lastly C (for CD Player) The player will load. In Windows 95 the path is slightly different, as you are going to: Program Files\Accessories\MultiMedia\CD Player 2. With a CD in the drive, press CONTROL P to commence playing from track one. 3. To pause the current track, press CONTROL P again. Another press of CONTROL P will recommence play. 4. To stop play, press CONTROL S. 5. To jump to a future or earlier track, press ALT K and then ARROW down or up. You are in a list of all the tracks on the CD, so if you wish to move to a track several further on, just keep pressing the down ARROW until you reach it. Each track as you press the ARROW keys will automatically start playing for you. 6. Pressing the TAB key will cycle you through several buttons which hold some useful information, such as the name of the artists on the CD (if you have labelled this CD with this information in the Playlist dialogue), the number of the current track, etc, but most of the rest of these buttons will be found to be of little use, as pressing ENTER on them does not achieve anything unless you go to the trouble of using your screenreader's mouse or navigation mode. Whilst in the "Artist" field, you can ARROW up and down your CD drives if you have more than one and change from playing one CD to another in a second CD drive. Instead of TABBING through to the "Artist" field, a press of the A key will take you straight there. 7. To exit and close the CD Player, press ALT F4. 5.2. The View Menu--CD Player Volume Control Whilst the CD Player is running, pressing ALT V then V again takes you to the Windows Volume Control, where you can increase the default volume of music output if it is not already on full. This may or may not be necessary, depending on the type and quality of your sound card and speakers. If the volume knob on your speakers will not give sufficient volume, have a look in the Volume Control as follows: 1. As mentioned, press ALT V, V to open up the Volume Control. 2. Then press SHIFT TAB several times to the "CD Audio" Volume field and Page UP to increase the volume in large jumps or use the up ARROW key to move in smaller stages. 3. A further press of SHIFT TAB takes you to the "Balance" control where you can use ARROW or Page keys to change the sound balance in the speakers.Fifty per cent is obviously the correct balance ratio. Do not check any of the "Mute" buttons or you may loose the sound all together, possibly including the sound to your software speech synthesiser if you use one! 4. To leave the Volume Control and keep your new settings, just press ALT F4. You can also find other viewing features in the View Menu by pressing ALT V and pressing ENTER on any of the options, when things like the amount of time already played of a track or disk will be displayed on screen, or you can change this to the time still left, or you can turn on or off on-screen disk and track information. You will have to go into mouse mode to view most of these details. 5.3. The Options Menu This is where you can make selections for how your CDs will play, in a similar way to what you can do on a traditional HI-FI CD player. For instance, press ALT O (for Options) and then by pressing ENTER on "Random Order" you will check this and this will mean that all of your CD disks will now play with the tracks out of their normal disk order, randomly. After doing this, check the result by pressing ALT K to get to the tracks list and ARROW down this to observe that the tracks are no longer in track 1, 2, 3, etc, order. Some of the other options in the Options Menu are "continuous Play" and "Intro Play", where only the first 10 or so seconds of each track on a disk will play, perhaps useful if your looking for a particular track and can't remember its title. There is also "Preferences" in the Options Menu, where the way that disks play can be further fine tuned. For example, "Show Tool Tips" may be checked and you may wish to press SPACEBAR on this to uncheck it so that your screenreader is not distracted by such messages. The "Intro Play Length" editfield is also found here where you can change the default 10 seconds that IntroPlay will play a track for to any other value you personally prefer. Just use the up or down ARROW keys to change the time. TAB to "OK" to save any changes you have made. 5.4. The Disk Menu This only contains "Exit" and "Edit Playlist" but the latter is of interest. The Playlist is where you can ensure that CD Player can recognise any Music CD you place in the CD drive and all of the tracks on it or just your own selection of tracks, if you wish to exclude a few tracks which you do not like so will never wish to hear. 5.5. The Playlist To use the Playlist: 1. Place a CD in the CD drive and press ALT D followed by ENTER to bring up the Edit Playlist dialogue. 2. You will fall in the "Artist" editfield, so type the name of the group or individual who recorded the music CD. 3. Press TAB to the next editfield, which is "Title", and type the CD title in here. 4. Press TAB until you reach the "Available Tracks" list and use the ARROW up and down keys to put focus on one of the tracks you wish to have played when you play this CD. The tracks will be named "Track 1", "Track 2", etc, at this stage but you can replace these default titles with the correct track names if you wish, as directed in 7 below. 5. Press TAB to the "Add" button and press ENTER or just press ALT D to achieve the same thing. 6. You can carry on in this way for all of the tracks you wish to have played regularly on a CD. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 7. If you wish to replace the default track numbers with the actual track titles, you can also do this during the track selection stage at 4 above by TABBING on once to an editfield and replacing the track name/number shown there. Do this by pressing BACKSPACE and then typing the actual track title in. Then press TAB to the "Set Name" button and press ENTER. 8. There are also "Clear All", "Remove" and "Reset" buttons which appear at certain stages to remove track selections, put things back to how they first started, etc. 9. At any time you can go into this Playlist dialogue and observe the tracks which you have selected for automatic play by TABBING to the "Playlist" list of tracks. 5.6. Windows CD Player Shortcuts Press the letter A: To jump to the "Artist" field in order to be able to ARROW up and down your several CD drives, if you have more than one, to change from playing one CD to another in a different drive. Press ALT F4: To exit the CD Player. Press ALT K: To jump to a past or future track with the ARROW keys. Press TAB: To cycle through buttons displaying information such as CD title, artists name, title of current playing track, and so on. Press CONTROL P: To start a CD playing from track one. Pressing CONTROL P again will pause play. Another Press of CONTROL P will re-start play. Press CONTROL S: To stop play. ******** >SECTION 6 SOUND CARDS AND WINDOWS VOLUME CONTROL 6.1. Sound Cards and Their Capabilities The many different sound cards can have massively different input and output abilities and may support varying sets of surround speakers. 6.1.1. Types of Sound Cards For best results, you will need a good quality sound card. The more up-to-date Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards should meet this requirement, such as the Sound Blaster 128 or 1024 Live (preferably the latter as it is multi-channel whereas the former is not). Even more recent and better Sound Bllaster cards are the Sound Blaster 5.1, the Audigy I and the Audigy II cards, which provide such as extra speeker support and greater depth of sound sampling. Another range of good multi-channel sound cards is made by Roland and there are also the Turtle Beach Montigo and Santa Cruz cards. You can listen to music and voice recordings with more basic 16- bit sound cards but the quality may be substandard. You can also make music and voice recordings with basic 16-bit sound cards but, again, the quality of the recording may be affected, for instance, you may get more background hiss and you may find that the volume of the recording, even with the Volume Control levels on full, is well below that obtained with a better quality card. Using the option to increase the volume of a recording after it has been made, which some recording programs provide, may succeed in bringing the volume of a recording up but you may also experience a proportionate increase in background noise, crackle and hiss. This type of substandard audio input recording result is often found with the on-the-motherboard varieties of 16-bit sound cards, so you may have to upgrade these to Sound Blaster Live or equivalent standards. Just because your software synthesiser works well and is plenty loud enough through a basic sound card does not mean that music or voice recordings will be as loud or clear. Note: Some sound cards may not allow a software synthesiser and music or speech from such as an MP3 file to work together. This may be because your sound card is single-channel, not the recommended multi-channel type. In this case, you would have to unload your screenreader before the music or other sound file can play, e.g. with HAL do this with CONTROL SPACEBAR, then ALT SPACEBAR followed by Q and then ENTER; with JAWS use INSERT F4 and then press ENTER; and with Window-Eyes use CONTROL \, then ALT F4, X and ENTER; after first placing focus on the link you wish to play, then press ENTER to hear the audio content. Alternatively, if your screenreader has a "sleep" mode, you may find that using this has the desired result (see "Putting your Screenreader to Sleep" in the section below entitled "Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep"). 6.1.2. What Does Such as 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound Mean? A couple of years ago sound cards were produced with 5.1 surround sound capabilities, e.g. the Sound Blaster 5.1 card. This means that you have a six speaker system with two stereo speakers in front of you, two stereo speakers behind you and a bass speaker located anywhere else in the room you like. the sixth speaker is the dialogue speaker, which you would normally place at the source of any speech which may come through your system, e.g. on top of or underneath your TV set. More recently, 7.1 systems have been supported by sound cards, such as the Audigy II and the Video Logic Sonic Explosion DVD sound and video cards. A 7.1 system replicates the type of all- round sound you would expect to hear at a cinema and has the same speaker configuration as that just described for a 5.1 system but also features two more stereo speakers, one immediately to your left and another to your right. You can purchase the above-mentioned types of 7.1 surround sound sound and video cards from such as: Audigy II: WWW.Creative.com Video Logic: www.puredigital.com Turtle Beach: www.turtlebeach.comYahamah: www.yamaha.com Terratec: www.en.terratec.net Yamaha: www.yamaha.com 6.2. Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep You may wish to silence your screenreader by permanently putting it to "sleep" whenever a particular program is launched rather than unloading it if it prevents you from getting the required sound card throughput or if the screenreader speech chatters at the same time as you are trying to listen to other audio output. This may be especially annoying if you are trying to record speech onto disk via your microphone in programs such as Windows Sound Recorder and Sound Forge. You should consult your screenreader manual to find out how to do this. However, I have provided below an example of how this is done with the JFW screenreader: 1. Launch your audio program, e.g. RealPlayer, and then press INSERT F2 to load the JAWS Manager. 2. From the list provided, press ENTER on "Configuration Manager", which will open the RealPlayer configuration file. 3. Press ALT S (for Set Options" and ARROW up to "Advanced Options" and press ENTER. 4. In the Advanced Options dialogue you will immediately be on "Sleep Mode Enable". You should press the SPACEBAR to enable this and therefore reduce the chance of JFW speaking and interrupting the flow of streaming audio. 5. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER twice, followed by CONTROL S to save the change and then ALT F4 to leave the manager. You will have to unload and then reload JFW to have the changes recognised. 6. If you wish to return to how things were before, you should, without Realplayer running, open and edit the realplay.jcf file in a plain text editor such as Notepad (not in a word-processor unless you then know how to save the result as a text file) and change the line which reads "sleepmode=1" to "sleepmode=0", save the file and then unload and reload JFW. The realplay.jcf file is found in the folder: c:\jaws37\settings\enu\realplay.jcf Note: Putting JAWS into sleep mode will, of course, drastically reduce the amount of screenreader feedback which you get whilst using such programs and you will have to be able to remember the keystrokes to make things work, so some users may not be happy with this and may rather leave their screenreader as it is and just unload it at times when it conflicts with other sound files. You may also find the JAWS INSERT S hot key of use as it toggles between speak all changes on the screen, speak highlighted only and speak none modes. Warning: Do not mess with these settings if you are likely to be unable to reverse the above procedure or if you are not comfortable with reinstalling your screenreader should you get into trouble. 6.3. Enabling a Multi-Channel Sound Card Somewhat in contrast to what we have just done above, but just as essential for general PC use, a multi-channel sound card may need to be enabled before it will work properly. With JFW, to ensure that a multi-channel sound card works properly, allowing your synthesiser and other sounds to be heard simultaneously when this is desirable, rather than operating as a single-channel card: 1. With no program running, press INSERT F2 again and hit ENTER on "Configuration Manager". 2. Press CONTROL SHIFT D to open the "default.jcf" file. 3. Press ALT S (for Set Options) and then S (for Synthesiser Options). 4. TAB to "Allow Wave Files with Software Synthesisers" and if it is not already selected, press SPACEBAR to check it on. 5. Tab to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. To save this change and leave the manager, Press CONTROL s, then ENTER followed by ALT F4. Now unload and then reload JFW to have the saved changes recognised. Note: Obviously, this type of enabling will not be necessary if your sound card already works satisfactorily with both your synthesiser and other sound files. 6.4. The Windows Volume Control You can enter the Volume Control by going to the Windows System Tray (if your screenreader is able to take you there, e.g. INSERT F11 with JAWS, INSERT S or Windows key B with WE or left SHIFT Numpad SLASH with HAL 5) or by: pressing Windows Logo key, P (for Program Files, A (for Accessories), M (for Multimedia) and then V (for Volume Control) in Windows 95; or Pressing Windows Logo key, P (for Program Files), A (for Accessories), E (for Entertainment) and then V (for Volume Control) in Windows 98 and ME. You can also open the Volume Control via the Windows Run dialogue by pressing Windows key and R and then typing into the editfield which opens up: sndvol32 and pressing ENTER. When in the Volume Control you can change the various levels of volume, the balance between left and right channels and mute a particular type of sound if you do not want it coming through. You can do this for various types of input and output media, such as the volume of sound out of your speakers, the volume of ringing tone you hear when your modem dials, the volume of your line in and microphone sockets at the back of your computer where the sound card interfaces with the outside world, etc. When you first enter the Volume Control, you can TAB through several balance and volume adjusters. The most important for output and input of audio data are "CD Audio Volume" which, depending on the quality of your sound card, you may need on between 70 and 100 per cent. The "Volume" option may also need adjusting, depending on your sound card and how loud you want output volume as against input volume, e.g. if you are using a headset with its own microphone, you may wish to have the "Playback" setting lower for your ears and the "Microphone" setting louder for any voice recording you are doing. 6.5. Example of Changing a Sound Property--The Microphone settings To change the microphone settings you would: 1.A. Launch the Volume Control by the Program Files\ path method outlined above; or 1.B. If you elect to launch the Volume Control via the System Tray, you should press ENTER on the (Open Volume Control" choice. Do not get side tracked at this stage with this--come back to it later--but Note that there is also an "Adjust Audio Properties" choice in here as well which, if you press ENTER on it, will give you a list of five or so preferred recording devices, such as SB Live, Use any available device, game compatible device, etc. In this second choice dialogue, you can also press ENTER on "Playback Advanced Properties" and select from several types of playback speaker types, such as Desktop stereo speakers, Stereo headphones, laptop mono speakers, etc, and you can CONTROL TAB to a "Performance" property sheet to reduce speaker performance playback demands to less than 100 per cent if things are not working as well as you would like because your computer is not powerful enough to take the maximum settings. You can also TAB to a slider to move the "Sample Rate Conversion" from zero to either 50 or 100 per cent to further enhance sampling conversion quality but be aware that increasing the levels in here can also slow down the speed of response of your computer due to extra CPU overhead. Experiment with the various options to see what is best for your PC set-up. 2. Press the ALT key to open the "Options" menu. Then ARROW down to "Properties" and press ENTER. 3. You will land on the line which tells you the type of sound card in your PC which is being used, e.g. SB Live . . .. 4. Press TAB once to "Adjust Volume For" and the first option will be "Playback". ARROW down once to "Recording" and then TAB once to a list of recording options. 5. ARROW down this list to "Microphone", ensure that it is checked (pressing SPACEBAR will do this if it is not already checked) and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. You will now have entered the Microphone adjustment controls where you can make alterations to the input volume for your microphone input to the jack on the sound card at the back of the computer. If you are not already on it, TAB forward to "Microphone Volume" and view its volume level, increasing or decreasing this as suits your PC set-up, microphone and sound card sensitivity. Use the PAGE up or down and ARROW up or down keys to increase or decrease this. ARROWING or PAGING up increases the volume, although some screenreaders may announce decreasing levels of calibration, making this a little misleading. 7. Then TAB to the "Select" button and press the SPACEBAR to turn it on if it is not already selected. 8. Sometimes you can just TAB again at this stage to the "Advanced" button and press ENTER; otherwise, see how to get into advance settings in 9 below. In here you can make a few further fine advanced adjustments, such as checking on the "Mik Boost (20 Db)" box for further volume increases if these are required. Then TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. 9. If you did not find the "Advanced" button as described above in 8, you can now press ALT O (for Options) again and press ENTER on "Advanced" to enable the advanced features, which may vary depending on the type of sound card you have. If you do not enter the advanced features box when you do this, it is because the advanced features are already enabled. In this case, you can enter the Advanced dialogue to view the Mik boost feature by pressing ALT and then ARROWING to "Advanced" and pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR. 10. Lastly, press ALT O (or just ALT if ALT O does not work) and ARROW to "Exit" and press ENTER to finish. Note 1: Some of the features in the Volume Control can vary, depending on the type of sound card your PC is fitted with, so some may have, for instance, more "Advanced" features and some may have none. The above example was done with a Sound Blaster Live 1024 card fitted. Note 2: You will normally use the microphone jack plug on your sound card and the microphone settings in the Volume Control for your mic and the line in jack plug and line in setting in the Volume Control for inputting sound data such as from a tape recorder, record deck, mini Cd player, etc, if you have a good sound card. The mic input is usually much more sensitive than the line in socket. However, if you have a poorer sound card, such as an on-the-motherboard type, you may find the line in socket not sensitive enough and so wish to use the mic jack socket for both mic and tape recorder input. You will have to experiment with sockets and various volume levels until you find out what is best for your requirements and sound card. Note 3: If you would like to experiment with a different way of manipulating the Volume Control, which may suit some screenreaders, you can try a utility called "Sound Control Plus". This is downloadable from: http://software.reallyeffective.co.uk ******** >SECTION 7 WHAT ARE MP3 FILES AND WHERE CAN THEY BE DOWNLOADED FROM? 7.1. What is MP3? Basically, an MP3 file is a compressed audio file, making it more suitable in size for storing on your hard disk and for up loading to and downloading from the Internet. An MP3 file can be compressed to around one tenth or one twelfth of its original size without seriously affecting its musical sound quality, but there are different intensities of compression, depending upon the quality of the sound file you wish to create. MP3 files have the extension ".MP3". MP3 is the layer 3 audio equivalent of the MPEG video standard set by the Motion Picture Experts Group. The first MP3 files were copied at a constant bit rate (C.B.R.), meaning that the same consistent bit rate through the whole file is used during the encoding. More recently, MP3 V.B.R. (variable bit rate) has become available, which allows you to select the bit rate to be used so that different sections of a sound file will be allocated different bit rates, according to how complicated given parts of an audio file are, more complicated parts of the file being allocated higher bit rates than simple parts. This helps to ensure that distortion does not occur or is minimised in parts of a sound file which feature much sound activity, such as when there is much singing and instrument playing in a particular section of a music file. In a similar vein to V.B.R. there is also A.B.R. (average bit rate) which also averages out the bit rate so that more complicated parts of an audio file are allocated more bits than simpler parts. In 2005 the creators of the first MP3 encoder (Fraunhofer of Germany) developed a surround-sound version for the MP3 audio format for 5.1 surround-sound systems. This MP3 encoder/player features a multi-channel format and you can download an evaluation copy from: www.mp3surround-format.com In recording this encoder will create five or six channel.wav files. 7.2. Where to Find MP3 and Other forms of Compressed Audio Files There are thousands and thousands of sites on the Internet which hold MP3 files, of news items, shows, tutorials in speech and, of course, many music tracks. "MP3" has been the most frequent search request typed into Internet search engines for the past several years. Many MP3 music sites are perfectly legitimate and the music held there is freely and legitimately downloadable, e.g. from www.mp3.com. However, there are many sites of doubtful legitimacy which provide either directly or indirectly MP3 sound files which contravene the artists' copyrights, e.g. Morpheus and Kazaa. I have no intention of moralising on these points. You will have to follow your own inclinations and curiosities. Below is a small selection of both legitimate and not so legitimate Websites for you to browse. It is up to you whether you participate in their offerings or not. There is one point about up and downloading of MP3 files, however, which should be mentioned. Despite the fact that MP3s are normally compressed files to around 25 to 8 per cent of their original size, they are still, nonetheless, substantial files to download. With a standard 56K modem, it could take you around four hours to download an album of MP3 music which would play for an hour on your PC. For quick up and downloading of MP3s you need an Internet connection like universities and commercial companies use, such as a T1 or T3 connection. Otherwise, a home user could invest in a broadband ISDN or DSL high-speed connection, if they were serious about regularly downloading MP3 files. 7.3. Sources of Legitimate MP3 Listening and Downloading The MP3.COM Site This is to be found at: www.mp3.com and is where many up-and-coming musicians deposit tracks of their music for free download as a means of getting publicity and becoming better known. You can sometimes download whole tracks of music and, in other cases, you may only be able to download a snippet of several tracks for evaluation. Emusic.com Similar to MP3.com is Emusic.com at: www.emusic.com Hitsquad Another music Website, which has thousands of MP3 files, players, audio editors, monthly and weekly news and review e-mail magazines and news letters, and much, much more is Hitsquad. It can be found at: www.hitsquad.com AT Hitsquad you can download a small free utility which permits you to split MP3 files into smaller files, e.g. if you wanted to post one to someone on several floppy disks or just work with it in smaller chunks. However, this software is not particularly screenreader-friendly and you will have to play with it a bit to get used to how to use it, what buttons and graphics to what, etc. Alternatively, another MP3 file splitting utility called MP3 Scissors can be downloaded from: www.tfm.ro 7.4. Commercial MP3 Download Sites where MP3s are Sold Some commercial sites to purchase video, MP3 and other music formats from and pay for them by credit card online are: www.apple.com This is where you can access the Apple i-Tunes catalogue from. i-Tunes can only be played on Apple's own i-Pod players and on computers as they have their own specific format for compression. In the second part of 2004 Apple launched an i-Tunes Website music store in Europe. In June 2004 the UK music store became available. www.eclissical.com www.musicstore.com www.musicmatch.com www.audiogalaxy.com (This is now part of the Rhapsody online music shop) www.napster.com This latter site is the new commercial Napster 2 site owned by Roxeo but at the time of writing it was only usable by US residents. Those outside of the US were not able to download the playing and shopping software required to use it until the second half of 2004 when Napster partnered with NTL's Broadband Plus service to allow downloading of music files for European residents. US citizens can download individual music tracks for around 99 cents each or whole albums for around 10 dollars each. www.sonicselector.com This is the OD2 music store which permits you to download a plug- in for Windows Media Player to enable you to access more than 300,00 songs both for downloading and for streaming and listening to online. The service is called Sonic Selector and you get access to this music via online mucic stores from either MSN, Tiscali, Packard Bell or NTL . Individual downloaded songs cost from 49p to 75p and you can even listen to streaming songs online at a cost of 1p each. 7.5. MP3 Specific Web Search Engines With these you can narrow your search for MP3 files to sites which specialise in MP3 provision. Some such search engines are: www.scour.com www.imesh.com www.listen.com (This is part of Rhapsody.) 7.6. Peer-to-Peer Music Sharing Sites Peer-to-peer music sharing sites are illegal but there are still dozens of them around. The first, as you will know, was the original carnation of Napster but this has now been closed down. It has been replace by Napster 2, which is no longer a file sharing site but rather a legal, commercial site to purchase and download music files from. Peer-to-peer file sharing sites spring up all of the time and can just as quickly be closed down. I am not touting the use of such sites and neither am I moralising about them. If you wish to participate in such file sharing, it is up to you and none of my business. I simply list several such sites below for your information. The normal modus operandi of file sharing communities is that you download specialist participation software from the peer-to-peer site and you then create a folder on your computer to hold music MP3s and other files for free sharing with others. The other participants do likewise. Examples of such peer-to-peer free file sharing sites can be found at: www.kazaalite.com www.grokster.com www.blubster.com www.slsknet.org/download.html www.musicseek.com www.xolox.com www.winmx.com www.sonicnet.com www.audiofind.com www.toadnode.com www.bearshare.com www.morpheus.com www.peerbuddy.com www.filetopia.com Note 1: At any time one or more of the above download sites could disappear as legal suits catch up with them. Note 2: Your screenreader maker's e-mail discussion and help list Website may hold several of these music download programs plus set or script files for using them, e.g. www.jfwlite.com holds Win MX and special scripts for using it on its "Programs" page. 7.7. The Ask MP3 Link Portal The Ask MP3 portal has hundreds of links on it to MP3-related sites and information. It is at: www.askmp3.com It links you to places where you can find MP3 players of all kinds, MP3 files, video players, MP3 FAQs, MP3 books, free and legal MP3 music, MP3 search engines and numerous more MP3 resources. If you go to the "Free and Legal MP3 Music" download link, you will find many sources of free MP3 music. 7.8. MP3 Lyrics Databases In a similar vein to obtaining MP3 music itself, there is a freeware program called MP3 Lyrix which you can download and is reasonably usable with a screenreader. You search for a particular song and the software interrogates a number of Internet-based song lyrics databases and will display the words of the song if it is there. You can personally add more databases to its list if you know of any more. MP3 Lyrix is downloadable from: www.killersoftware.com/software/mp3lyrix.exe 7.9. The Wavethemes Theme Music Download Site You can download many Radio, TV and film theme music clips, such as the Dr Who theme music, from: www.wavethemes.net ******** >SECTION 8 USING STAND-ALONE ENCODERS TO CREATE MP3 AND OTHER FILE FORMATS FROM STANDARD DIGITAL COMPACT DISKS--THE cdex AUDIO RIPPER 8.1. What is an Encoder or Ripper? An encoder is a piece of software which takes a digital audio file or full disk of files, like a music CD, and converts the file contents to another format. Typically, you will be taking standard HI-FI cd tracks and converting them to other formats such as compressed MP3, OGG Vorbis and Windows WAV audio files. An encoder essentially does two jobs: extracts and encodes the original audio file and then converts it to one of a number of alternative formats. Some encoders can only create two or three alternative formats, whilst others may have a dozen or more output choices. 8.2. Why use a Stand-Alone Encoder? Many sound and video players, such as Winamp, are good players but not so good from a screenreader point of view as file and disk encoders. They can do the job via the keyboard but it may be difficult and time-consuming to achieve this. You may, therefore, find that some stand-alone CD encoders are more accessible. The one which I have chosen to demonstrate below certainly is. Encoders are also known as "rippers". 8.3. The CDEX Freeware Encoder Version 1.51 CDEX is freeware, so you can download and use it as much as you like. However, CDEX will not work in isolation; it requires what is known as the Adaptec ASPI Manager software to work through and be able to communicate with your CD-ROM (Version 4.54 or higher). Therefore, you must have a copy of these ASPI files installed on your PC as well as CDEX itself. You will have such ASPI software if you already have a copy of Easy CD Creator 4X or later installed on your PC. Alternatively, you can independently install this ASPI Manager (see the later section for how to do this). ASPI stands for advanced SCSI Programming Interface. When I wrote my first audio sounds tutorial around three years ago, I included in it an example of using a simple audio extractor and encoder called Freerip.MP3. This was a very basic but good encoder which only carried out basic CD ripping to a few formats. In contrast, the latest version of CDEX (Version 1.51 at the time of writing) is much more capable and it has many more formats it can encode to. It also has an ability to interrogate online Internet music CD databases to find track, artist, album, etc, details and insert them into your extracted or encoded albums for you. I will be covering the essentials of CDEX in this section so that you will be in a position to build on what I tell you to access even more of CDEXs good array of features yourself. 8.3.1. System Requirements to Run CDEX For CDEX to run on your computer you must have at least: 1. A Pentium or equivalent computer. 2. Adaptec ASPI Manager for Windows 95 or higher installed on your PC. 3. Windows 95 or higher. 4. A digital audio extracting capable CD drive. 8.3.2. Downloading CDEX To download your free copy of CDEX: 1. Load your browser and surf to: www.cdex.n3.net 2. TAB to the "Downloads" link and press ENTER. 3. On the next page move down to a "CDEX 1.51" heading and underneath that either press ENTER on the .zip version of the download or, just below it, on the .exe version. The latter will be the easiest to deal with after you have downloaded it. If you choose the zip file, you will have to use such as Winzip to unpack it. 4. You now come onto another page and have to move down it to a "Mirror" heading, under which, if you ARROW down a few times, you will come to a "Europe" sub-heading (or choose the region which you are in if not Europe), which has below it a "Download" button to press ENTER on an commence the download procedure. 5. You will have an "OK" and a "Save" button to press ENTER on to start the download and the default file name which will download to your Desktop or wherever else you normally do your downloads to will be called "cdex_151.zip" or "cdex_151.exe". 6. The file you download is just under 2 MB in size and should take less than 10 minutes to download with a 56K modem. 8.3.3. Installation 8.3.3.1. Installing CDEX Having downloaded CDEX, you would install it by: 1. Go to the "cdex_151.exe" file wherever you downloaded it to and press ENTER on it. 2. The program will install itself at: C:\Program Files\CDEX\ It will set up three sub-folders in here plus around 16 other files. The "Lang" sub-folder is where four languages to use CDEX in are installed, including German, English, Italian and Spanish, but you can download more languages from the CDEX Website. The second sub-folder will be called "CDDB" or "LocalCDDB" and will eventually hold any information about the Cds you have ripped and their titles, artist details, etc. Thirdly, the "Plugins" sub- folder holds at least three DLL files for encoding and ripping CD tracks into different formats, e.g. MP3, Vorbis, etc. Note that the program may later create other sub-folders in here as well, e.g. if you do not change the default place extracted and encoded tracks save to, a "My Music" folder will be created as well to hold these extracted tracks. Note: If you have downloaded the .zip version of the file, you will need to tell Winzip exactly which folder to install these files into. 8.3.3.2. Installing the Adaptec ASPI Manager You have to have Version 4X or later of Easy CD Creator installed on your PC for CDEX to work through or you must obtain and install Version 4.54 or later of this ASPI Manager independently. You can download the free Adaptec ASPI software from the Adaptec site at: www.adaptec.co.uk If, for whatever reason, CDEX will not work on your system with these ASPI drivers, download the appropriate ASPI software for your system from the above URL. If you want a more up-to-date version of the ASPI software, which works with Windows 98X upwards, download this from the Adaptec site. Just go to the above URL, move to the "Search" editfield, press ENTER and then type in "ASPI", TAB once and press ENTER. The next page you come to has several tables of many ASPI drivers you can download, depending on your system. Make sure that you read the provided installation instructions for the version you download, e.g. it is different for Windows XP from earlier operating systems. 8.3.4. Launching and Initial Configuration of CDEX To launch CDEX and carry out some basic but important configuration: 1. Go to the CDEX executable file and press ENTER on it to launch it. It is at: C:\Program files\CDEX\CDEX.EXE Note: You may wish to create a shortcut on your Desktop or Start Menu to launch CDEX from for ease, if you like. 2. When CDEX loads you should view and/or make some basic configuration changes to start with, as follows: A. To enter the CDEX multi-page settings configuration dialogue press the F4 key and then CONTROL TAB to the "Filenames" property sheet. B. TAB to "Output Filename Format and Directories" WAV -> MP3" and note that the default place/directory/folder which is used to put WAV files in to be compressed is: C:\Program Files\CDEX\Mymusic\ C. TAB once more and note that the default place for the recorded files you have compress to be stored in is also: C:\Program Files\CDEX\Mymusic\ Note: You can press ENTER on either of the above pathname lines to open a directories/folders browsing list and replace them with alternative paths/folders of your own choice if you like which might be easier to get to, e.g. C:\myMusic, after firstly creating the "mymusic" folder from C:, of course. D. Now CONTROL TAB or right ARROW when you are on the property sheets labels to "Remote CDDB" and TAB in here to "Your Email Address" and type this in here, so that you can send and receive CD album titles, track titles, artist's details, etc, to and get this information from the CDDB database on the Internet. If you do not have an e-mail address just make one up in the correct format rather than leaving this editfield blank, e.g. john@nowhere.com E. Now left ARROW or CONTROL TAB to the "Encoder" sheet. In here TAB to a list of around 13 encoders you can elect to use during your ripping. It is likely to be on "Lame", which is an MP3 encoder, so leave it there for now. You can use some of the other encoders in later ripping sessions, if you like, e.g. the Windows MP3 CODEC", the "Microsoft WMA Encoder", the "WAVE Output Encoder", the "OGG Vorbis DLL Encoder" etc. You can view and change any of the settings for your chosen encoder by TABBING through them in this page with Version 1.51 of CDEX but in earlier versions it was sometimes necessary to do this in your screenreader's mouse mode to obtain access. Then TAB to and check off with the SPACEBAR "On-the-Fly MP3 Encoding", which then permits you to use CDEXs ability to normalise the volume level of all tracks ripped. F. You should now CONTROL TAB to the "Generic" sheet and TAB to "Normalize Volume" and press SPACEBAR to check this on, so that all files you rip are extracted at the same volume. G. CONTROL TAB to the "CD Drive" sheet and TAB once to a list of the CD drives on your computer. If you have more than one CD drive, ensure that you ARROW to and put focus on the CD-ROM drive you wish to use to extract tracks from, if it is not already highlighted. H. Lastly, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. Note that there are dozens of controls and lists which you can select from in these six property sheets. Many of these will be explained and advice given about what to do with them in a later section. 3. Always maximise the CDEX screen straight after launching it by pressing ALT SPACEBAR and then X. 8.3.5. Extracting Tracks to WAV Files with CDEX The tracks extracting feature is a one stage process. To extract tracks from a music CD in your CD-ROM or other CD drive to WAV files in your CDEXs default output folder (or any other you may have changed this to): 1. Place a CD in your CD drive, keeping the left SHIFT key depressed as you do this to stop the CD music from being played automatically. You can, of course, insert your CD after CDEX is already running if you like, it makes no difference. 2. Launch CDEX from your Desktop shortcut or via the path: C:\Program Files\CDEX\CDEX.exe You can get to the above cdex.exe file via Windows Explorer or by using the Windows Run dialogue, e.g. press Windows key R (for Run) and in the editfield you come into type: c:\program files\cdex\cdex.exe and press ENTER. 3. As soon as CDEX is launched or as soon as you insert a music CD with CDEX already running, it will detect the CD and provide you with a list of the tracks on that CD. However, at this stage the track names will not be the actual true titles of the tracks but rather substituted filenames, such as "Audio Track 01", "Audio Track 02", etc. straight after these substituted track names will come some informational figures indicating such as 0:07.15 2:55.22 29.49 MB. The figure after the track number indicates the time point on the CD at which the beginning of the track lies, e.g. 0:07.15 would be 7 minutes and 15 seconds into the disk. The latter two of these figures, respectively, are the size of the track in minutes/seconds playing time and the latter is its size in megabytes before it is extracted and/or converted. 4. You can TAB through the lists and editfields in this tracks dialogue box and observe that all of the normal information you would require on a CD has editfields for it to be typed in by you, such as "Artist", "Album", "year", etc. So you can manually type these facts in if you wish or you can elect to get CDEX to go onto the Internet and retrieve this information from an online CDDB (compact disk database) for you and automatically complete these fields, provided that the CDDB has the details for this CD in its database. It will have all but the very most recently- released CDs but, of course, it will not be able to deal with CDs you have compiled of your own with tracks from several different CDs. This automatic CD information completion ability will be demonstrated in a later section. 5. Now, in the tracks list, select/highlight the tracks you want to extract to WAV files in the normal Windows way, e.g. if you want them all press CONTROL A; if you only want the first three tracks hold down the SHIFT key whilst you ARROW from track 1 to track 3; if you want tracks 2, 5 and 9 ARROW to track 2, hold down the CONTROL key and then press the SPACEBAR, keep the CONTROL key down all the time and then ARROW to track 5 and press the SPACEBAR again, keep the CONTROL key down and ARROW to track 9 and again press the SPACEBAR, and so on. Your screenreader should feature a selected files confirmation hot key for you to check that you have exactly what you want selected, e.g. SHIFT INSERT down ARROW with JAWS, SHIFT CONTROL M with Window-Eyes and Numpad 1 with HAL. 6. Lastly, press the F8 key to extract the tracks to WAV files. The extracting will commence immediately and you should hear the CD in the CD drive start to spin. 7. You may not get any indication that the encoding has finished but when it has, you will be returned to the tracks dialogue box you started in and can extract more tracks if you like. The encoding may take several minutes for a 4 or 5 minute long track on slower PCs but should take less than a minute per track on computers with 1000 MHz CPUs or better. During the extracting your screenreader may give you some feedback in percentage countdown terms and you can view what is happening in mouse mode when you first do this to get an Idea of what is going on. You will also be on a "Cancel" button during the extracting and your Title Bar will also tell you what per cent stage the current track is at whilst it is being extracted. You are advised not to get your screenreader speaking too much during this process in case you cause slight audio clicks on the ripped track due to this. The information on screen whilst the extracting is going on advises you of which tracks are to be ripped, how large in Mb they are, what stage the extracting is at in percentage terms and then tells you that the tracks are being normalised for you, etc. 8. When finished extracting, exit CDEX by pressing ALT F4. Note: After extracting your tracks to WAV format, if you would like to place them on a blank CD for playing in your HI-FI at home or in your car stereo system, you can simply use a CD-RW drive (CD burning drive) and burn them to a CD. Remember to use the audio and not the data option in your burning software when doing this, e.g. with Easy CD Creator, Nero Burning-ROM and the like. You would also be advised to use the "disk-at-once" option when burning your WAV files so that you can then move from track to track on your HI-FI system. Of course, you will have to have extracted these WAV files with the correct HI-FI specification settings, i.e. at 44.1 Kbps/Hz, in stereo and in 16 bit sampling. Moreover, do not forget to "close" or "Finalise" the CD; otherwise, whilst it will play in your computer CD drive, it will not play on a standard HI-FI system. 8.3.6. Extracting Tracks and Encoding/Converting them to Compressed Formats with CDEX The extracting and encoding (converting to one of several possible compressed formats) feature is a two stage process. It goes through the steps in the last section up to step 5 and then you finish with a different shortcut key. What you do is: 8.3.6.1. Ripping Tracks to MP3 Format with the Lame Encoder The Lame encoder is CDEXs default ripping/encoding plugin, so to rip tracks to MP3 format: 1. Follow the steps in the last section exactly up to and including step 5. 2. At step 6 press the F9 key to start the extracting followed by the encoding and converting process. 3. You will receive a very similar amount of feedback to that given when just extracting to WAV files, except that you will first be told the percentage of the extracting which you are at per track and then the percentage of converting you are at on that same track. What is happening is that the tracks are being extracted to WAV files firstly and those WAV files are then being encoded/converted to your chosen compressed format via your chosen encoder, e.g. the Lame encoder, the MP3 encoder, the OGG Vorbis encoder, the Windows WMA encoder, etc. This means that encoding takes around twice as long as straightforward extracting to WAV files. 4. When finished extracting and encoding, exit CDEX by pressing ALT F4. Note 1: Using the Lame encoder in its default state will result in tracks being ripped at a bit rate of 128 bits per sample (which is the most common bit rate for MP3 music files), in stereo and with quite good quality settings. Such an MP3 music track would have similar quality to listening to an FM radio with good reception. If you want to increase the quality of the ripped music file to, say, 192 bits and change any other settings, do this before you choose your tracks for ripping by going into the settings configuration dialogue by pressing F4. Similarly, if you are ripping speech files, you may wish to reduce the bit rate to something like 64 bit (similar to what you get on a copied cassette) or even 32 bit, as speech does not require as much quality as music and the speech files will therefore be much smaller. You may also want to reduce a speech file's size by half again by ripping it in mono rather than in stereo. Note 2: After extracting your tracks to MP3 format, if you would like to place them on a blank CD for taking elsewhere and playing on someone else's computer or for playing on an MP3 CD player, you can simply use a CD-RW drive (CD burning drive) and burn them to a CD. Remember to use the data and not the audio option in your burning software when doing this as MP3 tracks are data files and not audio files, e.g. with Easy CD Creator, Nero Burning-ROM and the like. Tip: If any ripper/encoder/sound editor you are using is not able to rip to or convert given audio file formats to what you require, you can try using an independent stand-alone audio file converter. The DBPoweramp converter can be downloaded from: www.dbpoweramp.com 8.3.6.1. Ripping Tracks to OGG Vorbis Format with the Vorbis Encoder To rip to OGG Vorbis format, which compresses tracks even more than MP3 does but also provides as good if not better sound quality: 1. Press F4 to open the settings configuration dialogue. 2. In the "Encoder" sheet, TAB to the "Encoder" combobox and ARROW down from "Lame" to "OGG Vorbis DLL Encoder" and leave focus on that. 3. TAB to "On the Fly Encoding" and press SPACEBAR to check this off. This then permits your encoded tracks to be normalised so that they are all of the same or a very similar volume, irrespective of how many different CDs you extracted them from. You cannot normalise with the on-the-fly option turned on. Note, however, that checking this on-the-fly option off does have the effect that CDEX will no longer extract from your CD directly to WAV files, thus missing out your sound card. The effect of this could be odd crackles and clicks in your ripped tracks. If you experience this and find that you would prefer cleaner tracks but not necessarily all of a consistent volume, do not turn on-the- fly ripping off. You will have to experiment to find which is preferable for your set-up and sound card. Most reasonable sound cards will probably not manifest this clicking effect, anyway. 4. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. This encoder and the settings you may have chosen in its controls page will remain as your default encoder and settings until you change it again to a different encoder. 5. Now follow all of the steps in the last section to rip your track(s). Note: In the above settings, Encoder sheet you will view that the default bit rate for Vorbis files is 160 Kbps. This permits both better quality files than the MP3 default will provide whilst packing them into smaller spaces on your hard disk. 8.3.7. Where Did My Extracted or Encoded Tracks Go To? If you did not change the default sub-folder which CDEX saves extracted uncompressed WAV or encoded compressed files to, as mentioned in the configuration section above entitled "Launching and Configuring CDEX", CDEX will save all of its extracted or encoded tracks deep in sub-folders below its own folder. This may be a tedious place for you to play these tracks from or find them at, so I recommend that you change this to something more accessible like: C:\My Music\ But you will have to access this saving pathname browsing option by pressing ENTER when on the path line. However, if you have not changed the default (normal) saving folder, the extracted tracks will now have berried themselves at: C:\Program Files\CDEX\My Music\No Artist\No title\ and will have filenames such as 02-audiotrack 02.wav and 03- audiotrack 03.mp3. This happens when you have extracted a track but not completed the track, artist, album, etc, editfields which are available to you when you select the tracks for extracting. If you do take the time to complete these editfields (which I strongly recommend that you do), the folders path to the extracted files will now be of the order: C:\Program Files\CDEX\My Music\The Beetles\Let it Be\02- audiotrack 02.wav In other words, after you get to the "My Music" level, you will then get meaningful artist and album names instead of no artist and no track. If you had of changed the saving folder as just recommended above, the new saving folder path would now be: C:\My Music\The Beetles\Let it Be\02-audiotrack 02.wav Now this is all assuming that you also did not bother to change the individual track names in the tracks dialogue before you extracted them. It is also, obviously, a good idea to give the tracks their correct titles. You would do this by: 1. When the tracks dialogue box comes up after inserting your CD, you are in the tracks list. Just ARROW to the track you wish to manually name. 2. When on the track, press the F2 key to open up an editfield and then type the track's correct name in here without any extension, as the extraction or encoding process will provide the appropriate extension for you. For example, type in "Get Back" (no quotes) and then extract or encode with F8 or F9. 3. The correctly named track(s) will now extract or encode to the same artist and album name as any other tracks you have already extracted to that path, because CDEX now knows and remembers the name of your artist and album and can recognise this as soon as you again put the same CD into your CD drive, and it also knows which sub-folder to save future extracted tracks to from that same artist and album. Note 1: As another alternative, you may also want to specify the tracks saving folder to the same folder as you normally store your tracks in for playing with your favourite media player, such as Winamp or Windows Media Player. These players are much better from a keyboard point of view than CDEXs own media player. 8.3.8. Obtaining Album and Tracks Information from the Online Compact Disk Database and Saving this Information to Your Hard Disk When you launch CDEX with a CD in the CD drive and come into the tracks list in the tracks dialogue, you can, if you have an Internet connection, elect to get the CD tracks, album name, artist's name, etc, automatically completed for you by letting CDEX interrogate the Freedb Compact Disk Database (CDDB). You can also get CDEX to save this information to its "LocalCDDB" sub- folder just off of its main CDEX\ folder so that these album details will be known by CDEX the next time you insert this same CD into the CD drive. Here is how you do it: 1. Either before or straight after you launch CDEX, insert your music CD into the CD drive. 2. When the tracks dialogue box opens, with the tracks, album, etc, editfields either being blank or having made-up track names, press ALT D (for CDDB) and then R (for Read Remote CDDB). 3. You will be taken online, if you are not already online, and the CD album's details will be completed from this online CDDB within a few seconds. When finished, close your Internet connection if you like. 4. To save the album details just obtained from the CDDB on your hard disk, press ALT D again and then ARROW down to "Save to Local CDDB" and press ENTER. The information will be saved to: C:\Program Files\CDEX\LocalCDDB\ 5. You can use the "Read from Local CDDB" option in this same CDDB menu to view all of the tracks titles of your saved CD albums. 8.3.9. Uploading Details of Your Own CDs to the CDDB Database If you discover that the CDDB does not contain the information for a given CD which you have ripped, you will have to enter these yourself manually. after typing tracks, artist, album, etc, details into the editfields You can then press ALT D (for CDDB) and then U (for Submit to Remote CDDB) to be taken online and have your information uploaded to help anyone else who uses this database to get this information without having to manually insert it themselves. The place on the Internet where you are submitting your CD information is at: freedb-submit@freedb.org 8.3.10. Normalising Tracks to make them all the Same Volume You should have already turned the normalising feature on when you configured CDEX as outlined earlier in this section. If you did not, it is a good idea to do so, so that your ripped tracks have a consistently level volume and none is louder or quieter than the others. Do this in: 1. Press F4 to enter the configuration dialogue. 2. CONTROL TAB to the "Generic" property sheet if you are not already on it. 3. TAB down to "Normalise Volume" and press SPACEBAR to turn this on. 4. TAB to and press ENTER on "OK" to finish. 8.3.11. Viewing and Making More Changes in the Configurations Dialogue After pressing the F4 key, in addition to normalising, as described in the last sub-section, there are hundreds of things you can select by ARROWING to them in lists or checking them on with the SPACEBAR in the six property sheets of the configuration dialogue box. You can move between sheets by CONTROL TABBING or right and left ARROWING when on the sheet labels. For example: 1. The "Generic" sheet: This is mainly concerned with ID3 tags, which determine the type of tagging information which is used on your CD to record its information about tracks, album, artist, etc. So TAB through and view these facts and do the same in the other five sheets. 2. The "Filenames" sheet: This is mainly concerned with where your tracks will be ripped to and saved and you can check on in here a "Add Files to M3U Playlist" if you would like your tracks to be automatically added to a Playlist wrapper and saved in that album's sub-folder with a .M3U extension for you. When you play the tracks within such an M3U file, you can usually view its details to find out the information about it which was recorded with it when it was ripped, e.g. in Winamp you would pause the playing of the file and then press ALT 3 to view this information. 3. The CD Drive" sheet: TABBING through here will reveal your CD drives, the parameters set for your CD drive(s) operation and provides a list of "CD Types" you can select. If your CD drive is not in this list, just leave it on "generic" and it should still work OK. If your CD is not being detected by CDEX, you can press ENTER on the "Auto Detect" button to try to force CDEX to find and recognise your drive but you must have a CD in the drive when doing this. A very handy option to press SPACEBAR on in here to turn on is the "Eject CD When Ripping Has Been completed" option, so that, as soon as the music CD you are ripping from is ejected from the CD drive, you will know that the ripping process is complete. This will permit you to do your ripping with your screenreader turned off and with no other programs running simultaneously, to get the purest extracted and encoded tracks with no interference from other programs, if you find that you need to do this. Ensure that "Enable Jitter Correction" is turned on. If your CD drive will support it, you may wish to change the "Read Sectors" from its default of 26 to a much higher level, e.g. 400, because your tracks will then rip much quicker. If this results in failed rips, change it back to 26. Changing "CD Speed" from 0 to such as 60 might also speed ripping up if your CD drive can cope with this. By default, the "Use CD Text if Available" option is checked on, which is a good idea because some music CDs hold their own tracks, artist, album, etc, details, so you do not have to go to the online CDDB to retrieve this information. 4. The "Encoder" sheet: This, of course, is mainly to do with which encoder you are using to rip through and, depending on the encoder you select in the "Encoder" list, you will get different types and styles of other options you can adjust with checkboxes, lists and sliders. So ARROW to different encoders, e.g. Lame, WMA, OGG Vorbis, etc, and then TAB through and view the options each gives you. For example, with the Lame MP3 encoder, you can change the type of MP3 file from MPEG 1 to MPEG 2 or MPEG 2.5; you can change the "bit Rate" from its default of 128 to as little as 32 KBPs or as high as 320 KBPS but the higher you go the larger the resulting extracted file will be; you can change the "Quality" of the file to be produced from "Normal" to such as "Low", "Voice", "Very High Quality", etc, depending on how good you need the quality of the output file; you can change the sampling rate from "Auto" to such as 48,000, 44,100 (normal CD quality) or 32,000; and so forth. 5. The "Local CDDB" sheet: You are not likely to want to change anything in here, unless you would like to get CDEX to save its local CDDB information in a different path and sub-folder. 6. The "Remote CDDB" sheet: This is where you have to provide your e-mail address so that you can both receive and send music CD track, artist, album, etc, details to and from the online Internet database, if you wish. If you are keen on pulling in music CD information to CDEX from the CDDB for Cds you have not yet got this on, you may wish to check on the "Auto Connect to Remote CDDB" option, so that every time you put a CD into the CD drive which CDEX does not know it will automatically take you online and obtain the CD details. If you are using a firewall on your computer, you should check "Use Proxy" on; and if you have to use authentication to access files through your firewall, you should check on "Authentication"and complete the next editfield with your user ID and the editfield after that with your password. 8.3.12. Recording Vinyl, tape and other media from Analogue Input CDEX has a nice, basic but reasonably accessible analogue recording ability. You do have to do a little mouse cursoring and left clicking to recommence recording, pause and stop recording but not overmuch. You plug your external sound source into the line in jack plug or Microphone jack plug on your sound card, open the analogue recorder, configure it and then start it recording, followed by starting your external sound source playing. Do this by: 1. With your sound source plugged into your sound card, press ALT T (for Tools) and then R (for Record from Analog Input). 2. You fall on the "Sample Rate" combobox to ARROW up and down and select the quality in Hz of the sound file you would like. 44,100 is the normal CD quality but you may wish to reduce this to such as 24,000 or 32,000 rate if you are only making voice recordings. 3. TAB to "Free Length" and leave it hear if you want to record for as long as you like. If you would like to have the recording stop after a given period of time, ARROW down to "Record for Just" then TAB to an editfield and type in the number of seconds you want the recording to go on for before it automatically stops, e.g. 1800 in seconds for 30 minutes if you were recording a live TV or radio program which only lasts half an hour. In this way, you can use the analogue recorder like a timed tape recorder or video recorder for sound only. 4. TAB to "Input Device" and your sound card should be already selected but you can ARROW down and select other input recording devices if you like. 5. Next comes the "Output Filename" and the filename "Record" is in there by default, so over-type this with a filename you would like instead, e.g. Beatles. It will be automatically given an extension, which will depend on the format of recorded file you choose below. 6. TAB to "Output File Type" and you can ARROW through around 14 options, such as WAV, OGG Vorbis, the Lame MP3 encoder, etc. 7. Another press of TAB takes you to the "Record" button. If you press ENTER the computer hard disk will revolve and you will be recording, so start playing your external sound source which should be plugged into your sound card's Line In socket or start talking into your microphone which would be plugged into your sound card's microphone socket. 8. If you want to pause recording, you have to go into mouse mode, go to the bottom of the screen and press your screenreader's left mouse simulation key on the "Pause" button. You will be left on the "Pause" button and can then press ENTER at any time to recommence recording from where you paused it. You will then be left on the pause button and then henceforth you can just press the ENTER key to pause and recommence recording. A line or two up from the bottom of the screen there is a countdown metre of how many seconds you have been recording for. To avoid an unreasonable delay between you first pausing a recording via the "Pause" button at the bottom of the window and then being able to simply use the ENTER key for future pauses and unpauses, you might want to place the slight delay at the beginning of the recording by starting recording, then left mouse clicking on the "Pause" button, which will leave you on the more accessible "Pause" button for pauses and unpauses with the ENTER key in the middle of the recording. 9. To stop recording, in mouse mode, go to the bottom of the screen and left click on the "Stop" button. You can also get to these pause, stop and cancel buttons by ALT TABBING away from the CDEX window and then ALT TABBING back to it and then SHIFT TABBING to these buttons. 10. Press ENTER on or left click on the "Cancel" button when you have finished recording. 11. Unless you have changed this, your sound file will save to the usual place of: C:\Program Files\CDEX\My Music\ 12. If you use the "Pause" button to pause recording and then press ENTER again on "Pause", the recording, as would be expected, continues from where you paused recording to the same file. However, if you press ENTER on "Stop" and then press left click on "Record", then the last recording is terminated and given the filename you asked for but with a number to indicate that it is the first of several files with this filename, e.g. it would be called beatles-0.wav. Starting recording again after stopping, means that the recording countdown starts in seconds from 1 again and this recording will record to a different file with a slightly different filename, e.g. beatles-1. Stopping again and then restarting would result in another file being created with a filename of beatles-2.wav, etc. 13. You cannot do any sound file editing in the CDEX analogue recorder, it is just a straightforward recording device. Note: If your recording is either too quiet or too loud, you should make any volume changes in the Windows Volume Control (see the earlier section on this topic). 8.3.13. The Main CDEX Menu Features Many of the most frequently used menu options of CDEX can be carried out without having to go into the menu structure, if you prefer and can remember shortcuts. If not, use the CDEX menus to achieve the above actions. CDEXs menus work in the standard Windows way and are pretty self-explanatory. Just open the main menu bar with the ALT key and then right and left ARROW through the menus or open a given menu by holding the ALT key down and pressing such as F (for File), (E (for Edit), etc. Some menu options of interest are: In the "File" menu: Nothing of great importance, other than the exit command. In the "Edit" menu: "Copy Album Info to Clipboard" allows you to copy the details of the current CD in the CD drive to the Clipboard and then open such as MS Word and paste these details into the document screen with CONTROL V, perhaps for then printing out for someone or putting into a file and e-mailing to someone interested in it. In the "Convert" menu: This contains the options to extract tracks to WAV or extract to compressed files, the same as pressing F8 and F9 respectively. The next menu option here is "Extract a Section of the CD", which lets you select part only of a CD, e.g. tracks 2, 3 and4, and then choose this menu option or press the shortcut of F10 to extract these tracks to WAV or compressed formats as if they were a single track, i.e. playing this extracted file will play all three tracks as if they were one track with Winamp's shortcuts such as B (for jump forward a track), Z (for jump back a track), etc, not working. The "Re- Encode Compressed Audio file(s)" option, if you press ENTER on it and then check on "Look in Subfolders" and "Riff-WAV", allows you to re-encode compressed files to other compressed files but with lower bit rates. The "Convert WAV File(s) to Compressed Audio File(s)" menu option lets you select a WAV file on your hard disk--perhaps one which you extracted to a WAV file instead of extracting and encoding it--and then get the encoding done, under your normal encoding parameters as set up in the encoding sheet of the configuration dialogue. The next menu option does the opposite of that just explained, i.e. it uncompresses a compressed file back to a WAV file but, of course, the resulting WAV file will not be the same as the WAV file it may have originally been compressed from--it will only have the same qualities as were afforded to it when it was first compressed. In the "Tools" menu: The "Media Player" is best avoided as it is not very keyboard-friendly and you are advised to do your tracks playing in such as Winamp or Windows Media Player. The "Record from Analog Input" permits you to record such as audio cassettes, vinyl albums, midi CD tracks, voice recordings with a microphone, etc, through the line in or microphone jack at the back of your sound card onto your hard disk. In the "CDDB" menu: This simply duplicates the options available in the CDDB Context Menu mentioned above. In the "Options" menu: Here is where you turn on or off several toolbar views, which are usually all turned on. There is also the settings configuration dialogue option in here which has been mentioned in some detail above and can also be accessed by pressing the F4 key. 8.3.14. Using the CDEX Help System The two main types of CDEX help are on the "Contents" tab and the "Index" tab. 8.3.14.1. Help Contents The first method of using help contents is to press the F1 key and then: 1. TAB through several help topics to press ENTER on and read. 2. If there is more than one page of information, press PAGE down to hear the next page. 3. After listening to the help text, you can sometimes press TAB several times to access extra help sub-topics relating to the current topic to press ENTER on. However, you will find the help system easier to use and reliably view the text in it if you use the second method given below. 1. Press ALT H (for Help) and then H (for Help on Using CDEX). 2. ARROW through 13 subject headings and press the right ARROW key to open a list of sub-topics in any of them for reading. You can also press ALT O (for Open) to open up the list of sub-topics in any main heading . 3. When on a sub-topic you can press ENTER to get the text in their read out to you. 4. If there is more than one page of help text, press the PAGE down key to hear the next page of details. 5. To close the sub-topics list either press left ARROW or TAB to and press ENTER on the "Close" button. 6. To print the sub-topic help text TAB to "Print" and press ENTER or just press ALT P. 7. After listening to your sub-topic textual information, to jump forwards to the next sub-topic and get it rad out, press ALT . (full stop). Each time you press ALT . you will move to the next sub-topic in the current main heading list or to the next main heading followed by its list of sub-topics until you eventually get to the very end of the help manual. 8. To jump backwards through earlier sub-topics and get them read out press ALT , (comma). 9. To leave help, press the ESCAPE key. 8.3.14.2. Searching in Index Help If you want to search for sub-topic headings to open and read one of these: 1. Press ALT H and then H again. 2. SHIFT TAB back to the "Contents" Tab label. 3. Now right ARROW to "Index". 4. TAB once to an editfield and type in here any of the keywords you want to find something on, e.g. keyboard, to be taken to such as "Keyboard Shortcuts" which you will be on if you now TAB once. 5. To display the textual information in the Keyboard Shortcuts topic, press ENTER. You will have to press PAGE down to hear any second page of help text and you may also sometimes encounter a link at the bottom of the page to press ENTER on to open up a further related page of help information. 6. Press ESCAPE to leave help. Note: If you do not type a search string into the editfield in 4 above, you will be able to TAB once to the full available list of help topic headings in A to Z order and then ARROW down them to view them all and press ENTER on any of them for reading. 8.3.15. List of CDEX Keyboard Shortcuts CDEX supports the following keyboard shortcuts: Press F1: To open the help Contents and Index page. Press F2: to open the rename track editfield. Press F3: to view the status and progress of CD ripping. Press F4: To open the CDEX settings configuration dialogue. Press F5: to refresh the track list,, re-read the table of contents and re-read the CDDB information. Press F8: to rip the selected tracks to a WAV file. Press F9: to Rip selected tracks to a compressed file, such as MP3 and OGG Vorbis. Press F10: To start extraction of part of a CDs tracks only to one filename. Press F11: To convert WAV files to compressed files. Press F12: To convert compressed files to WAV files. Press ALT F4: To exit CDEX. Press CONTROL A: To select/highlight all tracks. 8.4. Other Stand Alone MP3 Players and Rippers Other rippers which you may wish to know about and experiment with yourself are: * Audio Grabber--From: www.whitestick.co.uk Its on the "Some useful Programs" link. Audio Grabber can also rip to MP3 via the line in jack on your sound card, e.g. from a tape recorder, mini disk, vinyl album turntable, etc, but you will have to buy the full version to be able to rip more than ten minutes of sound in this way. * Audio Catalyst--From: www.whitestick.co.uk Its on the "Some useful Programs" link. * Absolute MP3 Recorder--From: www.techlogic.ca * MP3 Pro Audio--From: www.thomson-multimedia.com This MP3 ripper is also an encoder and is said to be the next generation of MP3 rippers, being able to compress music to half the size of standard MP3 rippers and reproduce sound with better than average quality. Its only a 1.5 Mb download and you can also download a Winamp plugin for it from the same page as well. The download is a demo only. * Freerip.MP3 Here is a free ripping and encoding package from: www.mgshareware.com Freerip is quite basic but easy to use and very accessible to screenreader users. * Puls MP3 This is a blind-friendly MP3 player obtained from: www.blindsoftware.com It includes screenreader accessible buttons, an ID3 tag editor and reader, ability to convert MP3 files to wave files, you can create and open play lists, adjust volume and playback pitch and much more. You can also select which sound card is used to output music. You will need a multi-channel sound card and Direct X7 or higher installed. * total Recorder This can carry out many types of recording, including recording from Internet streams to MP3 and scheduling for recording at given times. Its for sale for about 12 dollars and you can also download a demo version for testing which will only record up to 30 seconds of audio from: www.download.com and www.highcriteria.com * MDIrecorder With this player and recorder you can record sound generated or requested by other computer programs such as RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and Winamp, etc. The resulting files are saved in Wav or MP3 formats. You can record streaming audio files from the Internet or conversations if you use an Internet telephony program or music from games programs, etc. MDIrecorder automatically configures your sound card, you can set the sample rate, mono or stereo and the bit rate of recordings and you can make use of hot keys to operate it, e.g. F9 to start recording, F10 to pause and resume recording and F11 to stop recording. You can start MDIrecorder first and then run your other program with the sound source and at any time use these hot keys to get MDIrecorder to start and stop recording without switching to MDIrecorder. You can obtain a free demo download from: www.realrecorder.net/ You can also obtain a DVD audio ripper from: www.imtoo.com ******** >SECTION 9 THE GOLDWAVE DIGITAL AUDIO EDITOR VERSION 5.1 9.1. Introduction This tutorial will be found to be suitable for all versions of GoldWave from 5.0 to the current version, which is Version 5.10. Since newer releases of Version 5 tend to be only bug fixes and possible slight improvements, it should also prove to be suitable for future releases of GoldWave 5X but, of course, I have no crystal ball to be absolutely certain of this and slight changes in GoldWave are being made and posted on the GoldWave site very frequently. I Have, for example, found no noticeable difference in GoldWave 5.06 and Version 5.08, so we must be talking about such small updates being for small bug fixes in the main. When you already have a copy of GoldWave on your PC, such as Version 5.06, and then download another slightly updated version, such as Version 5.10, you can simply install it as you did with the first version. The GoldWave update will simply copy itself over your old version and maintain any configuration settings you have already made to the program. It will also keep your original registration number. There is no extra charge made for these upgrade sub-versions. For those familiar with the Sound Forge audio editing software, GoldWave 5 has a very similar interface and general look to it to that of Sound Forge. It also has a very similar catalogue of features and supports a good number of keyboard shortcut keystrokes. For its price, GoldWave has an impressive array of audio creating, converting, special effects and editing features for digital music, analogue music and speech input. It can take digital audio from your CD drives and convert this to more than a dozen alternative formats such as WAV and compressed MP3, WMA and OGG Vorbis formats. It is also able to remaster and fix crackles, his and clicks on music and other sound files you record into it from external sources, such as from vinyl LPs, music cassettes, the radio and other sound sources fed into it via the jack plug on your sound card. As part of its standard installation it provides normalising and noise reduction features. Audio recording programs like Windows Sound Recorder and CDEX are fine for short passages of straightforward music or speech recording in a similar way to using a cassette recorder but they do not offer much in the way of editing the finished result. GoldWave offers more editing options and more flexible and easier to use keyboard sound editing hot keys. Whilst with GoldWave you can pause recording at any time and then continue, it is more likely that you will wish to finish a recording, mark any mistakes as you go and then go back to any mistakes and edit them out or correct them later. 9.2. System Requirements GoldWave 5.10 has the following system requirements before it will work on your computer: 1. Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP. For Windows NT and 95 you should be using GoldWave Version 4.26 but this version has some fundamental differences in how it works from how Version 5X works. 2. A 700 MHZ CPU or better. 3. 256 Mb of RAM. 4. 200 Mb free hard disk space. 5. An accelerated video card. 6. A Direct X compatible sound card driver. 7. Direct X 8 or later on your system. 8. If you wish to create and edit audio, movie and MP3 files, GoldWave Requires an up-to-date version of Windows Media Player to be installed so that it can use the Media Player's media modules. 9. If you wish to save MP3 files, you will Require the Lame encoder to be installed in the GoldWave folder. Note: You can download an up-to-date version of Direct X from: www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads 9.3. Downloading and Installing the GoldWave Demo You can download a demonstration version of GoldWave from: www.goldwave.com On the home page you are looking for a "Try the fully functional" line and the link under it called "Evaluation Version (V5.10 . . )" (or whatever slightly newer title and filename they may now be giving these things--they change their headings and filenames regularly) and then a "Self-Installing GoldWave V5.10" (or similarly named) link from which to start the download. The demo is a Canadian product and will run for 150 commands per session before you have to reboot your computer. After 3,000 commands in total, it will cease to work altogether, unless you pay for it and thereby obtain a registration serial number and an unlock key. It currently costs 40 US dollars, 55 Canadian dollars or 25 English pounds. You can pay for it online with a VISA card or send them a personal cheque. The program is about 1.7 Mb in size and will take about eight minutes to download with a 56K modem. The file you download may be either a Winzip file called something liek "gwave510.exe.zip and, in this case, you will have to have a copy of Winzip or some other zip program to unpack it. It will unpack to a self- extracting exe file with the filename of "gwave510.exe". Otherwise, you may be able to download a slightly larger non- zipped, self-extracting exe file which does not need unzipping called something like "gwave510.exe". To install the Goldwave software: 1. Go to the gwave510.exe (or other) self-extracting exe file with the Windows Run command or in My computer or Windows Explorer and press ENTER on it. 2. You will be on a "Next" button, so press ENTER. 3. If the program detects a copy of the Lame MP3 encoder on your computer in the \Windows\Settings\ folder, the installation will just continue as below. If it does not, it will warn you about this and that, whilst the main features of GoldWave will still work OK, you will not be able to save MP3 files without this Lame encoder. You will have to press ENTER on a "No" button to move on, unless you want to go online to the GoldWave site to read more about this. 4. The program will be installed at: C:\Program Files\GoldWave\ so TAB to "Next" to accept this folder. 5. By default, the installation will add a launch GoldWave option to your Start Menu and an Icon on your Desktop but you can check any of these off if you like. I suggest that you leave at least the Desktop shortcut icon checked on. You now TAB to "Finish" and press ENTER to start the installation, which will only take a few seconds. 6. GoldWave will immediately open after installation and you will be on a help page with information about registering the program, etc. To leave this help page and go to the main GoldWave window, press ALT F4. 7. Whilst GoldWave does not demand this, I recommend that you now exit it with ALT F4 and then reboot your PC before using GoldWave, as this is generally good practice after installing a new piece of software, so do this now. Note: If GoldWave did not detect the Lame encoder on your hard disk (and it will not even if you have one if it is not in the correct folder for it to find), you should search your system for "lame_enc.dll" and copy it to: C:\Program Files\GoldWave so that you will be able to save MP3 files. You should have a copy of it somewhere if you have programs like Winamp and CDEX on your hard disk. If you do not have the Lame DLL, you can download it from: www.jthz.com/~lame 9.4. Launching GoldWave To launch GoldWave either: 1. Press Windows key M to get to the Desktop and then G until you hear that GoldWave has focus and then press ENTER; or 2. Press Windows key and then ARROW down to "GoldWave" and press ENTER; or 3. Press Windows key R (for Run) and then type into the editfield you are now in: "C:\Program Files\GoldWave\GoldWave.exe" and press ENTER; or 4. Via Program Files on your Start Menu or with My Computer or Windows Explorer, Go to the exe file via its path and press ENTER on it. It is at: C:\Program Files\GoldWave\GoldWave.EXE If you have not yet registered GoldWave, you will come onto the GoldWave help and registration information screen. You can press ALT F4 to close this and move to the main GoldWave window. This second window is where you will in future go straight to after you have registered and paid for GoldWave. 9.5. Registering and Purchasing GoldWave To register GoldWave and obtain an unlock key and licence code, etc, you can pay online with a VISA card at the www.goldwave.com site or send them a cheque or money or postal order. When you receive your unlock key, you activate it as follows: 1. With GoldWave running and with you in the main GoldWave window, press ALT O (for Options) and ARROW up to "Register" and press ENTER. 2. In the "User ID" editfield you come into type your provided user code. 3. TAB to "Licence" and type in this code as well. 4. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to complete the process. If you do not register GoldWave at this stage, you can still use it for a limited period, until you have had 3,000 commands carried out whilst evaluating the software. It will then cease to work until you register it. 9.6. Pen-Picture of the GoldWave Screens GoldWave uses three main types of windows: the Main window, the Control window and Sound windows. You should maximise the Main window which you first come into when you launch GoldWave by pressing ALT SPACEBAR and then X. You can ALT TAB between the Main window and the Control window (if not turned off) as required, although you do not need to use the Control window because there are ample shortcuts to carry out its functions without having to use its command buttons. Once you have opened more than one Sound window within the Main window, you can use CONTROL F6 to move between these open Sound windows. CONTROL F4 will close a sound window. 9.6.1. The Main Window The Main window of goldWave, when maximised (ALT SPACEBAR X) and without any Sound windows open in it, has the standard Title Bar at the top with the program's name in it, i.e. "GoldWave". Just below this is the Main Menu bar with File, Edit, Effect, etc, pull-down menus. Even when a Sound window with a sound file in it has been opened within the Main window, the sound file's filename is not, by default, displayed in the GoldWave Title Bar. Underneath the Title Bar you usually have two Toolbars for sighted people to click on convenient command buttons. Underneath these toolbars is the main area of the Main window screen featuring buttons for certain actions and status information such as the balance and recording volume level. There are also other informational columns but these will be blank or have zeros in them because you do not at present have a sound file open. At the very bottom there is a click here to begin button. These informational columns will be dealt with in the description of the Sound windows below. This Main window groups together and manages all of your open Sound windows. 9.6.2. The Control Window If it is enabled, to get to the Control window you press ALT F6 and ALT F6 takes you back to the Main window. The Control window houses several command controls for giving commands such as playback, rewind, fast forward, recording, volume, balance and speed. It interacts directly with your sound card, but you do not need to bother with it because you can carry out all of its commands with keyboard shortcuts or from the menus. In fact, the Control window's buttons are not particularly accessible to screenreader users without messing about to activate them, so I recommend that you turn it off by going into the Tools menu and pressing ENTER on "Control" to uncheck this. 9.6.3. The Sound Windows Sound windows are opened within the Main window for the creation of new sound files and the modification of already created files and are where you will do most of your work in GoldWave. If you open a new, blank Sound window by pressing CONTROL N, this window and file will be automatically given the default name of "Untitled1" and this will change after you have saved any work in it to a filename of your own choice. By default, the filename of any open sound file will not be shown in GoldWave's main Title Bar but will rather be displayed further down the screen, at the place where the open Sound window and sound file details are also displayed. You can change this so that the Sound window title does show next to the GoldWave title at the top if you make Sound windows maximised by default (this is covered below in Sub- section 8 of this section). If you open another Sound window whilst the first is open by pressing CONTROL N again, this second Sound window will also be contained within the Main window and will be given the temporary name of "Untitled2". You can move between each open Sound window by pressing CONTROL F6. Each Sound window contains a wave form graph of the sound with a time access near the bottom and if the sound is in stereo you will get two separate graphs, one in green at the top representing the left channel and the one in red below representing the right channel. Any selected part of a sound file is highlighted with a blue background. These wave patterns and selected portions of sound files will be meaningless to your screenreader. If you go into mouse mode with your screenreader and then ARROW down an open Sound window which has a sound file in it, you will be able to observe certain facts and figures, such as the stopped or paused state of the file, the total size of the file, its mono or stereo format, whether it is the original file you loaded into the Sound window or if it has been modified since you loaded it and there is also a good deal of detail about the open file's status as far as how much of it has already been played before it was paused and how much of it there is before any selecting/highlighting has been done and how much of it has been highlighted. The very bottom of the Sound window you are currently in displays status information under four headings as follows (but the headings themselves may not be displayed): "Modified" or "Original": This tells you if a file is "original" or has been "modified" (changed) since you opened it. "Zoom": This advises you of the zoom ratio of samples to pixels you are currently working in with that file, which is to do with how magnified the view of a portion of a sound file is on screen and how far your cursor will move when you start giving movement commands to move around in the file. "Format": This tells you the format of the file on screen, e.g. WAV PCM Signed. "Description": This informs you of a file's bit rate, e.g 16 bit; the number of Hertz it is recorded at, e.g. 44,100 Hz; the kilabits per second it is recorded at, e.g. 1411 kbps; and the number of channels it has, e.g. stereo. Note: You can, of course, use your screenreader's standard read Title Bar and Status Line hot keys to confirm that GoldWave has focus and which Sound Window is being worked on (if maximised) and obtain details about the attributes of the open sound file as usual, e.g. to hear Title Bar information, press INSERT T with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT T with Window-Eyes and Numpad 7 with HAL and to observe Status Line details use INSERT 3 with JAWS, CONTROL INSERT S with Window-Eyes and Numpad 2 with HAL. 9.7. A Few Essential GoldWave shortcut Keystrokes to Get you Started Try to learn and memorise as many as you can of the below often- used shortcuts in GoldWave so that you know them as we start to create, edit and save sound files in the forthcoming sections. I will remind you of most of these and also introduce more shortcuts as we go along. The full range of shortcuts can be found in Appendix 1. Note that many of the below shortcuts have both a "Green" method of playing files or selections in files and a "yellow" method. By default, these two methods duplicate one another and do the same things but this can be changed. So, for example, pressing the F4 key to play a file means that you are playing it by the green method, whilst pressing SHIFT F4 means that you are playing it by the yellow method. I mention more about this in the next section and how to change the way one of these playing methods works to produce contrasting ways to play and review files and what you have selected in them. When in the Main Window Press CONTROL N: To open a new Sound window to create a new sound file. Press CONTROL O: to open an already created sound file. Press SPACEBAR or F4: To start playback of a just created or open file in green mode. This can be to play it for editing purposes or simply to play it for listening pleasure. Press SHIFT SPACEBAR or SHIFT F4: To start playback of a just created or open file in yellow mode. Press F5: To rewind a file. Press F6: To fast forward a file. Press F7: To pause a playing file. Press F8: To stop a playing file. It goes back to the start. Press CONTROL F9: To Start recording a sound file, after firstly pressing CONTROL N. Press CONTROL F8: To Stop recording. Press CONTROL F7: To Pause and unpause whilst recording. In Sound Windows Press HOME: to move to the start marker's position. Press END: To move to the finish marker's position. Press SHIFT Right ARROW: To move the start marker right. Press SHIFT Left ARROW: To move the start marker left. Press CONTROL SHIFt Right ARROW: To move the finish marker right. Press Control SHIFT Left ARROW: To move the finish marker left. When Editing Press CONTROL V: to paste the contents of the Clipboard into the sound at the start marker's position. Press CONTROL B: To paste the contents of the Clipboard into the sound file at the beginning of the file. Press CONTROL F: to paste the contents of the Clipboard into the file at the finish marker's position. Press CONTROL E: To paste the contents of the Clipboard into the file at the end of the file. Press CONTROL P: to paste the contents of the Clipboard into a new Sound window. Press CONTROL M: to mix the contents of the Clipboard with the file in the current open window at the start marker's position. Press CONTROL Q: To drop a new queue point at the current playback or recording position. Press [: To move the start marker to the current playback position. Press ]: to move the finish marker to the current playback position. These latter two bracket commands are of particular importance when selecting and editing a sound file. 9.8. GoldWave Configuration As usual with Windows programs and screenreaders, GoldWave will work better if you make certain configuration changes to its factory defaults. 9.8.1. General Configuration and Configuring GoldWave to Work with Screenreaders from the Keyboard To optimise and configure GoldWave: 1. Always maximise the screen as soon as GoldWave has loaded by pressing ALT SPACEBAR and then X. If you want to avoid having to do this to the Main window and each Sound window each time you open them, you can make Maximised windows the opening default by pressing ALT O (for Options), W (for Window) and then ARROWING to "Maximised" in the first list you are in and also doing the same in the next list after firstly TABBING once to it. 2. Do not do the following unless you find that GoldWave is not recording properly, but if you have recording or sound quality problems, check and perhaps change some of the following. To set the audio devices you want GoldWave to use for playback and recording, press F11 to enter the GoldWave settings configuration multi-dialogue box and then right ARROW or CONTROL TAB to the "Device" property sheet. In here TAB through the options and ARROW up and down the several lists of sound cards and drivers and leave focus on the ones you want to use in recording and playback, e.g. if you have a Sound Blaster card installed, ARROW to "Direct Sound (SB Live)" in the "Playback" section; In the "Record Device" list ARROW to "SB Live! Wave In (DC00 Emulated)"; and ensure that you are on 16 bit in "Playback Quality" and "Record Quality", unless your sound card and system can support higher bit rate levels; etc. Then press ENTER on the "OK" button. Note that in the other four of these property sheets you can make playback, recording and video changes and selections and that the "Volume" sheet has the main options you would find in the Windows Volume Control for making volume changes and selecting if you are to be using line in, microphone, etc, devices; and be aware that the controls and options in here can vary depending on the type of sound card you have installed in your computer. 3. Again enter the settings configuration dialogue by pressing F11 and this time right ARROW to the "Record" sheet. In here TAB to "Bounded to Selection" and then ARROW from this to "Unbounded and then TAB to and press ENTER on "OK". This has the effect of Changing the way Goldwave records, permitting you to record without a time restriction (until you manually stop it or your disk is full or you have reached the maximum size of file your OS will permit you to create), thus avoiding your recording possibly being prematurely terminated. This also means that, when you save a recorded file, only the recorded section of the file is saved and not any blank space at the end of a file. In contrast, the "Bounded to Selection" option would require you to specify a fixed recording time before starting recording, which has the effect of making you guess how long you may want to record (something you may or may not know at the outset) and also makes GoldWave save the whole selected time space of the file, including the unrecorded space at the end of a file. This has the effect of slowing down saving and converting times, which could be considerable if you have guessed that a recording of an interview will take, say, 45 minutes but it only actually takes you 10 minutes--the whole 45 minutes of specified recording time has to be processed and saved, unless you take the time and effort to trim the excess blank recorded space off of the file. Later, if you find that you prefer the Bounded to selection mode of recording rather than the unbounded mode, you can always change it back or you can swap and change between these two modes as and when the circumstances demand it. The bounded selection mode, obviously, has advantages if you definitely know how long a recording will take, such as for a radio programme recording which always lasts 30 minutes when you may not be around to manually stop the recording when the programme ends. 4. Yet again, after pressing F11 to enter the configuration dialogue, if you are not already still in there, you may wish to change the default way which one of GoldWave's two methods of playing files works. By default what is known as the "Green" button or means of playing files and the "Yellow" button or means of playing files are the same; they simply duplicate one another. However, you can elect to make both or just one of them work differently. The default way they work is for them to play selected sections of files (if you have done any selecting) when you press such as F4 or SHIFT F4 to play a file and not the whole file. If you would like, say, the green playing method to keep this play selection only as its future way to work but change the yellow means of playing to playing the unselected portion of the file for you, you can do this. I strongly recommend that you make the suggested changes because the rest of this tutorial works on the assumption that you have done so. In the "Play" sheet, where the green options come before the yellow options, just TAB down to the second "Selection" option and change this to "Unselected" by ARROWING down once, then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Note also that in here there are two figures editfields set at "10". These are to specify how many times a selection will play repeatedly when you press the play button. If 10 times over is more or less than you want, just type over it with another figure. I think 10 times is far too much repetition so I have changed mine to one. In future, when you press the play shortcut key of F4 (green play method), you will hear only any selected portion of your file (or the whole file if you have not yet done any selecting in it), whereas when you press SHIFT F4 (yellow playing method), you will hear the unselected portion only of the file played. If the file extends further than the display on the screen, only the unselected section visible on the screen will be played either side of the selected portion. In this configuration, after doing some selecting, you can get both the selected and unselected parts of the file played back to you to determine whether or not you have effected a good selection for carrying out a special effect on, deleting, moving elsewhere, etc, before going ahead and giving the command on it. 5. Press ALT E (for Edit) and then K (for Marker) and then ARROW up to "Snap to Zero Crossing" and press ENTER on this to check it on. It will then remain on by default. This helps to minimise the chances of getting a clicking noise when you select and remove from or add in portions of a sound file. 6. To speed up edits by allowing GoldWave to process changes without also updating the on-screen graph but rather just keep a simple line representation of a sound file, press ALT O (for Options), W (for Window) and then SHIFT TAB to the "Miscellaneous" list and ARROW down to the "Draw Overview Graph" and press SPACEBAR to check it off. 7. Whilst you will not want to do this until you have become very familiar with how GoldWave works, what you may eventually want to do is as follows. When recording from a microphone, if you can use your computer without your screenreader running, turn it off to eliminate your microphone picking up extraneous speech from the screenreader. If not, put it to sleep from time to time and revive it when necessary, e.g. with the INSERT S toggle in JAWS. Additionally, if your screen reader is set up in this way, turn of its tendency to speak even unneeded key presses, such as announcing when you press the CONTROL, SHIFT and ALT keys and the bank of 12 function keys, etc (see your screenreader manual for how to do this). For example, to turn off keyboard echo of key presses in JAWS, you would: press ALT TAB to the JAWS Window, then ALT U (for Utilities) and press ENTER on "Configuration Manager". Now press ALT S (for Set Options) and ENTER on "User Options", followed by TABBING to "Typing Echo" and then ARROWING to "Typing Echo Off" and pressing ENTEr. Lastly, press ALT F (for File) and then X (for Exit) followed by ENTER again to finish. 8. With versions of GoldWave 5.09 and later, there may be a tendency for your screenreader to speak certain facts and figures about its recording set-up at the start of recordings, just before you press the CONTROL F9 shortcut to commence the recording. If this happens and is annoying to you, you can turn off the displaying of this information by pressing F11 and then right ARROWING to the "Record" sheet. In here TAB to "Show Recording Settings while Recording" (or something similar) and check this off. 9.8.2. Script, Set and Map Files for GoldWave You should find that the vast majority of GoldWave's features work OK for you without any special script, map or set files but, nonetheless, you may, either currently or at some date in the future, be able to download some of these to experiment with from: For Window-Eyes set files: www.turner42.com For JAWS script files: Jim Grimsby is currently in the process of writing and updating JAWS scripts for GoldWave 5 and these can be downloaded from the Programs page at: www.jfwlite.com You can also download the most current version of Jim's scripts from: ftp://files@69.234.207.56 To find out what JAWS hot keys Jim has created in his scripts, as usual, with GoldWave loaded, press INSERT F1 twice or follow any other procedure which he may specify. for HAL Version 6 map files: www.dolphinuk.co.uk/updates/betamaps.htm You should study the user instructions which come with any sets or scripts to learn the special hot keys which they employ over and above the standard GoldWave shortcut keystrokes. I will only be advising you how to use GoldWave from GoldWave's normal interface and its own shortcut keystrokes, with a few general HAL, JAWS and Window-Eyes hot keys thrown in here and there as reminders, not from the perspective of anyone's personally created set or script files. However, the main window-Eyes 4.5 hot keys which Richard Turner has created for Window-Eyes and GoldWave 5 and kindly made freely available are: To hear information about the open file on screen: Press ALT S: To Hear the sampling rate, the stereo or mono status and the wave sign. Press ALT L: To hear the total length of the sound file. Press ALT M: to hear the time from the start marker to the finish marker. Press ALT N: to hear the length of the file between the start and finish markers. To hear information about single files you are processing: Press ALT P: To hear the percentage of completed processing. Press ALT T: To hear the remaining processing time. To hear information about multiple batch files you are processing: Press ALT B: To hear the percentage of processing completed. Press ALT I: to hear the processing time remaining. Window-Eyes will attempt to automatically beep at the 95 per cent complete stage of processing to alert you to this. 9.9. Recording You can record from several different sources, as illustrated below. 9.9.1. How to Make a Recording from Microphone, Turntable, Cassette Recorder or Other Sound Source Plugged into Your Sound Card Firstly, if recording from a source such as a vinyl LP or tape recorder, ensure that the stylus is in good condition and that the album or tape heads are thoroughly clean and free of static. This will ensure that you have the best possible starting point to work on after transferring your audio to hard disk and will reduce the number of cleaning up routines you have to run on your file or the severity in which you have to use them. Plug your microphone, tape recorder, vinyl LP record deck or other external sounds source into either the "Mic" jack plug or the "Line In" plug on your sound card. Then: 1. Launch GoldWave by one of the several possible methods outlined earlier, e.g. press Windows key and M and then press the G key until you hear "GoldWave" has focus and then press ENTER. 2. Press CONTROL n to open the new Sound window. 3. You will fall in a dialogue box where you can TAB to and then ARROW through and make four main settings adjustments: A. The first is to "Channels": Here you simply ARROW up or down to select whether you want a mono or stereo recording. B. The second is to the "Sampling Rate": This is related to the quality of the sound you need to produce. It is, by default, set to 44,100 Hertz and this is fine for many situations but you may be able to reduce it as far as 6,000 Hz and make it as high as 192,000 Hz by ARROWING up and down the list. To give you some idea of the standard of sound file you are likely to get at a given Hz rate, 8,000 Hz is similar to telephone quality sound, 11,025 is about as low as you would want to go for voice recordings, 22,050 will give radio quality sound, 44,100 is CD quality sound and 96,000 will provide DVD quality recordings. However, your sound card or system may not support the very lowest and highest of these quality settings. For Web and JAVA applications you should specify mono with a sampling rate of 8,000 Hz and for CD quality you require a sampling rate of 44,100 Hz in stereo. C. The third is to "Initial File Length": This is where you can ARROW up or down to specify the time the recording will go on for in terms of hours, minutes and seconds or you can just type your required time factor in here. For example, type in 2:00 for 2 minutes, 5:00:10 for 5 minutes and 10 seconds or 1:10:05 for 1 hour 10 minutes and 5 seconds. If you specify more recording time than you turn out to require, you can always select the portion of the file you want and then use CONTROL T to trim the excess recording time from the file before editing and/or saving it, which would be desirable if you are to save time and disk space in saving lots of unused blank recording space. Conversely, if you have not allocated sufficient recording time for such as a voice recording, you can always set your start marker at the end of the recording and use the Edit, Insert Silence feature to add more recording time at the end of your file and then continue recording. However, if you changed the GoldWave default of requiring this time specification to not requiring it (as recommended in Sub-Section 7 above), you do not need to bother about this step, as any time specification will be ignored and recording will continue until you stop it, including any time specification generated as a result of the sampling rate selected in the next step. D. The fourth is to "Sampling Rate": This again affects the quality of your recording and you should ARROW up or down to the selection which reflects what you want to record, e.g. voice, Cd audio, DVD, etc. Note that your sound card or system drivers may not support the very highest quality in this list. With versions of GoldWave after 5.09, there are more sampling rate options to ARROW down and some have figures next to them in terms of seconds or minutes. For instance, CD Audio has a 5 minute and an 80 minute option, the former for specifying short durations of CD audio standard recording and the latter for amounts of recording which should fit onto an empty CD for burning onto such a CD later. Note that the figures in the last-mentioned control to do with initial file length may adjust according to which of these sampling/time duration options you choose. Note: With GoldWave 5.09 and later, you now encounter two buttons not in earlier versions. These are to "Add" or "Remove" presets. You can TAB past and ignore these for now (see "Creating Your Own GoldWave Presets from which to Run Routines" near the end of this section for what presets are). E. After making your choices, you TAB to and press ENTER on "OK" to save these. These settings will them be retained for all future recordings until you change them. Note 1: The options described in steps C and D above are in the reverse order in versions of GoldWave before 5.09. Note 2: The higher the sampling rate, the more disk space your recording will take up. It is also the case that stereo recordings take up twice as much disk space as do mono recordings. If you intend to make lengthy audio files in stereo and at a high quality sampling rate, you will require plenty of hard disk space--around 10 Mb for every one minute of high- quality stereo recording to a WAV file (20 Mb when editing it) or one Mb for every one minute of a standard quality MP3 music file. 4. Press CONTROL F9 to immediately commence the recording. 5. Either immediately start speaking into your microphone or start the other sound source playing, e.g. a HI-FI turn table, tape recorder, mini Disk, radio, sucker connection on your telephone handset, etc, plugged into the Mic or line in jack plug of your sound card. 6. At any time you can pause the recording by pressing CONTROL F7 and start it again from where you paused it with CONTROL F7 again. 7. When finished, press CONTROL F8 to stop the recording. 8. To hear what you have recorded immediately, just press the SPACEBAR or F4 once or twice at your current position and playback will commence. 9. To pause playback, press F7 at any time and press F7 to recommence playing from where you paused it. 10. to stop playback and return to the beginning of the file, press the F8 key. 11. If you would like to save this sound file, follow the instructions in the next section. If not, just press ALT F (for File) and then C (for Close) to close the Sound window and erase the file. You will be prompted to save or not save the file, so press "N" for no. Note 1: If you hear nothing or the volume is too low or high, you may need to make adjustments in the GoldWave Control properties. Do this by pressing f11 and then right ARROWING to the "Volume" sheet and TABBING to the Mic or line in control and overwriting the percentage of volume in there with something else, e.g. if things are too loud and blurred, change such as 70 to 50. You will also have to have the appropriate inlet jack plug socket on your sound card enabled/selected in this Volume sheet, i.e. the "microphone" settings if you are recording from a microphone or the "line in" settings if recording from another sound source such as a tape recorder, mini CD or LP record deck. Note 2: If you are recording from a turntable, the turntable will have to have its own amplifier or headphones outlet, otherwise you will need an external amplifier, preamp or receiver between the turntable and line in jack on your sound card. Note 3: If you are recording from a microphone, the microphone will have to be of a reasonable quality and suitable for the job, i.e. a sensitive microphone intended for recording on to such as sound cards and mini CD recorders. For best results, you will also require a good quality sound card, such as a Sound Blaster, as very cheap or on-the-motherboard sound cards may result in crackling and/or inadequate recording levels (see the earlier introductory section on sound cards). 9.9.2. Recording Streaming Audio from the Internet Depending on your OS and sound card, you may be able to configure GoldWave to record streaming audio from the Internet. Try this by: 1. Open the Control Properties dialogue by pressing F11. 2. Right ARROW to the "Volume" sheet and then TAB down to the "aux" option and check its select button on with the SPACEBAR. If this does not enable you to capture streaming audio sound, then checking the "Wave" select button on instead may work for you. Additionally, you may sometimes find a "Stereo Mix" option to check on. 4. TAB to and press ENTER on "OK". 5. Open a new sound editing window as usual with CONTROL N and then start the radio or other streaming audio broadcast playing which you want to record. 6. Move from your streaming audio player by Pressing ALT TAB to return to the open GoldWave recording window and then Press CONTROL F9 to commence the recording of the Internet broadcast or other streaming audio source. You can use all of the usual shortcut keystrokes as usual to pause, unpause, etc, the recording and use CONTROL F8 to stop recording. Note 1: Do not forget to turn line in or microphone recording back on in the Control Properties before using GoldWave for standard recording again. Note 2: To be able to obtain a good quality, uninterrupted stream of audio for your recording you will really have to be using a broadband Internet connection. A 56K modem is likely to result in regular breaks in the audio stream. Another simple way in GoldWave and most other sound editors to achieve streaming audio recording is by: 1. Go onto the Internet and start your radio or other streaming audio sound source playing. 2. Set up your recording settings as directed in the last sub- section to the point where you are ready to press CONTROL F9 to start the recording. 3. With the streaming audio coming through the speakers, unplug your speakers from your sound card (or use a jack plug splitter so that you do not have to unplug) and plug a standard 3.5 mm lead into the speaker plug. Then plug the other end of the lead (also with a 3.5 jack on it) into either the microphone or line in socket also on the sound card (depending on which is selected in Windows Volume Control. 4. Press CONTROL F9 to start recording of the streaming audio signal from your speaker jack to your microphone or line in socket. 5. After recording your radio or other station (you will have to know in advance how long the recording will be if not using a jack plug splitter), just remove the lead and reconnect your speakers and then finish recording as usual with CONTROL F8. 9.10. Saving and Resaving a sound File to Different Formats 1. After recording and editing your sound file (or you can record, save and edit later), you press CONTROL S (for Save). 2. Type the filename you want in to the editfield you are now in without any file extension and them TAB to "Save as Type" and ARROW down to and make your choice of saving formats in the long list available, e.g. to WAV, MP3, MIDI, OGG Vorbis, etc. Do not just type such as "radio 1 show.mp3" because this will not work; you must select the MP3 format from the list. If you wish to later use such as Nero or Easy Cd to burn your files/tracks to an audio CD for playing on a standard HI-FI CD player, you will need to choose the wave file (.wav) format. 3. Then TAB to "Save In" and you are in a standard Windows-type browsing tree to ARROW to the particular drive, folder and sub- folder you wish to save sound files in, e.g. to My Documents or to any other folder you may have created in advance specifically for saving GoldWave sound files in such as to mymusic. 4. You can now simply TAB to "Save" and press ENTER to complete the saving process if you like. However, you may also wish to view or take advantage of the following saving options before finally pressing ENTER on "Save" if you wish to choose something different from your usual default saving options. 5. TAB to "Attributes", where "PCM" will be the normal format for audio which is not compressed (pulse code modulation). You can ARROW up and down through over 80 different formats to save to such as bit rates, mono or stereo formats, etc. 6. If you now press ENTER on "Save" and you are saving a large sound file, you will be able to TAB or ARROW now and find a "Cancel" button and also a progress bar which will tell you the percentage of the file already saved and/or converted and the time remaining before the save will be finished. If you are saving to a format other than a WAV file, this will take even longer as the sound file will also have to be encoded and converted to that other format as well. After saving is complete, you may be asked if you want to update the sound data in the Sound window to that same format, so TAB to and press ENTER on "Yes" if you do or press ENTER on "No" if you do not. 7. After initially naming a file, each time you make an editing change to a saved WAV file, you can just press CONTROL S to resave the file, with the change, to the same filename you originally gave it. It is a good idea, after making a few editing changes that you are happy with, to press CONTROL S regularly, so that you do not accidentally loose your editing changes. 8. If you wish to resave your file to a different filename from the first name you gave it, thus preserving the first file and creating another, you should press ALT F, A and type the new filename into the editfield before pressing ENTER on "Save". 9. To get rid of the file on screen and clear the screen for creating a new sound file or opening an already created and saved file, press ALT F (for File) and then C (for Close). Note 1: If you intend to save to a compressed file format, such as MP3, you should save and then reopen the MP3 file to check its quality to ensure that it is good enough before deleting your original WAV file, because saving and then listening to the same file you have on screen will only play back your original WAV file and not your converted and compressed MP3 file. Note 2: You cannot save sound files in GoldWave which are more than 4 Gb in size. If you have a large WAV file, you may find that you can save files larger than this if you elect to get them converted to compressed files such as MP3 or OGG files during the saving process. However, if you are creating and saving files of anything approaching this magnitude, you had better go to bed for a few hours whilst it is going on! Note 3: When you retrieve and open a saved file, it will be found automatically in the folder you specified above, so you only have to provide the filename to open it and not the full path to the file, unless you have changed your default saving folder to something else since then. Note 4: In the Options menu there is a "File Formats" option you can use to set your default saving format and sampling rate for all future saves, so that you do not have to always select these each time you save, e.g. if you always want to save to such as MP3 format in 64 bits per sample and mono, etc. You will have to CONTROL TAB to the "Default Save format" sheet, make your choices and then check on the "Use this format for Save As, Save Selection As and Copy To". Note 5: You cannot save to or convert to MIDI format with GoldWave. In fact, MIDI files do not contain digital audio, rather they contain notes and timing information for instruments, i.e. they contain instructions for how to play the music but not the music itself. For example, if you want an instrument such as a synthesiser to play a middle C at its loudest level, the MIDI file would send the instruction to the synthesiser that it should play note 68 at a velocity of 128. Note 6: If your computer is not a fast one, it may in some instances be beneficial to create long sound files in separate chunks and give them different filenames, such as Section1A, Section1B, etc, edit them separately and then join them together as one long file afterwards. You could even achieve this by recording a long file and then by highlighting smaller sections for splitting into smaller chunks with different filenames afterwards with the Save Selection AS option in the File menu. Note 7: If you want to open a file with a given format, such as an Audible audio file (extension .aa), so that you can then convert it to another more convenient format, such as an MP3 file, you can do this simply by opening the file in GoldWave (CONTROL O) and then resaving as above to the format and attributes you require. Audible (.aa) files are usually held in: C:\Program Files\Audible\Programs\Downloads\ As an alternative to opening such a file from within GoldWave with CONTROL O, if you have GoldWave rather than any other audio playing program set up as your default audio player, you should also be able to go to the file in question with My computer or Windows Explorer, press SHIFT F10 and find GoldWave listed as one of the programs you can press ENTER on to open GoldWave with this file immediately starting to open for you. If GoldWave is not your default audio player, then it will not appear in this Context menu list and you will see another audio player, e.g. Winamp, Media Player, etc, listed there instead, so this will not work for you. This file opening and resaving process could take quite some time to complete. 9.11. Opening a Sound File To open a file you have already created and save to disk: 1. Press CONTROL O (for Open). 2. Then either: A. Type the filename into the editfield and press ENTER, e.g. audio1. You should not have to type the file extension, provided the open dialogue is set to "Supported Files" in the "Files of Type" list. However, if you have two or more files with the same name in this folder but with different file extensions, e.g audio1.wav and audio1.mp3, the file which will open will be the WAV file. So if you wanted the MP3 file to open, you would indeed need to type the whole filename in including the extension. B. Alternatively, you can use the standard folders browsing method of Windows by SHIFT TABBING back twice and selecting the drive and folder your saving folder is on, pressing ENTER to open it up and then TABBING to a list of folders and files to where you have saved the file and pressing ENTER on its filename. 3. The file will be found and opened. You should press SPACEBAR or F4 to start it playing. Note 1: Opening WAV files will be quicker than opening compressed files such as MP3 files or OGG files. This is because, to open a compressed file, Goldwave has to first convert it back to a WAV file for you to be able to edit it. Note 2: You can reopen a recently opened file from the File menu, as the last 10 or so opened files are listed in there, near the bottom of the menu. Just press ENTER on any of these sound files to open it. 9.12. Checking Your Position in a Sound File Whilst viewing on-screen sound file information is a little mixed up with much meaningless wave form figures and a large number of graphics (which your screenreader's automatic graphics labelling feature will not be able to label for you), you can discover quite a lot of details about a file on screen if you need to. At any time whilst recording or playing back a file you can press CONTROL f7 or F7 respectively to pause the recording or playing and then go into navigation/mouse mode. Partly down the screen is a line which starts with the word "Paused" and then tells you how far into the recording or playing of a file you are, e.g. 50.8 for 50.8 seconds into a file or 1:18.3 for 1 minute 18.3 seconds into a file. In some views, if you have the window maximised (ALT SPACEBAR X), you can also observe more details about the file on the Status Line at the bottom and the line above it, e.g. the total length of the file, its format, bit rate, if in stereo or mono, if it is the original file or has been modified, etc. Part way down the screen you can also observe details such as the total length of the sound file and the amount of it, in terms of such as seconds, which you may have selected, for example, just above the Status Line you can find the word "Stereo" to the left and after it is the size of the file, such as 13.0770 for a file which is 13.77 seconds long. If you now insert a start marker at your current paused position by pressing the [ key, you can now observe the time position of this marker, such as 3.180 for 3.18 seconds into the file and the figure just after this start marker position is the amount of the file which is left as selected to the right of the marker. Moreover, you can also find out the amount of a file you have highlighted between the start marker and the finish marker. So start a file playing and pause it with F7, then press [ and start the file playing again, pause it again and insert a finish marker with ]. Now go into mouse mode and observe this positional indicator line, which will display something like "Stereo 13.770 3.180 to 6.150 2.97", indicating that your total file is 13.77 seconds long, it has a start marker at 3.18 seconds into the file and a finish marker at 6.15 seconds after the start marker position and that the total selected portion is 2.97 seconds long. 9.13. Editing a Whole Sound File and Applying Special Effects To edit a whole file on screen in order to apply certain effects to the whole of it and not just to a small selected section of it: 1. Open one of the sound files from your hard disk which you have already created whilst practising recording files in earlier sections--preferably a speech file for this example. It should be a shortish file of about 30 seconds so that frequent changes to it will not take long for GoldWave to process. If you do not have such a file, create one as directed above. 2. Press SPACEBAR or F4 to start your sound file playing so that you are sure that it has opened, then press F8 to stop it and return to the beginning of the file. 3. By default, when a sound file is first opened, the whole file is treated as highlighted and so any changes to it will affect the whole file and be resaved with the file if you resave the file. 4. Remember that the effects defaults in many of the Effects menu options are likely to be set at a very good default level (where they are set at all and not left on zero) and that in many situations you will not want to change them but rather just apply them as they are. Additionally, all effect dialogues have a list of preset files to apply other, sometimes quite outstanding and sometimes very amusing, effects to music and spoken files. You open the Effect Menu by pressing ALT C. You then ARROW up or down the options and some of the effects you can apply to your open file, for example, include: 9.13.1. EchO In the echo dialogue you should find that the settings for delay for echoes and the volume of the resultant echo are set at very good levels. However, make some changes to experiment. You cannot do any harm, because when you next come into this dialogue (as with many other dialogues but not all) the original settings will have returned. As long as you do not save any changes you make to a given sound file, you can also always reverse the changes you make by pressing the undo command of CONTROL Z. In fact, you can press CONTROL Z up to 10 times to move back, step by step, through your last 10 changes to a file and undo each change one by one as long as you have not saved it and any of these changes with it. So firstly accept the default echo effects currently in here by TABBING to "OK" and pressing ENTER or just pressing ENTER straight after entering this dialogue should also work. Your screenreader may tell you that the echo changes are being processed. This will not take long for a short file but will take longer for longer files. When the processing is finished, your screenreader should detect this and give you some form of prompt, e.g. by simply announcing "GoldWave", which means that the processing prompt has now returned to the standard Goldwave window. Now, to hear what echo has been applied to your file, press the usual F4 or SPACEBAR key to start the file playing. After listening to it, return it to its original state by pressing CONTROL Z. Whilst the change processing is going on, if it is taking some time, you can ARROW up and hear the state of progress in terms of the percentage of processing which has been completed. Now press ALT C and then E (for Echo) again and this time TAB to "Delay" and overtype the figure in there of 0.5000 with, say, 0.8000 and press ENTER. Then press F4 to hear the degree of echo this time. Do the same in the "Volume" editfield but you cannot exceed 0.0 as the loudness of the echo cannot exceed the volume of the original sound; it should be quieter. Another thing to note is the "Echoes" editfield, in which you can overtype the 1 echo default with more levels of echoing, such as 3, so try this. Try also checking "Stereo" on and listen to the effect, which is of the echo now moving from speaker to speaker. So far in experimenting in this echo dialogue box, you have been using the dialogue's basic controls. However, many dialogues of this type also have what is known as a "presets" list of pre- defined effects or parameters which you can also ARROW through and press ENTER on to get that preset applied to your sound file. for instance, when you first press ALT C (for Effect) and then E (for Echo), you immediately come into an "edit" combobox. Your screenreader may not announce any of the preset names in here automatically but if you ARROW down in this combobox you will hear these preset options. Some of those in the echo dialogue are such as: 5 1 second echoes, heavy robotic, short stereo echoes, tunnel reverb, etc. So press ENTER on any of these and then play your sound file to experience the preset effects. Now go back into the echo dialogue, ARROW to one of the presets and then TAB through the rest of the dialogue box. You will notice that the standard default figures and options in the various editfields and lists have changed from their norm. In fact, what you are now viewing is the options and parameters which the preset you have chosen is set up to use. After you have finished experimenting, press CONTROL Z to return your original file to how it was before. If you have been undoing each change after you made it, you will again only have to press CONTROL Z once, but if you have made, say, six changes without undoing any of them, you will have to press CONTROL Z six times to get back to the state of your original file. Having gone through this particular dialogue in some detail, I will cover several of the other dialogues below but not with quite the same amount of explanation, as you now know the basics of how these effect dialogues are laid out and how they work. 9.13.2. Dynamics the Dynamics dialogue is to do with compressing or expanding sounds and their amplitudes, e.g. to obtain volume levels equal to the highest or lowest part of a sound file, to make a sound file sound smoother, etc. You can BACKSPACE out and type new figures in the editfields for X and Y axes. Do not forget to try out the presets in this as well as all of the other effects dialogues. You are likely to find one that suits your requirements. You will also find several which demonstrate the extremes of such effects and viewing the changed parameters in the various editfields and lists in the rest of the dialogue will thereby give you an idea of what kind of extremes to avoid in your own experimentation unless you are deliberately wanting to create strange sounding files. for example, apply the "hiss/noise" and "Sign Change" presets to your file and then listen to how bad you can make a file sound if you overdo the modifications to a file. 9.13.3. Pitch With this feature you can slightly or significantly change the pitch of someone's voice or, perhaps more aptly, a musical note or phrase. So, for example, you can TAB to just below the "Scale" option, which makes changes happen in per cent terms, and BACKSPACE out the "100.0" percentage figure and type in another higher or lower figure for the percentage of pitch change you would like. Making the pitch 200 per cent would make a voice sound like a chipmunk, whereas entering a figure of 75.0 would make a woman's voice sound like a man's. If you check on the "Preserve Tempo" checkbox, an attempt will be made to keep the flow and speed of the file as it originally was. 9.13.4. Reverb The reverb dialogue can give a sound file deeper and better quality if used with discretion. The reverb can be significant and sound like your talking in a metal tank or just slight as if you are in a small hall. Press ENTER on "Reverb" and listen to the default amount of reverb, which is quite significant. then, for instance, change the reverb level to something smaller and more discreet, such as "Volume DB" from -21.0 to -25.0, change the "Reverb Time" to 0.500 and the "Delay Scale" to 0.60 and observe the slighter but still noticeable level of reverb. 9.13.5. Stereo In the stereo dialogue there are several options for making changes to how the stereo effect is output and even a "Reduce Vocals" option to allow you to remove vocals from a music file, but how effective this is depends on the type of music file you are working on, e.g. it works much better on mono files and may also make a stereo file revert to mono. 9.13.6. Time Warp This permits you to replace the 100.0 (normal) speed which a file plays at to, say, 50.0 per cent to make it play at half the normal speed and therefore take twice as long to play or you could replace the figure of 100.0 per cent with 200.0 per cent to get a file played at double speed in half the time. ARROWING from "Change Per Cent" down to "Length" will let you TAB forward to the length of your open track and you can replace this with a smaller or larger figure to compress or stretch the time it will take the file to play, e.g. to compress the playing time of a speech file so that it will fit onto the end of a tape which does not quite have enough space to fit it on at its normal speed. 9.13.7. Sample This permits you to alter the sampling rate of your file to either a lower or higher sample rate. If you go lower, the quality will be worse but the file will be smaller and the reverse applies if you go higher. You just ARROW up or down in the sample rate figures list you come into to what you want and then press ENTER to get it applied. Try reducing your sample rate significantly and then listen to the obvious reduction in quality of output. You will find this feature to be useful when you want to change the sampling rate of a file from an unsupported rate to the standard CD quality rate of 44,100 Hz which is required if you want to create WAV files for playing on a home HI-FI or car stereo system. 9.13.8. Compressor/Expander This is were you can squeeze or expand how a file sounds, such as a speech file. Of particular note are the three "Noise Gate" presets. Try them. What they are designed to do is remove the background noise from blank gaps in a file, such as in the gaps between tracks on vinyl albums. Depending on the file, you may find the third noise gate preset to work the best and it will probably work better on music tracks than it will on speech files. 9.13.9. Filters Because this feature has a sub-menu with several features in it and some of them are quite important, such as the noise reduction and pop and click features, I will deal with the main features in this sub-menu in more detail in later sections. 9.13.10. Inverting a Sound For most up-to-date stereo files the Invert command in the Effect menu (ALT E and then I) will have no noticeable effect on a file. It is provided so that you can improve very old tracks, such as those which were produced in stereo in the 1960s but simply had both the right and left channels containing the same music with no real stereo split. By opening such a file and then selecting either the right or left channel (not both) the "Invert" feature in the Effect menu will allow you to ensure that the back speakers of a current surround-sound system are fully utilised instead of being mainly dormant. The above Section 9.13 has covered a fair few of the options in the Effect menu but there are several more of them. Just do some experimenting with the others yourself and remember to test out the presets which have been created by the makers of GoldWave for your convenience and as good examples of a wide variety of each effect option's range and purpose. Note: There is an "Effect Chain Editor" in the Tools menu which works a bit like the MS Word autoFormat or a macro to join together several effect types under one command and then get these all applied together with this single command. If you regularly carry out three or four effect commands straight after one another on your files, you might want to play with this to see if it will successfully automate what you want to do. 9.14. Editing Part of a Sound File When discussing selecting of parts of files, the terms "Select" and "highlight" are interchangeable. Before you attempt to edit selected parts of a sound file, you need to grasp the concept of start and finish markers. 9.14.1. What are Start and Finish Markers and How Do They Work? You can insert and manipulate markers in a number of ways. 9.14.1.1. Manually Inserting markers A start marker is automatically placed at the very beginning of a file you create and a finish marker is inserted at its end, and everything you record in-between is selected or highlighted automatically. When you press the left [ (left bracket) key to indicate the beginning of a portion of a file you want to select, the left start marker moves from its current position to that position. You would then have to play your file and mark the end of the selection you are making by pressing the ] (right bracket) key and this has the effect of moving the finish marker to this point, so that the area you wish to select to carry out some form of editing command on is now sandwiched between the start and finish markers and the rest of the file is to the left and right of the markers and selected area. If you now press F4 (green mode with it set to work for playing selected areas only), you will hear only the data in the area between the markers which you have just highlighted. If you press SHIFT F4 (yellow mode with it set to play only unselected areas), you will hear only the unselected part of the file, i.e. not the bit you heard when you pressed F4. This is, of course, if you have set up your green and yellow buttons as suggested in the earlier configuration section. So you can think of start and finish markers as being similar to the margin stops at the back of an old-fashioned typewriter, namely the left start marker can slide from the left side of the file to the right and the right marker can slide from the right to the left until they meet anywhere in the middle. Anything between them is enclosed and selected for you to carry out editing changes on. 9.14.1.2. The Set Marker Dialogue and Goto Facility an even more versatile way of manipulating markers is via the "Set" marker dialogue. You can get to this via the Edit, Markers sub-menu. The shortcut to open this same dialogue is SHIFT E. How it works is: 1. With an open file with music or speech in it on screen, press SHIFT E. 2. You will come into the set markers dialogue box on a list with two options and should be on the "Time Based Position" option. You can ARROW down to "Sample Based Position" but we will remain on the time option for this example, as it is clearer to understand and apply things in terms of hours, minutes, seconds, etc. 3. Now TAB to a "Start" editfield with zeros in it. this is where your start marker is now, i.e. at the start of your just loaded and open sound file. To get the start marker moved somewhere else via the dialogue, you can BACKSPACE these figures out and type in the new position you want the start marker to move to, in terms of hours, minutes, seconds and thousandths of seconds, e.g. to drop your marker at one hour, four minutes, 27 seconds and 873 thousandths of a second into a file you would type in here 1:04:27.873. 4. TABBING to the next field lets you type in the finish marker position in the same form as used above. The figures already in here represent the rest of the file to its end and you can leave it here if you wish. 5. Another press of TAB brings you to a list of three options: "None", "Cd Sector" and "One killasample". ARROW to the choice you require, i.e. "non" if it does not matter where the marker drops but choose "CD sector" if you are selecting segments of sound which are then to fit precisely into sectors on Cds you are to burn the file to afterwards. 6. Lastly, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 7. Now observe the parts of the file which are now selected between the start and finish markers by pressing F4 and those parts outside of the markers by pressing SHIFT F4. You can also observe the size of the file and the positions of the markers on screen in mouse mode (see an earlier section for more on this). To use the set marker feature as a goto facility: The set marker feature can be very useful to jump to a particular time spot in a file to listen to it from there if you have not set a que point at that spot. You can also use it to locate a place in a long speech file which is to be put onto tape so that you know where to insert a message to turn a cassette over, e.g. at a position of around 44 minutes and 30 seconds for a C90 cassette. You can go to any place in a sound file you like by: 1. With the file on screen, press SHIFT E (for Set). 2. Leave the option on "Time Based Position" but note that if you are wanting to jump to a given place in a music file the "Sample Based Position" option may be more appropriate. 3. TAB to the "Start" field, press BACKSPACE and then type in the time point you wish to jump to with the start marker, e.g. 0:44:30.000, to go to 44 minutes and 30 seconds into the sound file. 4. Press ENTER to be taken to your desired position. 5. Now you are at this time point, either just press F4 to hear the rest of the file from here to its end or, if you wish to insert such as a message to turn over a cassette at this spot, press CONTROL V to paste your message in here, having already copied it to the Clipboard in advance. You could, of course, also simply drop a que point here by pressing CONTROL Q as well for future ease of location of this spot by pressing CONTROL J to jump to it (que points are covered in detail in a later section). 9.14.1.3. Recording and Recalling Marker Positions Another pair of marker commands which may come in handy are the store and recall marker position shortcuts. You may, for instance, drop a start marker and a finish marker around a portion of a file with the intention of deleting or altering it in some way but feel that, perhaps, you can adjust the selection a bit better before carrying out your edit but not be sure that you will not make things worse rather than better. If you store (memorise) the first markers' positions before adjusting them to try to get their positions even better and then find out that you have only made things worse, you can then discard the second marker positions and reinstate the first selection with the recall command. All you do is insert your markers for your first selection attempt, then press SHIFT M (memorise). You next do your adjusting of markers and if you prefer the first selection attempt, just press SHIFT R to return to (recall) and reinsert your first markers. This discards your second marker positions and reinstates your first marker positions. 9.14.2. Example of Editing Using the Square Brackets To select and then make edits with the square bracket keys: 1. Play the file you wish to edit until you reach the point at which you wish to start the editing, then press the F7 key to pause the playback. For this exercise, use one of your already created music or speech files, preferably the latter. 2. If you have significantly over-shot where you want your start marker to be inserted, use the F5 key to rewind and then press F4 to start play until you reach your desired spot. 3. Press the left square bracket key (to the right of the P key) to indicate the start of where the selecting/highlighting should take place and get the start marker move to here. 4. Press the F7 key to continue the playing of the file to the place just after the portion you wish to highlight and press the F7 key to pause the play. Now press the right square bracket (just to the right of the left square bracket) to move the finish marker to this point. Remember, if you have some distance to go before the spot where you need to drop your Finish marker, you can use F6 to fast forward or if you accidentally over-shoot this spot, you can pause play and then use F5 to rewind. 5. To ensure that you have enclosed the desired portion of the speech or music file accurately, press the F4 key or SPACEBAR once to hear a small amount of the file just after your selected portion and then press F4 or SPACEBAR again to get the selection itself between the markers play to you. If GoldWave is set up as recommended previously, you will now also be able to press SHIFT F4 to also hear the unselected part of the file as a second means of verifying the accuracy of your highlighting if you wish and if your file is not too large to make this practicable. 6. Give the command to carry out whatever change you wish to have done on the enclosed highlighted section of the file, e.g. press the DELETE key to delete it, Press CONTROL C to copy it to the Clipboard, press CONTROL X to cut it to the Clipboard, Press ALT C followed by any of the options in the Effect Menu as outlined in 4 A to H above. 7. Pressing F4 and SHIFT F4 as already stated, will, of course, let you listen to the selected portion of the file and then the unselected portion of the file respectively but, depending on the type of edit you have carried out, you will not know what the edit sounds like in relation to the rest of your file without listening to the whole file or at least the edit and its immediate surrounding music or speech. If the file is small, you may wish to simply press CONTROL A to change the highlighting to the whole file and then pressing F4 will play the whole file for you. Alternatively, if the file is of any length at all, you will not want to listen to the whole thing over and over again each time you make a small editing amendment to it. So, if the file is not small, check the accuracy of your edit each side of the actual edited and still selected portion by pressing SHIFT left ARROW a couple of times to move the left-hand start marker a little to the left and then press CONTROL SHIFT right ARROW a couple of times to move the right-hand finish marker a small distance to the right. Now press F4 to hear the small region of the sound file where you just made your editing change and determine if the edit sounds good within the file where the two halves of your file now join. Tip 1: If, after deleting a portion of sound in a file, moving the start and end markers as outlined above is not working for you (and it may not, depending on the level of zoom you have set up), you can also achieve the same thing by holding the CONTROL and SHIFT keys down and pressing the right ARROW key once. You then press the SPACEBAR or F4 key to continue the file playing and then stop it by pressing F7, then press CONTROL A followed by F5 to rewind past the deletion and then press F4 again to listen through it to the editing join. If the file does not appear to be behaving itself when you are doing this and keeps jumping you back to the beginning, which some files will do, in particular longer ones, try resaving the file and then reopening it before doing your editing. Tip 2: If you are editing a lengthy file, you may save time by dropping que points at the point where you made your last editing change before trying to release your cursor from between the start and finish markers so that you can quickly jump back to that point with CONTROL J to continue proofing your work from that point, in case, as often can happen, you inadvertently cause the start marker and cursor to move back to the beginning of the file. You will not want to have to frequently fast forward to find your last editing place before being able to continue. Tip 3: After positioning your start and end markers around a portion of sound to edit it, if your edit is not to your satisfaction, you can restore your original portion of sound by pressing CONTROL Z, which will not only undo your last editing change but will also maintain the same positioning of your start and end markers so that you can again effect a more suitable editing change. This even works if you have moved the start and end markers to listen to your edit, i.e. the CONTROL Z command cancels your last edit and reinstates the original clip of sound and the positions of your markers around it. Tip 4: If the file you are editing is a rapidly spoken or played speech or music file, you may be able to insert your markers more accurately if you slow the file down before doing the editing and then return it to its original speed afterwards. Do this with the "Playback Rate" feature in the Effect menu, e.g. press ALT E, then A and now change the default playback rate from 44,100 to, say, 22,00 to reduce the speed of the file when played to around half its original speed. Tip 5: Should you wish to hear the accuracy of an edit when you have removed something from a sound file, without actually deleting the unwanted sound clip first, you can do this by use of one of the Zoom options in the View menu, e.g. Place your left and right brackets around the unwanted part of your file and then press F4 once or twice to hear the selection. Then, to hear the part of the file just before your left bracket and immediately after your right bracket (the unselected parts), press ALT V (for View) and then C (for 10 Seconds). You can now press the left ARROW key, say, three times so that three seconds of your unselected file just before the selection comes into view in the sound wave on screen and now if you press SHIFT F4 to hear the unselected part of your file you will hear the three seconds up to the selection and a few seconds after it. In this way, you will not have to listen to the whole file from its beginning to hear the file each side of the selection. When you have finished practising, remember to press CONTROL Z to undo your change and restore the file to its original state for further experimental use if you wish. Note: If you wish to keep the highlighted portion of the sound file and have the rest of the file to its left and right removed, you would invoke the trim feature by pressing CONTROL T. 9.14.3. Making Fine Adjustments to Edit Selections and Changing the ZOOm ratio Once you have inserted your start and finish markers around an area of a file you wish to highlight to edit with the [ and ] keys, you may need to do some fine adjustments to one or both of these markers. You can do this to the position of the start marker by pressing SHIFT left ARROW once or more times to move it fractionally to the left or SHIFT right ARROW to move it fractionally to the right. Similarly, the CONTROL SHIFT left ARROW and CONTROL SHIFT right ARROWS fractionally move the finish marker left and right respectively. The default amount which each press of these shortcut movement keys makes is quite small and may be right in most circumstances but you can change the level of zoom (the amount of distance these key strokes move the markers). You zoom in, i.e. make the movements smaller, by pressing SHIFT up ARROW and zoom out, i.e. make the movements larger, by pressing SHIFT down ARROW. Try to remember how many times you pressed SHIFT up or down ARROW to change the zoom if you want to return the zoom level back to its normal default afterwards because GoldWave remembers your last zoom rate and uses it in future sessions. In fact, the normal zoom ratio is of the order of 34:826875 but it may be set differently in your case. What these figures mean is that 34 pixels have 826875 samples mapped to those pixels. The fewer samples you have mapped to each pixel, the higher is the zoom in rate and thus your right and left movements will be finer. After selecting in the above way, you use F4 and SHIFT F4 as usual to check your selecting accuracy. If you still get things wrong, just press CONTROL Z to undo any changes you made. To return to being able to hear your whole file again, press CONTROL A to return the markers to each end of the file and thereby highlight it all. Note 1: There are also several different Zoom levels you can choose from in the View menu after pressing ALT V, e.g. to change the zoom movement distance to one second, one minute, one hour, etc; but be aware that choosing, for instance, a 1 minute zoom ratio may not, in fact, give you anything like a full minute's jump when you press such as CONTROL SHIFT right ARROW. You will just have to try these settings on your current file and gauge for yourself their effect. Note 2: You can view the current zoom rate by going into mouse mode and down to the line which starts either "Original" or "Modified" and the to blocks of figures just to the right of these separated by a colon are what you are looking for. 9.14.4. Recording More Material to the End of an Existing Sound File If you have partly recorded a sound file and then want to add more to the end of it, you could achieve this in a number of ways, for instance: 1. You could open a new Sound window, record the rest of your material into this and then copy it to the Clipboard. 2. You could then open your partly recorded file and then paste the contents of the Clipboard into the file on screen at its end with CONTROL E. Alternatively, you could: 1. Open your partly recorded file and then press SHIFT E to open the set marker dialogue. 2. TAB to the "Start Marker editfield and BACKSPACE the figure out in there. 3. Then TAB to the "Finish Marker" field, which will be displaying the exact point at which the file recording ended at. So left ARROW to the start of the editfield and then select the data in this field by pressing SHIFT END. 4. Now copy the selected file end figure to the Clipboard with CONTROL C. 5. SHIFT TAB back to the "Start Marker" field and now paste the figure into this field by pressing CONTROL P. 6. You will now have the start marker inserted at the exact file end point. 7. In the "Finish Marker" field, type a figure which will allow you enough time to complete your recording. 8. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 9. You can now simply press CONTROL F9 to recommence recording at the start marker position at the end of the file with the same recording attributes as the first part of the file already had. 9.15. Speeding up Editing by using GoldWave in RAM Rather Than in Hard Disk Mode In practising sound file creation, saving, opening, editing and resaving, etc, so far we have been using GoldWave's standard mode, which is to work directly with your hard disk. This is known as "hard disk" mode. However, there is a quicker way of working in GoldWave, known as "RAM" mode. In RAM mode your file opening and file editing and general processing are done directly in your computer's memory. This will be particularly quicker for those with slower computers and/or slower hard disks but it does have the limitation that you can only open and work with files which will actually fit into your PCs RAM. For small files you will probably find little difference in the waiting times but for middle-sized files you may find this to be a time-saver. If, for example, you have, say, 256 Mb of system memory (RAM), you may be able to work with good quality files of up to 15 minutes in length in RAM mode. Remember, the rest of your system and your screenreader still has to live in memory. It is probably not a good idea to use RAM mode as your default way of working unless you never create large files and because, if your computer crashes, you will not be able to recover your work because there is no back-up ability in this mode, as there is in normal hard disk mode. Nonetheless, if you want to experiment with RAM mode to see how it performs for you, what you do to enable it is: 1. Press ALT O (for Options) and then S (for Storage). 2. TAB once to "Hard Drive" and then ARROW up to "RAM". 3. TAB to "Undo Levels" and change this to one or two levels. This is because when using RAM to edit in a large number of undo levels will soon eat up your available system memory and grind things to a halt. 4. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 5. Now do some opening, modifying and saving of files and see if things speed up for you. 6. Do not forget to change things back again if you do not want to keep RAM mode as your default way of working. 9.16. Inserting, Finding and Editing Que Points Que points are a very useful feature of GoldWave for finding important places in a file, but they are especially good when you use them to split up files which consist of a whole music album recorded to a single file into separate tracks for burning onto a CD. 9.16.1. Inserting Que Point Place Markers for Quick Re-Location in a Playing or Paused File To place que points (a kind of place marker and not to be confused with GoldWave's start and finish markers) in an existing sound file for ease of jumping to certain parts of it quickly: 1. Start the sound file playing. 2. Whilst listening to the file playing, when you reach the place where you wish to insert the que point, press CONTROL Q. If you like you can pause the file at the point where you want to insert the que point with F7 before pressing CONTROL Q. You can do this as many times as you need to throughout the length of the file. 3. A que point marker will have been placed in that position but it does not affect the sound of the playback. 4. To locate a que point in front of your current position in a file, you just start the file playing, pause the file and then press CONTROL J to jump to a que point further on in the file. You can also jump to the next forward que point by pressing CONTROL J whilst a file is playing. If you know you want to go to the third que point from the beginning of a file, go to the beginning of the file if you are not already there by pressing CONTROL HOME and then you would press CONTROL J three times and then F4 to get the file played from the third que point onwards. Pressing F4 repeatedly will keep taking you back to the que point you just started from and play the file again from that position. If you want to be able to fast rewind past this inserted que point, you will have to firstly start playing your file from that que point, pause it with F7, then press CONTROL A after which pressing F5 will allow you to rewind further back than the que point marker. The procedure for moving through que points in a backwards direction is not as versatile or clear as with moving forward. Pressing CONTROL SHIFT J will take you back to the last que point. However, if you are at the start of a file, when you first press CONTROL SHIFT J, you are taken to the end of your file, after which another press of CONTROL SHIFT J will take you to the last que point in the file which you set, a second press of CONTROL SHIFT J takes you to the second to last que point, and so forth. You then have to press F4 to start the playing from that point. Note, however, that I have not found the CONTROL SHIFT J shortcut to work consistently with the copy of GoldWave I am running--hopefully, you will not have this problem. 5. Subsequent presses of CONTROL J or CONTROL SHIFT J will jump you to later or earlier markers, if there are any. 6. Do not forget to resave your file with CONTROL S if you want to retain your que point markers with the file. Note 1: You can also find specific que points via a list of them in the que point editor (described below). Note 2: Whilst que points will save and be retained in wav files, most other saving format types, such as Ogg Vorbis and MP3, will not allow you to save que points. 9.16.2. Inserting Queue Point Place Finding Markers in a File as You Record it To insert que points as you record a file: 1. Start recording your file as usual. 2. Whilst the recording is running, if you wish to mark a place on the file, e.g. as a chapter or section finder, as a means of locating a recording mistake for later editing out, etc, press CONTROL Q. You can, of course, if you wish, pause the file with F7 before dropping your que point with CONTROL Q. 3. To find the que points, use the same procedure as in 4 and 5 above. Note: You cannot jump to a que point and then just press DELETE to delete it; all this will do is delete the rest of your file from the que point to the end of the file. You have to use the que points editor to do this (described below). 9.16.3. The Queue Point Markers List and Editing Dialogue You can bring up a list of que points in an open sound file to go straight to one of them and play the file from that point or to make changes to the que point, such as give it a name. Do this by: 1. With a file loaded that has already had que points placed in it, Press ALT E (for Edit), then O (for Que Point) and press ENTER on "Edit Que Points". 2. You will fall into a list of que points which you can ARROW up and down to observe each marker and its time slot in the sound file. At this stage the que point's time slot in the file will only be there with no name or number, although they will be listed from top to bottom in chronological order 1, 2, 3, etc. 3. With focus on the que point you wish to edit and give a more meaningful name to, TAB twice to an "Edit" button and press ENTEr. Now just type a name for the que point and press ENTER. This might be "Chapter1", "Section8", and the like. In future when you view this que point in the que points list you will not only hear its time slot figure but you will also hear its name afterwards. 4. If you TAB twice to the next editfield, you can type as much as you like in here, e.g. notes about the next section of your speech track and which guest speaker is delivering it, the full lyrics of the next track to play in an album of tracks separated by que points, etc. 5. To leave the dialogue and save any changes, TAB to and press ENTER on "Close". Note 1: To delete a que point you have to ARROW to it in the que points list and then press ALT D. Note 2: When you are in the que points list above, with focus on one of your que points, you can invoke a Context Menu by pressing SHIFT F10 which provides a list of additional commands for even more methods of manipulation of that particular que point, e.g. "move to start marker", "Delete", "Edit", and so on. 9.16.4. Automatically Dropping Que Points into Spaces in Music Files or at Specified Intervals in a file If you have a whole recorded album of several tracks in a single file and you would like to automatically detect the silent spaces between each individual track and get a que point dropped in the middle of these silent spaces, GoldWave has a feature for this. You might want to do this prior to then using the "Split Files" feature which is also in the Edit, Que Points sub-menu. Do this by: 1. With your whole album file of tracks open, press ALT E, O and then ENTER. 2. SHIFT TAB back to "Auto Que" and press ENTER. 3. You should be in the "Mark Silence" sheet but if you are not, press CONTROL TAB to get there. 4. By default, spaces of at least 1.5 seconds only will get que points inserted into them. You can change some of these parameters if you like, e.g. change the "Minimum Length" option of 1.5 to 2.0 for two seconds if the album you are automatically dropping que points into has at least 2 second gaps between tracks. When finished, just press ENTER to start the procedure. 5. After the ques have been dropped, TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. Note: If you find that que points are dropped at places where you did not want them, e.g. at quieter than average places within a track or just before the ends of some tracks when they are fading out, at step 4 above, you can TAB to and also change the "Below Threshold" default value of -40.0 to such as -30.0 or -20.0 so that que points will only be dropped at very quiet places in a file, hopefully, only between tracks this time. You may find it best to firstly use the default setting and if extraneous que points are dropped, go into the que points dialogue again and delete all que points (or use the undo command of CONTROL Z) and then change this setting to, say, -25.0 and do the automatic que point dropping again. This may be faster than trying to find the unwanted que points in the que points dialogue list and deleting some of them manually, unless, of course, you only have one or two misplaced que points in your album requiring deletion. Changing the below threshold default figure may particularly be necessary if you are trying to drop que points in the gaps between tracks on an old vinyl album which has more than average crackle and rumble noise between tracks. To be honest, whilst this auto que point dropping facility works well for dropping ques between tracks recorded from CDs and on tracks from vinyl albums which you have already personally manually deleted the "noise" between tracks on and replaced it with a truly silent gap, it can be too hit and miss to be a time-saver on many old vinyl albums and you may find it preferable to drop your que points on such recordings manually. Note also, in this same que points dialogue, that there is a "Minimum Separation Between Ques" editfield where, if you wish and if you know the length of the shortest track on an album, you can type over the default of 0.00 (meaning none) with such as 2.00 for the shortest track being at least 2 minutes long, which will have the effect of ensuring that que points are only dropped at intervals of more than 2 minutes, thus again reducing the chances of unwanted que points being inserted within tracks. If you definitely know that the shortest track on an album is three minutes and 28 seconds long, then you can confidently typing a figure just less than this, e.g. 3.20. Dropping Regular Que Points Similarly, if you would like to drop regular que points throughout a music or speech file, you can do this. You might want to do this in a spoken tutorial file on your hard disk so that you can jump quickly through it to find certain parts with CONTROL J instead of fast forwarding through much of it. To do this: 1. With your file open, press ALT E, O and then ENTER. 2. SHIFT TAB back to "Auto Que" and press ENTER. 3. CONTROL TAB to the "Spacing" sheet and view the various time figures in here. 4. The "Starting at Time" field is set to start dropping que points at the very start of your sound file but you can change this to a point some way into the file if you like, e.g. to get the first que point inserted at one minute into the file type in here 1:00. 5. TAB to "Intervals" and specify the regular time slots you want que points inserting at, e.g. type 5:00 to get que points inserted every five minutes. 6. Finish by pressing enter on "OK" and then "Close". 9.16.5. Using Que Points to Split a file or Album into Several Separate Files or Tracks If you would like to split a long file into separate individual files, such as sections, chapters or separate music tracks from a single long track recorded album, you can do this provided that your sound file is in one of a few formats, including WAV and Apple formats. Do this by: 1. If your file has not already had que points dropped in it in the appropriate places, e.g. between music tracks, do this first, either manually or using the Auto Que feature. 2. With your long speech file or whole music album open in the Sound window, press ALT E (for Edit), O (for Que Point) and then S (for Split File). 3. The split files will go to your normal saving destination folder, unless you change this. 4. TAB to a list of possible formats just before the destination folder browsing tree and ensure that "Use CD Compatible Wave Format and Alignment" is selected if you are splitting music tracks up to then burn onto a CD. This not only ensures the correct Cd sector burning points for the music tracks but it also converts the files to the correct bit rate, sampling rate, etc, format for Cd burning as well. 5. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. That is as easy as it is simply to get such split up tracks saved in your default saving folder. They will automatically be given filenames such as "Track001.wav", Track002.wav", etc. Note: In the above split files dialogue, if you like, you can change the starting file/track numbering start point from such as track001.wav to, say, track004.wav. You do this by TABBING to "Use Que Names for Filenames" and then ARROWING up to "Use Base Filename and Number" and then TABBING twice to an editfield below this and typing in the number you want the files to be saved from, e.g. if you have already got track001.wav, track002.wav and track003.wav in your saving folder, you would type 4 in here to get further split and saved tracks or files numbered from 004 onwards. You might want to do this to avoid earlier saved tracks being over-written or to avoid one or more of your tracks not being saved at all because of other files already being in the folder with that same name. This starting track number point will be remembered by GoldWave, so be sure to change it back to 1 the next time you use this feature. 9.17. Normalising Recording Levels with the Match and Maximise Features You should not use the "maximise" and "match" methods of increasing a file's overall average volume or several files' average volumes. Use one or the other, as they just cancel one another out. 9.17.1. Maximising the Volume of a Single File You can ensure that the general recording level of a sound file is even and also bring its volume up to the highest it is able to go to without distortion by: 1. With the sound file open in the Sound window, press ALT C (for Effect) and then U (for Volume). 2. In the next list ARROW up to and press ENTER on "Maximise". 3. In the dialogue you now come into, if you simply press ENTER, your file will be normalised to its maximum level without creating distortion. 4. If you make changes in the "Maximum" editfield which are above the 0.00 already entered in their, you will create distortions in your file. However, if you ARROW down to a minus figure to reduce the maximum volume of the file, it will be normalised to a lower level and this may be of use to you if you are then to use this file as, say, background music for a speech file which you want to mix with it. 9.17.2. Matching the Volume of several Sound Files If you wish to ensure that the average volume of several files, such as music files from different CDs, is the same before you copy them elsewhere or burn them to a compilation CD: 1. With the sound file open in the Sound window, press ALT C (for Effect) and then U (for Volume). 2. In the next list ARROW up to and press ENTER on "Match". 3. In the dialogue you now come into, if you simply press ENTER, your file of separate tracks will be normalised to its maximum level and all tracks made the same volume without creating distortion. 4. If you want to use other than the "Default" setting for this, ARROW through the other three options and press ENTER on one of these, e.g. the "Typical" or "Modern" presets, to get the average volume level made a little higher. 2. For how to do this with the batch format converter and effect applier, see Section 31 below. 9.18. Working in More than One Sound Editing Window at a Time You can have several Sound editing windows open simultaneously and move between them by pressing CONTROL F6. You might do this if you had a speech file in window one and a music file in window two. you could then highlight a section of speech in window one, copy it to the Clipboard by pressing CONTROL C and then press CONTROL F6 to the second music window and CONTROL V to paste it into the second sound file at a specific marker point in the paused second file. The music to the left of the speech insert will stay where it is and the music to the right of the speech insert will move further to the right to make room for the speech. To close an open window, just press ALT F (for File) and then C (for Close) or use the shortcut of CONTROL F4. For example, you might wish to use the above method to insert sound tones or musical excerpts into a speech file as fast forwarding place finders if the finish file is to be copied to cassette. If you have several Sound windows open, continuing to press CONTROL F6 will cycle you through them until you get back to the first window you started from. Pressing CONTROL SHIFT F6 will cycle you through open Sound windows in reverse order. Your screenreader should echo the title of each open Sound editing window as you move onto it. 9.19. Inserting One Sound File into Another You can use the Clipboard to insert one sound file into another at a variety of places in the second file. for example: 9.19.1. Inserting without Overwriting Current Data 1. To insert one file into another at a specific point in the second file, open the first file with CONTROL O and copy all or just the required selection of it to the Clipboard with CONTROL C. 2. Close the first sound file window by pressing CONTROL F4. 3. Now open your second sound file, the one you wanted to insert the first file into. 4. Play the second file to the point where you want to insert the first file and stop it with F7. 5. To be able to insert the first file (currently held in the Clipboard) at this position you must first insert a start marker at this point, so press [ (left bracket) at this point. 6. To complete the file insertion, press CONTROL V. The CONTROL V command does not simply paste one file into another as would be the case in standard pasting situations; it is the GoldWave command to insert a file at the start marker. Just pressing CONTROL V without firstly dropping a marker would not work correctly. Any attributes which the file in the Clipboard had will automatically be changed to match the attributes of the file you are inserting it into. 8. Now select the whole file with CONTROL A to be able to hear it all and then press F4 to play it. You will hear the first part of your second file, then the inserted file, followed by the last portion of your second file. No part of it will be over-written; the second part of the second file simply moves further to the right. Note 1: GoldWave has specific commands for inserting one file into another and you have to use the correct one to get the inserting done in the correct place. The copying/inserting commands are: CONTROL V: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the start marker's position. CONTROL B: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the beginning of the file. CONTROL F: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the finish marker's position. CONTROL E: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the end of the file. CONTROL P: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into a new Sound window after automatically opening that new Sound window. Note 2: If you only want to insert one channel of a stereo file into your other file, you can do this via the Edit, Channel feature, where you have both left and right channel options. 9.19.2. Inserting and Overwriting Current Data To insert music or speech from the Clipboard into a second file and also replace and overwrite a selected portion of that current file, e.g. if you have dictated something and want to replace one sentence in it with another more appropriate sentence: 1. Record and then copy the replacement music or speech to the Clipboard. 2. Open the file you want to replace a portion of if it is not already open and then Select the part of the file you want replacing and removing as normal with the left start and right finish markers. 3. Press CONTROL R (for Replace). 9.20. Mixing One Sound with Another To mix such as a speech file with a music file, so that both play together: 1. Open your speech file and copy it to the Clipboard with CONTROL C. 2. Close the speech file with ALT F and C. 3. Now open the music file you want to mix the speech into. 4. Play the music file to the point were you would like the speech to commence and then pause it with F7. 5. Now insert a start marker by pressing the [ key. 6. Open the mix dialogue box by pressing CONTROL M. 7. In the mix dialogue you can just press ENTER to get the mix completed at your marker position and at the original volumes of both files. 8. If you wish to reduce the volume of the speech file you are mixing with the music file, in the above dialogue, you can TAB to "Volume" and ARROW up and down various volume increases or decreases or type your own in-between figure in. The default figure of 0.0 is to keep the volume at its normal full level. Increasing the volume of the speech may cause clipping or blurred speech, so be careful with this. Instead of increasing the speech file's volume , you may wish to decrease the volume of the music via the Volume option in the Effect menu. Of course, in this case, this is something you would have done with the music file prior to mixing the speech with the music. 9. As usual, to hear the whole mixed file, press CONTROL A to select it all and then f4 to play it. Then save your work with CONTROL S. 9.21. Changing the Volume of a Sound file If you wish to either increase or decrease the volume of a whole sound file you have created or just a selected part of it, you can do this by: 1. With the sound file in the data window, press ALT C (for Effect) and then U (for Volume). 2. Now press ENTER on "Change". 3. You can TAB to a "Volume" editfield and either ARROW up and down several options for increasing and decreasing volume or you can type in here your preferred level. The default of 0.00 signifies the current volume of the file, so typing figures in here will increase volume, whereas typing a minus sign (-) followed by figures will result in a decrease in volume. 3. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Note: In the Volume option of the Effect menu there are several other options, such as being able to create fade ins, fade outs, etc. 9.22. Fading a File in or Out If you would like such as a music file to gradually fade in from its start or fade out at its end: 1. With the sound file open, press ALT C (for Effect" and then U (for Volume).. 2. Then either: A. ARROW down to "fade In" and press ENTER, or B. ARROW to "Fade Out" and press ENTER. 3. When you play the file it will now either play from the beginning and fade in from a low volume to its full volume over a few seconds or fade out in the same way. Note 1: If you want a longer period of fade in or out, you can select such as the first 10 seconds at the beginning or end of a file before invoking the fade in or fade out features to achieve this. Note 2: If you repeat the above procedure on the same file, you will double the fade in or out effect, e.g. the fade in will start from twice as quiet as it originally did. Note 3: If you want to change the default fade of -160.00 to something else, you can BACKSPACE this out and type another minus figure in this editfield or you can ARROW up and down in the "Edit" combobox you first come into after pressing ENTER on fade in or fade out to select a number of fading presets, e.g. silence to full volume linear, 50% to full volume linear, etc. 9.23. Cross-Fading One Sound File with Another To make one sound fade out whilst simultaneously fading another sound in so that they overlap: 1. Open a sound file such as a speech or music file and copy it to the Clipboard with CONTROL C. 2. Close the above file with ALT F (for File) and C (for Close). 3. Open a second file, such as a music file. 4. To have the first file fade in at the same time as the second file is fading out, press ALT E (for Edit) and then F (for Cross- Fade). 5. You will fall in an editfield with "5.00" inserted for a 5 second fade but you can overtype this with any other figure you would prefer. 6. TAB once to "End of File" which will fade the on-screen file out at its end and the on-Clipboard file in at that point. If you ARROW up to "Beginning of File" the fade will occur at that point. 7. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to complete the cross-fade. 8. Listen to the results by highlighting the whole merged file with CONTROL A or just highlight the cross-faded area and then press F4. Note: You have a "None" option in the above dialogue, which you should choose if your music file already naturally fades out at its end. 9.24. Inserting a Segment of Silence into a File You may wish to insert a segment of silence into a file to improve the delivery or understandability of a speech file by increasing the delay between some sentences or to leave enough space to later add cue and review indexing tones to a file to be then burned onto a CD to play on your HI-FI system. 1. With a file paused where you wish the silence to be inserted, press the [ key to insert a start marker. 2. Press ALT E (for Edit and then I (for Insert Silence). 3. Now TAB to a "Duration of Silence" figures editfield to indicate the length of the silence gap required. BACKSPACE out the figure currently in this editfield and type in your required silence gap, e.g. with 10.000 for 10 seconds or 1.000 for one second or 60.000 for one minute or 0.001 for one thousandth of a second. 4. You then press ENTER or TAB to "OK" and press ENTER, its all the same. 9.25. GoldWave Configuration Setting and Property Options You have already been into the configuration settings dialogue to make some basic changes as directed in Sub-Section eight above. However, enter this again by pressing F11 and then right and left ARROW through the five property sheets in here and TAB down the options. Some other features of interest not already covered may be: In the "Play" sheet: If you want to make the fast forward key of F6 work either faster or slower, ARROW up and down the available speeds in the "Fast" list and leave focus on what you want. Similarly, in the next list, choose the rewind speed you would prefer. In the "Record" sheet: You may wish to check on "Control Key safety" to make sure that you cannot accidentally record over material in a file, because with this on you always have to hold down the CONTROL key before you are able to record and you will receive a warning if you try to record without doing this. In the "Volume" sheet: Check the volumes of each input and output device, such as microphone, line in, CD player, etc, are at a reasonable level. Only experimentation will determine these things, as they will depend on your sound card, the quality of microphone you use, the type of external sound source you are recording from, etc. Note that only one of these options can be checked on at any one time, e.g. if you wish to use your microphone for recording speech you must have the "Select" button just under the "Microphone" volume editfield turned on. To change from using a microphone to your line in jack on your sound card to record directly from a turntable or tape recorder, check on the "Select" checkbox attached to the "Line In" volume editfield by pressing SPACEBAR on it. Any other previously checked on device in the volume control dialogue will automatically be turned off when you do this. To increase the volume level of one of these devices, just TAB to its current level editfield, BACKSPACE out the figure already in there and then type in your new volume level requirement, e.g. to increase the microphone from 50 per cent of full volume to 75 per cent, just type 75 into this field. In the "Visual" sheet: This determines what appears on screen in the various visual displays in each window. If you can make any use of this sort of thing, just try the various options to see which is best for you. In the "Playback" sheet: If things are working OK for you, there should be no need to change things such as the playback devices but you will have choices to try if you like. You can "Enable Joystick Control" if you have a joystick and can benefit from using it in conjunction with looking at the screen to see where on the visual display you are moving the cursor and markers. The "Playback" quality" list will normally have to be left on "16 Bit Integer" but if your sound card and system can support 24 bit or 32 bit sound processing by all means choose these as they are superior settings. The two checkboxes you can check on after the recording and playback options may improve things if you have an old sound card or are having other sound card related problems. 9.26. Editing or Applying Effects to One Channel Only of a Stereo File If you would like to delete, apply an effect from the Effect menu to or mix some other sound with one channel only of a stereo file, or if you would like to record two tracks simultaneously from a 4-track APF-type cassette and then separate the two tracks: 1. Open your stereo music or other sound file (it must be stereo or two tracks of a 4-track tape for most of this to work). 2. With the whole file highlighted or just the part you want the single channel change or effect to apply to selected, press either CONTROL SHIFT L or CONTROL SHIFT R to have the edit done on only the left or right channel respectively. 3. Carry out your delete, edit, effect application, etc, as normal but it will apply to the selected single right or left channel only. Note: For a more detailed explanation of how to separate two tracks of a 4-track APF-type recording, reverse one of them and then save them as two separate files, see the section below entitled"Transferring Audio from a 4-Track Tape using a 2-Track Stereo Playback Tape Recorder and Separating the Tracks". 9.27. Noise Reduction and Pop, Click and Hiss Filtering GoldWave comes with noise reduction and pop, click and hiss filters to assist in the restoring and remastering of audio. To be honest, whilst GoldWave's noise reduction filters are reasonably successful in many situations, they are not the very best noise reduction filters I have come across but, of course, they do not cost any extra cash either. You can try one or several of them on your sound files and, if you do not like the results, just CONTROL z the file and undo your changes before saving it. 9.27.1. Removing Background Noise from Your Recordings Microphones not only pick up your voice but also much of the surrounding background noise, such as from your computer cooling fans or some form of electrical hum or interference. You can also get background noise on tape recorded speech and music and possible rumble from recorded LPs from turntables. To carry out noise reduction on your recordings in order to eliminate constant background sounds but not sudden noises like coughs: 1. Press ALT C (for Effect) and then F (for Filter). 2. ARROW down to "Noise Reduction" and press ENTER. 3. It will depend very much on the type and level of background noise you are trying to remove but I have found the default parameters to be quite good for removing consistent background noises, such as computer fan humming. 4. To apply these default settings, just press ENTER now. 5. Listen to your file and then press CONTROL Z to return it to its original noisy state and then have another go with the even more recommended Clipboard procedure explained below. 6. You can also TAB to a list of three or four "Use" options and choose the "Use Average" option if the unwanted background noise varies throughout the sound file because this noise reduction option keeps updating its own settings as it goes along. 7. If you like, experiment by changing some of the figures editfields but do not go to extremes. For example, if your noise reduction causes a slight tinkling noise in the resultant file, reduce the default "Time" figure from 100 to somewhere between 100 and 50. 8. In the presets list I have also found the "Reduce Hum" setting to be of value. For an even better noise reduction result you should use the Clipboard method of testing a noise sample. What you do is: 1. Either: A. If this is possible, select a second or so of your sound file which has only background noise in it and not music or speech and copy it to the Clipboard with CONTROL C, or B. If there is no part of your sound file with at least a one second segment in it without speech or music, you can obtain the same results by simply recording "silence" to a separate file (i.e. the exact same silence in the same room, with the same set- up and other circumstances which applied when you recorded your original music or other sound file, so that you obtain the exact same recorded background noise) and then select and copy a few seconds of this to the Clipboard. 2. Press ALT C, then F and then R to open the noise reduction feature. 3. Either use the preset list and ARROW to "Clipboard Noise Print" and press ENTER or TAB to a list of four "Use" options and ARROW to "Use Clipboard" and press ENTER. Whichever you do results in exactly the same settings being applied to your file and the same results. 4. The sample of noise in the Clipboard is analysed and the results of this analysis are then applied to the sound file. The two above-mentioned Clipboard and average options are probably your best choices and should result in good noise reduction. 9.27.2. Removing Pops and Clicks from recordings To carry out crackle, pop and click reduction on your recordings of such as vinyl records: 1. Press ALT C (for Effect) and then F (for Filter). 2. ARROW down to "Pop/Click" Reduction" and press ENTER. 3. TAB to "Tolerance" and note that the current and recommended setting is 1000 per cent. If you make this figure lower, say, 800 per cent, you can remove even more interference but this may start to have a detrimental effect on the quality of your music or other track. If you need to use a figure of 500 per cent or less, only do this on short selected portions of a file which are particularly bad with pops and/or clicks. 4. There are two other options in the presets list, for "Aggressive" or "Passive" removal, so experiment on your recordings but do not save them until you are sure that the result of using any particular setting has indeed improved and not exacerbated things. Use CONTROL Z to undo any undesirable alterations. Note: There is also a hiss and crackle filter within the Effect, Filter menu called "Smoother". Try this on hissy tape recordings or crackly vinyl album recordings with the "Hiss" preset. 9.27.3. Removing Background Hiss from Recordings In addition to noise reduction and pop and click removal, GoldWave has a background hiss removal facility which is useful for removing hiss from any type of recording but particularly from recordings taken from tape. This is done by: 1. With your recording open on screen, press ALT C (for Effect) and then F (for Filter). 2. ARROW up to "Smoother" and press ENTER. 3. ARROW down in the presets list you will now be in to "Reduce Hiss" and press ENTER to finish. 9.28. Making Tonal Changes to Recordings with the Graphic Equaliser If, after recording a file or track to disk, you would like to change its tonal quality, for instance, to increase or decrease its bas or treble or boost its mid-range, etc, you can do this and then resave the changes. The Equaliser is a seven-band graphic equaliser with each band having its frequency in Herts given followed by a figure of 0.0 to signify that it is at its mid-range setting. You can alter these 0.0 figures up to 12 to increase the level of that band or down as far as -24 to decrease a given band's level. When TABBING forward through the bands, the bas bands come first followed by the mid-range and then lastly come the treble bands. For example: 1. With a file or track on screen, press ALT C (for Effect), F (for Filter) and then E (for Equaliser). 2. You will now be in the presets to select from one of these if you like or, as usual, you can specify your own settings if you wish. If you ARROW to "reduce Bas" and press ENTER, you will reduce the level of the bas on the recording by almost half, i.e. the first band in the Equaliser will reduce from a mid setting of 0.0 to -12.0, the second band will reduce from 0.0 to -12.0 and the third band will reduce to -6.0; and the other bands, covering mid-range and treble settings, will remain in the middle at 0.0. If you select the "Boost Mid" preset, you will change the mid-range tone settings from 0.0 to 6.0 in the fifth band and to 6.0 in the sixth band with all other bands remaining at their average setting of 0.0. 3. If you want to use any of these presets instead of making finer personal adjustments, just press ENTER on one of the above presets. 4. If you would like to choose your own tonal change effects, TAB to the appropriate band in the list of seven bands and type over the 0.0 setting in their with your requirements, e.g. the lowest bas band is the first you come to and is the 60 Hz band, so type in such as -6.0, then TAB to the next bas band which is the 150 Hz band and type in -6.0 and TAB again and type into the 400 Hz band -3.0. This will have the effect of reducing the amount of bas on the recording but not by as much as the "Reduce Bas" preset mentioned above would do. It will reduce the level of bas by about a quarter. Obviously, if you wish to increase the mid- range frequencies, you would use such as the fourth, fifth and sixth bands and to change the treble you would use the sixth and seventh bands. Place a minus sign (dash) in front of your new figure if you want to reduce the frequency (E.g. by as low as - 24.0) and leave the minus sign out if you want to increase the frequency (e.g. to as high as 12.0). 5. After specifying your changes, just press ENTER or TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Note: If you reduce such as the bas of a file by a quarter and then still want it reducing further, you should undo your previous command with CONTROL Z and start again from scratch with a higher set of figures in the relevant bands. This is because if you simply take the already changed file and then, say, run a reduce bas setting of such as -9.0, -9.0 and -5.0 instead of the above-mentioned less severe settings (of -6.0, -6.0 and -3.0 in step 4), you will, in fact, be reducing the existing file from its new (already reduced) level of bas and not from its original level, which might be too much of a reduction. 9.29. Automatically Removing Unwanted Silence Gaps in Sound Files A very impressive facility in GoldWave, which can either simply reduce the size of a sound file for more efficient file size saving, or which can actually make a speech recording sound more fluent if you are unable to read text into a microphone at a good speed is the silence reduction feature. To use and test this: 1. Record a speech file from microphone or record some other vocal file, such as a spoken radio documentary and ensure that what you record has significant gaps or pauses in it mixed with no gaps to see the full effect. 2. Press ALT C (for Effect), then F (for Filter) followed by I (for Silence Reduction). 3. If you just press ENTER now, you will reduce any gaps of over one second to one second only. 4. If you ARROW down the presets to the "Reduce Silences to Half a Second" option and press ENTER, you will hear an even more obvious silence gap reduction effect. 5. In the above dialogue you can also TAB to two figures editfields. The first is the "Silence Threshold" and will be set at -48.0. This determines what level of sound is treated as silence, so if you set it too high you may experience some quieter parts of your speech being clipped off as if they were not there but were actually silence gaps with nothing in them. 6. The second editfield simply lets you change the length of gap which any instance of silence is reduced to, i.e. a one or two second gap will be reduced to 0.75 of a second if you replace the default reduction of one second "1.0" to "0.75". 9.30. Transferring Audio from a 4-Track Tape using a 2-Track Stereo Playback Tape Recorder and Separating the Tracks If you are using a standard 2-track stereo tape recorder to transfer recordings onto your PC with but you need to record to disk the contents of a 4-track tape (or you want to do it this way to save recording time), you can do this, although you will have to make certain attribute changes to the recording, such as separate the two tracks, reverse the playback direction of one of them and double their speed if they were originally recorded at half normal speed. So, for example, with such as each of the 4 tracks holding spoken material recorded at half normal speed, which you would get with a book read onto tape by the RNIB for playback using an APF 4-track recorder or similar recording/playback device, what you would do to take the recording from one side of the 4-track machine to your computer and convert it to two 2-track, standard-speed audio wave files is: 1. Record your first track as a stereo file to computer disk as normal. This will, of course, record one track forwards and the other track backwards simultaneously. 2. Press ALLT C (for Effect) and then A (for Playback Rate) and in the editfield you come into, change the playback speed to half the normal 44100 by overtyping the figures in here with 22050 and press ENTER once or twice. 3. Now alter the direction the right channel plays in to change it from playing backwards to forwards. To do this press CONTROL SHIFT R to move to the right channel (CONTROL SHIFT L moves you to the left channel). 4. Now we must work on this right channel only and reverse its playback direction to make it play forwards by pressing ALT C (for Effect) and then R (for Reverse). 5. Now press CONTROL X to cut (remove) the right channel from the original file and paste it into a new sound window by pressing CONTROL P. AS you would expect with 4-track recorded tapes, if you originally recorded side 1 of a tape, this cut and pasted in right track will now be side 4; if you originally recorded side 2 of a 4-track tape, this newly pasted in file will be side 3. 6. Now, in the usual way, save and name this second (right track) file with CONTROL S and then close the second file with ALT F (for File) and C (for Close). 7. Lastly, you will have returned to your first file (which now holds only the left track of the original recording(, which you should now save and name as well. 8. If you wish to ensure that both tracks/files play out of both speakers instead of just one speaker, as will be the case with the file which now holds only the left track of your recording, when you save using CONTROL S or ALT F and A, you should TAB to "Save as Type" and ensure that you ARROW to a mono saving file type, e.g. "PCM signed 16 bit, mono". 9.31. the Delayed Automatic Recording Timer Firstly, ensure that your computer date and time are set correctly in Settings, Control Panel, Date and Time. In a similar vein to using a recording timer on a video recorder, you can specify a time and day on which to ensure that GoldWave starts to automatically record. Do this as follows. 9.31.1. Setting the time and Day for Recording 1. Enter the Control Properties by pressing F11. 2. right ARROW or CONTROL TAB to the "record" sheet. 3. TAB to "Timer" and press SPACEBAR to check it on, when two additional editfields/lists will appear underneath it. 4. TAB to the first of these fields, which is the time to commence recording editfield. It works on a 24-hour clock and, the very first time you use this, it is likely to be set on 12:00:00, which is 12 pm. When setting the time, you should always include minutes and seconds, even if you do not need any, e.g. type in 06:00:00 to have the timer start at 6 am, 18:00:00 to start it at 6 pm and use 00:30:00 to start recording at 30 minutes past midnight. 5. TAB Once to the "Day" list and then ARROW to the day from Monday to Sunday on which you want the recording to start. 6. Lastly, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. This time and day will now be held as the default automatic recording time and day until you change it. 9.31.2. Starting Automatic Recording Having set the time and day for automatic recording as above, you now have to go through the already familiar steps to commence recording. Basically, these are: 1. Press CONTROL N and ensure that the stereo/mono, bit rate, etc, parameters are set as you want them. 2. If you want the recording to stop after a given period of time, enter the figures into the "Initial File Length" editfield, e.g. 01:00:00 for a one hour recording. 3. TAB to and press ENTER on "OK". 4. Lastly, as usual, press CONTROL F9 to start the recording. This, of course, does not start the recording immediately but will ensure that recording starts as soon as the day and time is reached as specified in the record property sheet outlined above. 9.32. Using Batch Processing to Convert a Set of Files from One Format to Another and to Apply Effects to a Set of files To bulk add effects and/or do conversions on a selected number of files or on a whole folder of sound files, you can use the batch feature and achieve both conversion and effects changes at the same time if you wish. This works as follows: 9.32.1. Batch Converting a Block of Files to Other formats To batch convert files: 1. Press ALT F (for File) and then B (for Batch). 2. You come into a four property sheet dialogue box on the "Convert" sheet. Stay on this sheet for this exercise but note that, when on the "Convert" sheet label, you can ARROW right to the other sheets to do batch effects applying and to change some of the parameters for file saving and where they save to in the other sheets. 3. Either TAB to "Add files" or "Add Folder" and press ENTEr. 4. Select the individual files or a whole folder of files in this standard browsing tree. Your usual default place for saving files will probably already be selected. As usual, if you are selecting a given folder and it is not already selected, you can also simply type its path into the editfield to highlight it, e.g. c:\my music. 5. After selecting your individual files or a whole folder of files, TAB to either "Open" or "OK" and press ENTER to insert the files into the files list. 6. Now TAB to a "Convert Files to this Format" checkbox. If you leave this checked off, the files will be converted to the same format they are already in. If your object in using the batch feature is to get several files' formats converted simultaneously, you should check this checkbox on with the SPACEBAR. You can then TAB to two lists of the usual "Save as Type" and "Attributes" lists which have been explained in earlier sections to choose from. TABBING again and pressing SPACEBAR on "Rate (Hz)" will also let you type a new Hertz sampling rate in here for your converted files if you like. Note that not all file formats can be converted and not all formats support all possible sampling rates. 7. Lastly, TAB to "Begin" and press ENTER to commence the conversion process. Whilst conversion is taking place, there is a state of progress line on screen witch you can view in mouse mode if you like, e.g. if it says "Overall Progress 3/15" this means that three of fifteen files to be converted have already been converted and 12 files still await conversion. 8. After conversion is complete, you get an "OK" button to press ENTER on and then you press ENTER on "Cancel" to leave the dialogue. Note: If you are converting a large file which contains a whole album with, say, 12 tracks on it to such as the MP3 format and you have already dropped que points into this large file between tracks, the batch converter will not split the file into individual tracks for you. You will simply get the large file converted to MP3 format as it is. To obtain individual tracks, you must firstly split them to single WAV files and then batch convert these blocks or folders of individual WAV files to whatever other format you require. 9.32.2. Batch Applying Effects to a Block of Files To simultaneously get special effects applied to several files or a whole folder of files: 1. Press ALT F (for File) and then B (for Batch). 2. You come into a four property sheet dialogue box on the "Convert" sheet. TAB forward to the "Convert" sheet label and right ARROW to the "Process" sheet. 3. Either TAB to "Add files" or "Add Folder" and press ENTEr. 4. Select the individual files or a whole folder of files in this standard browsing tree. Your usual default place for saving files will probably already be selected. 5. After selecting your individual files or a whole folder of files, TAB to "Open" and press ENTER to insert the files into the files list. 6. Now TAB to the "Add Effect" button and press ENTER. You will come into a list of GoldWave's special effects to ARROW down, and if you right ARROW on any of these you will open a specific list of that effect's possible parameters and presets. So, for this example, ARROW to "Echo", press right ARROW and then ARROW down to "Heavy Robotic". 7. Now TAB to "Add" and press ENTEr. If you want to add more effects from other effect folders, ARROW to the next closed folder, say, "Pitch", press right ARROW to open it up and then ARROW down to the second effect you want to apply, e.g. "Up one Octave", leave focus on that, TAB to "Add" and press ENTER again. Continue in this way until you have added all desirable effects you want. 8. After adding all effects, TAB to "Close" and press enter to return to the first dialogue. 9. Lastly, TAB to "Begin" and press ENTER. After the job is completed, you press ENTRE on "OK" and then "Cancel". Note 1: In the other two property sheets in this batch dialogue, called "Folder" and "Information" you can view and change such as where your converted/effects files will save to, get existing files overwritten with the new ones, keep each file's track information in each file or alter it, etc. Note 2: The process of converting and/or applying several special effects to several files simultaneously can be a time-consuming process for your PC, taking five to 10 minutes per track. Note 3: To be honest, whilst this batch method of bulk applying special effects is supposed to be a time-saver, I think that it is so time-consuming and unreliable that you would be much better off to create a single file of several tracks with spaces in- between them, apply any effects to the whole file first and then split the file into individual tracks afterwards with the auto que point and split file features. In my experience, whilst the batch block convert property sheet works OK for changing file formats, I could get nothing but system exception errors when trying to bulk apply effects. Perhaps you will get better results on your computer system. 9.33. Step-by-Step Guide Consolidating the Previously Demonstrated Recording, Remastering and Editing/Effects Skills-- Restoring Your Old Vinyl and tape albums to Their Best for burning onto CD 9.33.1. Remastering Old Tapes and Records It is not necessary to do file remastering on pure digital files, such as music tracks copied from a CD, DAT player or mini disk player, unless you simply wish to change their tonal quality by such as increasing the amount of bas or treble music tracks contain. Additionally, many editing effects which you might want to apply to a recorded vinyl LP or recorded track from a pre- recorded cassette will not be appropriate for a recorded voice file. It is also a fact that running certain routines provided by any sound editor does not only have a beneficial result if a recording is not in good condition, it also has a degree of adverse effect. It is a matter of degree and of trade-off between what improvements you can make to a worn, clicky or hissy recording, compared to the slight overall degradation which occurs when you apply these routines to a whole sound file. For instance, if running the pop and click effect from the filters menu reduces the level of audible scratching and clicking on an old vinyl album by 50 per cent but only causes the overall quality and clarity of the album to be degraded by five per cent, then this is likely to be regarded as an acceptable trade-off with an overall beneficial result. In other words, if running a routine is not essential to remastering a file, do not use it--if it's not broken, don't fix it. Remember, also, that the more severely you run a remastering routine, the greater will be the overall file's quality and clarity reduction. This means that, if you are wanting to put a vinyl or cassette album onto CD and that album or tape is in very good condition, you may not wish to run any remastering effects on it at all, or you may wish to use only one or two of them, such as noise reduction if you have recorded a little electrical hum onto the file picked up when transferring the album via a recording lead or you may wish only to run the Effects, Filter, Smoother, Reduce Hiss feature on a recording made from a cassette if the cassette's overall sound is otherwise very good. Similarly, you would be advised to apply certain routines to small sections of recordings if only isolated parts are in poor condition, rather than a whole file or album, if it is practicable to do so. Before recording from a source such as a vinyl LP or tape recorder, ensure that the stylus is in good condition and that the album or tape heads are thoroughly clean and free of static. This will ensure that you have the best possible starting point to work on after transferring your audio to hard disk and will reduce the number of cleaning up routines you have to run on your file or the severity in which you have to use them. You may discover that a given order of routines to effect remastering on your vinyl LPs or tapes works best for you and your equipment. Having said this, the GoldWave maker's recommended order in which to make a recording from vinyl LP, tape or other external source and then apply editing and effect routines on the resultant sound file to remaster it and then burn the resultant individual tracks to CD is as follows: 1. Follow the steps outlined in Sub-Section 9 (How to Make a Recording from Mic, Turntable, Cassette Recorder or Other Sound Source) and Sub-Section 10 (Saving and Resaving a sound File to Different Formats), ensuring that you save your recording to WAV format. After saving your initial file then go through the following procedures in the specified order. 2. If there is any starting or trailing blank space on your recording which you want rid of, highlight the whole file between the start and finish markers thereby excluding the unwanted blank space and then trim it off by pressing CONTROL T (but see 5 below before doing this). 3. Press ALT C (for Effect) and then F (for Filter) and press ENTER ON the "Pop/Click" feature, and change the tolerance setting to 2000 if your album is not too scratchy or clicky, otherwise use the default preset of 1000. This step should not be necessary if restoring an album on tape, unless the tape itself was copied from a vinyl album. You are likely to find that, if you try to remove pops and clicks any more aggressively than the 1000 level over a whole track or album, the result will be an adversely affected playback quality, so be careful with this. After running the pop and click facility across a whole album, listen to it and if you find you still have clicking on the fade-in intro to the first track and on the fade-out of the last track, then highlight just those few seconds of the offending track and run the "Aggressive" preset on them. If you still have a couple of individual loud pops in the middle of a track, try selecting just that single pop with as little as possible sound around it and see if you can reduce its level of noise even further by running the pop and click remover at a rate of 300 or 400. Note, with very badly scratched records, you will never be able to remove crackle and clicks altogether and may only be able to reduce the overall level and severity of the noise on the record. Remember, as long as you have not saved your file and its most recent changes, you can undo your last action and several before it as well if you do not like the results, by pressing CONTROL Z. If necessary, reselect the whole track with CONTROL A. 4. Particularly with tapes, press ALT C, then F and this time press ENTER on the "Smoother" feature. ARROW to the "Reduce Hiss" preset and press ENTER to run it. If you can decern no noticeable improvement in the file, undo your last action and then try a different tolerance setting, and if this still does not improve things, simply undo what you did and skip this step. Then reselect the whole file again with CONTROL A. 5. If at all possible, to be able to do a good job with the noise reduction feature, first find and select a second or two of noise in your file which does not have music or vocals on it and copy it to the Clipboard with CONTROL c. You might want to do this at step 2 above before trimming off any unwanted leading or ending silence areas. Note that it is not advisable to take a sample of a vinyl album's crackle between tracks and use this as your Clipboard noise sample, as this only tends to dampen the quality of the whole track---leave this crackle to be dealt with by the pop/click and smoother/hiss features. You may, though, wish to ensure that you have a few seconds' blank recording in your file before your music starts to take a Clipboard sample from so that you can eliminate any slight electrical hum or whistle which might be in the background of your recordings. If you simply do not have any available "silence" in your file to take a Clipboard sample from, try the "Light Hiss Removal" or "Reduce Hum" presets instead. After this, again highlight the whole file by pressing CONTROL A. 6. Press Alt C, F and then press ENTER on the "Noise Reduction" feature. ARROW down in the presets to "Clipboard Noise Print" and press ENTER to apply this. Now listen to your file and if it displays any kind of tinkling or warbling, press CONTROL Z to undo your last change. Now carry out this step again but this time reduce the "Time" scale setting from 100 to somewhere between 100 and 50. Note that the noise reduction process can take quite some time as it is very CPU intensive, e.g. a one hour music file might take in the region of 15 to 20 minutes with a computer which has a 1 Gb processor and 256 Mb of RAM. If the resultant file is made worse by using noise reduction, which it might be with music files )it works best with speech files recorded with a microphone), then just press CONTROL Z to undo the change and skip this stage. 7. If you are dealing with music tracks with silence gaps between them (but this may not be advisable on speech files), press ALT C (for Effect) and then X(for Compressor/Expander) and ARROW down to the "Noise Gate 3" preset and press ENTER. This should eliminate any remaining noise in the silences between songs. You can, of course, if you prefer or if the Noise Gate does not work adequately for you, simply manually select each gap between tracks and delete it, followed by then inserting a two or three second silence space to separate tracks with ALT E and I. Be warned that if a music track has short and very quiet parts in it between louder sections, the noise gate may confuse this with gaps between songs and remove or suppress the music in the quiet parts. 8. If you are dealing with a single music track or an album of tracks which will already have the same average volume, press ALT C (for Effect) and then U (for Volume) and press ENTER on the "Maximise" feature. After the preliminary scan of the file has finished, ARROW down the presets to the "Full Dynamic Range" option and press ENTER to apply it to obtain the highest level of recording you can without causing distortion. If you are working on several tracks or files from different sources, such as a file with 10 separately recorded singles on it, you might instead wish to use the "Match" option instead of the maximise facility, as this can scan the whole file of tracks and find an average volume for them all and change the recording level to this to make all files a similar volume level. You should not use both the maximise and match options on the same file. 9. If you wish, use the "Equaliser", which is a seven-band graphic equaliser, in the Filter sub-menu of the Effect menu (press ALT C, F and then E) to alter the bass and treble balance to suit your own ear. For example, if the bas on your recording is too high (as it may be if you have used the "match" feature mentioned above), run the "Reduce Bas" preset to reduce its level without affecting the rest of the track. This particular preset will reduce the level of bas to almost half of the original level. Remember, if you decide that you want to further reduce (or increase) your tonal changes to a file even further , undo what you have just done first with CONTROL Z and start again (see Section 28, step 4, above for the reasons why). 10. Listen to the file again and if it meets with your satisfaction, resave your file by pressing CONTROL S. Remember, you can use many of the other features of GoldWave in this remastering process as well if you like, e.g. if the end of a music track, as it fades out, is scratchy and/or crackly, you can create a different, slightly shorter and earlier, fade out to replace the original one and thereby eliminate the crackling at the end of the track by selecting, say, the last five seconds of the end of a track and deleting it, then by selecting the last 10 seconds of the end of the remaining track and then applying the "Full Volume to Silence" preset of the fade out feature (ALT C, U and O). 11. To separate the tracks and copy them to hard disk as individual files: A. press ALT T (for Tool) and then P (for Que Points). B. SHIFT TAB to and press ENTER on the "Auto Que" button. C. In the "Mark Silence" sheet press ENTER on "OK" to get que points automatically placed between tracks in the silent gaps. This is only possible if the album you are working on actually has silent gaps between tracks; otherwise you will have to set these que points manually by stopping the track exactly where you want the que point inserting and pressing CONTROL Q. If no tracks appear in the que points list, then the auto que point feature was not able to work on this particular file, possibly because the gaps between tracks were not large enough or were not truly silent and, in this case, the below "Split File" button will not be available. You may therefore have to drop your que points manually but first try changing the "Below Threshold DB" from - 40.00 to -30.00 and press the auto que button again. D. Now TAB to the "Split File" button and press ENTER and in this dialogue ensure that "Use CD Compatible Wave Format and Alignment" is selected and then press ENTER on "OK" to create a set of individual track files for each song in your originally recorded album. Note: If you find that you are getting too many que points automatically dropped, you can delete all of the que points in the que points list and change the under threshold level from its default of -40.00 to such as - 50.00 and try again. 12. If you want to put the tracks on CD, use a program capable of burning tracks to a CD like Nero-Burning ROM, Easy CD Creator, Winamp or the burning ability of Windows XP to burn the tracks to CD. Ensure that you select the option to burn the tracks as separate audio tracks. If you want to play your tracks on your home HI-FI CD player, save them as .wav files and make sure that you have selected to finalise or close the CD. 9.33.2. Tidying up and Improving Voice Recordings To tidy up and get a voice recording in top condition in respect of fluency and removal of clicks and/or background noise, you would not necessarily use all of the same facilities as with remastering of a music track. Additionally, when you do use some of the same facilities, you would usually use them in a less aggressive way. This would be for such as your own reading out of a magazine to a sound file to then be put onto a master cassette for bulk copying and sending to listeners. A general guide for what to consider in this process would be: 1. Using a good microphone, record your voice file directly onto your hard disk (recommended) or onto a tape and then transfer it to your hard disk, either in stereo or mono, as suits you. 2. Bring it up to full volume by pressing ALT C, U and pressing ENTER on the "Maximise" option. After the pre-scan finishes, ARROW down the presets to "Full Dynamic Range" and press ENTER to complete the volume step. 3. If your recording is not as evenly read onto the file as you would like, remove any unduly long gaps between words by pressing ALT C, F and then I (for Silence Reduction) and ARROWING to and pressing ENTER on the "Reduce Silences to Half a Second" preset. This may also help to remove all or some of any sounds between words picked up during your recording, such as tape recorder pause button and keyboard key pressing. 4. Next listen to your file more closely to identify and edit out any unwanted sounds and/or words/sentences you no longer want and to paste any new sentences in you now decide you omitted. When deleting words or unwanted noise be careful not to clip the ends or beginnings of other words, otherwise you may cause slight clicks to appear in your file. Save your file with CONTROL S from time to time as you go. 5. If you have any pops or clicks on your file, such as those you may have caused when editing, you may be able to get rid of most of these by pressing ALT C, F and then C (for Pop/Click" removal but do not do this too aggressively. Try the "Passive" preset or try a setting of 2000. 6. Having placed a second or two of background sound onto the Clipboard first, now run the noise reduction feature with ALT C, N and then R and use the "Clipboard print" preset. You may also wish to try a time setting of 50 instead of 100. 7. If you have a low voice and want to lift the pitch slightly and/or speed up the delivery a little or simply want to slightly reduce the length of the file, use the "Playback Rate" feature by pressing ALT C, A and overtype the figure in here with a slightly higher one, e.g. overtype 44100 with 44700. 8. Listen to the final results and, if you are happy with them, make your final save as usual with CONTROL S. 9. If you wish to now burn your audio file(s) to CD or DVD, because GoldWave is not able to do this, use such as Nero, Easy CD Creator or Winamp to do the burning. Note that files burnt to CD usually become read-only files and so, if you then copy them back to your hard disk from the CD you have burnt them to, you will be able to open and listen to them but not modify them without changing their attributes. To change a file's attributes so that you can again modify and resave it, just place focus on that file on your hard disk in Windows Explorer, press SHIFT F10 to open the Context Menu and then press ENTER on "Properties". Now TAB or ARROW to "Read only" and press SPACEBAR to uncheck this and also ensure that any other file attributes in this list are unchecked, then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 9.34. Creating Your Own GoldWave Presets from which to Run Routines In the above sections we have frequently used many of GoldWave's built-in presets to run routines on sound files, such as the "Reduce Silences to Half a Second" preset in Effect, Filter, Reduce Silence and the "Passive" preset in Effect, Filter, Pop/Click. However, if you have a particular set of parameters, values or other settings in a given option you would like to use regularly instead of a provided preset or instead of regularly having to type in your favoured settings, you can do this. Try the below as an example. 1. Press ALT C (for Effect), F (for Filter) and then C (for Pop/Click). 2. Now SHIFT tab back once to the "Tolerance" editfield where the default tolerance will be 1000. Type 1500 over this so that the severity of the pop and click removal routine is slightly less rigorous than the default level. 3. TAB forward once to an editfield at the beginning of the presets list and type in here any name you would like your new tolerance setting to be known by, e.g. "My Preference". 4. Next TAB forward to an "Add Preset" button which will now have appeared where there previously was no such button. Press SPACEBAR on this "Add Preset" button and your own customised preset will now be available for future use in the presets list along with all of the built-in presets. 5. If you would like to remove any of your own or of the built-in presets, you can simply ARROW to any preset and then TAB to "Remove Preset" and press SPACEBAR followed by Y to delete it. 9.35. GoldWave's Music CD Tracks Extractor/Copier GoldWave has its own CD tracks extracting and converting feature called "CD Reader". It works just like the other CD encoder/extractor/convertor/compressors covered in this tutorial. for this reason I will not go into great detail about the formats, procedures and protocols involved in CD extracting (see the sub-section on CDEX for this). The essentials only will be covered. The GoldWave Cd Reader can also interrogate the online FreeCDDB database just like Winamp and CDEX can with the same results. AS with CDEX, GoldWave requires a ASPI driver to be installed on your computer for CD extracting to be able to work. Information about installing one of these is provided in the sub-section covering using the CDEX CD ripper in the last section. 9.35.1. Extracting Tracks from CDs to Hard Disk To copy CD tracks to your hard disk with the CD Reader: 1. With a standard shop-bought music CD in your CD drive, press ALT T (for Tools) and then press ENTER on "CD Reader". 2. You will come into a three property sheet dialogue box on the Read Tracks" sheet. 3. Your CD drive should be selected if GoldWave can work with your make/model of CD drive. I have two CD drives, an LG and a Samsun and both were picked up OK. ARROW to the one you wish to use. Note that you may have to ensure that your CD is in the first of your CD drives for them to be recognised, i.e. if you have a drive on D: and another on E:, make sure your Cd is in the D: drive initially. 4. TAB through the standard types of editfields where you can manually typing album, year, genre, etc, details if you wish or you can get these completed automatically from the online Internet CDDB (described later). To manually name a track just leave focus on it and press ALT R (for Rename) and then type the correct track name in and press ENTER. 5. You will eventually TAB to a list of your CDs individual tracks, listed in numerical track order but without their correct track names. They will be called "Track 1", "Track 2", etc. If you want to select them all for extracting, TAB to the "Select All" button and press ENTER. If you only wish to highlight certain tracks for extracting, use standard windows selecting procedures to achieve this, e.g. ARROW to the first track you wish to select, hold down the CONTROL key and press the SPACEBAR (you may have to do this twice on the first track), then still holding the CONTROL key down, ARROW to the next track to extract and press SPACEBAR again, etc. For this exercise, just select two tracks, say, track 1 and track 3. 6. To retrieve album and tracks details from the Internet-based CDDB for the CD currently in your CD drive, press ENTER on the "Get Titles" button.If the database holds this information, it will be completed in the appropriate fields within a few seconds. If you are on a pay-as-you-go Internet connection, do not forget to come offline. 7. You can now TAB to a "Save" button and press ENTER to open up the save dialogue. In here you can: A. Navigate to the folder you want to save tracks into if you are not already there. B. In the "Save as Type" list, ARROW to the saving format you would like, e.g. WAV, MP3, OGG, etc. C. Lastly, TAB to "OK" to commence the extracting to hard disk. 8. The process takes several minutes per track and at the bottom of the screen you can view some progress information, such as: "Save CD tracks Track 3.wav Saving Time remaining: 00:01:46: (37 per cent) Overall progress: 1/2 Processing messages: Track 1.wav: compleat." This is all pretty self-explanatory but the "Overall progress: 1/2" means that GoldWave has finished extracting the first track you selected out of two tracks and is now in the middle of extracting the second track. 9. When finished, this progress message will advise you that 2/2 messages were processed and that there were no errors. You will be presented with an "OK" button to press ENTER on and then TAB to "Close" and press ENTER to finish. 10. Your tracks will have either saved to track names such as "Track 1.wav", "Track 2.MP3", and the like, if you did not personally name them or let the CDDB do it, or they will have their correct names if you did. 9.35.2. Automatically Downloading Album and Tracks Details from the Online CDDB Database If you do not want to tell GoldWave to download CD information each time you extract tracks, you can turn on automatic downloading in the "Options" sheet of the CD Reader multi- dialogue. When in this dialogue (the one discussed above), press CONTROL TAB until you get there and then TAB to "Automatically Download Titles" and press SPACEBAR to check this on. 9.35.3. Viewing Music Track Album and Tracks Information If you want to view the individual details stored on a music track about its name, the album it came from, the year it was recorded by the artist, etc, you can do this provided that the file was saved to a format which supports the retention of these details, namely WAV, ID3V2 MP3, AIFF and XAC files. You do this by: 1. With the track open, press ALT F (for File) and then I (for Information). 2. The dialogue you come into permits you to TAB through the information editfields and observe the stored track information. 3. If you need to change or correct any details, you can BACKSPACE information out and replace it, provided that the track is on a rewritable disk, e.g. your hard disk, and not an unwritable disk such as a CD. 4. If you have made any changes, press CONTROL S to save them to the same filename. 9.36. Merging Files into a Single file with the File Merger GoldWave 5.10 (but not earlier versions) features a file merging facility, which is the reverse of its file splitting feature. Instead of having to open several files separately and copy them to the Clipboard and then paste them together manually to create a single continuous file, you can now automate this with the file merging tool as follows: 1. Press ALT T (for Tools) and then M (for File Merger). 2. TAB once to the "Add Files" button and press ENTER. Then in the editfield you will be in type the path and filename to the first file you wish to merge, e.g. c:\music\track003.wav, or TAB to the usual Windows-style "Look In" tree and list views to navigate to and select the first file for merging. Do this after pressing ENTER on the "Add File" button for all of your files. You can also highlight and select several files at once. If you use drag and drop to select files, they will be joined in the order in which they are selected. If you select files using the keyboard, they will be joined in inverse order of selection, e.g. if you firstly select track001.mp3, then track002.wav and then track003.ogg, your merged file will have track003 first, track002 second and track001 third. If this order is not suitable to you, you should make your track selections in the reverse order in which you want them to be joined so that they will come out in the correct order in the joined file. You cannot rearrange the order of the files in the files list after you have selected them. You can join files of different formats such as .WAV and .MP3 files, which will be converted to a single uniform format at a later stage. 3. The selected multiple files Will be displayed in the files list immediately above the filename editfield and you can remove any if you wish. 4. TAB to "Preferred Sampling Rate" and it will be on 44,100 (CD quality) sampling rate but you can ARROW up and down to change this or just type whatever other rate you want in here. 5. TAB to the "Merge" button and press ENTER. 6. You will now come into a standard GoldWave save dialogue to type a filename into for the new merged file you are about to create, where you can also choose the final file format such as .WAV, OGG, MP3, etc, for the file and where you then just TAB to "Save" to start the final saving and merging process. You can also choose the file attributes you wish to save to in this dialogue as well, such as whether in stereo or mono, the bit rate, etc. The file will save to whichever folder you use as your default saving folder or to wherever else you specify it should save to. 9.37. Using the GoldWave Help System GoldWave's main help features are its "Contents" feature and its "Index" searching ability. It also has a full on-disk manual in the Help menu which you can ARROW all the way through, start reading with your screenreader's continuous read hot key or which you can TAB through the links on. 9.37.1. Help Contents 1. To use the Help "Contents" either press F1 or ALT H (for Help) and then press ENTER on "Contents". If you come into such as the help Index instead of the Contents sheet, press ALT C to get to the Contents feature. 2. You can now TAB, SHIFT TAB, PAGE up and down and ARROW through many help topics and press ENTER on any of these to open up the help text. Depending on the level of help you are at, the help text may be automatically spoken to you or you may have to ARROW down it and sometimes you have to press F6 to move to the actual text in the right-hand pane, after which pressing F6 again takes you back to the left-hand pane with the topic headings in it. 3. If there is more than one page of text, press PAGE down to hear the rest and PAGE up to go back a page. 4. At the bottom of many of the help pages you may find a "Related Topics" link which you can press ENTER on to then be able to cycle through with the TAB key and press ENTER on to get the related text displayed. 5. After hearing the text, depending on where you are, you may be able to get back a step/level by pressing the BACKSPACE key or you may have to go into mouse mode, to the "Back" button near the top of the screen, and press your screenreader's left mouse click simulation key. 6. When on any help topic, you can get its text copied to the Clipboard for pasting into another program's editing window, such as MS Word, to view in that program if you wish. You can also get it printed out if you like. With the help text on screen, you press the right mouse key (Numpad minus usually) to bring up a Context Menu of these commands to press ENTER on. 7. To exit Help, press ALT F4. You sometimes have to press ALT F4 several times before you come out of the various help levels back to the main GoldWave window. However, you may find GoldWave's "Manual" in the Help menu to be more consistent and easier to use than this help Contents feature (described later in this section). 9.37.2. Help Index GoldWave has the standard type of help "Index" system. 1. To use the Help "Index" either press F1 or ALT H (for Help) and then press ENTER on "Contents". If you come into such as the help Contents sheet instead of the Index, press ALT I to get to the Index feature. 2. You will fall on an editfield to type the word(s) into which you want to find, e.g. type "selecting". 3. TAB once to a list of found topics on your search word and ARROW up and down to the exact topic you want and then press ENTER to get its text displayed. Note that you may encounter a second list of sub-topics to ARROW through and select from before you reveal any help text. Note also that if you elect not to type a search word in at the above stage, you can still TAB to this list and will be at the beginning of it, so that you can ARROW down the list to view the around 240 topics and then press ENTER on any of them to display the help text. 4. After listening to the help text, press ALT I again to return to the editfield you started in to type more help word(s) if you want to find something else. 5. Pressing ESCAPE or ALT F4 closes help and returns to the GoldWave main screen. 9.37.3. Obtaining Dialogue Box Help In most dialogues, when TABBING through the controls in there, you will encounter a "Help" or "?" button (although some screenreaders do not speak this). If you press ENTER on this, you will reveal some help text relating to the use of that dialogue box and its controls. Pressing ESCAPE will return you to the dialogue box. 9.37.4. Using the on-Disk Help Manual To use the full on-disk help manual, which has text only and no pictorial figures if you have not registered GoldWave: 1. Press ALT H (for Help) and then m (for Manual). 2. As the manual is an HTML file, Internet Explorer will launch and display the manual. You can use any of the standard Internet Explorer movement keys to navigate the manual, just like you would a page on the internet. 3. So, for example, after pressing ENTER on the first topic link (Introduction) to open up the links, you could simply press your screenreader's continuous read or read all hot key to get the whole manual read from start to end if you wanted to do this, e.g. with INSERT down ARROW with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT R with Window-Eyes and Numpad + with HAL. You can, of course, also just ARROW down the whole manual line by line. 4. However, you are more likely to want to hear text from a given topic or theme of topics. After ARROWING or TABBING to a particular topic heading, e.g. "Features", press ENTER to get the text displayed. If the text is not automatically read out to you, you can ARROW down to hear it. 5. If there is more than one page of text, press PAGE down to hear the rest. After reading the whole topic, to return to where you started out, i.e. the "Features" link, press ALT left ARROW. If you wanted to go forward again to the "Features" topic, you would press ALT right ARROW. 5. To go to the top of the whole help manual, press CONTROL HOME. To go to the very end of it, press CONTROL END. 6. If your screenreader possesses any special hot keys for use on Web pages, these should work OK in this HTML manual, e.g. if it has a links list to place links in alphabetical order, list only previously visited links, only unvisited links, etc, e.g. INSERT F7 with JAWS and INSERT TAB with Window-Eyes. 7. To exit help and get back to the GoldWave main window, press ALT F4. 9.37.5. Changing the Font and Screen Colours for Help Text If you can make visual use of the on-screen help text with a given font type, size and with particular background and foreground colours, because GoldWave displays its help text using Internet Explorer, you can select these by: 1. Launch Internet Explorer and press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Options. 2. CONTROL TAB to the "General" property sheet and TAB forward to "Fonts" or "Colours". 3. In either or both of these sub-dialogue boxes TAB around and select the font types and sizes and/or screen colours which suit your needs. In the "Colours" sheet you will have to press SPACEBAR on "Use Windows Colours" to turn it off before you can then SHIFT TAB backwards to the buttons for changing text and background colours. 4. Now, on this same "General" sheet, TAB to and press ENTER on "Accessibility", then TAB to and press SPACEBAR on the three "Formatting" options to check these on if they are not already on. 5. When finished, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Note 1: This is only able to change the font/colour in the right- hand side of the help window which the help text displays. Note 2: Of course, what you have done here is make these font/colour selections your future default for all Web page viewing, including for pages you visit on the Internet. 9.38. List of GoldWave Keyboard Commands The following keyboard shortcuts work in GoldWave. They are listed under the specific category/window for which they are applicable. on the left are the keyboard shortcuts to use and on the right is a short explanation of what that keystroke will do in that situation. Press Keystroke Action In Sound Windows Left ARROW: Scrolls the Sound window graph left. Right ARROW: Scrolls the Sound window graph right. Page Up: Scrolls the Sound window graph left one screen. Page Down: Scrolls the Sound window graph right one screen. Home: Moves the Sound window view to the start marker's position. End: Moves the Sound window view to the finish marker's position. CONTROL Home: Moves the Sound window view to the beginning of the sound. CONTROL End: Moves the Sound window view to the end of the sound. SHIFT Right ARROW: Moves the start marker right. SHIFT Left ARROW: Moves the start marker left. CONTROL SHIFT Right ARROW: Moves the finish marker right. Control SHIFT Left ARROW: Moves the finish marker left. SHIFT M: Stores the locations of the start and finish markers (memorize). SHIFT R: Moves the start and finish markers to the stored locations (recall). SHIFT E: Displays the Set Marker window. SHIFT Up ARROW: Horizontally zooms in. SHIFT Down ARROW: Horizontally zooms out. SHIFT A: Horizontally zooms all the way out. SHIFT P: Zooms to previous horizontal zoom. SHIFT S: Horizontally zooms in on the selection. SHIFT U: Horizontally zooms to the user defined level. SHIFT 0: Zooms 10:1 horizontally. SHIFT 1: Zooms 1:1 horizontally. CONTROL Up ARROW: Vertically zooms in. CONTROL Down ARROW: Vertically zooms out. SHIFT V: Vertically zooms all the way out. Scroll Lock: When turned on, the Sound window graph automatically scrolls to follow the playback/recording position. In Main Window F1: Starts on-line help. ALT F6: Switches between Main window and Control window. CONTROL F6: Switches between Sound windows. CONTROL N: Opens a new Sound window in which to create a new file. CONTROL O: Opens an already created file. Spacebar: Starts or stops playback using green play button mode. If you stop playback, you will be returned to the beginning of the file. To pause playback and then recommence it from where you stopped it, press the F7 key. SHIFT Spacebar: Starts or stops playback using yellow play button mode. F4, F5, F6, F7, F8: Plays (green mode), rewinds, fast forwards, pauses, and stops respectively. SHIFT F4: Plays the sound using the yellow play button mode. CONTROL F9: Starts recording. CONTROL F8: Stops recording. CONTROL F7: Pauses/unpauses recording. F11: Displays the Control Properties window. When Editing CONTROL Z: Undoes the last change. CONTROL X: Cuts the selection to the Clipboard. CONTROL C: Copies the selection. CONTROL V: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the start marker's position. CONTROL B: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the beginning of the file on screen. CONTROL F: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the finish marker's position. CONTROL E: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the end of the file on screen. CONTROL P: Opens a new sound window and pastes the contents of the clipboard into this new Sound window. Del: Deletes the selection. CONTROL M: Mixes the clipboard with the sound at the start marker's position. CONTROL T: Trims the sound by removing all audio outside of the selection. CONTROL R: Replaces the selection with the sound in the clipboard. CONTROL A: Selects the entire sound. CONTROL W: Sets the selection to the view (what is currently shown in the Sound window). CONTROL Q: Drops a new cue point at the current playback or recording position. CONTROL J: Jumps the start marker to the next cue point. CONTROL SHIFT J: Jumps the start marker to the previous cue point. CONTROL SHIFT L: Selects the left channel only. CONTROL SHIFT R: Selects the right channel only. CONTROL SHIFT B: Selects both left and right channels. [: Moves the start marker to the current playback position. ]: Moves the finish marker to the current playback position. ******** >SECTION 10 WINAMP LITE VERSION 5.0X 10.1. General Introduction and Configuration for Screenreader Users Winamp is one of the world's favourite MP3 file players and creators. The most up-to-date offering as of December 2003 is Version 5.0. You can download this or any later sub-version of Version 5 from many sites, such as: www.winampheaven.com www.winamp4theblind.cjb.net www.whitestick.co.uk www.winamp.com However, you may find the actual maker's Website of www.winamp.com last mentioned above to be harder to use and make sense of than the first two sites. Note: The actual Winamp sub-version of Version 5.0 you are likely to download will be something like 5.01, 5.03, etc, depending on any small changes or bug fixes which have just been made to the original Version 5 by the Winamp makers. Alternatively, Winamp is frequently given away with free software disks on computer magazines or it can be bought cheaply from PC software vendors or software mail order companies, who just charge for the disk, postage and the service, not for the freeware programs themselves. You can also often find this sort of software provided on free ISP disks from a variety of sources and on the giveaway CDs you get with computer magazines. Note: If set up in "Classic" mode, you will find little difference in how Winamp 2.9X Lite and 5.0X Lite appear and work. You will, however, find many extra features in Winamp 5 Full, which is the subject of the next section. In all versions, it is recommended that you do not install the Winamp Agent and that you keep the Winamp Mini-Browser closed by pressing ALT T if it is open (but note that any version of Winamp which includes the Winamp Library does not have the traditional Mini-Browser as this becomes part of the Library itself). You should also disable the "Always on Top" view of Winamp by pressing CONTROL A or ALT CONTROL A if in the Playlist Editor. Winamp Lite is basically only a media player and does not have the same array of other features which the Winamp 5 Full version has. Winamp 5 Full's main extras can mainly be found in its "Media Library" window. When you launch Winamp, if none of its windows are open, you will need to maximise the window by pressing ALT SPACEBAR and then X. Out of the box, Winamp 5 does not currently support surround sound 5.1 or any form of surround sound playback but you can download plugins which do from the Winamp plugins page at: www.winamp.com/plugins You can also download some free music and video files from the Winamp site at: www.winamp.com 10.2. Screenreader Support for Winamp--Sets, MAPS and Scripts JAWS comes with its own built-in scripts for Winamp 2.5 to 2.8 but these still work reasonably well with Version 5.0X. You may be able to download more up-to-date JAWS scripts from the Winamp4theblind site at: www.winamp4theblind.com or the JAWS Lite Website at: www.jawslite.com You can download some set files for Window-Eyes 4.21 and 4.5 for Winamp 2X and 5X from Vic Beckley's Website at: http://members.wilkshire.net/vbeckley/we-index.htm They only take a few seconds each to download. 10.3. Winamp Minimum System Requirements For Winamp 5 to run on your PC you will require: At least a 500 Mhz Pentium 3 computer or equivalent. At least 64 Mb of memory (RAM). At least 15 Mb of spare hard disk space. A 16-bit sound card or better. Windows 98(SE), Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003. A minimum 1 X speed CD burning drive (if you want to do CD burning). A minimum 2 X speed CD-ROm (if you wish to rip tracks from one drive to another). But the makers, Nulsoft, recommend much higher specs than these for best performance. 10.4. Downloading Winamp Lite from the Internet 1. Launch your browser and go to the URL: www.winampheaven.com 2. ARROW down to the Winamp 5.01 Lite link, for example, and press ENTER. By the time you do this, this link will probably be called something like Winamp 5.02, Winamp 5.03, Winamp 5.1, etc, as Winamp is updated regularly. 3. The download will only take about three or four minutes with a 56K modem and the file is only 600 to 700 Kb in size. 4. The file will copy to disk and normally place a link to itself on your Desktop. It is a self-extracting file called "winamp50_lite.exe". Note: If you wish, you could, instead of downloading the Lite version of Winamp, download the full version from the above site, which will take about 20 minutes to download. The full version permits not only Winamp full to be installed but also all other versions/configurations of Winamp as well, including the Lite version. Alternatively, you can obtain Winamp from the specialist Website for visually impaired people which also holds downloadable JFW and Window-Eyes scripts and set files to make Winamp easier to use at: www.winamp4theblind.com Another place to download Winamp from is the maker's site at: www.winamp.com On this latter site you will have to TAB to or use your screenreader's find feature (CONTROL F) to locate a "Download Winamp" link on the home page. 10.5. Installing Winamp Lite and Disabling the Winamp Agent To uncompress and install the win50_lite.exe file: 1. Go to your Desktop or wherever your downloaded files download to and put focus on the downloaded .exe file, then press ENTER. 2. Read the license agreement which comes up first if you wish, which tells you that Winamp is freeware. Then TAB to "I Agree" and press ENTER. 3. TAB to the next "Next" button and press ENTER to obtain a normal "Lite" installation. Note that you can, at this stage, choose "Minimal" or "Custom" installation versions if you wish. 4. Next you will be told that Winamp will be installed at: C:\Program Files\Winamp So accept this by TABBING to "Next" and pressing ENTER. 5. You next have to decide which icons, shortcuts and elements of the program you wish to have installed. All features are checked on by default but if you ARROW to any of these and press the SPACEBAR this will be unchecked and therefore not installed. These will be for such as Desktop icon, quick launch icon, etc. I recommend that you press SPACEBAR on "System Tray Icon - Agent" to turn this off, as it may interfere with the smooth running of the program and your screenreader and can be more of a nuisance than it is worth. Now press ENTER on "Next". 6. After a short while you will be asked how Winamp should connect to the Internet--via LAN, Dial-UP modem connection or no connection available. ARROW to the appropriate one for you, e.g. Dial-Up modem if you have a standard modem connected to your phone line in your home. 7. Winamp will preserve file associations, link itself up with audio CDs, place an icon on the Desktop and on the Start Menu, etc, so just TAB to "Install" and press ENTER, unless you wish to change any of its default selections. 8. The file finishes installation quickly and then plays an intro clip of music and speech with something like sheep and other animal noises in the background. 9. Winamp will launch and you are ready to go--or would be if you knew how to use it! It is probably advisable, as well, to exit Winamp by pressing ALT F4 and reboot your PC at this stage, then launch Winamp again from the Desktop icon. Get to the Desktop with Windows KEY M OR D and then press W until you hear Winamp spoken and then press ENTER to launch it. You should come into what is known as the Winamp Main window. 10.6. Playing a Single MP3 or Other Format of File There are several ways you can approach the playing of files with Winamp. 10.6.1. Playing a File To Play an MP3 music or speech file, for example: 1. Go to your Desktop with ALT M and load Winamp from the shortcut which will have been placed there during the installation. otherwise the long way to launch it is via the path: "c:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.exe" You can do this by browsing to the winamp.exe file via the Program Files option on the Start Menu or by using the Run command on the Start Menu (Windows key R) and then typing the above pathname into the editfield, including the double quotes and pressing ENTER. 2. The standard interface which Winamp presents is not screenreader-friendly and nothing very legible is likely to be gleaned by observing it in mouse mode but this does not matter. 3. Either press the letter L or X key to bring up the "Open File(s)" dialogue box. Now you have to tell Winamp where to find an MP3 file to play. This could be on a compact disk in your CD- ROM drive or in a folder on your hard disk, for example. 4. Winamp provides a sample MP3 file for you to experiment on. This is in the path: c:\Program Files\Winamp\demo.mp3 So, for this example, identify this as the file you wish Winamp to play, as follows. 5. After pressing L above, you will fall in the "Filename" text box. Just TAB forward to "Files of Type" and ARROW up and down these to get an idea of the large number of default audio types Winamp can play. Then ARROW down to the "MPEG Audio Files . . ." option or press M until you get there. 6. Next SHIFT TAB back three times to a "Look In" list of your drives and main folders. ARROW to your C drive with left or right ARROWS or up or down ARROWS and press ENTER. 7. Then TAB once to the list of folders on the C drive and press the P key until "Program Files" is highlighted and then press ENTER. 8. From here press the W key until "Winamp" has focus and again press ENTER. 9. Now press D until the "demo.mp3" file is found. 10. You are now set to hear the file, so press ENTER to activate it. You will hear this short, spoken, file together with a few sheep in the background. If the file is too quiet use the ARROW up key to increase the volume. The ARROW down key decreases volume. Be aware, though, that the volume increments which Winamp changes by when you press the ARROW up or down keys are very small, so you may not notice any difference until you have pressed an ARROW key 20 or so times. To hear the file again press the X key. 11. If you now clear (delete) what you have in the Playlist Editor, i.e. the short audio file you just played above, by pressing CONTROL N and then go back into the Playlist by pressing L again and then TAB through the controls and lists, you will find that the path to the "demo.mp3" file in the "Look In" list is remembered and retained by Winamp, so you could easily hear more MP3 files from this folder, if any more of them actually existed in it. 12. When you have finished with Winamp, press ALT F4 to exit the program. In practice, however, you are more likely to be navigating to a separate folder with many MP3 speech or music files in it or to your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive to play such files and so retaining the location of these folders makes finding and playing other tracks from the same location quicker and easier. Of course, if you are wanting to play music tracks from your CD drive, at stage 6 above, you will be ARROWING to your D or E drive, etc, depending on where you have your CD-ROM configured to work from. 10.6.2. Using the Jump To Command to choose a file for Playing or go to a Place in a Sound File or Determine Where You are or How Long the File is If you want to play a given file you can also use the jump to feature to jump to and play it: 1. Whilst on a given CD drive or in a particular hard disk folder, press the letter J. 2. In the editfield you will be in, either type the filename in here (if you know it) and press ENTER or ARROW down the list of files to the file you want to hear and press ENTER. 3. Whilst a track is playing, if you want to jump to a particular time spot in that file, you can simply press CONTROL J and then type into this editbox the point you want to jump to, e.g. 4:30 to jump straight to 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the track and here it playing from there. This is useful for such as spoken files which are long and when you know exactly or approximately what time slot the section or article you want to hear next is at. Alternatively, if you want to jump to or check a given time point in a track, you can do this without the file currently playing by: 1. Start your sound file playing and then pause it by pressing the C key. 2. Then press CONTROL J and you will come onto an editfield which displays the point you are at in a playing file, e.g. 0:17 for 17 seconds into a track. 3. If you want to jump to another time point in the track/file, BACKSPACE this figure out and type your new jump to time in, e.g. 0:50 to go to 50 seconds into the track. 4. Either just press ENTER or TAB to the "Jump" button and press ENTER. 5. If you re-enter the jump dialogue with CONTROL J, you will have your new position confirmed by the figures now in the time position editfield. 6. If you want to know the total length of a sound file, use CONTROL J and then either use your screenreader's read current line command to discover the total track length or, if this does not work for you, go into mouse mode and rout your cursers and come down the screen until you hear "Track Length" and the figure, e.g. 4:21 for 4 minutes and 21 seconds long. 10.7. Playing all of the MP3 or Other Tracks in a Folder You are more likely to wish to play a whole album of MP3, WAV or other format of tracks than just an isolated single track. Typically, the tracks on an MP3 CD data (not HI-FI audio) disk are copied into folders (directories) which contain all of the tracks on a given album. A blank CD may contain as many as 10 or 12 of these MP3 album folders and perhaps 10 or 12 individual tracks in each folder. If you have audio .CDA or .WAVE files, you should be able to play them on your normal HI-FI as well as your computer but if you are dealing with MP3 files, these may only play on your PC or an MP3 player, unless your HI-FI system is very up to date and has MP3 playing ability. To play a whole Mp3 or other music format album from compact disk or a folder on your hard disk you can use one of two methods: 1. The preferred method, no doubt, will be: A. Press SHIFT L to open the "Open Folder" dialogue. B. The list of folders/albums on a CD disk or in a hard disk folder (whichever you were last working in) opens up. You can ARROW up and down to other albums on the disk or to other folders on your other drives, although you may have to press BACKSPACE once or twice first to get to the correct folders list or drive letter. If this does not happen (and it will not if this is the very first time you have run Winamp), just ARROW up and down the list you are in until you get to the CD drive or hard disk folder you want to be on or press its initial letter until you jump there. C. After ARROWING to your desired album, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. all of the songs on that album on your CD or in the relevant folder on your hard disk will play. D. To pause play at any time, press the letter C key and press C again to recommence play. To stop play altogether, press the letter V key. E. If you press the V key to stop playing of a given track, the Title Bar will tell you that a track has been "Stopped". In this situation you could press the letter B key to jump to the next track and cue it for playing, after which pressing the letter X key will commence playing of that track. If, whilst a track has been stopped, you want to jump to a previous track, you can press the letter Z key to jump there and then press the letter X key to commence playing it. Pressing B or Z several times takes you forward or backwards through tracks according to how many times you press those keys. 2. Alternatively, you can achieve the above results by: A. Follow the steps outlined in 1 to 4 in "Playing a Single MP3 File" above. B. To play MP3 music files, TAB to "Files of Type" and select the MPEG MP3 format or the "All Supported Types" option. C. TAB forward to the "Look In" list and ARROW up or down to the drive letter that your CD drive is on, e.g. typically the D or E drive. D. TAB once to the next list where the folders/albums will be listed. ARROW down this list to the album you wish to play (if there is more than one album on the CD) and then either press ENTER on it or press right ARROW to open up all of the individual tracks on that album. E. You will fall on the first track in that album. Each track will have a track number before it and the track name ill follow this. You must now highlight all of the tracks in the album in the usual Windows way, i.e. Press CONTROL A. F. Lastly, TAB to the "Open" button and press ENTER. The tracks will start playing. Adjust the volume by pressing the up or down ARROW keys 20 or 30 times. 10.8. Playing Standard HI-FI CD Audio Disks You can also use the above MP3 methods of playing audio tracks to play other audio formats, such as CDA and WAV but you also have alternatives, as outlined below. To use the menu system to play an audio CD which is not in MP3 format: 1. Press ALT and then ARROW down to "Winamp". 2. Press ENTER to activate the sub-menu and then ARROW down once to "Play". You can also jump straight to this stage by pressing ALT F at step 1 above. 3. Press ENTER to open the sub-menu and then ARROW up to "Audio CD" and ensure that the correct CD drive is highlighted if you have more than one. 4. Press ENTER to commence the playing of music from the music CD in that drive. There may be a slight delay before playing commences. 5. All of the standard Winamp shortcut keys work in the same way as they do with playing MP3 files. More shortcut keystrokes are given in a later section. To stop playing, press the V key. 10.9. Playing Non-Consecutive Tracks To play selected non-consecutive tracks from an audio HI-FI CD, an MP3 data CD or WAV files from somewhere on your hard disk, you would: 1. With focus on the Winamp Main player window, press the letter L to bring up the Playlist. 2. If the folder which the tracks are in is not already displayed when you SHIFT TAB backwards to view this, you should navigate to the correct drive and folder in the standard Windows way to display them, as instructed earlier in this section. 3. tab to and in the "Filename" editfield, type the names of the tracks you want to hear in the order you want to hear them, enclosed in double quotes and with a space between each, e.g. "track02.cda" "track05.cda" "track10.cda" or "strawberry fields.mp3" "let it be.mp3" "sergeant pepper.mp3". 4. TAB to the "Open" button and press ENTER to commence the playing of tracks in the order you specified. 10.10. Playing MP3 Tracks from the Internet If you know of any specific MP3 files, either songs, news files, shows, spoken tutorials, etc, you can be taken online and have them played to you. Do this by: 1. Press CONTROL L to enter the "locations" URL dialogue. 2. Type in the URL (Website address and filename) of the MP3 file you wish to hear, e.g.: http://www.mp3.com/albatross.mp3. 3. TAB to the "Open" button and press ENTER. 4. You will be taken onto the Net if you are not already online and the file will be played. Note: The above URL and music filename is a fictitious example only and trying to play the "albatross.mp3" file will not work because it does not exist. It is a procedural example only. 10.11. Playing Streaming Audio Radio from the Internet If you want to hear a continuous radio station on the Internet by going directly to it rather than finding it via its Website home page: 1. Launch Winamp. 2. Press CONTROL L and type in the editfield the radio station's location address, e.g.: http://166.90.143.149:10998 and press ENTER. 3. You will hear the Radio Caroline radio station from this location, if it is on air at the time you try, after a short delay whilst the audio fills Winamp's buffer. Of course, if you are not already online, you will have to be taken onto the Net first. Note: This radio station did exist at the time of writing but these things can change rapidly on the Internet. If nothing happens after a couple of minutes, it means that this URL or stream has become obsolete or changed its whereabouts. 10.12. Making Personal Tone Changes in The Winamp Graphic Equaliser To make personal adjustments in bass and treble of a sound file: 1. CONTROL TAB to the "Winamp Equaliser" window. If it is not spoken, it may not be presently enabled, so press ALT G to open its window and you can then CONTROL TAB to it. 2. Press S to open a presets Context Menu. 3. Then press ENTER on "Load". 4. ARROW to "Default" and press ENTER. this should flatten (change to zero) the current 10 equaliser settings levels. 5. To increase each of the 10 bands from this zeroed state, you use the 1 to 0 keys on the keyboard (not the numpad). To decrease the range of bass and treble influence on a sound, you use the row of keys underneath the number keys, i.e. the letters Q to P. The bass keys are those on the left and the treble those on the right. 6. To turn the Winamp pre-amp up and down, press the TILDE and TAB keys respectively. To toggle the Equaliser on and off use the END key. 7. After making your desired tonal changes, press CONTROL TAB until you get back to the Main player window and press C to recommence playing of your sound file if you paused it. 8. Whether or not these equaliser adjustments make much difference to the tone of the sound you are playing will very much depend on the quality of your sound card and speakers. You will probably prefer to use your speaker bass and treble controls if they have any. 10.13. Making PreSet Tone Changes in The Winamp Graphic Equaliser There are many preset selections you can make in bass and treble in the Equaliser, depending upon the type of music you wish to play, for example, for classical music, soft rock, full bass and treble, etc. Do select one of these: 1. put focus on the Graphic Equaliser window by pressing CONTROL TAB until you get there. 2. Press S to enter the "Presets" Context Menu and then press ENTER on "Load". 3. Activate the "Preset" dialogue you fall on by pressing ENTER. 4. You will land in a listbox to ARROW up and down in to select your preferred tone setting. 5. After ARROWING to your choice, TAB to the "Load" button and press ENTRE. 6. The track will play (or re-commence playing if you paused it) with the new tonal quality, or you can now start a new track playing if you did not already have one playing. Note 1: When you are in the "Load" sub-menu in 2 above, you can ARROW up and down and obtain more options, such as "Auto-Preset", where you can select particular tone presets and have them automatically applied to particular tracks or whole file folders. At the stage before you enter the "Load" sub-menu, you can also ARROW down other options for saving and deleting preset files. Note 2: Not all screenreaders can read the contents and dialogues which are presented when working in the Graphic Equaliser, Library Mini-Browser and Playlist Editor, e.g. HAL 4.5 struggles. 10.14. Using the Playlist Editor to Create Playlists of Media for Playing Together Some aspects of the Playlist Editor are not particularly easy to get to grips with but it can be used with a little practice. What you need to realise is that, when you launch Winamp, it usually opens with the last Playlist you were playing with the list of tracks you were playing. To get rid of these in order to open a new Playlist, ARROW to each track and press the DELETE key on it until the list is blank or press CONTROL SHIFT N to clear the Playlist in one keystroke. You can then create new Playlists or open existing Playlists you created earlier. 10.14.1. Creating and Saving a Playlist You can use the Playlist Editor to bring together specified favourite tracks and other types of media files under a single Playlist name to then be able to get those files played together. To create a Playlist: 1. CONTROL TAB to the "Playlist Editor" and open the add files dialogue box by pressing the L key. 2. If there are any unwanted tracks already showing in the Playlist Editor, press the DELETE key on each to remove it, unless you want to keep these and simply add more tracks to that list. 3. SHIFT TAB back twice in this dialogue to the list of drives and folders and find the place where the tracks you wish to work on are located, whether on your hard disk or on a floppy disk or CD drive and press ENTER, e.g. in a folder called music on your C: drive. 4. TAB forward to the list of individual tracks in that folder or CD and press ENTER, then ARROW down the list of tracks to one you want in your Playlist and press ALT O to add it to the Playlist. This file will now be inserted into your Playlist. 5. Press the Letter L again and repeat the procedure in the last two steps for all tracks you want in the Playlist. You can select tracks from other folders and CDs as well. 6. Lastly, to save your new Playlist press CONTROL S and type in the editfield you are now in a name for the Playlist, e.g. Rock Collection 1.m3u, and press ENTER. You can also use the extension of .pls as well as .m3u but you must use one of these extensions. Note 1: When in the above list of individual track names, you can go to the top of the list by pressing the HOME key, to the end with the END key and you can move up or down the list in blocks of five tracks at a time with the Page up and down keys. Note 2: Your Playlist .m3u or .pls file will save to the folder you last selected your tracks in along with your tracks themselves, e.g. to music if you last selected a track in that folder. For this reason, when creating and saving a Playlist, ensure that the last track or file you select is on a writable drive, such as on your hard disk, because if you try to save your Playlist after just selecting a track on a CD in your CD-ROM drive, it will not be able to save to that drive. Note 3: Of course, if you place some tracks in your Playlist from a CD drive, you will have to have that particular CD already available in that drive when you next come to Play your Playlist. 10.14.2. Opening a Playlist for Playing its contents and Deleting Playlists To open a Playlist for playing: 1. CONTROL TAB to the Playlist Editor, if it does not already have focus. 2. Delete any existing tracks in the Playlist Editor with CONTROL N. 3. Press CONTROL O (for Open) and then either: A. In the filename editfield you will be in, type the full path to the Playlist, e.g. c:\music\rock1.m3u, and then TAB to "Open" and press ENTER to open it. B. Alternatively, TAB to a list of your Playlists and ARROW to the Playlist name you wish to hear the tracks of and press ENTER on the "Open" button to open it. 4. When you have focus on a Playlist, as above, if you want to delete it, ensure that it is selected (press SPACEBAR on it if it is not) and then press the DELETE key and then Y to confirm. 5. With the Playlist now open and the tracks in it displayed in the Playlist Editor, just press ENTER on the first of these to start them all playing in their listed order. If you want the tracks to play in reverse order, press CONTROL R before starting the playing. Similarly, pressing CONTROL SHIFT R will get the tracks played in a random order. 10.14.3. Changing the Title or Position of a Media File in the Playlist Editor 1. Change the name of a track by: A. CONTROL TAB to the "Playlist Editor" and open its add file dialogue by pressing the letter L. B. SHIFT TAB back twice to the list of drives and folders and find the place where the tracks you wish to work on are located, whether on your hard disk or on a floppy disk, and press ENTER. C. TAB forward to the list of individual tracks in that folder and ARROW to the one you wish to change the name of, e.g. Jumping Jack Flash.mp3. Note that any saved Playlist .m3u or .pls Playlists you may have saved to this same folder will also be listed here and can also have their filenames changed. D. When the track or Playlist file has focus, press the F2 key and an editbox will open up with the current name of the track in it and you can just type the new name you wish to give to the track straight in there and then press ENTER. Ensure that you keep the file's same original file extension such as .mp3., .wav, .m3u, etc. 2. Move the position of a track by: If you wish to move the position of a track in a Playlist, you can do this by placing focus in the Playlist Editor on the track you wish to move and then using either ALT up ARROW or ALT down ARROW to move the track up or down in the list respectively. You can also delete the selected file by pressing the DEL key. 10.15. The Winamp Menu Structure Winamp has a simple initial one menu menu bar. Just press the ALT key to enter this. 2. Up and down ARROW through the menu list and note that, other than the "Winamp" option, it is very similar to a typical Windows Control Menu. It has the screen maximised as its default. 3. Press ENTER on the "Winamp" option to open another single menu list. You may also be able to get straight to this stage by simply pressing ALT F as soon as Winamp has launched. 4. Press ENTER on "Nulsoft Winamp" and ARROW up and down in here. Their are some basic details about Winamp but, unfortunately, I have not found the options in here, such as "History", Keyboard", etc, to be particularly accessible, but by the time you read this there may be some set or script files available to help in these areas from the Winamp for the Blind Website at: www.winamp4theblind.com 5. Press ESCAPE and then ALT F to return to the first menu list and ARROW through all of the features. Some of them have sub- menus and dialogue boxes of there own. This should give you some idea of Winamp's features and shortcuts. 6. You will notice the phrase "Skins" in here. Skins are simply the name Winamp gives to many different interface screen layouts it has available to it. Some are provided in the preferences sheet during the installation and others can be downloaded but you are invariably best sticking with the standard default "Classic" one if using a screenreader. 10.16. Obtaining Attribute Details of a Sound File You can get information on a file by: 1. Start a file playing and then pause it by pressing the letter C. 2. Then press ALT 3 (not F3). 3. The "File Info" dialogue opens and, if the album and track details are already known by Winamp or have been provided by yourself, you may be able to TAB through these details or you can use your navigation or mouse mode to observe such file information as name of album, title of track, year of release, type of music, etc. 4. If an album, track, etc, is not already named, you can TAB to various editfields and type in these identification details and save them, and you can also activate a "CDDB" button to get these details recorded into a compact disk database for you. 10.17. Winamp Preferences You can observe and make changes to Winamp's default preferences, which are basically how Winamp is set up to work before making any personal changes to suit your own specific needs. For example: 1. Press CONTROL P or CONTROL K to enter the preferences sheet. 2. Press the HOME key and then ARROW down a list of main preference topics with other lists to ARROW through and open with the right ARROW if they are not already open. 3. When you have focus on any main or sub-preference topic, such as "General Preferences", "file Types", "Playlist", "Titles", etc, you can then TAB through several controls and lists to select or check on or off to suit your personal requirements. 4. Some changes which might improve things for you, if you can make any use of a monitor, are the "Playlist Font Size", as you may wish to change this to something bigger than 10 point, and just experiment with any of the other options. The "When Loading Multiple Files, Sort Files by Name" may be desirable for ease of ARROWING through lists of audio and video files in alphabetical order. be aware that some of these preference dialogues are multiple property sheets so you will have to right ARROW when on the sheet label to get into the next sheet and view its contents, e.g. the Winamp full Media Library and CD Ripping options are like this. Note that not all of these property options are available in Winamp Lite but they are all in Winamp Full. 5. If you have the Winamp Agent in your System Tray and want to turn this off, as recommended, you should ARROW to "General Preferences" and then TAB to "System Tray" and press SPACEBAR to uncheck this, followed by ENTER on "Close". Then reenter the preferences dialogue with CONTROL P and ARROW to "File Types" under General Preferences and TAB to "Enable Winamp Agent" and press SPACEBAR to turn this off. TAB through the other options in here and check on or off any which suit your needs and then press ENTER on "Close" again to finish. 6. There are hundreds of options in the Winamp preferences dialogues to view and change if you like, particularly in the full version of Winamp. You can determine the bit rate and mono or stereo output attributes of CDs you intend to rip and you can adjust the types of details which are recorded for files. 7. When finished, TAB to "Close" or "OK" and press ENTER. 10.18. Manipulating a File via the Winamp Context Menu You can bring up a Context Menu of most of the more common commands to perform on a track/file by: 1. In the Winamp Main window, go into the Playlist by pressing the letter L. 2. SHIFT TAB backwards once and place the focus on one of the sound or speech files. 3. Press SHIFT F10 to open the Context Menu for that file. 4. Now ARROW up and down the various options. Many of the commands are obvious but some of the less obvious things you can do on the selected file are in the following options: A. "Open With": This command allows you to choose from many programs to open your file with. If the file is an MP3, you will, of course, have to select an MP3 playing program. If you check the "Always Use This Program . . ." box, only the program you chose above will be able to open such a file in future. It is probably not a good idea to do this therefore, as you may disable other MP3 players from playing files with an .MP3 extension. B. "Add to ZIP": This launches Winzip (if you have it) and permits you to convert the file to a .zip file, possibly for later uploading to the Internet. C. "Send To": This has a sub-menu which permits you do perform operations such as sending the file to a floppy disk, to the clipboard, to your Desktop as a shortcut, to someone as an attachment by e-mail, etc. Note: Not all versions and sub-versions of Winamp will have exactly the same command options in the above Context Menu. 10.19. Sending an MP3 File as an E-Mail Attachment As mentioned above (in option C), you can send a music or speech file as an e-mail attachment. After performing the above steps and pressing ENTER on "Mail Recipient", your e-mail client, e.g. MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape, Eudora, etc, will automatically load and you will be at the "To:" field. Just complete the e-mail headers as normal. The "Subject:" line will already be completed for you. The MP3 file will be automatically attached as usual. You need only TAB to the message body field and type in your accompanying message before sending it to the recipients in the normal way. Warning: Sound files can be very large and may therefore take a long time to up load and download. If the recipient does not want the file you send, he/she may not be very happy that you made them run up their phone bill downloading it. 10.20. Increasing the Winamp Playback Volume without Increasing the Volume of Your Screenreader Speech Normally, when you ARROW up or down to increase or decrease the Winamp playback volume, you may find that your speech also increases or decreases. If this is happening to you, to ensure that this stops happening, you can make changes in the plugins, as follows: 1. Start a sound file playing as normal and then pause it by pressing C. 2. Press CONTROL P to get into the preferences dialogue. 3. Press HOME or PAGE up and then press P until you reach the "Output" plugins. 4. TAB twice and then ARROW to the "Wave Out Output V2.0.2A . . ." plugin if it is not already selected. 5. Now TAB to "Configure" and press SPACEBAR to activate this. 6. Then TAB to "Volume Control Enable" and ensure that this is checked on by pressing the SPACEBAR. 7. Then TAB to "ALT Setting Method" and press SPACEBAR to check this on. 8. Lastly, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER and then to "OK" again or "Close" and press ENTER again to finish. 9. In future you will be able to use the up and down ARROW keys to make Winamp volume changes without your screenreader speech volume also changing. Remember, though, that the volume increments which Winamp changes by when you press the ARROW up or down keys are very small, so you may not notice any difference until you have pressed an ARROW key 20 or so times. 10.21. Making Winamp Your Default Media Player If you would Like Winamp to be the default player for all media formats and file types it is able to play, or at least for audio tracks, so that it automatically launches when you select these media files, do the following: 1. Open Winamp preferences with CONTROL P. 2. Press the HOME key and then ARROW down to "General Preferences" and open the tree with the right ARROW if it is not already open. 3. ARROW down to "File Types" and note the large selection of file types Winamp is able to associate itself with and play if you wish this. 4. TAB to "All" and press SPACEBAR to get Winamp to automatically play all file types when you load them. 4. To make Winamp to be your player for any audio CDs you may place into your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive, TAB to and press SPACEBAR on "Launch Winamp for Audio CDs". 5. TAB to "Close" to finish. Note that there are many other file types you can enable Winamp to play as well in here. 10.22. Using MP3 ID3 Tags to View and Record Track Information An MP3 ID3 tag is a record of information about an MP3 file. It holds several default pieces of information, such as the track's recorded bit rate, its length in seconds, if its stereo or mono, etc. Additionally, if anyone has recorded the track's name, year of creation, artist name, album name, and the like, then these can be viewed; if not, you can type them in and save them with the MP3 file as a record for yourself. 1. Start an MP3 track playing and then press C to pause it. 2. Press ALT 3 (on the keyboard). 3. SHIFT TAB backwards once to a list of MP3 info and ARROW up this to view the type of track recording details mentioned above. 4. Now TAB through the other album and artist details in the main dialogue. TAB to just past the "undo Changes" button and note that you can have ID3V1 Tag" details provided or "ID3V2 Tag" details instead. If information has already been entered into the ID3 info editfields under one of these tagging options, then that option will be checked on. The basic difference between ID3V1 and ID3V2 is that ID3V1 is older and supports fewer recording information details and shorter track names but is recognised by all players, whereas ID3V2 is fuller, more detailed and supports longer track details but may not be supported by older players. 5. Keep TABBING through the editfields and observe the ID3 track details if any have been entered already. 6. If no details have yet been entered and you wish to record some, either check on the ID3V1 or ID3V2 tagging format and then complete the track, album name, year of creation, etc, details and check on or off any appropriate boxes. In the "Genre" list ARROW to the type of music the track in question falls under, e.g. press P to jump to categories of music starting with P and ARROW to "Pop" if appropriate, etc. The "Orig. Artist" is asking for the name of the original artist to sing the song in question, if the current singer is doing a cover version. 6. After completing all of the information you have available to you (you can leave unknown fields blank), TAB to "Update" and press ENTER. 7. When you next play this track, if you want to view this information, just pause the track and press ALT 3 to open the ID3 info and tag dialogue box again. Note: If ID3 tag information has been provided but is incomplete, you can add more to it and save this with the "Update" button. 10.23. Winamp Shortcut keys Now that you have got MP3 music and other sound files playing, you will wish to know how to manoeuvre within tracks and between tracks. Here are some of the most frequently used hot keys: Press F1: To be taken online to the Winamp site to view help pages. Press ARROw up: Increases the volume. Press ARROW down: Decreases the volume. Press Left ARROW: Jumps back 5 seconds in the current playing track each time you press it. If you keep it held down, it acts as a continuous fast backward button. Press Right ARROW: Jumps forward 5 seconds in the playing track or continually fast forwards if held down. Press Z: To jump to the Previous track. This will start playing the previous track if tracks are already playing or it will cue the previous track for playing if play is currently paused. Press X: To play/restart/unpause a track. Press C: To pause and unpause a track. Press V: to stop playing a track. Press B: To jump to the next track. This will start playing the next track if tracks are already playing or it will cue the next track for playing if play is currently paused. Press R: To have a track or album repeated. Pressing R again turns this off. Press S: To have files played in shuffled (random) order. Pressing S again turns this off. Press J: To jump to a specific file in the Playlist Editor. Press ALT E: To toggle the Playlist Editor window on and off. Press ALT G: To toggle the Graphic Equaliser window on and off. Press ALT W: To toggle the Winamp Main window on and off. Press ALT I: To bookmark the current item. Press CONTROL V: to stop playing when the present track finishes. Press CONTROL J: To jump to a specific time point in the track but ensure that you have paused the playing first. You have to BACKSPACE the current time position out and then type in the one you want, in the following format: 0:50 to go to 50 seconds into a track, 10:00 to go to 10 minutes further into a track, etc. Then TAB to "Jump" and press ENTER. Press CONTROL P: To enter the preferences property sheet. Press CONTROL D: To double the size of the Winamp window. Press CONTROL TAB: To cycle through the four or five possible Winamp windows which can be open at once, if more than one is already open. These can contain the Main Player window, the Graphic Equaliser window, the Playlist Editor window and the Winamp Video window. You will find the Main player and Graphic Equaliser windows easier to use than the Winamp Video window and the Playlist Editor windows. You may even wish to turn the latter two off for most of your Winamp sessions, so that you only have two windows to CONTROL TAB through. Press CONTROL K: to select a plugin. Press CONTROL R: to reverse the order of the Playlist. Press CONTROL B: To go to the end of the Playlist when in the Playlist Editor. Press CONTROL Z: To go to the start of the Playlist. Press CONTROL SHIFT R: to get tracks played in the Playlist Editor in a random order. Press SHIFT V: To stop a track and make it fade out as it stops. Press SHIFT ENTER: to enqueue the file with focus. Note: There are a few other standard hot keys but most screenreaders which use the numpad for their navigation will render these unusable, e.g. pressing numpad 1 should jump back 10 tracks, numpad 3 should jump forward 10 songs. Your screenreader may also have some of its own specialist hot keys to achieve things in Winamp, for example, with JAWS 4.5 and above: Press ALT CONTROL H: To pan 100 per cent to the left speaker. Press ALT CONTROL J: To pan 50 per cent to the left speaker. Press ALT CONTROL K: to centre the sound equally between the speakers. Press ALT CONTROL L: to pan 50 per cent to the right. Press ALT CONTROL ;: to pan 100 per cent to the right. Press ALT CONTROL M: to mute the sound. Press ALT CONTROL ,: To change the volume to 33 per cent. Press ALT CONTROL .: To set the volume to 66 per cent. Press ALT CONTROL /: to maximise the volume. Press ALT CONTROL T: To get the track name announced. Press ALT SHIFT S: To announce shuffle and repeat mode settings. Press CONTROL A: To toggle always on top mode on and off in main window or Equaliser but use ALT CONTROL A in the Playlist Editor. However, always on top is not recommended for screenreader users. Press ALT SHIFT T: to announce the elapsed time of the track. Press CONTROL SHIFT T: to get the remaining track time announced. Press CONTROL INSERT T: To get the total length of the current track announced. Press ALT M: To set a time marker in a track. Press ALT SHIFT M: to jump to a time marker in a track. Press CONTROL SHIFT M: To remove a time marker. ******** >SECTION 11 WINAMP FULL VERSION 5.0X The full version of Winamp 5.0X appears to attempt to merge and make accessible all of the features of Version 2.9X and the extra features and power of Version 3.0, which was largely inaccessible to keyboard/screenreader users. It also adds extra features. The full version of Winamp is just over a 4 Mb download and has all of the features of Winamp 5.0X Lite plus several others, mainly found in its "Library" view. You should read this section of this tutorial in conjunction with the last section (Section 10). This is because, from the point of view of using Winamp as an audio player, both versions work the same in this respect. So practise the skills and learn about the various windows and menus in Section 10 before moving to this section. With the full version of Winamp 5.0X you can usually effect most commands up to four different ways. These are either to use Winamp's shortcut keystrokes, to use its Media Library, to use its Context menus or to use its Winamp Main window menu. Whilst not all of these methods will be demonstrated for every skill outlined here, all methods will be examined at different times so that you can decide for yourself which you like best and want to adopt in future. 11.1. Downloading the Full Version of Winamp from the Internet 1. Launch your browser and go to the URL: www.winampheaven.com 2. ARROW down to the Winamp 5.01 Full link, for example, and press ENTER. This file may well have changed its name slightly to such as Winamp502, Winamp503, Winamp 510, etc, before you do your download, as they make small changes to the program frequently and give them slightly different filenames. 3. The download will take about 20 minutes with a 56K modem and the file is just over 4 Mb in size. 4. The file will copy to disk and normally place a link to itself on your Desktop. It is a self-extracting file called such as "winamp501_full.exe". Alternatively, you can obtain Winamp from the specialist Website for visually impaired people which also holds downloadable JFW and Window-Eyes scripts and set files to make Winamp easier to use at: www.winamp4theblind.com Another place to download Winamp from is the maker's site at: www.winamp.com but you may not find this site as easy to use as the two above- mentioned sites. 11.2. Installing Winamp Full and Disabling the Winamp Agent To uncompress and install the win50_full.exe file: 1. Go to your Desktop or wherever your files download to and put focus on the downloaded .exe file, then press ENTER. 2. Read the license agreement which comes up first if you wish, which tells you that Winamp is freeware. Then TAB to "I Agree" and press ENTER. 3. TAB to the "Next" button and press ENTER to obtain a normal "Full" installation. Note that you can, at this stage, choose "Standard", "Lite", "Minimal" or "Custom" installation versions if you wish. 4. After ARROWING to "Full" or "Custom" (its all the same when disabling one of the components), you can ARROW down a list of optional components which are all checked on by default and press SPACEBAR when on the "Winamp Agent" and "Support Modern Skins" to turn these off. If you have no use for visual feedback, also turn off "Visualisations". Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 5. Next you will be told that Winamp will be installed at: C:\Program Files\Winamp So accept this by TABBING to "Next" and pressing ENTER. 6. You now have to decide which icons, shortcuts and elements of the program you wish to have installed. All features are checked on by default but if you ARROW to any of these and press the SPACEBAR this will be unchecked and therefore not installed. These will be for such as Desktop icon, quick launch icon, etc. I recommend that you press SPACEBAR on "System Tray Icon - Agent" to turn this off, as it may interfere with the smooth running of the program and your screenreader and can be more of a nuisance than it is worth. Now TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 7. After a short while you will be asked how Winamp should connect to the Internet--via LAN, Dial-UP modem connection or no connection available. ARROW to the appropriate one for you, e.g. Dial-Up modem if you have a standard modem connected to your phone line in your home. Then press ENTER on "Next". 8. You will now be in the language and skins selection stage, so ARROW to "Classic" and ensure that this is chosen by pressing SPACEBAR on it if it is not already selected. Then TAB to "Install" and press ENTER. 9. The file finishes instalment quickly and then plays an intro clip of music and speech with animal noises like sheep in the background. 10. Before using Winamp, exit the program with ALT F4 and reboot your computer. 11.3. What Do You Get with Winamp Full which is Not in Winamp Lite and What are its Main New Features? With Windows Explorer, if you go to the place where Winamp has installed itself at: C:\Program Files\Winamp\ you will find three options to ARROW through, which are "Winamp" (the launch program link), "What's New" and the "Uninstall Winamp" option. The What's New link will tell you that the new full version of Winamp, amongst many other things, has a more powerful Media Library, has hundreds of radio shoutcast and TV listings you can listen to via the Internet, a new signal processing DSP plugin and CD ripping support and CD burning abilities. 11.4. Playing media without using the Winamp Media Library To play MP3, WAV and other media files with Winamp, follow the same directions given in Section 10 on Winamp Lite. The two versions work exactly the same. When you launch Winamp, if none of its windows are open, you will need to maximise the window by pressing ALT SPACEBAR and then X. 11.5. Using the Winamp Media Library The Media Library allows you access to and the ability to organise your online and offline media content, such as radio stations, TV programs, music files and video clips. 11.5.1. Screen View and Layout of the Media Library In the left pane of the Media Library you have: "Now Playing" which gives information or Web pages relating to the current track if available. "Local Media" displays tracks and files on your hard disk which you have already added to the Media Library. "Audio" displays audio music or speech files in the Media Library according to artist or album. "Video" displays the video files in the Library. "Playlists" permits the creation and importing of Playlists, with Playlists already added to the Library being listed underneath. "Devices" lists the devices which are connected to your computer which Winamp is able to make use of, such as portable audio devices, CD players and HI-FI gateways. "Internet Radio" and "Internet TV" permit you to search for audio or video stations by keyword, bandwidth and genre. "Bookmarks" lists your favourite online audio and video streams. Of course, until you start to use winamp and add tracks, create Playlists, go online to radio stations, etc, these views and lists will be empty. 11.5.2. Opening the Media Library Window You toggle the Winamp Media Library on and off by pressing ALT L. So press ALT L now. You may have to press it more than once. You will then have the Library view on screen and can cycle between the Library and the windows of any other open features by pressing CONTROL TAB, such as through the Library, Graphic Equaliser, Playlist Editor and the Main Winamp screen, depending on what you have turned on. When you first open the Media Library, you will encounter a dialogue telling you that you have no items in your Media Library. You can immediately TAB to the "Add Media to Library" button and press ENTER to add such as audio and video sources to the Library or you can press SPACEBAR on "Do Not Show Me This Again" so that this somewhat annoying dialogue box does not appear in future, so do this at this stage and then TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. You can later access this add media feature plus others via a "Library" button at the bottom of the Media Library screen which opens a Context Menu. 11.5.3. Contents of the Media Library The contents of the Media Library were briefly outlined above but here is more information. The Media Library contains several tree lists of media features and buttons which you can TAB through and open and close in the normal way with the up, down, right and left ARROWS. Pressing the SPACEBAR or your screenreader's left mouse simulation key on a button, such as the "Library" button, will open a Context Menu of commands to carry out. The main list and features in the Media Library are: "local media"--To access such as the audio, video, most played and never played media files on your hard disk. "Playlists"--To access any Playlists of audio or video files you have already created. The "Library" button--If you press SPACEBAR or left click on this, you obtain a Context Menu of commands. If this does not work for you, go into mouse mode, to the bottom of the screen and place focus on this button and then press the left mouse click key. The Context Menu which opens up contains the "Add Media to Library" command to select audio and video files for inclusion in the Library and you can add complete Playlists to the Library as well. Of interest is the "Library Preferences" command and, if you press ENTER on this, you will come into a five property sheet multi-dialogue box which you can SHIFT TAB to the sheet headings of and then right ARROW through followed by TABBING through to make preference changes in. These property sheets are: "Media Importing", "Library Options", "Internet Radio/TV", "Recent Items" and "Plugins". These are the same types of properties you can view and change after pressing CONTROL P. The "Internet Radio" and "Internet TV" buttons--These may try to take you online to the Internet when you land on them, as they will be searching for and wanting to play online radio or TV shows. Just press ESCAPE if you do not want to go online and do this right now. The "Enqueue" button--This enables you to select such as a single or several audio or video files and, instead of having it/them played immediately, get them queued along with other files for playing in order all at once after queuing them all first. Buttons such as "Play", "Remove" and "Bookmark" will be self- explanatory. All of these buttons will be demonstrated in later sections. 11.5.4. Adding Items to Your Media Library The Media Library is a way of recording the places your music, Radio and TV media files are stored in a single record and in a logical order and where you can easily retrieve them for playing or manipulating in some other way. It is not a means of saving or holding the actual media files but rather a record or signpost which points to media files stored on other parts of your hard disk, on CDs in your CD drive, to media files on the internet, and so forth. To add audio and video files to your Media Library you must do this by selecting folders which contain the media files you wish to add to it. Do this by: 1. Open the Media Library if it is not already open by pressing ALT L. You may have to press it more than once. 2. TAB once to the "Library" button and press SPACEBAR to open a Context Menu of commands. If this does not work with your screenreader, go to the bottom of the screen in mouse mode and left click on this button. 3. ARROW down to "Add Media to Library" and press ENTER, when the add media dialogue will appear. 4. You now get a list of folders on your hard disk to select from and get Winamp to find media files in them to add to the Library, e.g. audio files, video files, etc. Winamp will then scan (look through) this selected folder and all of its sub-folders for supported media files. So ARROW up and down the folders list and leave focus on an appropriate folder which is likely to contain media files or press the first letter of the folder name to jump there, e.g. Windows Media Player, or to a specific folder you may have already created and placed media files in, such as my music. Note that you can also put focus on any of your CD or CD-RW drives as well and if you already have a music CD in your CD drive, it will start spinning at this stage. 5. Now TAB to an press ENTER on "OK, when Winamp will give an "adding media to library" message, although your screenreader may not echo this. Note: If you add media from a very large folder or a CD with hundreds of MP3 files on it, this may take several minutes for the Library to assimilate due to the number of files to register in the Library. You will also have to have the appropriate CD inserted in your CD drive when you want to play files from it via the Library. 11.5.5. Playing Media from Within the Media Library You can play media from your hard disk or another drive, such as a CD-ROm drive. You can also play streaming audio and video from the Internet. 11.5.5.1. Playing Media From your Hard Disk or from A CD or Other Disk Drive You can play audio and video files from within the Media Library but this is somewhat restrictive for keyboard users. After adding files to the Library as outlined above, you can then go to the Library with ALT L (if it is not already open, and you can TAB through several lists of files, more details buttons, play buttons, etc. There is a list of the albums in the Media Library and files in the album you select, so you ARROW to the album and then TAB to the list of files and ARROW to the file you want to hear and then press ENTER to commence playing. Pressing SPACEBAR on the "Play" button also starts the selected file playing. Note that your screenreader may not speak the individual files in the files list automatically when you move to one of these, so you will have to use your screenreader's read current line hot key to hear the title and the title may also be truncated. The files will play from the one you select first to the end of the whole block of files. However, this Media Library is not very screenreader or keyboard- friendly and the standard keyboard commands do not work in here, e.g. pressing C to pause a file, V to stop it playing, etc, does not work, nor does pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on some of the buttons in this dialogue. You cannot use ALT F4 to exit Winamp from this view either. What you have to do to obtain the normal keyboard shortcuts functionality is, when a media file is playing, simply CONTROL TAB to the Winamp Main window and you can now use all of the usual keyboard commands, such as Z, X, C, V, B, up ARROW to increase volume, right ARROW to jump forward in the playing file, etc. 11.5.5.2. Playing Streaming Audio and Video Radio and TV Stations from the Internet You can access 500 online streaming audio stations with Winamp 5X and 58 streaming video TV stations. You can select a given radio or TV station and a given type of music or video entertainment you wish to experience. 1. Open the Media Library and TAB to the Local media list and then ARROW down to either "Internet Radio" or "Internet TV" and you will be taken online (if you are not already online) to a listing of 500 radio stations or over 50 TV stations. For this example, leave focus on "Internet Radio". 2. It will take a short while for Winamp to download the titles information of the stations, after which it will display them under headings such as Local Media Name and Genre. If you go into mouse mode, you can ARROW down the screen to view what has been downloaded and can, at the bottom of the screen, view how many radio streams have been found and how many people are currently online listening to them, e.g 500 streams, 93,124 listeners. 3. If you press your screenreader's left mouse click simulation key (Numpad SLASH usually on one of these station names), you will open up the Main Media Library dialogue which lets you TAB around and select stations, categories of music and then individual stations which are currently playing it. So TAB through the standard Media Library dialogue and notice that after you pass the "Internet Radio" option and the search editfield (explained in the next section), you then reach a list of around 266 categories or genres of radio stations which starts with the selection of "Any". ARROWING down this reveals the available genres of music stations, such as 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, Acid, Acoustic, Adult, alternative, rock, and so forth. 4. Once you have selected the class/genre of music you would like to hear (or "Any" if you want to view all stations available), you TAB forward once more to a list of the specific radio stations playing that type of music. For example, if you leave focus on the "70s" category of music, the next list will include such radio stations as Super 70s with Vince Gee . . ., Oldies Radionet with DJ . . ., etc. You may have to use your screenreader's read current line hot key to hear the names of the stations as you ARROW down them. 5. ARROW down the above list to the station you would like to hear and then TAB once to "Play" and press the SPACEBAR to hear it. there may be a short delay before the station is heard. 6. Just repeat the above steps to select another genre of music and specific station to listen to to hear a different station. If you are not online when you do this, you will be taken online to the station. You may find that, as you ARROW through each individual station in the second list above, if you pause for long enough on a given station, then it starts playing automatically for you. 7. If you want to use Winamp's shortcuts, such as C to pause play, Z to jump back a track, B to move forward a track, etc, you will firstly have to move away from the Media Library Window by pressing CONTROL TAB. You will also find that CONTROL TABBING not only allows you to view buffering information in the Playlist Editor (you may have to use mouse mode to view this) but it will also take you to a new window called "Winamp Video". However, the video window reveals nothing to a screenreader user who cannot see it. 7. To exit Winamp and come offline, you will have to CONTROL TAB from the Media Library and then press ALT F4. You will then, if you wish, have to come offline from the Internet manually in the way you normally do this, e.g. via Windows Dial-Up. Note: You are likely to need a broadband Internet connection to hear music tracks and video shows with music without regular breaking up of the stream of music. A 56K modem cannot usually carry sufficient band width to permit continuous playing, although spoken audio and video streams may play continuously without any trouble as they are not usually as demanding on band width. 11.5.6. Searching for Music, TV and Radio Station Media Files in Your Media Library Once you have added media files to your Library, you can search for these by: 1. Open the Library with ALT L if it is not already open. If it is open but the Media Library window does not have focus, CONTROL TAB to it. 2. TAB forward in the Library to the "Local Media" list and right ARROW to open it if it is not already open. 3.A. TAB once more to a blank editfield and type in here the title of the local media file you wish to find, e.g. Candle in the Wind". If you do not know the exact track or other media filename, you can still find it by typing part or just one of the main words of the filename in here. For instance, if you had several music tracks with the word "don't" in them and just typed that in, you would get all of them listed, e.g. Don't Let The Sun Go Down, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, She Don't Love Me Any More, etc. 3.B. If you want to find Radio or TV stations which are listed in your Media Library (or which become listed after you go online to radio or TV stations), TAB down the list of media types from Local Media to either Internet Radio" or Internet TV" before TABBING to the editfield to type in the search string, e.g. a station name, artist's name or genre for the radio or TV media you want to find. Note that, as you put focus on the radio or TV option in the media types list, the program may automatically try to take you online to access Internet radio and TV media, so you will have to press ESCAPE to stop this and then TAB through the controls again back to the radio or TV option in the list before then TABBING to the editfield to type your search string in. Note also that if you exit Winamp from this position, when you open the Media Library again, you will still have focus on the "Internet Radio" or "Internet TV" option and may again automatically be taken onto the Net if you do not press ESCAPE to prevent this. So, if you do not want this to happen, ensure that when you close Winamp, you are not leaving focus on one of these Internet options. 4. TAB forward twice to a list of files in the Library with that particular title or specific word(s) in it. If there is more than one of these, they will all be listed underneath one another but you may have to use your screenreader's read current line hot key to get them verbalised. 5. If you now leave focus on one of the found titles and TAB to and press SPACEBAR on the "Play" button, the track, audio or video stream will play. 6. If you press SPACEBAR on the "Clear Search" button or BACKSPACE out what is currently in the search editfield, you can type another search string in to find. 11.5.7. Using the Enqueue feature to Queue Selected Files to a Playlist Before Playing Them The enqueue feature permits the queuing of files to a playlist so that they can then all be played together, rather than being played singly or having a whole folder of files play when you may only want to hear or view certain tracks or videos. The queue of files can be to a new Playlist or to an existing open Playlist. You use enqueue by: 1. If the Media Library is not already open, open it with ALT L. 2. TAB and ARROW to the album and then track or video file you wish to get queued up rather than playing immediately. 3. Then either press the shortcut of SHIFT ENTER or TAB to "Enqueue" and press the SPACEBAR. Repeat this for as many files as you want to hear, in the order you want to hear them. 4. Now CONTROL TAB until you reach the Playlist Editor and you will find that the tracks or other media files have been listed in here, as the only files in the Playlist if it was empty or in addition to any files which were already in the Playlist. 5. Go to the top of the Playlist and press ENTER on the first track or file to commence playing of all of the tracks in order. 11.5.8. Burning Files, Folders and Playlists to a CD You can burn tracks from a file, number of files, a whole folder of tracks on your hard disk or from a CD in your CD-ROM drive to a blank CD in your CD-RW drive. You are essentially doing the same thing as you would by burning with a program such as Easy CD Creator or Nero Burning-ROM but in a less sophisticated environment. You do this by: 1. Place a blank CD in your burning CD-RW drive. 2. If it is not already open, open the Media Library with ALT L, other wise CONTROL TAB to it. 3. TAB to and ARROW down the Local Media list to "Devices" and then to the drive your CD-RW writer is on. If you have more than one CD drive, each will be displayed here. Your CD-ROM drive will be displayed as simply "CD" followed by the drive letter it is on and your CD-RW drive will be displayed as "CD-R" followed by the drive letter it is on. 4. Now TAB forward through the various options in here to get familiar with them. Then, when on the "Add" button, press SPACEBAR to activate it. You will be given three adding options to ARROW down: files, folders and current play lists. So, for this example, leave focus on "Folder" and press ENTER. 5. You will come into a standard Windows-type browsing tree list with such as your A: drive, C: drive, My Documents, in it, etc, which you can ARROW down and open folders in with right ARROW. So go to your CD-ROM drive, if you have one, otherwise to a folder on your hard disk which holds music files. Make sure that there are not too many files to fit on a blank CD, otherwise this will not work without you removing some of them. Having said this, if you want to ensure that you fill a CD, you can place too many tracks in the folder and just delete them one at a time until you reach the point where Winamp knows that what is left will just fit onto the disk and then commence as below. 6. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 7. Next TAB forward to a "Burn" button and press SPACEBAR. You will be given some information, such as how many tracks will be burned, etc. You could start the burning straightaway now by pressing SPACEBAR again on another "Burn" button which you will be on but before doing this just TAB through the controls and information in this dialogue to see what is in there, e.g. the burn speed will be reported, you can check a box to get a burn test only done without actually burning if you like, etc. After TABBING around in here, press SPACEBAR on the "Burn" button. 8. The burning will commence and you will be left on a "Cancel Burn" button to stop the burn if you like. A full CD of music will take around 25 minutes to burn at 2 speed. If you want to see what is going on during this process, you can go into mouse mode and view the screen, although I would not recommend doing this once you are familiar with how this aspect of the program works, to avoid possible clicks and other slight blemishes on the burned disk. 9. When the burning is complete, Winamp will automatically let you know by ejecting the burned CD from the CD-RW drive. 11.5.9. CD Ripping from CD to CD With Winamp You get a CD ripping plugin with the free full version of Winamp to copy from one CD to another CD in a few alternative formats but it is limited to ripping at either half speed, 1 speed or a maximum of 2 speed. to be able to rip at your CD-RWs top speed, up to a maximum of 48 speed, you have to purchase the Pro version of Winamp. Similarly, if you wish to be able to encode and rip to MP3 format, you must also buy the Pro version. To rip a CD: 1. Place your original CD in your CD-ROM drive and your blank CD into your CD-RW drive whilst keeping the left SHIFT key down to stop the CD from automatically playing. 2. If it is not already open, open the Media Library with ALT L, other wise CONTROL TAB to it. 3. TAB to and ARROW down the Local Media list to "Devices" and then to the drive your CD-ROM is on. If you have more than one CD drive, each will be displayed here. Your CD-ROM drive will be displayed as simply "CD" followed by the drive letter it is on and your CD-RW drive will be displayed as "CD-R" followed by the drive letter it is on. 4. Now TAB forward through the various options in here to get familiar with them. Note that you can play the tracks on your music CD from in here is you wish as well as ripping (converting to another format and copying) them to a blank disk. Then, when on the "Rip" button, press SPACEBAR to activate it. 5. A Context Menu will open up with three options to ARROW down: Cd ripping preferences, rip all tracks and rip selected tracks. 6. Just press ENTER on "Rip All Tracks" to start the ripping of all of the tracks from your original CD to your blank CD in your CD burner. 7. You can now TAB to a "Cancel Rip" button to press SPACEBAR on if you wish to stop the ripping process for any reason. After the ripping finishes, your screenreader may detect some screen movement and speak to you but it is not very clear that things have finished. At this stage you will be able to TAB to an "Eject CD" button to complete the process or you can press SPACEBAR on the "Rip" button again to rip more if you like. By activating the "Rip Options" button with the SPACEBAR during ripping, you can ARROW to "Ripping status Window" to view the state of progress of the ripping session. Note 1: If you had of wanted to rip just certain tracks from the original CD, you would have selected the tracks you wanted first from the tracks list which appears in the dialogue before the "Rip" button and then pressed ENTER on "Selected Tracks". You can rip single tracks one at a time like this but I have not found selecting non-consecutive tracks to work reliably using the normal Windows keyboard methods of selecting, e.g. with CONTROL SPACEBAR, but this may work OK for you. You can, however, go to track 8 of 10 tracks and then press SHIFT CONTROL END to simultaneously select tracks 8, 9 and 10 for ripping. note 2: Before you start ripping, if you press ENTER on "Cd Ripping Preferences", you can view and change the quality of the burned files you create, the bit rate they are burned at, the format they burn to and many other parameters in this dialogue and the sub-dialogue boxes within its options buttons, e.g. for a good quality copy go for CD quality, 16 bit stereo, etc. Note 3: If you find this Winamp CD ripping plugin difficult to use, forget it and use the ripping abilities of CDEX 1.51 outlined in Section 9, which are fuller-featured and easier to use from the keyboard. 11.5.10. The Winamp Media Library Context Menu of Commands When you are in one of the Winamp windows, for instance, the Media Library or Playlist Editor, you can bring up a Context Menu of the most frequently used commands of Winamp. You cannot achieve this with the normal SHIFT F10 shortcut and must, instead, use your screenreader's right mouse click button, e.g. Numpad multiply key with JAWS and Window-Eyes. What you then get is the following list of commands: 1. Play Item(s): Which will play the currently focused music or video track. 2. Send TO: Which, if you right ARROW on this, allows you to send the currently focused media item to either a new Playlist which you want to create; or the currently active Playlist; or your CD burner, if you have one; or add the current item to your bookmarks list. 3. Remove Item(s): Which deletes an item from such as the Playlist Editor (same as pressing the DELETE key on it). 4. Crop Files: Which crops the ends of files. 5. View File Info: Lets you observe a file's details and other attributes such as ID3 tags if it has any. You may have to go into mouse mode to hear these details spoken out. 6. Playlist Entry: Adds the current item to a Playlist. 7. Bookmark Item(s): Which bookmarks the current track, video file or other media item. Note 1: Several of these Context Menu commands have shortcut keystrokes of their own, e.g. ALT I to bookmark the current item. Note 2: Besides this Context Menu you can effect many of these same commands via other parts of the program, such as the main Winamp menu (press ALT F) and also via the Media Library plus many shortcut keystrokes. 11.6. Bookmarking Items for Quick Location If you wish to be able to quickly find a given item such as a music or video file, you can bookmark it. 11.6.1. Inserting a Bookmark 1. Put focus on the media file you wish to bookmark or start it playing. 2. Bookmark it by pressing the shortcut of ALT I. 11.6.2. Finding and Playing Bookmarked Files To view your bookmarked files and play one if you wish: 1. In the Winamp Main window, press ALT F and then ARROW down to "Bookmarks". 2. Right ARROW and then down ARROW to view the already bookmarked files. 3. If you want to play one of these files, just press ENTER on it. Note: There is also a bookmarking feature in the Context Menu mentioned in the last section as yet another means of initially inserting a bookmark into a current file. 11.7. Using Winamp Plugins The full version of Winamp has a rich array of plugins, the most commonly used of which are supplied with the installed program. You can obtain others from the www.winamp.com Website. These plugins are DLL files which provide ways to make Winamp do more than just play MP3 and other file formats. Winamp has plugins for such as "Input" and "Output" operations, such as converting HI-FI audio CD tracks to MP3 files (but only with the purchasable Pro version), converting MP3 files to WAV files, converting Microsoft WMA files to WAV files, converting WAV files to OGG Vorbis files, etc. However, the environment in which you have to achieve this is not very easy to use and some screenreaders are unable to focus very well on the dialogues involved. Nonetheless, it can be done. The example below provides an insight into how to use these plugins. 11.7.1. How to Convert an MP3 File to a WAV File If you would like to convert an MP3 music file, for example, one which you have downloaded from the Internet and now have on a data CD in your CD drive or in a folder on your hard disk, to a WAV file to play either on your PC or on your HI-FI system, you would do this by: 1. Launch Winamp and then press CONTROL P (for preferences). You can also press CONTROL K to get there. 2. Press the HOME key in the Preferences sheet and then keep pressing P until you reach "Plugins" and if this main topic is not open, open it with the right ARROW key. Underneath there you will find five plugin categories starting with "Input" and below this "Output", etc. ARROW to and leave the focus on the "Output" line. 3. Then TAB twice to a list of possible output plugin DLLs. With the ARROW keys place the focus on "Nulsoft Disk Writer Plugin V2.0C ...". 4. Now TAB to the "Configure" button and press the SPACEBAR to activate it. 5. The preferences sheet will close and you will be in a new dialogue box in which you must TAB forward to and press ENTER or SPACEBAR on a C: button and then specify the location where you want the converted file(s) to be placed. You are in the normal type of Windows browsing dialogue, so use TAB or SHIFT TAB and ARROW keys to the drive where you want to be, e.g. C:, TAB forward and ARROW to (or press the first letter of) the folder you want the converted file to go in on your hard disk, e.g. music files, My documents, etc. 6. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Then press ESCAPE or ENTER on "Close" to leave the preferences sheet. 7. You must now select the MP3 files on the compact disk or other hard disk folder which you want to convert to WAV files. So you then press the letter L to enter the standard Playlist, use the drive, folder and file lists in the Playlist as usual (see "Using the Playlist Editor to Create Lists of Media for Playing Together" above) and when you have focus on the track you wish to convert TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 8. The converting and copying to your specified location will commence. Your speech may stop or become choppy, as this process is heavily CPU-intensive. Your screenreader may give you no idea of what is happening, so you may only know that the command has worked when you go to the folder you have sent the converted file to and view it. The Title Bar of Winamp Will say "Stopped", which will alert you to the fact that the converting has finished if you check this. 9. It is important now to change Winamp's plugin back to its default audio playing plugin, so return to the Winamp preferences with CONTROL P and then ARROW up to reselect the "Wave Out Output . . ." DLL plugin. This will mean that Winamp will return to its audio playing state, instead of remaining in its MP3 conversion to WAV mode. 10. You can now use such as Winamp itself or Windows Media Player to play these WAV files from the folder you converted/copied them into. Alternatively, if you did not elect to copy the files onto an audio compact disk initially above, you could now manually burn the WAV files onto an audio CD disk for playing in a HI-FI system. Note 1: The process of converting MP3 files to WAV files can be time-consuming on slower pentium computers. Note 2: The above procedure should work fine for most Winamp 2X versions as well. Note 3: Not all HI-FI systems will be able to play all audio disks of this type. Sometimes a CD-RW is incompatible with certain HI-FI CD players and some older HI-FI systems are temperamental about what they will play, accepting only native .cda files. If you rename the .WAV files to .CDA files before copying them to the audio CD, this may resolve the problem, e.g. rename albatross.wav to albatross.cda. ******** >SECTION 12 BASICS OF BURNING DATA AND AUDIO DISKS WITH NERO 5.5 12.1. Introduction I have written a fairly comprehensive tutorial on most aspects of using Nero Burning-ROM 5 and 5.5 from the keyboard for those interested in getting to grips with the program's many features in considerable depth. However, the below instructions will permit those who only wish to use Nero at a basic level to use it for straightforward burning of data and audio files only. This example is for the burning of data files and not for burning audio files from shop-bought music CDs but if you follow the procedures outlined below for extracting and converting CD audio files to WAV files first, you will also be able to compile and burn music tracks from standard music CDs in this way. For Nero to be fully accessible from a keyboard and screenreader perspective, you must be using the main Nero program and not the Nero Express interface. The main Nero program, by default, is found on your hard disk at: C:\Program Files\Ahead Nero\Nero Burning ROM 12.2. Burning Data Files via Windows Explorer The normal way you would use Nero would be to open the Nero main program and make your choices directly within that program for burning data and audio files using all of Nero's features and databases but there is a more simple and straightforward, if somewhat basic and limited, way of achieving this. An interesting way you can burn files to a Cd, DD CD or DVD with Nero is by first selecting individual files or whole directories/folders of files with Windows Explorer using normal Windows highlighting/selecting methods and then copying these to the Clipboard. After this you launch Nero and then burn them using the standard Nero Wizard. You would do this by: 1. Place a blank CD in the CD burner drive and shut it. 2. Launch Windows Explorer as usual by pressing WINDOWS KEY AND E. 3. Highlight the individual data files or the whole folder of such files you wish to burn on your hard disk or on a CD using standard selecting methods, e.g. by holding the SHIFT key down as you ARROW past the consecutive files or folders you want to burn or hold down the CONTROL key and press SPACEBAR on the non- consecutive files or folders you would like to burn. If you want to use this method to burn the whole of the contents of a disk in your D: drive to a blank disk in your E: drive, in a similar way to cloning/copying a whole disk, just press CONTROL A at this stage to select everything on the disk. You should be selecting such as .DOC, .TXT, .MP3, .XLS, etc, files and not standard HI-FI CD audio music files known as ".CDa" files, although you can burn .WAV files in this way as well. 4. Next copy your selections to the Clipboard by pressing CONTROL C. 5. Now launch the main Nero program (not the Nero Express program) from its installed place on your hard disk or from your Desktop icon if you have one there. It is usually found on the hard disk at: C:\Program Files\Ahead Nero\Nero-Burning ROM 5. When Nero launches, you should be in the Nero Wizard. If you are not, you should press ESCAPE and then turn the Wizard on in the Help menu by pressing ALT H and then ENTER on "Use the Nero Wizard". 6.A. With versions of Nero before Version 5.57X, you will land on a two choice list where you can either opt to "Compile a New CD" or ARROW down to "Copy a CD". Leave it on the former for this type of burning. Then TAB on to "Next" and press ENTER. Note that the "Copy a CD" option is what you would use if you simply wanted to exactly duplicate one CD in your CD-ROM drive to another (blank) CD in your CD-RW burning drive and can be done very straightforwardly without having to convert music files, etc. 6.B. With versions of Nero later than 5.57X, you encounter an initial selection step which does not exist in earlier versions, in which you have to select what type of burning drive you wish to burn to, i.e. a CD drive, a DD CD drive or a DVD drive. You can ARROW to your choice if you have all or more than one type of burner installed in your PC; otherwise, if you only have a CD- RW, this is all which will be shown and you can just press ENTER to move to the next stage, as in 6.A. above. Note that the steps for burning a DVD are the same as for burning a CD but the references to CD in the options and selections change to references to DVD or DD CD. 7. You now have to choose the type of CD you would like to produce by ARROWING up or down the three options of: data, audio or other CD formats.For this example, ARROW to the "Data" option and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. If you were wanting to burn .WAV files, you would have placed focus on "Audio" at this stage instead. 8. You now come on to a "Create a New Data CD", which you should leave focus on when burning to a new blank CD. Note that your other choice in this list is "Continue with an Existing Data CD", which you would use if you were copying additional data files onto an already partly filled CD. This step does not exist if you are burning audio tracks. 9. You now fall on a "Finish" button, so press ENTER, when the New Compilation (ISO 1 data compilation) window will open. 10. After pressing ENTER on the "Finish" button in the Wizard do not do anything more, i.e. do not press any ARROW or any other keys, otherwise things will not work properly. 11. What you must do immediately now is press CONTROL V to paste the files or folders with their contents from the Clipboard into the compilation window. Your screenreader may echo that this is taking place. 12. In this example you are not burning WAV audio tracks but if you were, you would now be able to ARROW up and down the list of tracks and could use standard cut, copy and paste shortcuts to move tracks to different positions in your audio compilation or get some of them duplicated if you wished. However, this re- arranging of files is not possible if you are burning data files or MP3 files as in this instance. 13. You now burn the files or folders as usual by pressing ALT F (for File) and then W (for Write CD) followed by pressing Enter On the "Burn" button and wait for the process to complete. If you TAB through this Burn dialogue before pressing ENTER on "Burn", you will be able to view and change some basic parameters before starting the burn, if you wish, e.g. to get the burn simulated before going ahead with the burning to ensure that you do not get a bad burn, to alter the burn speed, etc. 14. This method of burning files permits you to burn whole directories/folders of data files or tracks and any sub-folders and files within them, without having to use drag and drop methods. 15. When the burning is complete, Nero will automatically eject the CD for you and you then TAB through several options, such as saving the compilation, etc. Press ENTER on "Disregard" and then press ALT F4 and N to exit Nero. 12.3. Converting .CDA HI-FI music Tracks to .WAV Files Before Burning Them The above burning example works fine as it is for burning general data files and MP3 data files to a CD which Nero does not require to be extracted and converted to any other format first. However, if you wish to burn randomly selected .CDA music tracks from your hard disk or several shop-bought traditional music CDs in this way which are not already in .WAV format, you will firstly have to convert them to WAV files. Nero has a "Save Tracks" option in its CD-Recorder menu for this purpose. It is important with Nero to ensure that the format of audio tracks is correct before creating an audio music CD. They must be wave files in the .WAV format, in 44.1 KHz and 16-bit stereo. This is, of course, only necessary if you are burning native .CDA HI-FI music tracks via the hard disk (which is where your converted tracks are saved to after conversion), not for on the fly direct CD-ROM to CD-RW copying or for extracting and burning MP3 files. You can achieve the extraction and conversion of .CDA files to .WAV file format by: 1. If you have either the Nero Wizard or the manual compilation dialogue open, close it by pressing ESCAPE. 2. Insert your shop-bought standard HI-FI music CD into the CDRW (not the CD-ROM) drawer and close it. 3. Press ALT R (for CD-Recorder) and then S (for Save Tracks). 4. Depending on your version build of Nero 5.5X, you now come into the first of either two or three dialogue boxes, where you just ARROW up or down to choose the CD drive you wish to extract your tracks from and then press ENTER on "OK". 5. Again, depending on your version of Nero, you may or may not now come into a tracks naming dialogue. You can TAB through and name CDs, tracks, etc, in here before moving on or just TAB to "Cancel" to ignore this and move to the next stage. The tracks may already be named for you if the Nero CDDB database already knows about the disk you have decided to extract tracks from; otherwise the CD title, tracks names, etc, will be blank for you to complete at this stage if you wish, after pressing ENTER on the "Create a New CD Entry" button. Note 1: You can turn off the automatic opening of the above CD database to show or allow completion of tracks and artist's details if you wish by going to File, Preferences, CONTROL TABBING to "Database" and then pressing SPACEBAR on "Open the Database During Save Track". Below this is where to check off "Open the Database During CD Copy" if you would like to skip this step in CD copying as well. Note 2: In some more up-to-date versions of Nero 5.5X, the next step is combined with step 4 above and you will also find that you can TAB through several "Audio Player controls" options and buttons to play and listen to your selected tracks if you wish. 6. The third dialogue box which you may come into, which is the main selecting and extracting dialogue, has several settings, options, radio buttons and dialogues you can check on, arrow to or go into (e.g. the "Settings" button, to change such as bit rate, mono/stereo recording, etc, and you eventually press ENTER on a "Go" button to get selected tracks converted. Ensure that you have ARROWED to The "PCM Wav File" format for this exercise but note that there are four or five different possible formats. Additionally, in this dialogue, before going to the "Go" button, if you press SPACEBAR on the "Options" button, you will obtain several more options which you can check on or off depending on your requirements and preferences, e.g. To enable jitter correction (recommended), to remove the silent gaps between tracks, to automatically create an M3U playlist of stored audio tracks (a tracks tagging and listing ability), etc. You should also note that the "Browse" button, if pressed, will permit you to navigate to a different tracks saving folder if you wish, e.g. C:\music, provided that you have created such a folder for this first. This "Browse" dialogue should also allow you to BACKSPACE out the current track name, such as track1, and type another more appropriate track name in if you wish, before going to the "Save" button and then the "Go" button. However, I have not found this new folder and renaming dialogue to be reliable, as sometimes it does not give you the track renaming option, so you may have to use an alternative method of renaming tracks to their correct names, e.g. after you have saved the tracks to your saving folder, you may wish to use Windows Explorer to go to them and then press the F2 key on each name in turn and type in the correct track name with the .wav extension or you may wish to press ENTER on each track to get such as Windows Media Player to open up and start playing the track, after which you should be able to press CONTROL S (for save) and then resave the track to a new filename such as: C:\music\Let It Be.wav but you will then have to delete the original tracks so that you do not get duplicate tracks with different names. In fact, when creating compilation music CDs, if you are selecting such as track 1 from several CDs, you will find that Nero will try to over-write your original track 1 with the new track one unless you rename the original track one to something else first. 7. In the above tracks selection step you use traditional Windows highlighting procedures in the tracks list to get the tracks you want to extract selected, e.g. the SHIFT KEY with the ARROW up and down keys to select consecutive tracks, the CONTROL key to move to non-consecutive tracks and press SPACEBAR to select tracks randomly and there is a "Select All" button if you want to highlight all of the tracks on a disk for extracting. If you named the tracks in the previous dialogue or the CDDB database did this, then the track names will appear in the tracks list; otherwise they will simply be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc, followed by some information about the track such as its size in minutes and seconds, its size in Mb, the type of file extension it has, and so on. If you want to select a few tracks from more than one CD, you can do this by inserting another CD and then TABBING to and pressing SPACEBAR on the "Drive" button, after which you can ARROW to "Refresh", press ENTER and then go through the same three dialogue box procedure again. You should note that there is also an "Output File Format" list where you can choose from four different audio formats, such as "Wave", MP3 and Apple Mac, but you leave it on wave for standard extracting. 8. When you have made all of the tracks selections and options changes you want, you press ENTER on "Go" (or use the shortcut of ALT G) and after the extraction has finished (which may take only a few seconds or a minute or two) you will return to the "Go" button and can TAB to "Close" to finish. 9. You are now ready to select these extracted wave tracks and place them into a compilation using the procedures outlined in the last section by navigating with Windows Explorer to the folder you have extracted your converted .WAV files to. ******** >APPENDIX 1 LIST OF SHORTCUT KEYSTROKES FOR ALL SOFTWARE COVERED All or most of these shortcuts have been used or mentioned in the foregoing sections and, where appropriate, each section has its own list of shortcuts at its end. However, I have also provided these shortcuts in one list here, so that they can easily be found all in one place for anyone who likes to access such lists and study them together. Such an appendix can also be easily sent through a Braille embosser or printed out in large print for easy reference in alternative formats. 1. Windows CD Player Shortcuts Press the letter A: To jump to the "Artist" field in order to be able to ARROW up and down your several CD drives, if you have more than one, to change from playing one CD to another in a different drive. Press ALT F4: To exit the CD Player. Press ALT K: To jump to a past or future track with the ARROW keys. Press TAB: To cycle through buttons displaying information such as CD title, artists name, title of current playing track, and so on. Press CONTROL P: To start a CD playing from track one. Pressing CONTROL P again will pause play. Another Press of CONTROL P will re-start play. Press CONTROL S: To stop play. 2. List of CDEX Keyboard Shortcuts CDEX supports the following keyboard shortcuts: Press F1: To open the help Contents and Index page. Press F2: to open the rename track editfield. Press F3: to view the status and progress of CD ripping. Press F4: To open the CDEX settings configuration dialogue. Press F5: to refresh the track list,, re-read the table of contents and re-read the CDDB information. Press F8: to rip the selected tracks to a WAV file. Press F9: to Rip selected tracks to a compressed file, such as MP3 and OGG Vorbis. Press F10: To start extraction of part of a CDs tracks only to one filename. Press F11: To convert WAV files to compressed files. Press F12: To convert compressed files to WAV files. Press ALT F4: To exit CDEX. Press CONTROL A: To select/highlight all tracks. 3. List of GoldWave Keyboard Commands The following keyboard shortcuts work in GoldWave. They are listed under the specific category/window for which they are applicable, although some will work in all windows. on the left are the keyboard shortcuts to use and on the right is a short explanation of what that keystroke will do in that situation. Press Keystroke Action In Sound Windows Left ARROW: Scrolls the Sound window graph left. Right ARROW: Scrolls the Sound window graph right. Page Up: Scrolls the Sound window graph left one screen. Page Down: Scrolls the Sound window graph right one screen. Home: Moves the Sound window view to the start marker's position. End: Moves the Sound window view to the finish marker's position. CONTROL Home: Moves the Sound window view to the beginning of the sound. CONTROL End: Moves the Sound window view to the end of the sound. SHIFT Right ARROW: Moves the start marker right. SHIFT Left ARROW: Moves the start marker left. CONTROL SHIFT Right ARROW: Moves the finish marker right. Control SHIFT Left ARROW: Moves the finish marker left. SHIFT M: Stores the locations of the start and finish markers (memorize). SHIFT R: Moves the start and finish markers to the stored locations (recall). SHIFT E: Displays the Set Marker window. SHIFT Up ARROW: Horizontally zooms in. SHIFT Down ARROW: Horizontally zooms out. SHIFT A: Horizontally zooms all the way out. SHIFT P: Zooms to previous horizontal zoom. SHIFT S: Horizontally zooms in on the selection. SHIFT U: Horizontally zooms to the user defined level. SHIFT 0: Zooms 10:1 horizontally. SHIFT 1: Zooms 1:1 horizontally. CONTROL Up ARROW: Vertically zooms in. CONTROL Down ARROW: Vertically zooms out. SHIFT V: Vertically zooms all the way out. Scroll Lock: When turned on, the Sound window graph automatically scrolls to follow the playback/recording position. In Main Window F1: Starts on-line help. ALT F6: Switches between Main window and Control window, if the latter is turned on. CONTROL F6: Switches between Sound windows. CONTROL N: Opens a new Sound window in which to create a new file. CONTROL O: Opens a file. Spacebar: Starts or stops playback using green play button mode. If you stop playback, you will be returned to the beginning of the file. To pause playback and then recommence it from where you stopped it, press the F7 key. SHIFT Spacebar: Starts or stops playback using yellow play button mode. F4, F5, F6, F7, F8: Plays (green mode), rewinds, fast forwards, pauses, and stops respectively. SHIFT F4: Plays the sound using the yellow play button mode. CONTROL F9: Starts recording. CONTROL F8: Stops recording. CONTROL F7: Pauses/unpauses recording. F11: Displays the Control Properties window. When Editing CONTROL Z: Undoes the last change. CONTROL X: Cuts the selection to the Clipboard. CONTROL C: Copies the selection. CONTROL V: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the start marker's position. CONTROL B: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the beginning. CONTROL F: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the finish marker's position. CONTROL E: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the sound at the end. CONTROL P: Pastes the contents of the clipboard into a new Sound window. Del: Deletes the selection. CONTROL M: Mixes the clipboard with the sound at the start marker's position. CONTROL T: Trims the sound by removing all audio outside of the selection. CONTROL R: Replaces the selection with the sound in the clipboard. CONTROL A: Selects the entire sound. CONTROL W: Sets the selection to the view (what is currently shown in the Sound window). CONTROL Q: Drops a new cue point at the current playback or recording position. CONTROL J: Jumps the start marker to the next cue point. CONTROL SHIFT J: Jumps the start marker to the previous cue point. CONTROL SHIFT L: Selects the left channel only. CONTROL SHIFT R: Selects the right channel only. CONTROL SHIFT B: Selects both left and right channels. [: Moves the start marker to the current playback position. ]: Moves the finish marker to the current playback position. 4. Winamp Shortcut keys Now that you have got MP3 music and other sound files playing, you will wish to know how to manoeuvre within tracks and between tracks. Here are some of the most frequently used hot keys: Press F1: To be taken online to the Winamp site to view help pages. Press ARROw up: Increases the volume. Press ARROW down: Decreases the volume. Press Left ARROW: Jumps back 5 seconds in the current playing track each time you press it. If you keep it held down, it acts as a continuous fast backward button. Press Right ARROW: Jumps forward 5 seconds in the playing track or continually fast forwards if held down. Press Z: To jump to the Previous track. This will start playing the previous track if tracks are already playing or it will cue the previous track for playing if play is currently paused. Press X: To play/restart/unpause a track. Press C: To pause and unpause a track. Press V: to stop playing a track. Press B: To jump to the next track. This will start playing the next track if tracks are already playing or it will cue the next track for playing if play is currently paused. Press R: To have a track or album repeated. Pressing R again turns this off. Press S: To have files played in shuffled (random) order. Pressing S again turns this off. Press J: To jump to a specific file in the Playlist Editor. Press ALT E: To toggle the Playlist Editor window on and off. Press ALT G: To toggle the Graphic Equaliser window on and off. Press ALT W: To toggle the Winamp Main window on and off. Press ALT I: To bookmark the current item. Press CONTROL V: to stop playing when the present track finishes. Press CONTROL J: To jump to a specific time point in the track but ensure that you have paused the playing first. You have to BACKSPACE the current time position out and then type in the one you want, in the following format: 0:50 to go to 50 seconds into a track, 10:00 to go to 10 minutes further into a track, etc. Then TAB to "Jump" and press ENTER. Press CONTROL P: To enter the preferences property sheet. Press CONTROL D: To double the size of the Winamp window. Press CONTROL TAB: To cycle through the four or five possible Winamp windows which can be open at once, if more than one is already open. These can contain the Main Player window, the Graphic Equaliser window, the Playlist Editor window and the Winamp Video window. You will find the Main player and Graphic Equaliser windows easier to use than the Winamp Video window and the Playlist Editor windows. You may even wish to turn the latter two off for most of your Winamp sessions, so that you only have two windows to CONTROL TAB through. Press CONTROL K: to select a plugin. Press CONTROL R: to reverse the order of the Playlist. Press CONTROL B: To go to the end of the Playlist when in the Playlist Editor. Press CONTROL Z: To go to the start of the Playlist. Press CONTROL SHIFT R: to get tracks played in the Playlist Editor in a random order. Press SHIFT V: To stop a track and make it fade out as it stops. Press SHIFT ENTER: to enqueue the file with focus. Note: There are a few other standard hot keys but most screenreaders which use the numpad for their navigation may render these unusable, e.g. pressing numpad 1 should jump back 10 tracks, numpad 3 should jump forward 10 songs. Your screenreader may also have some of its own specialist hot keys to achieve things in Winamp, for example, with JAWS 4.5 and above: Press ALT CONTROL H: To pan 100 per cent to the left speaker. Press ALT CONTROL J: To pan 50 per cent to the left speaker. Press ALT CONTROL K: to centre the sound equally between the speakers. Press ALT CONTROL L: to pan 50 per cent to the right. Press ALT CONTROL ;: to pan 100 per cent to the right. Press ALT CONTROL M: to mute the sound. Press ALT CONTROL ,: To change the volume to 33 per cent. Press ALT CONTROL .: To set the volume to 66 per cent. Press ALT CONTROL /: to maximise the volume. Press ALT CONTROL T: To get the track name announced. Press ALT SHIFT S: To announce shuffle and repeat mode settings. Press CONTROL A: To toggle always on top mode on and off in main window or Equaliser but use ALT CONTROL A in the Playlist Editor. However, always on top is not recommended for screenreader users. Press ALT SHIFT T: to announce the elapsed time of the track. Press CONTROL SHIFT T: to get the remaining track time announced. Press CONTROL INSERT T: To get the total length of the current track announced. Press ALT M: To set a time marker in a track. Press ALT SHIFT M: to jump to a time marker in a track. Press CONTROL SHIFT M: To remove a time marker. ******** >APPENDIX 2 GLOSSARY OF AUDIO AND GENERAL COMPUTER TERMS Active-X: An object-based Microsoft standard for computer program building blocks. ACM (Audio compression Manager): Allows you to set the priority of a CODEC and effect any permitted configuration. ALT: An alternative system of Usenet newsgroups. Altavista: A World Wide Web search engine. Anonymous FTP: A way of getting onto an FTP Website by typing "Anonymous" as your username and your e-mail address as your password. Archive: A storage file(s) in a compressed format. ASCII (American standard code for information interchange): The most common way of representing characters in a computer (as plain text). Attachment: A file, such as from a word-processor, attached to the body of an e-mail and sent with it. Baud: The quantity of electronic symbols that a MODEM can send down a phone line per second. BBS (bulletin board system): An electronic bulletin board you dial up to read messages from and copy messages to. BCC (blind carbon copy): A site where a copy of your e-mail goes without other recipients knowing about it. Binary file: A file that contains more than just text. BIOS (Basic input-output system): This interfaces PC hardware to the operating system. BIT: the smallest portion of computer data. Bitmap: A picture constructed from small dots. BPS (bits per second): The speed at which data is transmitted, e.g. through a MODEM. Browser: A program which lets you navigate around and read information on the Web. Byte: A block of eight bits. CC (carbon copy): A list of other people who also receive a copy of an e-mail. Client: A PC which logs onto and uses the services of a second computer, known as a server. CODEC (Coder/Decoder): Method of audio compression and playback, e.g. audio offerings such as Microsoft's WMA, Fraunhofer's MP3 CODEC and Sony's and Panasonic's AAC files. CMOS (Complementary metal oxide semiconductor): The memory that stores a PCs hardware configuration. Communications Program: A software program which permits your computer to talk to another computer. Cookie: A piece of data placed on your computer by a website you have visited that lets that same site recognise you next time you visit it. Dial-Up Network: The TCP/IP provided with Windows 95 to get you connected to your PPP account. DLL (Dynamic link library): A shared subroutine library, used mainly by Windows programs. Domain: Part of the official name of a computer on the Net, e.g. cwcom.net or freeserve.co.uk. Download: to copy a file from a computer on the Internet to your computer. Duplex: Full duplex is able to send data in both directions, e.g. copying to and from the Internet. Embedded link: A link situated within the text of a Web page and forming an integral part of the text (see "Link" below). EMS (Expanded memory specification): Additional memory above the conventional 640 K DOS limit. Eudora: An e-mailing program. FAQ (frequently asked questions): Answers to frequently asked computer questions. Fidonet: A network of BBSs throughout the world which have e- mail addresses. Firewall: A security system restricting the kinds of in and outgoing messages on the Internet via a specially programmed network computer. Focus: The part of the screen which currently has the attention of the program. FTP (File Transfer Protocol): An Internet-based method of transferring files from one PC to another. Gateway: A method of connecting two networks which use different protocols via a computer. GIF (graphics interchange format): Graphics files and pictures. Gigabyte: One billion bytes or characters of information. Handle: A user's nickname. Header: The to, from and subject part of an e-mail message. Highlighting: Highlighting (also known as "selecting") is the process in Windows of singling out or focusing attention on a particular word, line, paragraph, chunk of text, whole document, etc, to carry out a specific operation on, e.g. to delete, move, copy, change the case of, etc. Highlighting/selecting is done by holding down the SHIFT key whilst moving over the text you want to highlight with standard Windows keystrokes such as ARROWING up and down, holding CONTROL down and ARROWING left or right a word at a time, pressing the CONTROL key followed by the END key to highlight everything to the end of the document, etc, e.g. hold down the CONTROL and SHIFT keys and press the right ARROW key three times to highlight the three words to the right of the cursor and then press the DEL key to delete these three highlighted/selected words. Home page: The introductory Web page about a person or company. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The computer language that Web pages are written in. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): The method by which Web pages are transferred over the Internet. IDE (Integrated drive electronics): Used with many hard disk drives which have most of the controller electronics inside the drive package. Internet: A network of interconnected networks of computers which can communicate with each other. IRC (Internet Relay Chat): Provides the ability to speak to on another over the Internet in real-time. Inter-NIC: The Internet Networking Information Centre. Intranet: An internal microcosm of the Internet which uses browsers, etc, e.g. within a company. ISDN (integrated services digital network): A digital phone system that works as fast as 128 kilobytes per second. JAVA: A modern computer programming language. Browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer can access sites written in JAVA but some specialist browsers for visually impaired people cannot, e.g. PWWebspeak and IBM Home Page Reader prior to Version 3.0. JPEG: A kind of image file frequently found on the Internet. Link: A hypertext place on a Web page where a mouse can be clicked or the ENTER key pressed to obtain more information from the current site or be taken to other sites on the Web. Links are underlined and normally highlighted in blue. Linux: A publicly-owned version of the Unix operating system with open source code. Listproc: A program which handles mailing lists. Listserv: A program which automatically handles and manages mailing lists. Lynx: A text-based Web browser. Mac-TCP: The Mackintosh's version of a TCP/IP. Mail server: An Internet computer providing e-mailing facilities. Mailing list: A method of mailing all incoming mail to a list of subscribers to the list. Majordomo: See Listserv. MAPI (Mail application programming interface): Microsoft's E- Mail standard. Megabyte: One million bytes or characters of data. MIDI: A method of transmitting music. MIME (multipurpose Internet mail extension): A method of e- mailing non-textual files. MODEM: Short for modulator/demodulator, it permits your PC to talk over the phone. Moderator: Someone who vets messages before sending them to an e-mail list or newsgroup. Mosaic: An old Web browser. MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group): This is a video file. MSN (Microsoft Network): A commercial means of accessing e- mail, the Usenet and the Web. Netscape Navigator: A Web browser. Network: Interconnected computers, known as a LAn (local area network) if they are in the same building or a WAN (wide area network) if the computers are further afield. Newsgroups: Subject areas on the Usenet. Newsreader: A method of reading and posting messages on Usenet newsgroups. Node: A host computer on the Internet. OGG Vorbis: OGG Vorbis is an advance type of compressed MP3 file, said to be equivalent to a MPEG Layer 4 format. OLE (Object linking and embedding): A file or program which is embedded as an object in another file. PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association): Credit card sized computer accessories, such as a MODEM or network card. PDF file (portable document format): A text format for distributing files, which requires an Acrobat Reader program to access it. To convert a PDF file to a text file, attach the PDF file to an e-mail message and send it to: pdf2txt@adobe.com After which it will be returned to you by e-mail converted. Pine: An e-mailing program used with Unix. PKZIP: A DOS or Windows-based file compression program. POP (Post Office Protocol): A method of collecting your e-mail and downloading it to your PC from a mail server. PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol): A method of connecting your PC to the Internet via the phone line. Protocol: The accepted rules by which one computer communicates with another. Realaudio: A facility for listening to audio programs over the Net, obtained from www.real.com. SCSI (Small computer systems interface): An interface standard for connecting peripherals, including hard drives. Server: A computer that provides services to other computers, called clients, on a network. Shareware: A program provided on the understanding that if you keep it you pay the requested sum. SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol): See PPP. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): A system by which Internet mail is passed from one PC to another. Spam: The process of posting unwanted commercial material to a large number of Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists. Streaming audio: A downloaded sound file from the Net which starts playing before the download is complete, e.g. Realaudio. Tag: A tag is an instruction on a Web page which tells your browser how to display the text which follows it, e.g. the tag will make the following text bold. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): The method networks use to communicate with each other on the Net. Telnet: A program that lets you communicate with and log into other computers on the Internet as if you were actually sitting at that remote computer. Terminal: A method of connecting a screen and keyboard to a computer, as in terminal emulation, e.g. Windows 95 Hyperterminal. Text file: a file that contains text only and no graphics or pictures. Thread: A chain of related articles posted to a newsgroup. Trumpet: A Windows-based newsreader program. TSR (Terminate and stay resident): DOS programs that reside in memory so you can run them within other applications. TWAIN (technology without an interesting name): If a scanner complies with this standard you can run it from many windows, graphics and desktop publishing applications. Unicode: An advanced form of ASCII. Unix: A computer operating system. Upload: To copy files from your PC to someone else's computer on the Net. URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The addresses which link pages together on the World Wide Web. Usenet: A system of myriads of newsgroups. Virtual reality: A realistic 3-D representation of something. WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative): A Website creation standard outlined by the W3C group to ensure that Websites are accessible to people with disabilities such as the visually impaired. WAV files: Windows sound files ending in .wav. Webmaster: A person who creates, designs and updates Websites with HTML. Web Page: Part of a Website which can be displayed on screen. Website: A collection of Web pages covering a particular topic. Windows Explorer: An Internet browser from Microsoft. Winsock: A way that Windows programs work with TCP/IP, e.g. connecting to the Internet via PPP. World Wide Web: An information system of millions of interlinked pages of information on the Internet which you can jump back and forward amongst, known as "surfing". XML (Extensible Markup Language): This is an up-and-coming, more advanced type of HTML which permits the exchange of information between computers in a way that preserves the structure of the information , e.g. between databases or exchanging data across the Internet. XML describes the data on a Web page, rather than just describing the look of the page. You could, therefore, copy a whole Web page into a spreadsheet, for instance, and immediately work with it. XMS (Extended memory system): The additional memory commonly used in memory in 80386 and 80486 PCs above the conventional 1 mb DOS limit. Yahoo!: A program with Web information and search facilities. ZIP: A file compressed with PKZIP or WINZIP which has a .zip extension. ******** >APPENDIX 3 OTHER TUTORIALS WRITTEN BY AND AVAILABLE FROM THIS AUTHOR All of the below titles are available as plain text files as downloads from my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard Tutorial titles and brief descriptions 1. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 1, covering Web and e-mail protocols, Web Search engines, navigating the Internet with Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5/6.0, e-mailing with Outlook Express 5.0/5.5/6.0, Downloading files and programs from the Net, using a range of Internet search engines, Joining Internet newsgroups with Free Agent 1.92, configuration and hints and tips for screenreader users, and much more. 2. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 2, covering hints and customisation, Download Managers, Online Auctions, Internet Chat Rooms, RealAudio, Internet Shopping and Internet Banking. 3. A selection of separate and individual manuals instructing visually impaired people how to use off-the-shelf print scanning/reading programs via screenreaders and the keyboard, including TextBridge Pro 98, TextBridge Pro 9 and Millennium, Omnipage Pro 10, 11 and 12, ReadIRIS Pro 6, TypeReader Pro 6 and Abby FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7. Each scanner tutorial is an independent manual in its own right. For example, the titles of the principal two of these scanner tutorials are entitled: "Using OmniPage Pro 10, 11 and 12 from the Keyboard to Scan Print" and "Using FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7 from the Keyboard to Scan Print". 4. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 1. This covers Easy CD Creator 4, Sound forge 4.5, Windows Media Player 6, Windows Recorder, Winamp 2.72, Freerip.mp3, RealPlayer 8 Basic, and much more. 5. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 2. This covers Winamp 5.0X, GoldWave audio editor 5.06, CDEX ripper 1.51, Basics of burning with Nero 5.5 and much more introductory and general sound-related information. 6. "Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4,5 and 5.5 from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 3.3 and Nero Media Player). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero Wizard, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 7. "Nero Burning-ROM 6 Ultra and Enterprise Editions from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 4). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero StartSmart interfaces, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions or folders to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, ripping sound files to MP3 or MP3 Pro files, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 8. "Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". This takes spreadsheet users from the beginner stages of Excel through much intermediate material and also covers a few more advanced features. It will give you the skills to use Excel for home accounting purposes, for keeping self-employed small business records and for use in the employment workplace. 9. "Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/XP from the Keyboard". This is a tutorial instructing on how to use the richly-featured suite of programs which is a must for anyone seeking employment or wanting to do advanced e-mailing or calendar and other related tasks at home or at work. It covers all of the main features of MS Outlook and many other more technical topics. Covered is: E-mailing, Calendar, Journal, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, arranging appointments and meetings, searching, plus customising Outlook for visually impaired and blind users and appendices of Outlook general shortcuts and HAL, JAWS AND Window-Eyes hot keys and much more. 10. "Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". Available as a plain text file and instructs on how to use over 45 separate skills in these powerful leading word-processors for use at home or in the workplace to make you highly productive and efficient. ******** (The end.) NERO BURNING-ROM 6 ULTRA, RELOADED AND ENTERPRISE EDITIONS FROM THE KEYBOARD (Also Covers Nero INCD Version 4) By John Wilson Copyright 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS [To find a particular section or heading, use your word- processor's or editor's search facility, e.g. type ">section 4" to find that section. Putting a > sign (capitalised full stop) before the word section will ensure that you do not stop on an earlier cross-reference to that section. Type the string "Installing INCD" to find that subheading or just type "7.2." to find it via its paragraph number. Additionally, all main sections are separated by a centred row of eight asterisks.] Foreword and Restrictions Available Tutorial Formats Target Group Conventions Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Types of CD Drives, DVD Drives and Disks 2.1. Types of Recordable CD Disks 2.1.1. Write-Only Compact Disks 2.1.2. Rewritable Compact Disks 2.2. Compact Disk and DDCD Capacities 2.3. Types of CD Drives 2.3.1. CD-ROM 2.3.2. CD-R 2.3.3. CD-RW 2.4. CD Labels and Duel Case Inserts 2.5. Types of Recordable Digital Versatile disks (DVD) 2.5.1. Write-Only DVDs 2.5.2. Rewritable DVDs 2.6. DVD Capacities 2.7. Types of DVD Drives 2.7.1. DVD-ROM 2.7.2. DVD-RW 2.8. Combined CD and DVD Drives 2.9. CD and DVD Cleaning Section 3: Installing an Internal CD Drive 3.1. Hardware Components 3.2. CD Drive Description 3.3. Installation Procedure Section 4: Basic Compact Disk Music Playing Directly from the CD Drive 4.1. Features of the Front Panel of a CD Drive 4.2. Enabling the AutoPlay feature of Windows 4.3. Windows Music CD AutoPlay 4.4. Changing C D Playback Volume and Quality Section 5: Sound Cards and Windows Volume Control 5.1. Sound Cards and Their Capabilities 5.1.1. Types of Sound Cards 5.1.2. What Does Such as 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound Mean? 5.2. Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep 5.3. Enabling a Multi-Channel Sound Card 5.4. The Windows Volume Control 5.5. Example of Changing a Sound Property--The Microphone settings Section 6: Nero Burning-ROM Version 6 6.1. Installing Nero and System Requirements 6.1.1. System Requirements 6.1.2. Installing Nero 6 6.2. Launching Nero 6.2.1. Launching Nero Burning-ROM via the Program Files Path 6.2.2. Creating a Desktop Icon from which to Launch Nero Burning- ROM 6.3. The Nero Compilation/Browser Window and Customisation 6.3.1. The Default Look of Nero 6.3.2. Customising Nero for Visually Impaired Users 6.4. Burning Data or Audio Tracks to CD or DVD with the Standard Nero Burning-ROM Interface 6.5. Creating a Data CD from Files on Your Hard Disk Drive with Nero StartSmart 6.6. Saving Compilations or Log Files 6.6.1. Saving Your Compilation Settings for Use in a Later Burning Session 6.6.2. Saving Nero's Finished Burning Compilation Messages for Later Viewing 6.7. Opening a Saved Compilation Template 6.8. Extracting Audio Tracks to WAV Format Before Creating an Audio CD 6.9. Creating Audio CDs and DVDs 6.9.1. Creating an Audio Music Disk from Your CD-ROM Drive or Hard Disk with Nero StartSmart 6.9.2. Editing Audio Track Titles and Rearranging Track Positions Prior to Burning 6.9.2.1. Rearranging Tracks' Burning Order 6.9.2.2. Changing the Titles of Tracks before Burning Them 6.9.3. Creating an Audio CD by Selecting Tracks Prior to Launching Nero 6.10. Viewing Tracks Information on a CD, DVD or Compilation Information on an existing Compilation Template 6.10.1. Tracks'/Files' Information on a CD or DVD and Playing Tracks 6.10.2. Viewing and Changing Existing Compilations 6.11. Creating an Audio or Data CD/DVD When You Only Have One CD or DVD Drive 6.11.1. Turning the Image Recorder On 6.11.2. Copying the Image of the Tracks or Files to the Hard Disk 6.11.3. Burning the Image of the Files or Tracks from the Hard Disk to a CD-R/DVD-R or CD-RW/DVD-RW Disk 6.12. Copying/Cloning a Whole Audio, Video, Data or Mixed Mode CD or DVD with Nero Burning-ROM 6.13. Creating a Folder on CD or DVD to Burn Data Files Into 6.14. Converting and Burning MP3 Files to HI-FI Audio Files 6.15. Audio Track Filtering and Property Details 6.16. How to Add More Data to a Partly Used Data CD or DVD 6.17. Burning/Cloning Disks 6.17.1. Burning/Cloning Cds and DVDs on the Fly 6.17.2. Burning/Cloning Cds Via the Hard Disk 6.18. Basics of Burning Video Files with Nero 6.19. Erasing the Contents of a Rewritable CD or DVD 6.20. Making Whole Hard Disk or Partition Back-Ups with Nero When You Only Have One Hard Disk 6.21. Restoring Hard Disk Back-Ups From CD or DVD 6.22. Backing UP and Restoring with Nero Backitup 6.22.1. Backing up Folders to CD, DVD or to Other drives with Nero Backitup 6.22.2. Backing Up Hard Disks to other Hard Disks or Partitions to other Partitions with Nero Backitup 6.22.3. Restoring Nero Backitup back-UPs 6.23. Viewing and Entering Album and Tracks Details from Your Local Hard Disk Database (CDDB) 6.23.1. Creating Your Own CDDB Database 6.23.2. Configuring the Program Database 6.24. Manually Entering and Viewing Text of CD Tracks and Artist Details 6.24.1. Entering Text before Burning a Disk 6.25. Viewing Sessions and Files with the Nero Multimounter 6.26. What to do if Your CD or DVD Burning Drive is Not Automatically Recognised by Nero 6.27. Viewing and Customising Nero Preferences 6.28. An Alternative Method of Selecting Files or Whole Folders for Burning with Windows Explorer 6.29. Creating a CD from a .ISO File 6.30. Using Nero to Encode/Rip music Wav and CDA files to MP3 or MP3 Pro Files 6.31. The ON-Board Nero Virus-Checker 6.31.1. Burning Disks Using the Virus-Checker 6.31.2. Updating the Virus-Checker from the Internet 6.32. The Nero Help System 6.32.1. Context Sensitive Help 6.32.2. Help topics 6.32.3. Index Help 6.32.4. Readable files on the Nero installation CD 6.33. Automatic and Manual Updating of the Nero Program via the Nero Website 6.34. Nero Features Not Covered in this Manual 6.35. Nero Burning-ROM Shortcut Keys Section 7: Nero INCD CD-RW and DVD-RW Disk Formatter Version 4 7.1. What Does INCD Do? 7.2. Installing INCD 7.3. System Requirements 7.4. Launching INCD 7.5. Version Information 7.6. INCD Online Help Manual 7.7. INCD Options 7.8. CD-RW, DVD-RW and CD-MRW Formatting with INCD 7.9. Uses for INCD Formatted Disks 7.10. How to Copy Data to a Formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW Disk 7.10.1. Example 1--copying via a Windows DOS Window 7.10.2. Example 2--copying via Windows Explorer 7.11. How to Eject a Disk 7.12. How to Erase Data on a Formatted CD or DVD 7.13. How to erase both data and formatting on a CD or DVD 7.14. INCD Updates and Supported CD-RW and DVD-RW Drives Appendix 1: Ahead Support for Nero Appendix 2: List of Nero Shortcut Keystrokes Appendix 3: Other Tutorials Available by this Author ******** FOREWORD AND RESTRICTIONS I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TARGET GROUP Visually impaired computer users are the target group for this tutorial. Keyboard access methods and descriptions, using screenreaders and no mouse or monitor, are the basis of this work. The guide assumes that you have a basic understanding of the Windows operating system, general Windows concepts and your specific screenreader, although tips and reminders about all of these things will be given from time to time in the text. ******** CONVENTIONS In the writing of this manual, terms have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the control key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the enter key. When a key combination such as ALT R (for CD-Recorder), S (for Save Track) is suggested to go into the "CD-Recorder" menu and run the "Save Track" menu option, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "CD-Recorder" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Save Track" line is spoken, then press ENTER. ******** Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial It is, of course, entirely up to the individual as to how they glean information and work through this tutorial, but a few suggestions might assist the learner who is relatively new to computers. I would propose that you read through the whole of a section before attempting to practise it to obtain a general overview and impression of what is being done. There are a number of approaches which might be taken to make reading the tutorial as a text file and simultaneously carrying out the instructions more fluid and easier to follow. Try one of the below methods. Ideally, if you have two computers, you can load the tutorial into your text editor or word-processor on one PC and have the software program running on the other. You can then listen to the directions on one computer whilst practising them on the other. Alternatively, as is likely to be the case, if you only have the one computer, you could launch your text editor or word-processor and load the tutorial into it for reading. You could then launch the program you wish to learn how to use in order to practise the lessons. You would have to keep cycling between each running program by pressing ALT TAB in this case. Yet another approach might be to take a tape recorder or dictaphone and get your screenreader to read the contents of a given section or sub-section onto the tape. You could then play the tape back and follow the instructions through on your PC without having to keep moving from one running program to another. Other options would be for you to print out a copy of the tutorial in large print if you can use this and work from this hard copy, or you could get your local library or resource centre to produce a Braille version for you to work from if you have one in your area and you are a Braillist. ******** >SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION This tutorial concentrates on the use of Nero Burning-ROM Version 6 to create your own data and audio Cds. It also covers facilities such as burning hard disk back-ups and converting MP3 files to WAV or CDA files with Nero. There is also coverage of Nero's INCD rewritable CD formatting program but the old Nero Media Player is not covered in this edition of the Nero tutorial because it has now become obsolete, having been replaced by other facilities which are in-built in the main Nero program for playing tracks and by other much more sophisticated alternative music playing and editing Nero software. Additionally, some general sections have been provided, including a look at the Windows Volume Control and how to install an internal CD-RW disk drive. The burning of DVDs and DD Cds is discussed and briefly covered in some sections, and I can confirm that the steps in burning DVDs are almost identical to burning Cds. There are therefore no separate sections for burning DVD and DDCDs, because you go through the same procedures as with burning Cds. Nero is a fast-moving program and there is rarely a month which goes by without something having been added to the program or something having undergone a small change, so it is impossible to keep up with all of these changes. This tutorial, nonetheless, will provide the essentials to allow the competent use of Nero Version 6. Nero Burning-ROM 6 is a multi-featured suite of programs for all types of CD and DVD video and audio burning and copying. AS the Table of Contents indicates, this tutorial will be concentrating on the burning of audio much more than with video for visually impaired users. Whilst most of the essential elements and programs in the Nero suite are accessible and usable from a non- mouse and non-monitor perspective, some of the extra add-ons of the Nero 6 suite are not as accessible, e.g. the Nero Express burning interface and the Nero Wave Editor, and so these will not be covered here. Perhaps they will be made more keyboard accessible in later Nero releases or updates. Nero Burning-ROM Version 6 has a number of different methods in which you can elect to work with the various elements of the program suite. If you like, you can use the old-style main Nero Burning-ROM program interface and thereby avoid the more exotic and sometimes more difficult to use interfaces of Nero Express and Nero StartSmart. In fact, you are probably advised to give the Nero Express a wide birth from a keyboard and non-monitor point of view, as it is not very keyboard-friendly. On the other hand, you should find the Nero StartSmart feature OK to work with once you get used to it and you may, eventually, come to prefer this as your burning interface of choice. If you have been a user of an earlier version of Nero, such as Version 4, 5 or 5.5, you will find not only extra programs and different user interfaces to work with in Nero 6 but you will also discover that some of the old options and menu choices are still there but have been moved to different places. Some of the ways you can select folders and files for burning and how you work with the New Compilation and Browser windows have also changed. Additionally, the Nero Wizard has been replaced and is no longer available. As already stated, because of the keyboard and screenreader- unfriendly nature of the Nero Express feature, this will not be covered in the tutorial. You can do everything that the Nero Express can do in the other two interfaces provided by the Nero main program or the Nero StartSmart feature, only more easily. Having said this, I have successfully burnt both data and audio disks using Nero Express, so it can be done, but the procedure and number of times you have to ALT TAB to regain focus on what you are doing and then ALT TAB again back to where you were is so tortuous and frustrating that, if you do decide to have a play with it, I am sure that you will soon abandon it and use one of the other two more stable interfaces. This tutorial is written from the viewpoint of a screenreader user via speech or Braille display from the keyboard. No monitor or physical mouse have been employed. You can buy Nero Burning-ROM, together with INCD and Nero Media Player plus several extra utilities which do not come with the version bundled with CD-RWs from: www.nero.com but I am not sure if you will save any money by buying a downloaded copy. Alternatively, you can purchase it from branches of PC World and Dixons. Lastly, for those with a curiosity to know, I believe that the name of the software, Nero Burning-ROM, is a play on words or type of parody. It hails from the famous historical emperor of Rome who was said to have played his fiddle whilst Rome burnt: hence Nero Burning-ROM. ******** >SECTION 2 TYPES OF CD DRIVES, DVD DRIVES AND DISKS 2.1. Types of Recordable CD Disks There are two main modern kinds of recordable blank CD disks: 2.1.1. Write-Only Compact Disks Write-only disks, once written to and closed or finalised, cannot be used again. However, if you do not close a disk after half filling it, you can normally write more to the end of where you last copied MP3 or data files but you will not be able to play an audio disk until you close it. An Audio (HI-FI music) disk falls into the write-only category. It is a disk capable of holding digital audio tracks recorded in CDDA format (compact disk digital audio). Such audio files have a .CDA extension. These audio CDs are usually 74 or 80 minutes long and can hold up to 99 separate tracks--but the tracks would have to be very short to get this many on in the 74 or 80 minutes! 2.1.2. Rewritable Compact Disks A rewritable disk, as its name implies, can be used over and over again in the same way that a hard disk or floppy disk can be re- used. You can either write music files straight to the disk with a program such as Easy CD Creator or you can configure (format) the disk and use it like a hard or floppy disk by creating folders or directories and sub-folders and sub-directories, for instance, with Adaptec Direct CD or Nero INCD software. 2.2. Compact Disk and DDCD Capacities Typically the older type of write-only or rewritable CD disk will hold around 650 Mb of music or data files. From a music point of view this means that these older CDs can hold up to 74 minutes of regular audio, HI-FI style music tracks. Some Cds, if your copying software and/or Cd drive will support this (which they will if they are anything like up to date), can hold up to 80 minutes of traditional music or 700 Mb of data. Very recently 90 minute Cds have come into being but, again, your burning software and CD-RW drive will have to support this new standard to be able to use them. Another point to be aware of in respect of this read-only CD time/space availability, is that when burning many individual files or tracks to a read-only CD, you also have to be conscious that with, say, an 80 minute/700 Mb CD you will not get this full 80 minute/700 Mb capacity out of the CD. This is because A Read- only CD is split up into space areas known as clusters. When you burn a file or a music track to a CD, it will use all of the clusters it needs for the size of the file or track and will invariably take up part only of a cluster at its end. This last, partially used cluster, can no longer be used for any other file/track burning and so what remains of it is lost CD space. Thus, for example, if an 80 minute CD was to have 13 music tracks burned to it, there would be 12 partially lost clusters on the CD, which may mean a loss of some 10 or so minutes playing time on the CD. By contrast, a CD which was full but with only two very long music tracks would permit you to burn almost the full 80 minutes of music to the CD due to much less partial cluster loss between tracks. On the other hand, if you wish to format a rewritable disk, in order to create folders and use it in the same way as you might use a floppy diskette, then the resultant disk space is reduced, because the formatting itself takes up some of the disk's capacity. After formatting a 650 Mb rewritable CD, you will be left with around 545 Mb of disk space to copy files to. Another kind of CD, which is a kind of halfway stage between a CD and DVD, is a "DDCD". this is a double density compact disk (DDCD) and can hold 1.3 Gb of data. 2.3. Types of CD Drives There are three main standards for modern CD drives: 2.3.1. CD-ROM A CD-ROM drive (compact disk read-only memory) is only able to play sound files and allow you to remove programs and other data from it. It cannot itself record onto blank CD disks. This is the traditional CD drive which has been supplied with most computers for a few years now. The CD-ROM is the type of drive which you would install your Windows programs and other software from. You can play traditional HI-FI music CDs from a CD-ROM, as well as speech or music compressed MP3 files. The first CD-ROM drives were very slow at reading data from a cd disk but modern ones are much faster. 1-speed CD-ROMs can only read data on a disk at around 150 kilobytes per second and it is this benchmark reading figure which is multiplied to derive the speed of faster CD-ROMs, e.g. a 50 speed CD-ROM would read data at a maximum speed of about 50 X 150 Kb per second. Modern CD- ROMs can read a CD at 50 or 60 times faster than the first drives. Today's CD-ROM drives run at typical speeds of 52 or 60 speed but it is true to say that the increase in speed is not exactly proportionate to the number a drive carries, as there are diminishing performance returns the faster a CD drive is rated. You must also be aware that, when using a CD-ROM drive to burn (copy) audio tracks from such as a music CD to a second CD drive (a CD-RW drive), the copying speed is likely to be much slower than the 40X or 50X speed which can be obtained when copying plain data files. Some CD-ROMs can only achieve a speed of 2X or 3X when copying audio tracks by this drive to drive method. 2.3.2. CD-R CD-R (compact disk recordable) drives have now mainly been replaced by CD-RW drives. A CD-R can read files as with a CD-ROM but, in addition, it can write (copy) music and other audio media and data to a blank disk, such as copying HI-FI music or MP3 files. However, it cannot rewrite to a rewritable CD disk in the way that a CD-RW can. 2.3.3. CD-RW A CD-RW drive (compact disk rewritable) is a drive which can read, write and rewrite to a compact disk. This means that, in addition to being able to perform what the above two drives can achieve, you can insert rewritable disks into this type of drive and use them over and over again. For example, you can format a CD disk in a similar way to formatting a floppy disk and copy files to it, make folders/directories on it, etc, and then delete these later and rewrite other files or folders to the same disk to over-write the space which the first files occupied. CD-RWs typically quote specifications such as 12X8X32 speed. These figures mean that the drive is able to read the information on a disk at 32 speed, write data to a blank write-only disk at 12 speed and write data to a rewritable disk at 8 speed. The speed at which data can be written is also based on multiples of the 1-speed benchmark of 150 Kb per second, e.g. a 12-8-32 speed CD-RW drive can write data to a disk at approximately 12 X 150 Kb per second. Thus, it would typically take around 7 minutes to completely fill a 700 Mb CD if writing at 12-speed. 2.4. CD Labels and Duel Case Inserts A CD label is the small round sticker which you would stick to the centre of the back of a CD with the CDs title, artist's name, etc, on it. A duel case insert is the double-sided information insert which you read through the see-through plastic case, with such as CD title, artist's name, individual track titles, artist's picture, etc, on it. You can create and print out such labels and inserts on plain or coloured A4 paper and then cut them out with scissors or you can purchase specially printed and die-cut labels and inserts which do not require cutting with scissors from shops such as PC World, Staples, etc. Most CD burning programs like Nero Burning-ROM and Easy Cd Creator provide software to permit the creation of these labels and inserts but not all of them are very accessible. You can also buy all-purpose packages from PC World and no doubt other computer suppliers which contain the die-cut labels and inserts plus a round spindle or template to use to ensure that you get your label onto the back of the CD in the correct centred position. You place the label onto the spindle in its centre, adhesive side up, and then lower the CD down onto the spindle to pick up the label. There is also a Website where you can go to create or download CD labels and to produce paper inserts from A4 paper. Its URL is: www.papercdcase.com 2.5. Types of Recordable Digital Versatile disks (DVD) As with CDs, there are several types of DVD disks. 2.5.1. Write-Only DVDs Similarly to with CDs, you can only fill a write-only DVD once, after which it can no longer be used again. 2.5.2. Rewritable DVDs rewritable DVDs can be used over and over again just like a rewritable CD or floppy disk. You can clear the disk by burning its contents off (erasing it) and then refill it by burning new data to it. 2.6. DVD Capacities A DVDs capacity ranges from 4.38 Gb to 15.95 Gb. This depends on whether it is single sided, single layered; single sided, double layered; double sided, single layered; or double sided, double layered. However, the most common capacities are single sided 4.7 Gb disks and double sided with twice the capacity. 2.7. Types of DVD Drives At present there are two format standards with DVDs, one being DVD+ and the other DVD-. Most computer drives can normally play both formats, but external DVD recorders can usually only play their own format and not the opposition's, although there are some more expensive stand-alone external DVD units which can deal with both formats. 2.7.1. DVD-ROM A DVD-ROM drive (digital versatile disk read-only memory) is only able to play sound and video files from a DVD disk and allow you to remove programs and other data from it. It cannot itself record onto blank DVD disks. This is the first kind of DVD drive which has been supplied with most computers for a few years now. You can play traditional HI-FI music and video DVDs from a DVD- ROM drive, as well as speech or music compressed MP3 files. The benchmark single speed which DVD drive speeds are calculated from is different from that of CD drives; it is a faster starting point. The original 1-speed DVD-ROM drive could read at 1.25 megabytes per second, so 4 times DVD-ROM speed would mean that it could read data at 5 Mb/s. In comparative terms in relation to the speed of a CD drive, this means that a 1 times speed DVD is approximately equivalent to an 8 times CD-ROM. 2.7.2. DVD-RW A DVD-RW drive (digital versatile disk rewritable) is a drive which can read, write and rewrite to a DVD disk. This means that, in addition to being able to perform what the above drive can achieve, you can insert both write once only disks and also rewritable disks into this type of drive. If using rewritable disks, you can use them over and over again. You can fill a disk and then erase its contents and refill the disk with new data at a later date if you like. The typical speed of a DVD-RW drive would be something like 20 times 12 times 8. The way the speed figures are written is often the opposite to how CD drives express them. So, with a 20 times 12 times 8 specification, you would have a DVD drive which reads DVDs at 20 speed, writes to write-only DVDs at 12 speed and can write to rewritable DVDs at 8 speed. Note: Some DVD drives only specify two speeds, e.g. 16 times 8, in which case this drive would have a 16 speed reading ability and an 8 speed ability for both writing to write-only and rewritable disks. 2.8. Combined CD and DVD Drives You can purchase drives which will read, write and rewrite to both Cds and DVDs. Such a drive will not normally be as fast as dedicated stand-alone CD or DVD drives, as there is usually a trade-off or compromise in speed with combination drives. For example, a combination drive may have a specification of such as 16 times 4 times 2.5 for DVDs and it may have such as 16 times 12 times 24 for CDs. 2.9.CD and DVD Cleaning Remember, you can purchase special CD and DVD cleaning fluid from many outlets. If you cannot get hold of any of this or prefer to keep your cash in your pocket you should try the following. Always follow the specific cleaning and general maintenance instructions which come with a particular make of CD or DVD. In the absence of any instructions, the below-described means of cleaning CDs and DVDs when they are not performing correctly should work fine. 1. Take a very soft, clean cloth and wet it with warm clean water. 2. Wipe the CD or DVD from the centre outwards. Do not clean in a circular motion, as this could damage the tracks. 3. If a disk is very dirty or sticky, you might also use a little mild toilet soap on the cloth as well and then thoroughly remove this from the disk with clean water. ******** >SECTION 3 INSTALLING An Internal CD DRIVE As a visually impaired person the idea of opening up your computer and installing a Cd drive may not appeal to you. Others may have sighted friends to help them in this and may relish the challenge. This section will help you install a new CD-ROM, CD-R or CD-RW into a desktop PC or at least give you an insight into what has to be done and the components involved. Alternatively, you may wish to take the easy way out, albeit a little more expensive, and purchase an external CD-RW instead of an internal one. This is also the route you are likely to have to take if you have a laptop and not a desktop computer. External drives simply plug into a port on the back of the computer, such as a USB or serial port, if you have a spare one. If not, you may have to purchase a port splitter or fit another port to the PC or connect it via a SCSI card. Whether you connect an internal CD-RW drive via the IDE socket on the motherboard or via a SCSI card in a slot on the motherboard there will be no difference in performance, although the latter method will be more expensive. By contrast, if you connect an external CD-RW using the parallel port, this will result in slower performance than if you had attached it with a SCSI card. Please note, however, that opening your own PC and installing new components may invalidate your hardware warranty, if it is still running. You should therefore check the warranty clauses to ensure that you do not invalidate this, unless, of course, you are confident of what you are doing and not too concerned about the possible ramifications of doing your own upgrade work. 3.1. Hardware Components The three types of CD drives all have the same essential components. These are: * The disk drive box itself. * Four securing screws. * A thin audio cable. * A wide IDE cable about 30 or 40 cm long. 3.2. CD Drive Description For a description of the front of a CD drive, see Section 4 below. For the present, a description of the back of the CD drive box is all that is required. If you hold the CD drive in front of you, with the back facing you, the right way up, the following plugs and switches can be observed: 1. At the very left side there is usually a small square or oblong hole, which can be ignored. 2. Moving right by a centimetre or so, will bring you to the plughole for the audio cable plug. 3. Now move a further centimetre or two to the right and you will encounter a small oblong cavity which holds a "jumper". A jumper is a small squarish, thin piece of plastic which has a thin vain of metal running through it and can therefore conduct an electrical signal. It slides between two small pins in this jumper bay, which grip it fairly tightly. Normally, a jumper will be factory set to the "slave" (SL) position, which is in the middle of the jumper bay. If the jumper is pulled out with the finger nails or a pair of tweezers, it can be reinserted a millimetre or two to the left to place it in the "master" (MAR) position. There is also a third jumper pin position to the right of the middle slave position but this does not affect this type of installation. 4. Another centimetre or so to the right of the jumper cavity is the biggest socket at the back of the CD drive box, which is a 40-pin IDE plug socket. It is about 5 centimetres long and quite thin. 5. Just to the right of the IDE socket you will find the last component at the back of the drive. This is the power supply plug socket. 3.3. Installation Procedure 1. With the computer switched off, remove the PC cover, after detaching the cables at the back. 2. To remove any static from your body, earth yourself by touching the box metal of the PC frame with both hands. 3. Remove one of the plastic covers at the front of the computer to reveal a spare drive bay. There may also be a metal plate-like tag behind this to pull off as well. 4. Slide the CD drive box into the slot at the front of the PC where you just moved the plastic facing cover from and use the four securing screws to hold it in place flush with the front of the computer box. They insert through the metal housings provided in the interior of the Pc case. You may not wish to fully tighten them up immediately, as you may have to slide the drive backwards and forwards a time or two whilst completing some of the below steps. Afterwards make sure that the drive box is flush with the front of the PC and the screws are tightened up. 5.A. If you do not already have a CD-ROM in your PC, you can connect your new CD-RW onto the same IDE cable that your hard disk is connected to. The IDE cable will have two identical plugs near its end. This means that you do not have to use the extra supplied IDE cable which came with your drive. Genteelly insert the second IDE cable plug into the IDE Socket at the back of the CD drive. It will only normally go in one way. This means of connecting the CD drive to your motherboard is the "slave" method, which means that the jumper should be in the slave position. This is likely to be the way it is set up when you receive the drive. 5.B. Alternatively, if you already have a CD-ROM in your computer and are fitting your new CD-RW as a second CD drive, you will have to use the new cable which came with the drive. Insert one of the two plugs at the end of the IDE ribbon cable into the IDE socket at the back of the drive and plug the other end onto the second IDE socket pins on your motherboard. Most motherboards have two IDE sockets which are normally located very close together and parallel to one another. Just follow your hard disk IDE cable to where it is plugged into the motherboard and the second IDE plug connector should be next to that one. In this configuration, you will need to move the jumper from the slave position to the left and reinsert it in the master position. Note: A PC normally only has two IDE sockets on its motherboard (a primary and secondary connector) and each can only take two drives. This means that, if all four connectors are already in use, you will have to purchase a SCSI card to connect your new CD-RW drive to. Warning: Do not place your CD-R and CD-RW drives on the same single IDE cable, as this may cause your burning software to generate error messages when you try to fast copy on the fly directly from your CD-R drive to your CD-RW drive. 6. Take the thin audio cable and plug it into the audio cable socket on the back of the CD drive box, which is almost at the very left. The other end of the audio cable should be plugged into the sound card, if your sound card is separate from the motherboard and is the PCI type, or plug it onto the pins on the motherboard if it is the sort of card which comes as an integral part of the motherboard itself. If the latter, you may need sighted assistance to find these motherboard pins amongst all of the other cables and bric-a-brac as they are only small. Your motherboard manual will tell you which are the correct pins. 7. You should now take one of the unused power cables which sprout out of the side or bottom of your computer power supply at the back of the PC and plug it into the power in socket at the very right of the CD drive box. It should only go in one way round but if you find that it can be inserted both ways, then do not switch the computer on before getting sighted help to tell you which is the correct way to plug this in. Switching your computer on with this plugged in the wrong way is likely to damage the drive and may also damage your motherboard. 8. This is the end of the installation, so replace the computer cover, plug everything into the back, screw everything up and turn the PC on. If there is no blue flash or loud bang, chances are that you've done it correctly! 9. The plug-and-play facility of Windows 9X, ME or XP should find your new CD-RW and recognise the new CD drive automatically. It should be working OK at this stage. 10. If you also like your CD drives to be accessible from DOS, you should install a suitable generic or specific CD drive driver which permits access via the command line. It is likely that your new CD-RW came supplied with one of these on a standard floppy disk. Just insert the floppy and type "A:\install" and press ENTER to install it. If this does not work, consult the readme or other file which should be provided on the disk for instructions. Note: You are now ready to commence testing your internal or external CD-RW drive. You may have received at least two complimentary CD disks with your Cd drive purchase. Typically, one of these will be a standard disk which you can write to only once but the other should be a rewritable disk which you can use to practise on without wasting several standard disks. ******** >SECTION 4 BASIC COMPACT DISK MUSIC PLAYING DIRECTLY FROM THE CD DRIVE 4.1. Features of the Front Panel of a CD Drive Typically, your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive front panel is likely to be the same as or similar to this description, although some very basic CD drives feature only a CD drawer open and eject button. Usually the panel has one or two lights to show that it is powered up and working. Obviously, it also has a drawer which ejects to permit the insertion of a CD disk in the same way you would insert a music CD into your HI-FI CD player. On the left side of the panel you are likely to find a mini jack stereo plug socket where you can plug in headphones. Next to this will be housed a small wheel for increasing or decreasing the volume of the headphones only. On the right of the CD drive there is likely to be two press buttons, the right of which is the CD drawer close/eject button and the one just to its left is the skip/recommence play button for skipping from the current music track to the next one. Just above the close/eject button there is generally an emergency eject hole, which should only be used if the automatic eject button fails. You activate this by inserting something like the end of a straightened-out paperclip into the whole until the disk drawer pops out a little, then you gently pull it out the whole way by hand. 4.2. Enabling the AutoPlay feature of Windows The AutoPlay feature is what makes your audio music CDs commence playing as soon as you insert one into the CD drive and shut it. If you do not want AutoPlay to start up immediately, you should hold down the left SHIFT key and then shut the CD drive drawer and keep the SHIFT key down for several seconds before releasing it. AutoPlay for CDs should already be enabled by default but, if it is not, you can turn it on by: 1. Press Windows key followed by S (for Settings), then press C (for Control Panel) and lastly press S several times until you get to System, then press ENTER. 2. You will land in the "General" property sheet, so press CONTROL TAB to get to "Device Manager" and then ARROW down or press C until you reach "CD-ROM". You then open this folder by pressing right ARROW. ARROWing down will now reveal your single or several CD drives by manufacturer names. With the focus on the one you wish to enable AutoPlay on you should TAB to "Properties" and press ENTER. 3. From Properties you should CONTROL TAB to the "Settings" property sheet and then press TAB until you reach "Auto Insert Notification" and if this is not already checked, press the SPACEBAR to check and therefore enable it. 4. After this TAB to "OK" and press ENTER and do the same on the next dialogue, followed by pressing ALT F4 to exit the Control Panel. 4.3. Windows Music CD AutoPlay 1. As stated above, when AutoPlay is enabled, all you need do to hear a standard HI-FI music CD is insert it into the CD drive drawer and press the close/eject button. It should start playing automatically within a few seconds without you doing anything else. If it does not start playing, just press the skip/recommence play button. The disk will play until the last track has been played and then stop. 2. Whilst playing, if you wish to skip to the next track, just press the skip button. Repeated presses will move you further into the CD track by track. 3. If you wish to pause the playing of a track, you can press the close/eject button once. To recommence the playing of the track, press the skip button once. 4. To eject the CD, press the close/eject button twice. Note: To hear music using the headphone socket at the front of the CD drive you do not need a sound card. On the other hand, if you wish to hear tracks via your PC external stereo speakers, you would require a sound card on your computer's motherboard. 4.4. Changing C D Playback Volume and Quality 1. Whilst a CD is playing you can alter the music volume in several ways: A. If using headphones, adjust the volume wheel to the right of the headphone jack socket. B. If listening to speakers, either use the volume knob on the speakers; or C. If the speakers do not have a volume knob or the volume knob does not increase the volume sufficiently, you may be able to increase the playback volume in a more permanent way via the Windows Volume Control. You can go straight to this from within the menus of some music playing programs, or through the System Tray or by navigating to it via: C:\Program Files\Accessories\Multimedia\Volume control in Windows 95, or C:\Program Files\Accessories\Entertainment\Volume Control in Windows 98. (See Section 5 below to discover how to use the Volume Control). 2. You can also make adjustments in volume and quality of music output from the Multimedia section of the Control Panel. Do this by: A. Press Windows Logo key followed by S (for Settings) and then C (for control Panel). B. Then press M several times until Multimedia is selected, then press ENTER to open it. C. You will fall on the "Audio" property sheet. TAB down this and make your desired changes to the "playback volume" and Recording Volume" with the ARROW up and down and PAGE up and down keys. D. Then TAB to "Preferred Quality" and ARROW through the choices. You should set this to CD quality for best quality playback results. E. Press ENTER on "Apply" and then press CONTROL TAB to look at the other three property sheets in this multi-sheet dialogue box. They include "Video", "MIDI", "CD Music" and "Advanced". Make any changes you think would suit your particular needs and set-up. For instance, if you can make use of large scale pictures/print on a monitor, you might wish to ARROW to the "Double Original Size" option in the "Video" sheet and therefore select this. In the "Advanced" sheet you have a tree of multimedia audio, video, mixer devices, etc, which you can change, select, view the properties of or remove, as you like, but you are likely to have to go into navigation or mouse mode to be able to use your right mouse key to open and thus view or change any of a particular device driver's properties. F. You should ensure that, in the "CD Music" sheet, "Headphones" is set to 100 per cent by pressing PAGE down to achieve this. G. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. ******** >SECTION 5 SOUND CARDS AND WINDOWS VOLUME CONTROL 5.1. Sound Cards and Their Capabilities The many different sound cards can have massively different input and output abilities and may support varying sets of surround speakers. 5.1.1. Types of Sound Cards For best results, you will need a good quality sound card. The more up-to-date Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards should meet this requirement, such as the Sound Blaster 128 or 1024 Live (preferably the latter as it is multi-channel whereas the former is not). Even more recent and better Sound Blaster cards are the Sound Blaster 5.1, the Audigy I and the Audigy II cards, which provide such as extra speaker support and greater depth of sound sampling. Another range of good multi-channel sound cards is made by Roland and there are also the Turtle Beach Montigo cards. You can listen to music and voice recordings with more basic 16- bit sound cards but the quality may be substandard. You can also make music and voice recordings with basic 16-bit sound cards but, again, the quality of the recording may be affected, for instance, you may get more background hiss and you may find that the volume of the recording, even with the Volume Control levels on full, is well below that obtained with a better quality card. Using the option to increase the volume of a recording after it has been made, which some recording programs provide, may succeed in bringing the volume of a recording up but you may also experience a proportionate increase in background noise, crackle and hiss. This type of substandard audio input recording result is often found with the on-the-motherboard varieties of 16-bit sound cards, so you may have to upgrade these to Sound Blaster Live or equivalent standards. Just because your software synthesiser works well and is plenty loud enough through a basic sound card does not mean that music or voice recordings will be as loud or clear. Note: Some sound cards may not allow a software synthesiser and music or speech from such as an MP3 file to work together. This may be because your sound card is single-channel, not the recommended multi-channel type. In this case, you would have to unload your screenreader before the music or other sound file can play, e.g. with HAL do this with CONTROL SPACEBAR, then ALT SPACEBAR followed by Q and then ENTER; with JAWS use INSERT F4 and then press ENTER; and with Window-Eyes use CONTROL \, then ALT F4, X and ENTER; after first placing focus on the link you wish to play, then press ENTER to hear the audio content. Alternatively, if your screenreader has a "sleep" mode, you may find that using this has the desired result (see "Putting your Screenreader to Sleep" in the section below entitled "Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep"). 5.1.2. What Does Such as 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound Mean? A couple of years ago sound cards were produced with 5.1 surround sound capabilities, e.g. the Sound Blaster 5.1 card. This means that you have a six speaker system with two stereo speakers in front of you, two stereo speakers behind you and a bass speaker located anywhere else in the room you like. the sixth speaker is the dialogue speaker, which you would normally place at the source of any speech which may come through your system, e.g. on top of or underneath your TV set. More recently, 7.1 systems have been supported by sound cards, such as the Audigy II and the Video Logic Sonic Explosion DVD sound and video cards. A 7.1 system replicates the type of all- round sound you would expect to hear at a cinema and has the same speaker configuration as that just described for a 5.1 system but also features two more stereo speakers, one immediately to your left and another to your right. You can purchase the above-mentioned types of 7.1 surround sound sound and video cards from such as: Audigy II: WWW.Creative.com Video Logic: www.puredigital.com Turtle Beach: www.turtlebeach.comYahamah: www.yamaha.com Terratec: www.en.terratec.net Yamaha: www.yamaha.com 5.2. Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep You may wish to silence your screenreader by permanently putting it to "sleep" whenever a particular program is launched rather than unloading it if it prevents you from getting the required sound card throughput or if the screenreader speech chatters at the same time as you are trying to listen to other audio output. This may be especially annoying if you are trying to record speech onto disk via your microphone in programs such as Windows Sound Recorder and Sound Forge. You should consult your screenreader manual to find out how to do this. However, I have provided below an example of how this is done with the JFW screenreader: 1. Launch your audio program, e.g. RealPlayer, and then press INSERT F2 to load the JAWS Manager. 2. From the list provided, press ENTER on "Configuration Manager", which will open the RealPlayer configuration file. 3. Press ALT S (for Set Options" and ARROW up to "Advanced Options" and press ENTER. 4. In the Advanced Options dialogue you will immediately be on "Sleep Mode Enable". You should press the SPACEBAR to enable this and therefore reduce the chance of JFW speaking and interrupting the flow of streaming audio. 5. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER twice, followed by CONTROL S to save the change and then ALT F4 to leave the manager. You will have to unload and then reload JFW to have the changes recognised. 6. If you wish to return to how things were before, you should, without Realplayer running, open and edit the realplay.jcf file in a plain text editor such as Notepad (not in a word-processor unless you then know how to save the result as a text file) and change the line which reads "sleepmode=1" to "sleepmode=0", save the file and then unload and reload JFW. The realplay.jcf file is found in the folder: c:\jaws37\settings\enu\realplay.jcf Note: Putting JAWS into sleep mode will, of course, drastically reduce the amount of screenreader feedback which you get whilst using such programs and you will have to be able to remember the keystrokes to make things work, so some users may not be happy with this and may rather leave their screenreader as it is and just unload it at times when it conflicts with other sound files. You may also find the JAWS INSERT S hot key of use as it toggles between speak all changes on the screen, speak highlighted only and speak none modes. Warning: Do not mess with these settings if you are likely to be unable to reverse the above procedure or if you are not comfortable with reinstalling your screenreader should you get into trouble. 5.3. Enabling a Multi-Channel Sound Card Somewhat in contrast to what we have just done above, but just as essential for general PC use, a multi-channel sound card may need to be enabled before it will work properly. With JFW, to ensure that a multi-channel sound card works properly, allowing your synthesiser and other sounds to be heard simultaneously when this is desirable, rather than operating as a single-channel card: 1. With no program running, press INSERT F2 again and hit ENTER on "Configuration Manager". 2. Press CONTROL SHIFT D to open the "default.jcf" file. 3. Press ALT S (for Set Options) and then S (for Synthesiser Options). 4. TAB to "Allow Wave Files with Software Synthesisers" and if it is not already selected, press SPACEBAR to check it on. 5. Tab to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. To save this change and leave the manager, Press CONTROL s, then ENTER followed by ALT F4. Now unload and then reload JFW to have the saved changes recognised. Note: Obviously, this type of enabling will not be necessary if your sound card already works satisfactorily with both your synthesiser and other sound files. 5.4. The Windows Volume Control You can enter the Volume Control by going to the Windows System Tray (if your screenreader is able to take you there, e.g. INSERT F11 with JAWS, INSERT S with WE or left SHIFT Numpad SLASH with HAL 5) or by: pressing Windows Logo key, P (for Program Files, A (for Accessories), M (for Multimedia) and then V (for Volume Control) in Windows 95; or Pressing Windows Logo key, P (for Program Files), A (for Accessories), E (for Entertainment) and then V (for Volume Control) in Windows 98 and ME. When in the Volume Control you can change the various levels of volume, the balance between left and right channels and mute a particular type of sound if you do not want it coming through. You can do this for various types of input and output media, such as the volume of sound out of your speakers, the volume of ringing tone you hear when your modem dials, the volume of your line in and microphone sockets at the back of your computer where the sound card interfaces with the outside world, etc. When you first enter the Volume Control, you can TAB through several balance and volume adjusters. The most important for output and input of audio data are "CD Audio Volume" which, depending on the quality of your sound card, you may need on between 70 and 100 per cent. The "Volume" option may also need adjusting, depending on your sound card and how loud you want output volume as against input volume, e.g. if you are using a headset with its own microphone, you may wish to have the "Playback" setting lower for your ears and the "Microphone" setting louder for any voice recording you are doing. 5.5. Example of Changing a Sound Property--The Microphone settings To change the microphone settings you would: 1.A. Launch the Volume Control by the Program Files\ path method outlined above; or 1.B. If you elect to launch the Volume Control via the System Tray, you should press ENTER on the (Open Volume Control" choice. Do not get side tracked at this stage with this--come back to it later--but Note that there is also an "Adjust Audio Properties" choice in here as well which, if you press ENTER on it, will give you a list of five or so preferred recording devices, such as SB Live, Use any available device, game compatible device, etc. In this second choice dialogue, you can also press ENTER on "Playback Advanced Properties" and select from several types of playback speaker types, such as Desktop stereo speakers, Stereo headphones, laptop mono speakers, etc, and you can CONTROL TAB to a "Performance" property sheet to reduce speaker performance playback demands to less than 100 per cent if things are not working as well as you would like because your computer is not powerful enough to take the maximum settings. You can also TAB to a slider to move the "Sample Rate Conversion" from zero to either 50 or 100 per cent to further enhance sampling conversion quality but be aware that increasing the levels in here can also slow down the speed of response of your computer due to extra CPU overhead. Experiment with the various options to see what is best for your PC set-up. 2. Press the ALT key to open the "Options" menu. Then ARROW down to "Properties" and press ENTER. 3. You will land on the line which tells you the type of sound card in your PC which is being used, e.g. SB Live . . .. 4. Press TAB once to "Adjust Volume For" and the first option will be "Playback". ARROW down once to "Recording" and then TAB once to a list of recording options. 5. ARROW down this list to "Microphone", ensure that it is checked (pressing SPACEBAR will do this if it is not already checked) and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. You will now have entered the Microphone adjustment controls where you can make alterations to the input volume for your microphone input to the jack on the sound card at the back of the computer. If you are not already on it, TAB forward to "Microphone Volume" and view its volume level, increasing or decreasing this as suits your PC set-up, microphone and sound card sensitivity. Use the PAGE up or down and ARROW up or down keys to increase or decrease this. ARROWING or PAGING up increases the volume, although some screenreaders may announce decreasing levels of calibration, making this a little misleading. 7. Then TAB to the "Select" button and press the SPACEBAR to turn it on if it is not already selected. 8. Sometimes you can just TAB again at this stage to the "Advanced" button and press ENTER; otherwise, see how to get into advance settings in 9 below. In here you can make a few further fine advanced adjustments, such as checking on the "Mik Boost (20 Db)" box for further volume increases if these are required. Then TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. 9. If you did not find the "Advanced" button as described above in 8, you can now press ALT O (for Options) again and press ENTER on "Advanced" to enable the advanced features, which may vary depending on the type of sound card you have. If you do not enter the advanced features box when you do this, it is because the advanced features are already enabled. In this case, you can enter the Advanced dialogue to view the Mik boost feature by pressing ALT and then ARROWING to "Advanced" and pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR. 10. Lastly, press ALT O (or just ALT if ALT O does not work) and ARROW to "Exit" and press ENTER to finish. Note 1: Some of the features in the Volume Control can vary, depending on the type of sound card your PC is fitted with, so some may have, for instance, more "Advanced" features and some may have none. The above example was done with a Sound Blaster Live 1024 card fitted. Note 2: You will normally use the microphone jack plug on your sound card and the microphone settings in the Volume Control for your mic and the line in jack plug and line in setting in the Volume Control for inputting sound data such as from a tape recorder, record deck, mini Cd player, etc, if you have a good sound card. The mic input is usually much more sensitive than the line in socket. However, if you have a poorer sound card, such as an on-the-motherboard type, you may find the line in socket not sensitive enough and so wish to use the mic jack socket for both mic and tape recorder input. You will have to experiment with sockets and various volume levels until you find out what is best for your requirements and sound card. Note 3: If you would like to experiment with a different way of manipulating the Volume Control, which may suit some screenreaders, you can try a utility called "Sound Control Plus". This is downloadable from: http://software.reallyeffective.co.uk ******** >SECTION 6 NERO BURNING-ROM VERSION 6 Nero Burning-ROM is a multi-featured suite of programs for all types of CD and DVD video and audio burning and copying. AS the Table of Contents indicates, this tutorial will be concentrating on the burning of audio much more than with video for visually impaired users. Whilst most of the essential elements and programs in the Nero suite are accessible and usable from a non- mouse and non-monitor perspective, some of the extra add-ons of the Nero suite are not as accessible, e.g. the Nero Express burning interface and the Nero Wave Editor, and so these cannot be covered here. Perhaps they will be made more keyboard accessible in later Nero releases or updates. Nero Burning-ROM Version 6 has a number of different methods in which you can elect to work with the various elements of the program suite. If you like, you can use the old-style main Nero Burning-ROM program interface and thereby avoid the more exotic and sometimes more difficult to use interfaces of Nero Express and Nero StartSmart. In fact, you are probably advised to give the Nero Express a wide birth from a keyboard and non-monitor point of view, as it is not very keyboard-friendly. On the other hand, you should find the Nero StartSmart feature OK to work with once you get used to it and you may, eventually, come to prefer this as your burning interface of choice. If you have been a user of an earlier version of Nero, such as Version 4, 5 or 5.5, you will find not only extra programs and different user interfaces to work with in Nero 6 but you will also discover that some of the old options and menu choices are still there but have been moved to different places. Some of the ways you can select folders and files for burning and how you work with the New Compilation and Browser windows have also changed. Additionally--and perhaps somewhat unfortunately for keyboard users--the Nero Wizard has had a vanishing spell placed upon him and so no longer exists. The Nero StartSmart and Express take over the old Wizard's magical duties. Because of the keyboard-unfriendly nature of the Nero Express feature, this will not be covered in the tutorial. You can do everything that the Nero Express can do in the other two interfaces provided by the main Nero Burning-ROM program or the Nero StartSmart feature, only more easily. 6.1. Installing Nero and System Requirements System requirements and Nero installation are as follows: 6.1.1. System Requirements For Nero Burning-ROM and Nero StartSmart to function you will need: 1. a Pentium 100 or better--probably a Pentium 166 or better if using a screenreader. 2. 32 Mb or more of RAM. 3. 10 Mb of spare hard disk space. 4. Windows 98 or Windows 95 OSR2 or later operating systems. 5. A supported CD-RW or DVD-RW burning drive. 6.1.2. Installing Nero 6 If you have an older version of Nero on the computer hard disk partition you are installing Nero 6 to, Nero 6 will remove this and overwrite it. You cannot have such as Nero 5.5 and Nero 6 installed to and both working on the same hard disk partition, although you can have different versions of Nero on different hard disk partitions. Installation may vary slightly, depending on whether you have a shop-bought CD or downloaded version, but it should go something like this: 1.A. With the CD version, insert the program CD disk into your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive, when it should autorun. If it does not, use Windows Explorer or the Run feature on the Start Menu to locate the setup.exe file on the CD and press ENTER on it. It is likely to be at: d:\nero\setup.exe 1.B. With the downloaded demo version, to run it either as a demo for the trial period or to register the demo for ongoing use, go to the downloaded Nero .exe file with Windows Explorer or My Computer and press ENTER on it. 2. The install wizard will start the installation and you just press ENTER on the "Next" button. 3. You next come to the license agreement, so TAB to "I do not Accept" and ARROW up to "I Accept all Terms of the License Agreement" and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. Complete the name editfield if your name is not automatically placed there already and then TAB to "Company" and type this in or just enter "None". Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 5. The installation will commence and may take a few minutes, after which you will be on a "Finish" button to press ENTER on to complete the installation process. However, before pressing ENTER on "Finish", you are advised to TAB to and press SPACEBAR to check on "Add a Shortcut to Nero StartSmart to the Desktop" and press SPACEBAR to "Automatically Launch Nero StartSmart when a Disk is Inserted" to turn this off if it is checked on. If, later, you would like this latter option on, you can always reactivate it from within the program. Later sub-versions of Nero 6 also feature a "Launch the Appropriate Application when a disk is Inserted" option and if you have this checked on, Nero will start up automatically when you insert such as a CD; or turn it off if you do not want these things to happen automatically. 6. Whilst this is not strictly speaking essential, I would recommend that you now remove the installation CD from the CD drive, close Nero with ALT F4 and then reboot your PC. 7. To launch Nero press Windows key and then P (for Program files), then N (for Nero) and then ARROW to "Nero Burning-ROM" and press ENTER. 8. When you first run Nero, you will get a dialogue box requiring you to personalise Nero by typing your name, company and Nero serial number into it. The number should be on the stickers which came with the installation disk. So TAB to the "Serial Number" editfield and type the full number in with the dashes. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. Otherwise, if you are trying out the downloaded demo only, skip the serial number editfield and press ENTER on the "Demo" button instead. Note 1: If you already have a copy of Nero Burning-ROM on your PC and have just downloaded a free update to it from the Ahead/nero Website, you can simply run the executable file you downloaded and Nero will go through the usual above installation procedure. Note 2: When you download and install Nero, what you are installing is the full, all-features version of Nero, which includes Nero Express, Nero Burning-ROM Ultra and Nero Burning- ROM Enterprise Edition. It is the serial number you get or purchase to run Nero with which determines which version of the full software you are able to unlock and use. So, if you are only entitled to use the "free" OEM version of Nero which comes with some CD-RW drives (which does not feature the Nero Burning-ROM program itself), the serial number you are provided with will be different from that you would use if you are authorised to unlock the Nero Ultra software and yet another possible serial number will enable the unlocking of the most professional version of Nero with extra features and software known as Nero Enterprise. 6.2. Launching Nero Normally, Nero 6 places a quick start icon on your Desktop to run the new Nero StartSmart front-end interface from but it does not do this for the main Nero Burning-ROM or Nero Express interfaces. It expects you to do all of your selecting and burning through Nero StartSmart, because there is a list in StartSmart which lets you drop into either Nero Express or Nero Burning-ROM after making your initial command choices. However, I recommend that you create a direct link to the main Nero Burning-ROM program on your Desktop to be able to go straight there without the added step of having to launch Nero StartSmart. 6.2.1. Launching Nero Burning-ROM via the Program Files Path To run the standard Nero Burning-ROM program or Nero Express you may also wish to place a shortcut on your Start Menu or Desktop. Otherwise, launch Nero Burning-ROm or Nero Express by: 1. Pressing Windows key, then P (for Program Files). 2. Then press N (for Nero) until you reach it and then press ENTER. 3. In the list of Nero programs you are now in, ARROW to and press ENTER on "Nero Burning-ROM or "Nero Express". 6.2.2. Creating a Desktop Icon from which to Launch Nero Burning- ROM Alternatively (or additionally), if you prefer this, you may wish to put a shortcut icon on your Desktop to run the main Nero Burning-ROM program from. You can use this procedure to create shortcuts for any of your other programs as well. To do this: 1. place focus on the "Nero Burning-ROM" launch link by navigating to it as in Folders Navigation Method above but do not press ENTER to launch it. 2. Now press SHIFT F10 to bring up a Context Menu and ARROW to "Send To" and press ENTER. 3. Lastly, ARROW down to "Desktop" and press ENTER. 4. If you do not like the default name which has been given to the Nero icon on your Desktop, just go to it after pressing Windows key and M and then press F2 to open up an editfield. Type in here the new icon name you would like to hear when you go to it to launch Nero Burning-ROM, e.g. "Nero 6" and press ENTER to save this new Desktop Word icon title. 5. You can now, in the normal way, go to this shortcut on your Desktop by pressing Windows key M or Windows key D followed by N until "Nero Burning-ROM" (or whatever you renamed it to) is spoken and then press ENTER to load it. Warning: When you first launch Nero 6, you may encounter a complaint by Nero that it cannot find a given ASPI driver on your operating system and so it will not be able to work with full functionality. To be honest, this aspi driver is essential, so you must obtain a copy. You should have this driver but you may not. I certainly did not have it on my system and had to obtain a copy from another computer. If this happens to you, just let me know and I will e-mail you a copy or you can get one from the Microsoft Website (if you live long enough to find it there!) or beg a copy from a friend. The ASPI driver in question is called "aspi32.sys" and needs to be copied to the following folder/directory: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\ Note 1: It is recommended that to burn CDs and DVDs you use either the Nero StartSmart or Nero Burning-ROM program interfaces and not the Nero Express. Note 2: In the above list of Nero programs you can also launch the individual Nero components as well as launching them via such as the Nero Express and Nero StartSmart interfaces. 6.3. The Nero Compilation/Browser Window and Customisation In contrast to older versions of Nero, where the New Compilation window and Browser windows were separate so that you had to press the F6 key to move between them, Nero 6 displays a combined Compilation and Browser window which you can simply TAB through. 6.3.1. The Default Look of Nero The browser and compilation windows are where you make your selections for which tracks or files you wish to burn (copy) to your hard disk or directly to your CD-RW or DVD-RW burning drives. The intended method of selecting files/tracks from the Browser files list and then dragging and dropping them in the files/tracks list is best replaced, from a screenreader and keyboard point of view, by a more circuitous operation but it is still possible to do this and it has got easier with each upgrade of Nero. You can do it with the Nero StartSmart feature or in the standard main Nero Burning-ROM program mode. What you do is outlined below. Essentially, the browser has a Windows Explorer- type appearance and functionality, with one combined window showing a files or tracks listbox and also lists where you go to any given drive or folder and another list where you select individual folders or files/tracks or groups of folders or files/tracks. 6.3.2. Customising Nero for Visually Impaired Users You might like to start by making a few changes in the way Nero does things by default. setting things up as suggested below should make it clearer just what is happening and at what stage you are at whilst using Nero, although these configuration changes are by no means essential and if you are not confident enough to do this at this stage, leave things as they are and come back to this section later. Additionally, more configuration suggestions and possibilities are outlined near the end of this whole Nero section for you to consider, under the heading "Viewing and Customising Nero Preferences". Initially, just make the below few configuration changes. 1. Launch the main Nero Burning-ROM program (not Nero StartSmart or Nero Express) by one of the methods outlined in the last section and then press ESCAPE to close the Nero Burning-ROM compilation window. Then press ALT F (for File), followed by F (for Preferences). 2. You will come into a nine property sheet multi-dialogue box in which you can press CONTROL TAB to move between sheets and then TAB to cycle through individual sheets. 3. Press CONTROL tab to the "Sounds" property sheet and TAB to each of three checkboxes in here and press SPACEBAR to turn them all on so that you can get Nero to provide you with specific musical sounds to indicate what has happened whilst you are burning CDs and DVDs, e.g. Checking all three of the controls in here will provide a trumpet sound to let you know that your burn was successful, a boo sound to let you know if it was unsuccessful and a dingdong sound to tell you to place a CD in the CD drawer. I would recommend that you check all three of these on by pressing the SPACEBAR on them. 4. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. That is all for now. 6.4. Burning Data or Audio Tracks to CD or DVD with the Standard Nero Burning-ROM Interface You can burn CDs without using Nero StartSmart or Nero Express. You use the main, standard Nero Burning-rOM program and interface. This may suite some users and/or their screenreaders better than the other two interface methods. It does also sometimes give more access to the full range of options and formats available in the program. To use the main Nero Burning-ROM interface you would: 1. Launch Nero Burning-ROM from your Desktop icon link or by: Pressing Windows key, then P (for Program Files), then N (for Nero) ENTER, then press ENTER again on "Nero 6 . . ." followed by ARROWING to "Nero Burning-ROM" and pressing ENTER. 2. You should load into the "NEW Compilation" multi-property sheet. If you do not, press CONTROL N to get there. This multipage dialogue has six property sheets within it which you can CONTROL TAB through. The one you are on now is the "Multisession" sheet. 3. You will be on a list of three types of session you can elect to choose from. They are "Start Multisession Disk", "Continue Multisession Disk" and "No Multisession". So ARROW to the one you want. The former is for burning one of many sessions to a CD or DVD, i.e. leaving it open for future burning as it will not be filled on this session, the second is for when you will be inserting a multisession disk which is already partly filled from a previous burning session and the third option is for burning a disk in one session so that it will not be available for additional burns to that disk without loosing the already burned data. So, for this example, leave focus on "Start Multisession Disk" or on "No Multisession", whichever suits your needs. 4. Now TAB four times to a list of around 10 to 13 different formats you can burn a CD or DVD to (depending on the sub-version of Nero 6 Ultra or Enterprise you are using), e.g. starting with "CD-ROM (ISO)", and under it comes such as "Audio CD", "Mixed Mode CD", "CD Extra", etc. The "ISO" option is to be used if you want to copy standard data files or MP3 files to a CD. One press of ARROW down takes you to "Audio-CD" where you would place the focus if you wanted to create an audio music CD. "Mixed Mode CD" permits the making of CDs with both data and audio files on them, the latter intended for playing on a car stereo, a home stereo or on a computer and the former for playing on a PC only. "CD- Copy" permits you to clone (duplicate) any type of CD precisely as the original in the CD-ROM drawer. There are other types of CD and DVD burning selections but, for visually impaired people, these are likely to be of secondary importance, e.g. creating video CDs, Creating CDs for use on Apple Mac PCs, creating a system boot CD (you can do this with your Windows operating system on a floppy disk, etc. You also get a couple of extra burning facilities if you have the Enterprise Edition of Nero, such as "MiniDVD" and "CD-ROM (EFI Boot)". Note: If you accidentally close this Mew Compilation dialogue, you can reopen it by pressing CONTROL N. 5. Leave focus on the "CD-ROM (ISO)" line to burn data files and ensure that you have a standard write-only CD-R or DVD-R or rewritable CD-RW or DVD-RW blank disk inserted into the burning drive drawer. You can use any reasonable quality blank CD-R or DVD disk for this type of copying. On the other hand, you may, for learning and practise purposes only, wish to use a rewritable disk so that it can be erased and used again without wasting write-only disks in trial and error burns. Note 1: If you had of wanted to burn audio tracks, such as wave or CDA tracks, instead of data files, you would, of course, have left focus on "Audio CD" in the last step instead of on "CD-ROM (ISO)". However, this would not apply to MP3 audio files, as these are, in fact, not standard audio files but rather they are data files. Note 2: There is an "Open" button just before you get to the next stage, which you can use if you do not need to create a new compilation template but already have one created earlier which you now wish to have loaded in for burning. More about this later. 6. Tab to the "New" button and press ENTER. 7. Now you are at the browsing and compilation stage, in a blank compilation window, and you must select tracks or files for burning directly to CD or DVD, as described below. However, firstly note that you will be on the title (also known as the volume label) of your about to be created CD. the default title is "New" but you are not likely to want to call all of your CDs "New", so to change this to a label of your own preference, just press the F2 key to open up an editfield and in here type the label name you would like to give to and have burnt to this CD, e.g. type in something like "Audio Sounds 2", "myfiles 3", etc, and press ENTEr. You will now observe that "New" has changed to your own label title. 8. Now, to add your complete folders of files or to select individual files for burning, press TAB twice to move from the CD title to the File browsing tree/list and you will now be in a standard Windows browsing tree (similar to being in Windows Explorer or My Computer) to be able to ARROW down and open disk drives or folders in by pressing ENTER on them or right ARROWING on them. This is the normal Windows-type tree structure with your drives and folders on the left and the individual files within each folder on the right, which you may have to press the TAB key to move to. You can now leave focus on a whole folder of data files to get it and all of its contents burnt or open that folder and individually highlight sub-folders or files for burning as required. For instance, if you have opened a folder and only want the files from within it burnt and not the folder itself, just press CONTROL A to get all files highlighted for burning or, if you want only file 1, 3 and 6 of a list of 10 files burning, ARROW to file 1, and then hold down the CONTROL key, which will automatically select/highlight this first file for you, then, keeping the CONTROL key held down all of the time, ARROW down to file 3 and press and release the SPACEbar, then ARROW to file 6 and again press the SPACEBAR to select that as well. You should have had the CONTROL key held down all of the time and you will now have your three non-contiguous files highlighted for burning. Other standard Windows selecting and highlighting keystrokes will also work fine in here as well. 9. Now that you have got your folder(s) or files highlighted, just press CONTROL C to copy them to the Clipboard. 10. After selecting files and copying them to the Clipboard, you press TAB twice to move past the CD title/volume label to a files listbox which will be empty. To get your selected folders or files pasted into this listbox, just press CONTROL V. They are now in place for burning to CD but you can make changes to them before burning them if you like. For example, if you ARROW to any of the folder or filenames in the files to be burnt listbox and press F2, you can overtype the current folder or filename with a new name of your own choice, e.g. type over track01.mp3 with something more meaningful such as Sergeant Pepper.mp3. Note: You can also use an alternative method of copying selected files to the above files list with the shortcut keystroke of CONTROL 1. This would replace steps 9 and 10 above. For example, after highlighting/selecting files at step 8, you would then skip step 9 and achieve the results of step 10 by pressing CONTROL 1 to insert your selected tracks straight into the files list. If you were adding non-consecutive files to the files list, you could also do this by ARROWING to each file in turn and getting each inserted into the files list individually by pressing CONTROL 1 on each file in turn. 11. With all files now selected and renamed if necessary, you press ALT R (for Recorder) followed by O (for Burn Compilation) and the burn dialogue will load in for you to finish the process off. You can also load this burn dialogue at this stage with later sub-versions of Nero 6 with the shortcut of CONTROL B. Note: Unfortunately, with Nero, you cannot determine the order in which data files (including MP3 audio files) will copy to CD in by use of the keyboard. This can only be done with the sighted drag-and-drop procedure. The data/MP3 files will copy in alphabetical or numeric order. Happily, however, you can move audio tracks around into your preferred order, which will be demonstrated later. 12. In the burn dialogue box: A. You will be on a "Determine Maximum Speed" checkbox to press SPACEBAR on to ensure that Nero always burns at your CD-RWs maximum speed if you would like to do this. B. TABBING to the "Simulation" checkbox and ensuring that this is turned on can make Nero test your CD and burner/buffering abilities and do a dummy run before then actually burning the files to CD to ensure that the copying will be successful and warn you if there are likely to be any problems, so that you can abort the burning if you wish and not waste a CD. However, you will also have to have the "Write" option checked off as well to ensure that this feature works without burning the CD. The "Write" checkbox is immediately underneath the "Simulation" checkbox. C. TABBING to the "Finalise CD" checkbox allows you to ensure that only the files you firstly burn to a given disk can be put on it if you want to close the disk. However, you will not be able to burn more data to the disk if you check this on, so leave the finalise option checked off for burning successive data files in different sessions to a disk so that you will be able to fill it. Be aware, though, that you will need to check the finalise box on if you want to be able to play an audio CD on a standard HI-FI system, because a HI-FI CD player needs both certain disk beginning and disk ending data/markers to be present before it will play properly. D. The "Write Speed" option lets you ARROW up and down to the speed you would like to write at, e.g. 48X if your CD-RW can work at this speed, but remember that cheaper quality disks may require a slower writing speed to be successful, such as 12X or 24X speed. Similarly, some older CD-ROMs cannot extract at more than 1X or 2X speed, particularly with audio tracks, despite what their data reading speed may be said to be. The slower the writing speed, the more likely you are to obtain an unblemished copy. you'll just have to experiment with different qualities of compact disks and different speeds to familiarise yourself with your CD-ROM's/DVD-ROM's, CPUs and different blank disk capabilities. E. TABBING to the "Write Method" will let you ARROW to and select from either "Track-at-Once" to get files or tracks burnt separately with short gaps between them (the CD-RW laser turns off for a couple of seconds between tracks), or "Disk-at-Once" where you can get the burning done without the laser turning off between tracks or "Disk-at-Once 96" for another format of disk- at-once burning. F. In the other options in here, you can sometimes elect to get more than one copy burnt successively one after another with one burning drive, to get more than one copy burnt simultaneously using more than one CD-RW or DVD-RW recording drive (if you have more than one) and you can get the Nero virus-checker to run on the files before they are burnt to ensure that they are virus- free (if you own a shop bought full version of the Nero 6 Ultra or Reloaded program or the Enterprise Edition--not the complimentary copy which comes with some CD-RW drives). Having set these burning parameters, most of them will hold as the defaults for future burning sessions, unless you change them or some of the earlier selections. 13. Lastly, press TAB until you reach the "Burn" button and press ENTER to start the copying process.The program may say that it is waiting for a CD but just ignore this if you have already inserted a CD into the CD-RW drive. 14. When the copying/burning to CD has finished, Nero will tell you that the burning process was successful--hopefully! You will have an "OK" button to press ENTER on. During the burning you can check the progress of burning if you like by using your screenreader's read title Bar hot key to hear the percentage of burning already completed (INSERT T with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT T with Window-Eyes and Numpad 7 with HAL) and you can also view this in mouse mode but if you are burning audio files for the finished product it is probably a good idea not to do this too often in case you cause pops or clicks on the resultant sound file. I would therefore advise that, when you are in the learning/practising stage and still need to know and be assured of what is going on, you use a rewritable disk which can be later erased and practised on again to save wasting CD-R or DVD-R (write-once only) disks. You can then use your screenreader's mouse mode and informational hot keys as much as you like until you get the hang of things, e.g. JAWS users might want to press INSERT S to circulate between reading highlighted text, no text at all and all text and changes on screen, leaving things on "All" to listen to the simulating and then burning as it goes through the various steps. (Once your CD-RW disk is full, you will have to erase it to be able to work with it again, so see "Erasing the Contents of a Rewritable CD or DVD" below for how to erase a rewritable disk.) 15. To finish with the current burning session and start another or to exit Nero, TAB to "Done" and press ENTER, when your disk will automatically be ejected by Nero. You can then start another burning session by pressing CONTROL N or exit Nero by pressing ALT F4 and answering "No" to the message you will receive about saving changes to the ISO1 compilation. Note 1: Depending on whether you have the "Simulate" option checked on or off and/or the "Write" option on or off, the usual "Burn" button at step 12 above may appear as either a "Simulate" or a "OK" button. Note 2: If, in step 8 above, you find it difficult to highlight non-consecutive files, you could always copy the files you want to an empty folder on your hard disk first and then burn/copy them from there to a CD or DVD after pressing CONTROL A to highlight them all. You should also remember the Nero shortcut of CONTROL 1 to get individual files inserted into the burning files list as well. Note 3: At step 8 above, if you had of wanted to place individual tracks within a folder on the CD which you wish to create at this stage yourself, before pressing CONTROL V to paste the files into the compilation, you could have created this folder at this stage by pressing ALT E (for Edit) and then R (for Create Folder). The default folder name will be "New", so type over this with a folder name of your own liking, e.g. "workfiles", "memos", etc, and press ENTRE to create the folder on the CD. If this empty folder now has focus when you copy other sub-folders or files into the Compilation window, then the sub-folder or files will be copied inside this main folder which you have created. If you want to create a second main folder on the CD (not a sub-folder), just ARROW up to your volume label first and then create your second main level folder in the same way as you created the first main level folder with ALT E and then R. If you want to create a sub-folder running from any of your main folders, put focus on that main folder and go through the process again with ALT E and then R. 6.5. Creating a Data CD from Files on Your Hard Disk Drive with Nero StartSmart You can create data Cds in a variety of ways, one of which is outlined in this section and another of which is described near the end of Section 6 (the Windows Explorer method). Whilst this section has been called creating Cds with Nero StartSmart, the same procedures would apply if you were creating DVDs in this way. To clarify, Nero StartSmart is really only a front-end command interface which you can launch prior to then electing to do the remainder of your selecting and burning via the other two Nero interfaces of the Nero express (not recommended) or the Nero Burning-ROM interface (strongly recommended). One very good aspect of the StartSmart interface is that, for beginners, it makes it clearer exactly what types of files and formats can be burnt using a given type of procedure. The category or type of files/tracks/disk to be created can be selected firstly and then later in the StartSmart dialogue you get a list of the kinds of CD you can create and burn with that particular format/type of file. Below is a simple example using a straightforward data burning category. To burn folders and/or files to disk using the Nero StartSmart feature: 1. Put a blank CD-R or CD-RW disk into your CD writer drive and then launch the Nero StartSmart Program interface by pressing ENTER on it on your Desktop, after pressing ALT M to get to the Desktop. Note that if Nero tries to take you online to the Internet each time you launch StartSmart, it is doing this because "Automatically check for Updates" is checked on in the "Nero Product Centre", so press ENTER on this and uncheck it with the SPACEBAR. You can always re-enter this dialogue at any time to get updates manually if you like (see the section entitled "Automatic and Manual Updating of the Nero Program via the Nero Website" for more details about Nero updating. 2. Now SHIFT TAB back and press ENTER on the "Show/Hide Applications and Help" button to open up more of the options and choices which the StartSmart interface offers. 3. You now have to TAB to "Choose Your Category" and select the type of CD you would like to produce by ARROWING left or right amongst the six options, i.e. Favourites, Data, Audio, Photo and Video, Copy and Backup and Extras. For this example, leave focus on "Data". the data option is for a CD containing such as text files, programs, MP3 tracks, etc, but not uncompressed music or video files like Wav or JPeg files. 4. Now, before starting the process, ensure that the Nero burning program and not the Nero Express is selected by TABBING twice to "Open With", where "Nero Burning-ROM" should be selected rather than "Nero Express". You ARROW up or down to the one you want. 5. Now SHIFT TAB backwards to a "Make Data Disk" button and press ENTER. 6. Now you are at the browsing and compilation stage, in a blank compilation window, and you must select tracks or files for burning directly to CD, as described below. However, firstly note that you will be on the title (also known as the volume label) of your about to be created CD. the default title is "New" but you are not likely to want to call all of your Cds "New", so to change this to a label of your own preference, just press the F2 key to open up an editfield and in here type the label name you would like to give to and have burnt to this CD, e.g. type in something like "Audio Sounds 2", "myfiles 3", etc, and press ENTEr. You will now observe that "New" has changed to your own label title. 7. Next, to add your complete folders of files or to select individual files for burning, press TAB twice to move from the CD title to the File browsing tree/list and you will now be in a standard Windows browsing tree (similar to being in Windows Explorer) to be able to ARROW down and open disk drives or folders in by pressing ENTER on them or right ARROWING on them. This is the normal Windows-type tree structure with your drives and folders on the left and the individual files within each folder on the right, which you may have to press the TAB key to move to. You can now leave focus on a whole folder of data files to get it and all of its contents burnt or open that folder and individually highlight sub-folders or files for burning as required. For instance, if you have opened a folder and only want the files from within it burnt and not the folder, just press CONTROL A to get them all highlighted for burning or, if you want only file 1, 3 and 6 of a list of 10 files burning, ARROW to file 1, and then hold down the CONTROL key, which will automatically select/highlight this first file for you, then, keeping the CONTROL key held down all of the time, ARROW down to file 3 and press and release the SPACEbar, then ARROW to file 6 and again press the SPACEBAR to select that as well. You should have had the CONTROL key held down all of the time and you will now have your three non-contiguous files highlighted for burning. Other selecting and highlighting keystrokes will also work fine in here as well. 8. Now that you have got your folder(s) or files highlighted, just press CONTROL C to copy them to the Clipboard. 9. After selecting files and copying them to the Clipboard, you press TAB twice to move past the CD title/volume label to a files listbox which will be empty. To get your selected folders or files pasted into this listbox, just press CONTROL V. They are now in place for burning to CD but you can make changes to them before burning them if you like. For example, if you ARROW to any of the folder or filenames in the files to be burnt listbox and press F2, you can overtype the current folder or filename with a new name of your own choice, e.g. type over track01.mp3 with something more meaningful such as Sergeant Pepper.mp3. 10. With all files now selected and renamed if necessary, you press ALT R (for Recorder) followed by O (for Burn Compilation) and the burn dialogue will load in for you to finish the process off. Note: Unfortunately, with Nero, you cannot determine the order in which data (including MP3) files will copy to CD in by use of the keyboard. This can only be done with the sighted drag-and- drop procedure. The files will copy in alphabetical or numeric order. Happily, however, you can move audio tracks around into your preferred order, which will be demonstrated later. 11. In the burn dialogue box: A. You will be on a "Determine Maximum Speed" checkbox to press SPACEBAR on to ensure that Nero always burns at your CD-RWs maximum speed if you would like to do this. B. TABBING to the "Simulation" checkbox and ensuring that this is turned on will make Nero test your CD and do a dummy run before then actually burning the files to CD to ensure that the copying will be successful and warn you if there are likely to be any problems, so that you can abort the burning if you wish and not waste a CD. If you want to do this simulating successfully, ensure that the "Write" option is checked off first. C. The "Write Speed" option lets you ARROW up and down to the speed you would like to write at, e.g. 48X if your CD-RW can work at this speed, but remember that cheaper quality disks may require a slower writing speed to be successful, such as 12X or 24X speed. Similarly, some older CD-ROMs cannot extract at more than 1X or 2X speed, particularly with audio tracks, despite what their data reading speed may be said to be. The slower the writing speed, the more likely you are to obtain an unblemished copy. you'll just have to experiment with different qualities of compact disks and different speeds to familiarise yourself with your CD-ROMs, CPUs and different blank disk capabilities. D. TABBING to the "Write Method" will let you ARROW to and select from either "Track-at-Once" to get files or tracks burnt separately with short gaps between them (the CD-RW laser turns off for a couple of seconds between tracks), or "Disk-at-Once" where you can get the burning done without the laser turning off between tracks or "Disk-at-Once 96" for another format of disk- at-once burning. E. In the other options in here, you can sometimes elect to get more than one copy burnt successively one after another with one CD-RW drive, to get more than one copy burnt simultaneously using more than one CD-RW recording drive (if you have more than one) and you can get the Nero virus-checker to run on the files before they are burnt to ensure that they are virus-free (if you own a shop bought full version of the Nero 6 Ultra or Reloaded program or Enterprise Edition--not the complimentary copy which comes with some CD-RW drives). Having set these burning parameters, most of them will hold as the defaults for future burning sessions, unless you change them. 12. Lastly, press TAB to the"Burn" button and press ENTER to start the burning to disk process.The program may say that it is waiting for a CD but just ignore this if you have already inserted a CD into the CD-RW drive. 13. When the copying/burning to CD has finished, Nero will tell you that the burning process was successful--hopefully! You will have an "OK" button to press ENTER on. During the burning you can check the progress of burning if you like by using your screenreader's read title Bar hot key to hear the percentage of burning already completed (INSERT T with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT T with Window-Eyes and Numpad 7 with HAL) and you can also view this in mouse mode but if you are burning audio files for the finished product it is probably a good idea not to do this too often in case you cause pops or clicks on the resultant sound file. I would therefore advise that, when you are in the learning/practising stage and still need to know and be assured of what is going on, you use a rewritable CD-RW disk which can be later erased and practised on again to save wasting CD-R (write-once only) disks. You can then use your screenreader's mouse mode and informational hot keys as much as you like until you get the hang of things, e.g. JAWS users might want to press INSERT S to circulate between reading highlighted text, no text at all and all text and changes on screen, leaving things on "All" to listen to the simulating and then burning as it goes through the various steps. (Once your CD-RW disk is full, you will have to erase it to be able to work with it again, so see "Erasing the Contents of a Rewritable CD or DVD" below for how to erase a rewritable disk.) 14. To finish with the current burning session and start another or to exit Nero, TAB to "Done" and press ENTER, when your disk will automatically be ejected by Nero. You can then start another burning session by pressing CONTROL N or exit Nero by pressing ALT F4 and answering "No" to the message you will receive about saving changes to the ISO1 compilation. Note 1: If, in step 8 above, you find it difficult to highlight non-consecutive files, you could always copy the files you want to an empty folder on your hard disk first and then copy them from there to a CD after pressing CONTROL A to highlight them all. Note 2: At step 8 above, if you had of wanted to place individual tracks within a folder on the CD which you wish to create at this stage yourself, before pressing CONTROL V to paste the files into the compilation, you could have created this folder at this stage by pressing ALT E (for Edit) and then R (for Create Folder). The default folder name will be "New", so type over this with a folder name of your own liking, e.g. "workfiles", "memos", etc, and press ENTRE to create the folder on the CD. If this empty folder now has focus when you copy other sub-folders or files into the Compilation window, then the sub-folder or files will be copied inside this main folder which you have created. If you want to create a second main folder on the CD (not a sub-folder), just ARROW up to your volume label first and then create your second main level folder in the same way as you created the first main level folder with ALT E and then R. If you want to create a sub-folder running from any of your main folders, put focus on that main folder and go through the process again with ALT E and then R. 6.6. Saving Compilations or Log Files You can save your compilations to be able to use them again or you can save a log file of the burning parameters you used when doing a burn if you wish. 6.6.1. Saving Your Compilation Settings for Use in a Later Burning Session If you would like to save the above compilation for possible future identical CD burning, with the same CD volume label, same folder structure, same tracks/files, etc, you would: 1. After finishing burning your first copy at stage 14 in the last section (i.e. after activating the "Done" button), you would press CONTROL S (for Save) and type a filename into the editfield which opens up (no extension). You will be overtyping Nero's default compilation filename of such as "Audio1", so type something you can identify like "Audio1b" or "Best Hits 1". 2. TAB forward to "Save as Type" and accept the default of ".nra" as the standard Nero file extension for audio copying compilations. 3. TAB to "Save" and press ENTER. The compilation template may be saved to either the same folder that your original files were copied from or to My Documents but you can change this to a folder where only your saved .nra files are kept if you wish. So, for example, if you decided to call this compilation template "tutorials", its full filename would now be "tutorials.nra". Note: Nero sometimes gives saved compilations a ".nri" instead of a ".nra" extension. The type of extension allotted depends on the kind of files or tracks you are dealing with in the compilation, e.g. the "a" in .nra signifies an audio compilation and the "i" in .nri indicates that this is an ISO (data) compilation. There are several other possible compilation extensions as well for yet other types of compilations. 6.6.2. Saving Nero's Finished Burning Compilation Messages for Later Viewing After your CD or DVD has finished burning, you can save the finished burning information messages, burning parameter details and information about the parts of your system which were used in the burning process if you wish to view these later but you are not very likely to want to do this unless you are having burning difficulties and your screenreader cannot read the error messages on screen very well. In the unlikely event that you would need to do this, take the following action: 1. After your burn has completed or failed and you come onto the standard list of things you can do after burning, e.g. "Save Log, "Print Log, "Done", "Verify Written Data", and "Automatically Shutdown the PC when Done", you can press ALT S to activate the "Save Log" option. 2. In the editfield you come into, type a name for the file of your own choice, e.g. neroinfo. 3. TAB to "Save" and press ENTER to save the file as a plain txt text file for later viewing in your word-processor or Windows Notepad. 4. If you now receive messages about accessing CDDB databases, just press ESCAPE to clear these and then TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. 5. To view the saved information file, search for it with the Windows Find feature, as it can be saved in different places depending on the version of Windows you are using, e.g. it may be found at: C:\My Documents\neroinfo.txt or c:\Documents and Settings\John Wilson\My Documents\neroinfo.txt but, of course, your operating system registered name would appear in the above path instead of mine. 6.7. Opening a Saved Compilation Template To open one of the above .nra saved compilations for further CD burning: 1. Press CONTROL O and then either: A. In the filename textbox you land in, type the compilation filename in and press ENTER, e.g. "audio1b" (no need for the extension). or B. If the above does not work for you, type in the full path and filename to the compilation template, e.g. C:\my documents\audio1b.nra, and press ENTER. Or C. TAB once to "Files of Type" and: i. ARROW to the type of file you are looking for, e.g. CD-ROM (ISO)" (data files), "Audio CD compilation", etc. If you wish to be able to view all Nero's file extension types, ARROW right up to "All Nero Compilations and Images". ii. SHIFT TAB back several times to the list of drives/folders. ARROW up or down until you reach the drive, such as C:, where your compilation templates are saved to. Then TAB to the list of folders and press ENTER to open up the compilation ".nra" or other file type files. iii. Place focus on the one you want, TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 2. The compilation will load in and you press ENTER on an OK button if it appears. 3. If you would like to burn another CD exactly the same as the first one burnt with this compilation, you now just press ALT R (for Recorder) and O (for Burn compilation) and the burn dialogue will load in and take you through the usual last few steps of burning. Note: The word "ISO" is both an acronym for International Standards Organisation and it is the Greek word for equal to or the same as. 6.8. Extracting Audio Tracks to WAV Format Before Creating an Audio CD It is important with Nero to ensure that the format of audio tracks is correct before creating an audio CD for playing on a HI-FI system. They must be wave files in the .WAV format, in 44.1 KHz and 16-bit stereo. This is, of course, only necessary if you are burning uncompressed tracks such as .cda music tracks via the hard disk, not for on the fly direct CD-ROM to CD-RW burning or for extracting and burning MP3 files. You can achieve this in the following way. 1. If you have the Nero Burning-ROM manual compilation dialogue open, close it by pressing ESCAPE. If you have the Nero StartSmart interface open, close that by TABBING to the "Nero" button, press ENTER and then press ESCAPE. 2. Insert your music CD into the CDRW or CD-ROM drawer and close it. Keep the left SHIFT key depressed for about 20 seconds whilst you do this to stop the Windows autoplay feature from launching an audio player and starting to play your CD. 3. Press ALT X (for Extras) and then S (for Save Tracks). 4. You now enter the first of three dialogue boxes. This first dialogue is where you just ARROW up or down to choose the CD drive you wish to extract your tracks from and then TAB to and press ENTER on "OK". 5. Next you come into a tracks selecting dialogue on a list of all of the tracks on your CD in your CD drive. The tracks may already be named for you if the Nero CDDB database already knows about the disk you have decided to extract tracks from; otherwise you may get a "Yes" or a "No" or a "Access Internet Database" button to press ENTER on to get Nero to go onto the Nero titles and CDDB database on the Internet and retrieve the album title, artist's name, individual tracks' titles, etc, or you can elect, instead, to name the album and tracks yourself manually by TABBING to and pressing ENTER on "Create a New CD Entry". If you neither want to go onto the Internet to the CDDB database nor manually name the album and tracks at this stage, you can TAB to "No" or "Cancel" and press ENTER to skip this naming stage. Note: You can turn off the automatic opening of the above CD database to show or allow completion of tracks and artist's details if you wish by either pressing SPACEBAR on "Never Show this Message Again" checkbox in the above CDDB database dialogue or by going to File, Preferences, CONTROL TABBING to "Database" and then pressing SPACEBAR on "Open the Database During Save Track". Below this is where to check off "Open the Database During CD Copy" if you would like to skip this step in direct CD to CD copying as well. 6. The third dialogue box you come into, after the above Nero title and CDDB database naming option or electing to skip that step, is the main selecting and extracting dialogue, which has several settings, options, radio buttons and dialogues you can TAB through and check on, arrow to or press ENTER on to go into (e.g. the "Settings" button, to change such as bit rate, mono/stereo recording, etc, and you eventually press ENTER on a "Go" button to get selected tracks converted. Ensure that you have ARROWED to The "PCM Wav File" format for this exercise but note that there are several different possible conversion formats. Additionally, in this dialogue, before going to the "Go" button, if you press SPACEBAR on the "Options" button, you will obtain several more options which you can check on or off depending on the quality and age of your CD drive and your requirements and preferences, e.g. To enable jitter correction (recommended), to remove the silent gaps between tracks, to automatically create an M3U playlist of stored audio tracks (a tracks tagging and listing ability), etc. You should also note that the "Browse" button, if pressed, will permit you to navigate to a different tracks saving folder if you wish, e.g. C:\music, provided that you have created such a folder for this first. Otherwise, the default saving folder will be C:\My Documents. The above "Browse" dialogue should also allow you to BACKSPACE out the current track name, such as track1, and type another more appropriate track name in if you wish, before going to the "Save" button and then the "Go" button. However, this browser/renaming dialogue is not very reliable from a keyboard and screenreader point of view, as sometimes it does not give you the track renaming option, so you may have to use an alternative method of renaming tracks to their correct names, e.g. after you have saved the tracks to your saving folder, you may wish to use Windows Explorer to go to them and then press the F2 key on each name in turn and type in the correct track name with the .wav extension or you may wish to press ENTER on each track to get such as Windows Media Player to open up and start playing the track, after which you should be able to press CONTROL S (for save) and then resave the track to a new filename such as: C:\music\Let It Be.wav but you will then have to delete the original tracks so that you do not get duplicate tracks with different names. In fact, when creating compilation music CDs, if you are selecting such as track 1 from several Cds, you will find that Nero will try to over-write your original track 1 with the new track one unless you rename the original track one to something else first. 7. In the above tracks selection step you use traditional Windows highlighting procedures in the tracks list to get the tracks you want to extract selected, e.g. the SHIFT KEY with the ARROW up and down keys to select consecutive tracks, the CONTROL key to move to non-consecutive tracks and press SPACEBAR to select tracks randomly and there is a "Select All" button if you want to highlight all of the tracks on a disk for extracting. If you named the tracks in the previous dialogue or the CDDB database did this, then the track names will appear in the tracks list; otherwise they will simply be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc, followed by some information about the track such as its size in minutes and seconds, its size in Mb, the type of file extension it has, and so on. If you want to select a few tracks from more than one CD, you would be advised to let the Nero CDDB provide a title for the album and tracks, then extract the tracks you want from the first CD to your hard disk, followed by doing the same with CD number two, etc. Alternatively, and a little more messy, if you do not have an Internet connection, you could extract the tracks from CD one first, rename them manually and then extract more tracks from CD two, etc, until you have them all extracted to different names. 8. When you have made all of the tracks selections and options changes you want, you press ENTER on "Go" (or use the shortcut of ALT G) and after the extraction has finished (which may take only a few seconds or a minute or two) you will return to the "Go" button and can SHIFT TAB to "Close" to finish. 9. You are now ready to select these extracted wave tracks and place them into a compilation using one of the procedures outlined in both earlier and later sections, obviously by navigating to the C:\My Documents folder or any other folder you extracted the tracks to and placing them into the compilation window. Summary: The above requirement to convert .cda tracks to .wav format before burning to another CD for HI-FI playing would seem to be somewhat long-winded and complicated. However, once you have set up the normal parameters and settings you require these will hold for future conversions and if you do not elect to use the Nero title and CDDB option, then the series of keystrokes for future conversions can be simplified to: Press ALT X, then S, then ENTER, then ESCAPE (to leave the CDDB database dialogue if you have not disabled this), then select your tracks individually or all tracks with ALT A and finish by pressing ALT G. Note 1: As is generally the case when working with track burning, you should resist the temptation to keep using your screenreader when tracks are being extracted to avoid getting clicks or jumps in your extracted tracks. Note 2: You can use this "Save Tracks" feature for data tracks as well as for audio conversion, e.g. for if you wish to convert different file standards to image files which could then be burnt to a CD in such as Apple Mac and HAS and other none standard formats. However, these are much less frequent formats and there are restrictions in what you can do in practice. They will not be described here as this tutorial is about data and audio burning with IBM-compatible PCs, not for non-IBM compatible computer formats. 6.9. Creating Audio Cds and DVDs Many of the steps for burning audio tracks with Nero StartSmart are the same as in the burning of data files. After pasting audio tracks into the tracks list of the Audio 1 Browser/compilation pane, you can then arrange them in the order you like and rename them before burning them to CD. If your original tracks are not already in a WAV format and you are not burning on the fly, convert them to WAV files as directed above in "Extracting Audio Tracks to WAV Format Before Creating an Audio CD". This will also mean that any tracks you want to burn from one CD-ROM to another CD will already have to be in the wav format, in 44,100 Hz stereo if you are burning from another CD or these will also have to be extracted and converted to wav files as well and placed on your hard disk. After this what you do is outlined below. 6.9.1. Creating an Audio Music Disk from Your CD-ROM Drive or Hard Disk with Nero StartSmart Note that the steps for burning a DDCD and a DVD are the same as for burning a CD but the references to CD in the options and selections change to references to DVD or DD CD. To burn audio tracks using the Nero StartSmart feature: 1. Place a blank CD into the CD-RW burning drive drawer and shut it. If you have Nero StartSmart set up to automatically run when a CD is placed into the burning drive, it will launch itself for you. If not, you should press ENTER on its icon on the Desktop if you put one there or launch it from: C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero StartSmart 2. Now, if you have not already opened the extra features of StartSmart as directed in burning data files above (it will hold as the default if you did), SHIFT TAB back and press ENTER on the "Show/Hide Applications and Help" button to open up more of the options and choices which the StartSmart interface offers. 3. You now have to TAB to "Choose Your Category" and select the type of CD you would like to produce by ARROWING left or right amongst the six options, i.e. Favourites, Data, Audio, Photo and Video, Copy and Backup and Extras. For this example, leave focus on "audio". the audio option is for burning tracks from a CD containing such as .wav music tracks on a standard CD-ROm or in a folder on your hard disk but not for data files only or video files only. You are also unlikely to be able to burn mixed mode and other joint compilation disks using keyboard procedures, as all keyboard methods fail to effectively select files or tracks in the second half of the compilation list, so stick to burning data files to one disk and audio or video files to a different disk. 4. Now, before starting the process, ensure that the Nero burning program and not the Nero Express is selected by TABBING twice to "Open With", where "Nero Burning-ROM" should be selected rather than "Nero Express". You ARROW up or down to the one you want. 5. Now SHIFT TAB backwards to a "Make Audio CD" button and press ENTER. Note that you could have ARROWED down from "Make Audio CD" to several other types of audio burning options, such as "Make MP3 Disk", "Make Audio and Data CD", etc, but remember that the latter of these would not work using the keyboard. 6. Now you are at the browsing and compilation stage, in a blank audio compilation window, and you must select tracks or files for burning directly to CD, as described below. 7. You are now in the equivalent of the data burning files list but this time it is the tracks list and it will be empty. You can press your Screenreader's read line hot key to hear the tracks' header columns spoken, such as where the track names will appear, the title and duration of the tracks, etc, which will appear in here after you select them and paste them into this list. TAB once to move to a File browsing tree/list and you will now be in a standard Windows browsing tree (similar to being in Windows Explorer or My Computer) to be able to ARROW down and open disk drives or folders in by pressing ENTER on them or right ARROWING on them. This is the normal Windows-type tree structure with your drives and folders on the left and the individual files within each folder on the right or below, which you may have to press the TAB key to move to. You can now open that CD of wav tracks or hard disk folder of wav tracks and individually highlight tracks for burning as required. For instance, if you have opened a CD-ROM drive or a hard disk folder, just press CONTROL A to get all tracks highlighted for burning or, if you want only tracks 1, 3 and 6 of a list of 10 tracks burning, ARROW to track 1, and then hold down the CONTROL key, which will automatically select/highlight this first track for you, then, keeping the CONTROL key held down all of the time, ARROW down to track 3 and press and release the SPACEbar, then ARROW to track 6 and again press the SPACEBAR to select that as well. You should have had the CONTROL key held down all of the time and you will now have your three non-contiguous tracks highlighted for burning. Other selecting and highlighting keystrokes will also work fine in here as well, such as pressing CONTROL A to highlight all tracks on a CD or in a hard disk folder. 8. Now that you have got your folder(s) or files highlighted, just press CONTROL C to copy them to the Clipboard. 9. After selecting files and copying them to the Clipboard, you press TAB once to move to the empty tracks listbox. To get your selected tracks pasted into this listbox, just press CONTROL V. They are now in place for burning to CD but you can make changes to them before burning them if you like. For example, you can change the position of the tracks and change there default filenames of such as "no01.wav", "no02.wav", etc, to their correct track titles. How to do this is covered in the next sub- section. For now just burn a few tracks with their default names to get a hang of things before getting into the added complications of track naming and rearranging. If you have a rewritable CD as well as right-once CDs, use this to practice on so that you do not produce unwanted or spoiled CDs whilst experimenting. 10. With all files now selected, you press ALT R (for Recorder) followed by O (for Burn Compilation) and the burn dialogue will load in for you to finish the process off. You can also use the shortcut of CONTROL B to open this same burn dialogue. 11. In the burn dialogue box: A. You will be on a "Determine Maximum Speed" checkbox to press SPACEBAR on to ensure that Nero always burns at your CD-RWs maximum speed if you would like to do this. B. TABBING to the "Simulation" checkbox and ensuring that this is turned on will make Nero test your CD and do a dummy run before then actually burning the files to CD to ensure that the copying will be successful and warn you if there are likely to be any problems, so that you can abort the burning if you wish and not waste a CD. If you want to do this simulating successfully, ensure that the "Write" option is checked off first. C. Next TAB to "Finalise CD". If you have this checked on, you will be closing the CD-r once and for all so that nothing else can ever be burnt to it (this does not, of course, apply to a rewritable CD-RW disk), so only finalise it after filling it. If you want to add more tracks later, leave it unchecked for now. Note , however, that whilst an unfinalised CD will play OK in your computer, it will not play in such as a car stereo system or home HI-FI system until it has been closed by finalising itd. D. The "Write Speed" option lets you ARROW up and down to the speed you would like to write at, e.g. 48X if your CD-RW can work at this speed, but remember that cheaper quality disks may require a slower writing speed to be successful, such as 12X or 24X speed. Similarly, some older CD-ROMs cannot extract at more than 1X or 2X speed, particularly with audio tracks, despite what their data reading speed may be said to be. The slower the writing speed, the more likely you are to obtain an unblemished copy. you'll just have to experiment with different qualities of compact disks and different speeds to familiarise yourself with your CD-ROMs, CPUs and different blank disk capabilities. E. TABBING to the "Write Method" will let you ARROW to and select from either "Track-at-Once" to get tracks burnt separately with short gaps between them (the CD-RW laser turns off for a couple of seconds between tracks), or "Disk-at-Once" where you can get the burning done without the laser turning off between tracks or "Disk-at-Once 96" for another format of disk-at-once burning. F. In the other options in here, you can sometimes elect to get more than one copy burnt successively one after another with one CD-RW drive and to get more than one copy burnt simultaneously using more than one CD-RW recording drive (if you have more than one on your computer). Having set these burning parameters, most of them will hold as the defaults for future burning sessions, unless you change them. G. Lastly, press TAB to the"Burn" button and press ENTER to start the CD burning process.The program may say that it is waiting for a CD but just ignore this if you have already inserted a CD into the CD-RW drive. 12. When the copying/burning to CD has finished, Nero will tell you that the burning process was successful--hopefully! You will have an "OK" button to press ENTER on. During the burning you can check the progress of burning if you like by using your screenreader's read title Bar hot key to hear the percentage of burning already completed (INSERT T with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT T with Window-Eyes and Numpad 7 with HAL) and you can also view this in mouse mode but if you are burning audio files for the finished product it is probably a good idea not to do this too often in case you cause pops or clicks on the resultant sound file. I would therefore advise that, when you are in the learning/practising stage and still need to know and be assured of what is going on, you use a rewritable CD-RW disk which can be later erased and practised on again to save wasting CD-R (write-once only) disks. You can then use your screenreader's mouse mode and informational hot keys as much as you like until you get the hang of things, e.g. JAWS users might want to press INSERT S to circulate between reading highlighted text, no text at all and all text and changes on screen, leaving things on "All" to listen to the simulating and then burning as it goes through the various steps. (Once your CD-RW disk is full, you will have to erase it to be able to work with it again, so see "Erasing the Contents of a Rewritable CD or DVD" below for how to erase a rewritable disk.) 13. To finish with the current burning session and start another or to exit Nero, TAB to "Done" and press ENTER, then start another burning session by pressing CONTROL N or exit Nero by pressing ALT F4 and answering "No" to the message you will receive about saving changes to the Audio 1 compilation. Tip: If you prefer, in the selecting of audio tracks list at steps 8 and 9 above, you can also select tracks in the order you want them adding to your compilation by going to each track in turn and by pressing CONTROL 1 (on the main keyboard) when each track you want to add to your audio compilation has focus. You can also add tracks to your compilation in blocks with CONTROL 1 by firstly selecting a contiguous or non-contiguous block of tracks and then pressing CONTROL 1. 6.9.2. Editing Audio Track Titles and Rearranging Track Positions Prior to Burning If you would like to change the order in which audio tracks will be burnt to CD in or the names they will have when they are burnt: 6.9.2.1. Rearranging Tracks' Burning Order 1. When you are at step 9 in the last section and have just pasted your tracks into the empty tracks list, you will be able to ARROW up and down the list of default track names, such as "no01.wav", "no02.wav", etc. 2. With focus on any track, cut it to the Clipboard by pressing CONTROL X. The track will disappear. 3. Now move your cursor to the track position which you want your track to move into and press CONTROL V to paste it in there, when the track your cursor is currently on and all tracks below it will move down one place. 4. Continue to do this until you have all tracks where you want them and then continue the burning process as described in the last section. 6.9.2.2. Changing the Titles of Tracks before Burning Them To rename tracks: 1. Again at step 9 in the last sub-section, after pasting your tracks into the empty tracks list, ARROW to and put focus on a track you wish to rename. 2. Now press ALT ENTER to open up the properties dialogue box for that file (or select "Properties" from the Edit menu). 3. You come into a three property sheet dialogue, on the appropriate sheet. 4. You will be on the track name editfield containing the default title of your track, so simply overtype this with your preferred track title, e.g. waterloo.wav (ensure that you maintain the correct file extension). 5. Lastly, TAB to and press ENTER on "Apply" and then to "OK". 6. View the changed track name in your tracks list and do the same for all other tracks before proceeding with the rest of the burning process. 6.9.3. Creating an Audio CD by Selecting Tracks Prior to Launching Nero If you prefer to select your audio tracks prior to launching Nero, do this by: 1. With the tracks already having been selected and copied to the Clipboard before launching Nero, e.g. by using My computer or Windows Explorer, and having then gone through steps 1 to 9 as above in "Creating an Audio Music CD from Your CD-ROM Drive or Hard Disk with Nero StartSmart", press CONTROL V to paste the tracks into the empty tracks list in the audio 1 compilation window. (If you are not sure of the procedure to follow when using Windows Explorer to do this initial track selecting, see Section 28 below for detailed instructions.) 2. You will get an "Adding Files" message and you may also receive the prompt to go onto the Internet to the Nero title and CDDB database for album and tracks titles. Either take the easy way out and let Nero complete your album title and tracks names for you or press ENTER on "No" to decline this offer. 3. Next you will receive an "Analysing File" message and you will have to wait a minute or two for each track to be analyzed before it can be manipulated or burnt to CD. This "analysing" is equivalent to firstly getting the tracks converted to wave files (if you have not already done this) and removes the prior need to do this conversion. 4. When the tracks have been analyzed/converted to wav files, you can TAB to and then ARROW up and down the available tracks, either with the filenames you gave them (or obtained from the CDDB or the track names which Nero gives to them in the absence of their correct names, e.g. "Unknown 1", "Unknown 2", etc. 5. It is at this stage that you can now re-arrange the tracks into your preferred order. ARROW to the track you wish to move somewhere else and then press CONTROL X to cut it to the Clipboard. Then ARROW to the place where you want it to be inserted so that the track you have ARROWED to will then move down one place and press CONTROL V to paste it in there. Continue in this way until you have all tracks in your desired order. It is sometimes necessary to move tracks up rather than down when you are trying to move a track to the end of a list. If you should like to have one of your tracks on the same compilation CD more than once, just use CONTROL C (for copy) rather than CONTROL X (for cut). If you want to rename the tracks, do so as normal with ALT ENTER and overtype the default name with the correct track title. 6. Lastly, to have the Nero burn dialogue load in again, complete the usual last few steps and commence burning, press ALT R followed by O. Be aware, however, that if a music CD is to be played in a home HI-FI or car stereo system, it must be "closed" or "finalised" after burning, so you should completely fill the disk with audio tracks for maximum efficiency and then close it after it is filled. This is in contrast to both data and audio files which will still be accessible/playable on your computer without the CD being closed. Once any type of write-only CD has been closed no more tracks or data files can be copied to it. Warning: It is not advisable to give in to the temptation to use your screenreader during any type of audio CD burn. If you do, you may get interference on your burnt CD, such as clicking. Only experimentation will inform you if use of your screenreader will cause this with your unique set-up and hardware and software. More modern CD burners and burning software can often filter this sort of thing out. Note: If you wish to get data (including MP3 files) into a given order rather than them simply burning to disk in alphabetic or numeric order as will otherwise be the case, you can "fool" Nero into doing this. You would have to do something like copy your files to a folder on your hard disk and then, in such as Windows Explorer, go to each file, press F2 and then type in a filename which Nero will put in the order you like, e.g. if you want MP3 audio files to play in a given order, instead of in alphabetic order, rename your files to such as "a_Let It Be,mp3", b_Abby Road.mp3", "c_Sergeant Pepper.mp3", and so on. This will force Nero to honour the first letter of each filename and ignore its correct title after the _ which separates the alphabetic letter from that track name and will still mean that you can find MP3 music tracks via their titles as well. 6.10. Viewing Tracks Information on a CD, DVD or Compilation Information on an existing Compilation Template You can view details about a given track on disk or contained in a saved compilation. 6.10.1. Tracks'/Files' Information on a CD or DVD and Playing Tracks To view the tracks and information on a disk, such as track length in minutes/seconds, in megabytes, the type of track, e.g. audio, data, video, etc: 1. With the CD, DDCD or DVD in the drive's drawer, press CONTROL I. 2. Now TAB and ARROW around the information. You will not only be able to view track names, sizes, etc, but also the separate copying sessions on the CD. The amount of CD space used and the amount remaining will also be displayed. To view all of this information or review some of it, you may have to go into your screenreader's mouse/navigation mode. 3. For those who have a DVD or DVD-RW drive installed, there is a "DVD + RW Options" button to press ENTER on and view and change some options pertaining to DVD drives. 4. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER when finished. 6.10.2. Viewing and Changing Existing Compilations To .view or make changes to an already created compilation: 1. Open the compilation with CONTROL O (as outlined above in "Opening a Saved Compilation Template"), then take the following actions. 2. Either press F7 or ALT F and then I (for Compilation properties). 3. You will land on the "Info Page" and can view the compilation details in Navigation/JAWS/mouse mode. 4. Using CONTROL TAB, you can move to three more property sheets called "Audio CD", "CDA Options" and "Burn", where you can TAB through and just view or make changes to the on-screen compilation as desired. 5. When finished, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to leave this dialogue and save any changes or just press ESCAPE to leave without saving changes. Note: After opening the above compilation dialogue, you will be able to TAB through two extra options called "Play" and "Edit". If you press ENTER on the first of these, you will get Nero to simply play any track which has focus in the compilation list of tracks, if it is on your hard disk or on a CD currently in your CD drive; pressing SPACEBAR will stop the playing. If you press ENTER on "Edit" or press ALT E, you will launch the Nero Wave Editor and can then play or modify the audio file or track with the editor's editing features and special effects options, if you are able to use these--they are not especially screenreader and keystroke-friendly but you can do some things in the Nero editor. 6.11. Creating an Audio or Data CD/DVD When You Only Have One CD or DVD Drive You can still make data or Audio Cds and DVDs even if you only have one drive--a CD-RW or DVD-RW drive. You have first to make an image of the source CD you wish to copy on your hard disk, i.e. copy it there first, and then burn the image from the hard disk back to your CD-RW drive after replacing the source CD with a blank CD. You may wish to do this to speed copying up if you wish to make several CD copies of the same tracks or if your source CD-ROM drive is old and too slow to keep up with the required data flow to your CD-RW drive, e.g. you may have an old 8 speed CD-ROM and a 48X24X48 speed CD-RW drive. To burn a CD in this image creation way you must first enable the image recorder. 6.11.1. Turning the Image Recorder On 1. Launch the standard Nero Burning-ROM interface, not Nero StartSmart or Nero Express and then press ESCAPE after Nero launches to be able to access the menu bar. 2. then press CONTROL R to open the CD Recorder dialogue and choose "Image Recorder - Virtual Device" from the list you are in with the ARROW keys. 3. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. You have now changed from the usual record from CD-ROM or hard disk to CD-RW drive method of burning to the image recorder whereby the burning will first be done from the original source CD in your CD-RW drive to your hard disk as an image and then be transferred from their back to your CD-RW drive and onto a blank target CD. This will be retained as your default way of burning until you change it back again, which you will have to do before burning your image to your CD-RW burning drive in the next sub-section. 6.11.2. Copying the Image of the Tracks or Files to the Hard Disk After changing from the default CD-RW or DVD-RW burning drive recorder to the image recorder as above, you create images from CDs in your CD-RW drive and copy them to your hard disk for later burning back to your CD/DVD burning drive by: 1. You can either continue straight after choosing the image recorder above or you can exit Nero and then re-launch it later and then continue as follows. 2. Press ESCAPE and then CONTROL N to open a new compilation window. The dialogue you come into has several settings you can TAB through and check on or off providing parameters and format types for file or tracks burning but for this example just SHIFT TAB backwards around three times to the normal list of burning formats, e.g. CD-ROM (ISO) (for data files), Audio CD, mixed mode CD, etc and ARROW down and leave focus on the one you want. For this example, leave focus on "Audio CD". Then SHIFT TAB backwards to the "New" button and press ENTER. 3. You are now in the same folders and file selecting dialogue structure as described in earlier sections, on the files or tracks list, which will be empty as usual, so TAB once and select the drive the CD you want to extract an image from is currently in, e.g. your D: or E: drive, and then select all files on that CD with CONTROL A or individual files as normal and copy them to the Clipboard with CONTROL C. Then TAB to the files/tracks list and paste them in there with CONTROL V. If they are .cda tracks, they will immediately start to be analysed, extracted and added and will be converted to wav files if necessary, but you may be asked for a name for the source CD and the default name Nero will give is "Unknown". So just TAB to "OK" and press ENTER if you do not wish to name the source CD or type a title into the editfield first if you do wish to name it. Each file/track may take a while to add and you may not receive a verbal indicator as to when this has finished, so you may have to check your Status Line and/or go into mouse mode to confirm this. So your files or tracks are now selected and ready for adding to your compilation. 4. When the files or tracks analysing/adding is finished, Press ALT R (for Recorder) and then O (for Burn Compilation). You will come into a reduced options version of the burn dialogue box and may wish to turn on or off the "Finalise CD" option, depending on your requirements. Now TAB to "Burn" to start the copying of the image to your hard disk process, but note that now, before burning, another dialogue box comes up asking you to accept the default image filename of "image.nrg" or change this to an image filename of your own choice, which you are recommended to do. However, before TABBING to and pressing ENTER on "Save" to save the image to hard disk, you should observe the "Save In" option to ensure that you know where the image will save to to later be able to locate it. Ensure that It will save to a writable and not a read-only disk/folder, e.g. to My Documents. Note: In image burning the individual tracks are not copied to your hard disk as separate files/tracks but rather the whole lot is copied as one large image file with one filename. 5. After saving the image to hard disk, you press ENTER on an "OK" button when told the process was successful and get the standard "Save Log", "Print Log", "Done", etc, options offered you, so make your choices and then press ENTER on "Done". 6. Now clear the screen with ALT F (for File) and then C (for Close), then "N" for not to save the compilation. 6.11.3. Burning the Image of the Files or Tracks from the Hard Disk to a CD-R/DVD-R or CD-RW/DVD-RW Disk After copying your files or tracks to the hard disk as an image file with a single filename, you then change back to the standard CD burning drive recorder and burn them to a blank CD in your CD- RW drive. 1. Now remove the source disk from the CD-RW drive and replace it with the blank disk you wish to burn to. To have the image file burnt from hard disk to the newly inserted CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW disk, you now press ALT R (for Recorder) and press ENTER on "Choose Recorder (or use the shortcut of CONTROL R)". ARROW from the image recorder to your usual CD burning drive and TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to reselect that drive. 2. Next press ALT R (for Recorder) and then B (for Burn Image). Now type the image filename you gave your saved image above into the editfield which opens up, e.g. "image.nrg" or any personal filename which you may have given it, and TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 3. a limited option version of the standard burn dialogue opens up and you can sometimes choose the "Number of Copies" to burn and to "Use multiple Recorders". You then TAB to "Burn" and press ENTER to commence the copying/burning from hard disk image to CD or DVD. Ensure that the "Write" option is checked on before burning. 4. After burning is complete, you are faced with the usual "OK" button to press ENTER on and the same following final options, so ARROW to and press ENTER on "Done" or use the shortcut of ALT D. Note 1: During many of the adding, analysing and burning steps above you can usually use your screenreader's read Title Bar hot key to ascertain the state of burning, etc, completed in percentage terms. Note 2: It is a good idea to ensure that you are selecting sufficient tracks or files for image copying and burning to completely fill a target CD, e.g. a whole shop-bought music CD, as you cannot add more tracks later. If you try to add more tracks to a CD-RW rewritable CD, Nero will advise you that it must firstly erase the disk before burning a new image to it. Note 3: Remember, if you only carried out the first two stages of this process, i.e. turning the image recorder on and copying the image to hard disk, you will have to use CONTROL R and re- select your CD-RW drive to return to burning Cds without having the copy go to the hard disk as an image if this is how you want to work in future because the standard burning recorder is not automatically reselected for you. 6.12. Copying/Cloning a Whole Audio, Video, Data or Mixed Mode CD or DVD with Nero Burning-ROM To obtain an exact copy of a CD in your CD-ROM drive, which must be done on a blank write-only audio CD or rewritable CD, which will then be closed and not usable to add later copying sessions: 1. Place your source CD with data, audio, video, etc, files on it into the CD-ROM drive and put your blank CD-r or CD-RW disk into the CD-RW burning drive. 2. Launch Nero Burning-ROM from your Desktop if you put a launch icon there or from its installed place on your hard disk. 3. Press ALT R (for Recorder) and then C (for Copy Disk). 4. You will be on the "Determine Maximum Speed" option in the "Burn" property sheet to press SPACEBAR on if you like. If you know that the rest of the parameters in this burn sheet are correct for the copying you want to do, you can just TAB to "Copy" and press ENTER to finish the process. Otherwise, TAB through the copying options to turn any on or off you want, e.g. turn "Simulation" on and "Write" off if you would Like Nero to check if the copying will be successful or fail before it goes ahead an copies so that you can abort the copying if things will fail, although this takes twice as long to finish the process as not having this checked on. If you want more than one copy, overtype the "1" in the copies editfield with how many you want and if you have more than one CD burning drive you can burn with simultaneously, check on "Use Multiple Recorders". 5. TAB to the "Copy" button and press ENTER to start the copying/cloning process. 6. If you have not turned this feature off, you are likely to get the message asking if you want to go online to the Internet and retrieve album, track, artist, etc, details for the Cd you have inserted into the CD drive, so press ENTER on "Yes" if you do or TAB to and press ENTER on "No" if you do not. 7. A whole CD or DVD will take several minutes or possibly much longer to copy, depending on the speed of your CD or DVD burning drive, e.g. around 20 minutes to copy a 650 Mb source CD to your target CD at 4 speed. You should be able to ascertain the percentage of copying completed by viewing the Title Bar, e.g. 17% Writing to disk (Copy 1). 8. As usual, you will get a message that the process is complete and you will have to press ENTER on an "OK" button, followed by ARROWING down the standard options of "Save Log", "Print Log", etc, so press ENTER on "Done" and both CDs or DVDs should be ejected for you. 6.13. Creating a Folder on CD or DVD to Burn Data Files Into The above examples of burning files from hard disk or another CD (not on the fly) all place individual files onto the root directory (first folder level) of a CD. However, if you would like to organise your data files or MP3 tracks copying by putting them into named folders and sub-folders, you can do this with data files in a data compilation but it does not work with audio files in an audio compilation. To create a folder on CD and then burn data files into it: 1. Open a New Compilation window as normal and use one of the previously explained Nero Burning-ROM or Nero StartSmart methods of working. 2. When you get to the stage where you would normally highlight files to be burnt to CD or DVD and you are on the empty files list, press ALT e (for Edit) and then ARROW up to "Create Folder" and press ENTER. 3. You will now be in an editfield with the default folder name of "New". Just type over this with the folder name you would like to create, e.g. myfiles, and press ENTER. 4. You should now be on the "myfiles" folder. So, as normal, use the drives, folders, files browsing tree structure to select files to add to your specified new folder. Just deal with them as normal by copying them to the Clipboard and then Pasting them into the empty files list wen your new myfiles folder has focus. 5. Lastly, press ALT R, then O, to burn the files to disk in the normal way. The "myfiles" folder will have been created on the CD and the selected files will be burnt into it. 6. You can create numerous folders in this way but if you want them all to be at the same hierarchical level as your first- created folder, you will have to put focus on the CD volume label first and then create new folders. If you want to create a sub- folder running from one of your already created folders, e.g. a folder running off of your "myfiles" folder, ensure that that folder has focus before pressing ALT E and then R and supplying the sub-folder name. 7. If you no longer want one of your folders or sub-folders, before you have copied files into it, you can press the DELETE key whilst it has focus to erase it. If the folders are not in the order you would like, you can put focus on one of them, press CONTROL X to cut it to the Clipboard and then move to where you want it and press CONTROL V to paste it in there. 6.14. Converting and Burning MP3 Files to HI-FI Audio Files You can use Nero to extract (decompress) and copy compressed MP3 files in a similar way as you would burn .WAV or .CDA files, using the New Compilation window. However, they do not have to have their format changed to .wav first, as this will be done on the fly as the burning takes place. The MP3 file must not be damaged and must be the standard MPEG Layer 3 type, in stereo, 16-bit and have a sampling rate of 44.1 Khz. If you convert MP3s with a lower specification than this, the resultant audio file will have low volume and be of poor quality. To convert and burn MP3 files to .CDA files (Hi-FI files): 1. Insert your blank CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R-DVD-RW disk into your CD or DVD burning drive. 2. Either using Nero Burning-ROM or Nero StartSmart, follow the normal steps to create an audio CD or DVD, including opening a New Compilation window, selecting the MP3 tracks from a CD in your CD-ROm drive or from a folder on your hard disk, copying them to the Clipboard, pasting them into the tracks list and then burning them with ALT R and then O. For example, follow the steps outlined above in "Burning Data or Audio Tracks with the Standard Nero Burning-ROM Interface". 3. As the tracks burn onto your CD-R or CD-RW disk, they will automatically be converted to regular HI-FI .cda music format. 4. As converting MP3 files to .CDA files can take a considerable amount of time, depending on the speed of your CD-RW drive, you may not want to wait around if burning a lot of tracks at a time. Note 1: If you want to do things the other way around, i.e. convert .cda or .wav files to compressed MP3 files, you can only create up to 30 MP3 audio files from other audio tracks with Nero. After this, you can only continue creating MP3 files if you purchase the standard Nero MP3 ripping program or a special MP3 Pro ripper from the Nero Website. These MP3 rippers are covered below in "Using Nero to Encode/Rip music Wav and CDA files to MP3 or MP3 Pro Files". You can also download a good range of free MP3 ripping programs from the Internet, e.g. CDEX, Freerip.mp3, Winamp, etc. Note 2: If you only wish to burn MP3 files to a CD and retain their MP3 format, you would simply follow the same Nero Burning- ROM or StartSmart process but select "Data"instead of "Audio" when asked which kind of Cd you would like to compile. Note 3: Alternatively, if you wish to clone a whole CD of MP3 music or other audio files from one CD to another, you can use the "Copy Disk" feature in the Recorder menu. How to do this is covered above in "Copying/Cloning a Whole Audio, Video, Data or Mixed Mode CD or DVD with Nero Burning-ROM". 6.15. Audio Track Filtering and Property Details If you wish to view or change some of the filters and details of a track: 1. Either with your New Compilation window open with tracks selected in it or after opening an existing saved compilation with CONTROL O, take the following action. 2. In the compilation template containing the track, place focus on the track in question and either press ALT ENTER or SHIFT F10 and ARROW up to "Properties" and press ENTER. You will fall in the "Track Properties" property sheet, which is the first of three property sheets. You can TAB through and view track title, Artist name, etc. You can complete these editfields if empty or alter any of them. 2. The next property sheet of interest is the "Filter" sheet, so press CONTROL TAB until you reach it. What you can do hear depends on the version of Nero you have, for example, you may only be able to widen the effect of a stereo file with the right and left ARROW keys if you just have the basic OEM version, but if you have bought the "Ultra", the "Reloaded" or the "Enterprise Edition" version of Nero, you will find other features here, such as "Normalise", de-hiss, de-click, etc, to improve the sound of a track with his, to remove crackle, etc, e.g. from a recording taken from a vinyl record. 3. After making any changes, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to save them and have these filters applied. 6.16. How to Add More Data to a Partly Used Data CD or DVD To add more files to a partly used disk it must not have been "Finalised" (closed) when you last copied to it. When you re-use a CD to add more data to it later, it is known as a multi-session CD. You do this with a standard CD-R right-only or CD-RW rewritable data CD (or the DVD equivalents) as follows: 1. Launch Nero Burning-ROM and continue as in 2 below or, if Nero is already running and you need to open a new compilation, press CONTROL N to obtain a New Compilation window. 2. ARROW through a list of three options and place the focus on "Continue Multisession Disk" if it does not already have focus. The other two choices are "No MultiSession" and "Start MultiSession Disk". Remember, which ever of these three options you choose, the next time you open this dialogue box that selection will have been retained, so you may need to change it for future burns, depending on what you want to do next. 3. SHIFT TAB backwards three or so times to the list of burning formats and ensure that "CD-ROM (ISO)" has focus. 4. Next TAB forwards and observe the many different options which now become available in this dialogue and ensure that "Add New Files to Compilation" is checked on. You may also wish to get old files on your CD replaced with new (updated/modified) copies, so ensure that Replace Files in Compilation" is checked on and then, in the list just below this, ARROW to the circumstances in which you would like existing files to be replaced, e.g. just when the files' dates or length has changed or to always replace files; alternatively, check this off if you do not want old files replacing but would like new copies also adding to the CD along with the old copies. Then TAB to "New" and press ENTER. Note: If you leave focus on "Start MultiSession Disk" or "No MultiSession" one press of TAB will take you to the "New" button, as the long list of options which you can turn on or off is not relevant to those burning conditions. 5. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. You can now try an already outlined method of adding files to a compilation or a new method, if you like. The first is what you have already been practising in all earlier sections when selecting files and tracks. The second method is where you select files via the Nero Edit menu. 6.A. So firstly try the already explained method of selecting files with the continuation of: i. You will return to the usual "new" volume label or whatever label you may have previously given to the inserted already partly filled CD. You can press F2 as usual and change the CD volume label at this stage if you wish. ii. You can now, as usual, TAB through three more views, the first being the current files list with your already burnt files on your partly filled CD-R or CD-RW displayed in it. The second and third are the already familiar drives and folders tree structure and the files in each folder. So just select the new files you want to burn to the CD or any updated files with the same names as already burnt files to get old copies replaced or get a new copy burnt to CD along with older copies, if you like. iii. Then skip to step 8 below. 6.B. Or try an alternative files selecting procedure of: I. Now press ALT E (for Edit) and then L (for Add Files) and select the drives/folders/files you wish to be added to the current partly filled CD from the drives/folders/files browsing tree and lists. ii. After all files have been selected, TAB to "Add" and press ENTER or press ALT A. iii. Then carry on from step 8 below. 8. Now press ALT R (for Recorder) and then O (for Burn Compilation) and then TAB through the various options, checking on or off the options you wish to apply to your burning session, e.g. check "Simulation" on and "Write" off by pressing the SPACEBAR on them if you would like to ensure that a burn to CD will be successful before the program attempts to do it, change the "Number of Copies" from 1 to however many you would like, ARROW up and down the "Write Speed" levels and leave focus on the one you want (as long as you know your CPU and other hardware can cope with this speed). However, most of the default selections will be OK for the majority of burning situations. Then TAB to "Burn" and press ENTER to start the burning to disk process. 9. When the burning has finished, press ENTER on "OK" and the steps are then the same as usual with options of "Save Log", "Done", etc, so press ENTER on "Done". Note: The above procedure does not work with audio burning. Nero simply insists that it must erase what is presently on the CD before burning new tracks to it. 6.17. Burning/Cloning Disks Copying the whole contents of one CD to another can be done "on the fly", meaning directly from one CD or DVD drive to another, or by first copying to the hard disk and then burning this image from the hard disk to a CD or DVD in your CD-RW/DVD-RW drive. Which way is best for you depends on the type of CD-ROM/DVD-ROM and CD-rw/DVD-rw drives you own and on whether you are cloning audio (best via the hard disk) or data files (OK to do on the fly), although you can successfully clone any type of files/tracks by both means in many cases. 6.17.1. Burning/Cloning CDs and DVDs on the Fly You can copy/burn directly from your read-only drive to your rewritable drives with the Nero Burning-ROM standard interface via the list with 12 burning options in it, after bringing up the New Compilation window with CONTROL N, or you can do it from the File Menu. Working with the New Compilation method has been covered in similar situations in earlier sections, so I will use the File Menu option in the standard Nero Burning-ROM program for this example. 1. Place your source CD or DVD in your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive and your target blank disk into your disk burning drive. 2. Press ALT R (for Recorder) and then C (for Copy CD). 3.A. You will be on the "Burn" property sheet, which is one of four sheets in this dialogue. If you know that the parameters and options in the other three property sheets in here are already set up as you would like, you can now just stay in this burn sheet and simply select how you wish to burn the disk. Then skip to step 4 below. 3.B. If this is your first on the fly copying session and you want to either view or change any of the settings in the other three property sheets available to you now, you should CONTROL TAB to the other sheets to make some of the other option selections, in particular the "Copy Options" sheet before TABBING to the copy button to commence burning. Ensure that the "On the Fly" option is checked on and "Read Speed" is set to maximum if your CD drives can cope with this. In the "Read Options" sheet, if you do not get perfect copies of audio tracks, checking on "Use Jitter Correction" may improve things. 4. Back in the "Burn" property sheet, now TAB or ARROW to "Simulation" if you wish to have the procedure check before copying takes place. If you are confident in the quality and make of your CD or DVD disks and in your CD-ROM and CD-RW drives' ability to burn without errors, you can half the burning time by leaving "Simulation" checked off. Then TAB to "Write Speed" and ARROW up or down to the speed you wish to have the CD written at. The slower the speed you burn at, the less likely you will be to fall fowl of a writing error and therefore waste a CD. Experiment with several settings until you know how your own CD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW drives and CPU are able to perform together with a given make of CD. 5. Lastly, TAB to "Copy" in any of these four property sheets and press ENTER to commence the burning/copying directly from your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive to your burning drive. This will take a few minutes for a full disk of data or audio but not as long as other methods of burning usually do. Note: Many older CD-ROMs are not of sufficient quality to permit reliable audio (not data) burning. Nero possesses a CD-ROM diagnosis feature but this is a purely visual test, so of little or no use to blind users. 6.17.2. Burning/Cloning CDs Via the Hard Disk In most cases, you may prefer to clone one CD to another using the to hard disk first method. There are many reasons for not using the "on the fly" method, e.g. many older CD-ROMs cannot extract audio (music) tracks fast enough to use the "on the fly" option, some cannot recognise different sessions on a CD, some will produce audio "jitter" which is a scratching or clicking effect, etc. 1. The steps are identical as with "Burning/Cloning CDs and DVDs on the Fly" in the last sub-section, except that you would ensure that "Fast Copy (On the Fly)" in step 3.B. is turned off. 2. What Nero will do is copy an exact image of the disk in the CD/DVD-ROM drive to the hard disk and then burn that image to the CD/DVD-RW burning drive. It may eject your source CD after it has copied the image but before it has burnt that image to the burning drive. 3. Press ENTER on the "OK" button when burning is completed and the usual options will appear, so press ALT D to activate the "Done" button, when the copied/burnt CD will be ejected. note 1: The disk cloning process when not using the on the fly method will take at least twice as long as it does when you do use on the fly. Note 2: The above last stage (step 3) list of option buttons also contains a "Automatically Shut Down the PC When Done" option. If you check this on before pressing ALT D, the PC will turn itself off after 30 seconds. 6.18. Basics of Burning Video Files with Nero This tutorial, being for visually impaired people, does not go into video burning in any great detail. The vast majority of VI people (including myself) are able to benefit little from video media. However, the process for burning video files is more or less the same as for audio files. You just manually open a New Compilation window in the Nero Burning-ROM main program by pressing CONTROL N if it is not already open, TAB to the list of 12 types of CD burning you can select from, ARROW down to "Video- CD" or "Super Video-CD", press ENTER on it and then browse to the files on a CD in your CD-ROM or on your hard disk as normal. You select them and then burn them as usual. Similarly, if you are using the Nero StartSmart interface, you would select "Photo and Video" from the "Choose your Category" list of options, then TAB to "Make Video CD" or ARROW down to "Make Super Video CD" and press ENTER on either of these, after ensuring that Nero Burning-ROM is selected in the "Open With" list underneath the last two option buttons. The only difference in the dialogue you come into to browse and select files from is that there is an extra list of five types of video file formats to ARROW through and choose from, called "CDI", "ext", Mpeg2", Segment" and "Svcd". 6.19. Erasing the Contents of a Rewritable CD or DVD You can delete the contents of a rewritable disk by: 1. With the CD-RW CD or DVD in your disk Burning drive, press ALT R (for Cd-Recorder) and then W (For Erase CD Rewritable). 2. You will come into a listbox with a list of your recordable CD and DVD burning drives in it to ARROW to the appropriate drive in. 3. Next you can check on "Use Multiple Recorders" if you wish to erase several rewritable disks in several burners simultaneously, if you have more than one installed on your PC. 4. TAB once again to a three choice listbox. You have choices in here to ARROW through of: "Quick-Erase Rewritable Disk", "Full- Erase Rewritable Disk" and "Unclose the Last Session". The former of these quickly erases a disk, which means that the job will be done rapidly, although there is not a complete thorough deleting, rather files are renamed for over-writing--it would be possible for someone to recover these files; if you choose the second option you will get a complete physical erasure of the whole CD which will take quite some time; and the latter option removes the closing/finalising marker on an existing burning session on the inserted CD-RW/DVD-RW rewritable disk so that you can burn more files to that session. 5. TAB past the erasing speed list, leaving this on "Maximum", and press ENTER on the "Erase" button. 6.20. Making Whole Hard Disk or Partition Back-Ups with Nero When You Only Have One Hard Disk You can back-up your whole hard disk (onto one or more write-only or rewritable Cds or DVDs), and then restore it on masse if you have an uncorrectable system crash, some forme of corruption, etc. However, you will not be able to restore individual files in this way. When you restore your system, Nero will over-write everything on your hard disk or in a given partition. The back-up is a cloning of your hard disk with or without compression taking place. You must be aware that it is the whole hard disk or one of the whole partitions on it, i.e. all of the sectors on that hard disk or individual partition, which have to be backed up in their entirety, not just the operating system and data on the hard disk. So, if your hard disk is 40 Gb in size and has only one partition on it, the whole 10 Gb will have to be backed up, perhaps taking around 60 CDs without compression or maybe 30 with compression, depending on the type of files on your hard disk. This, of course, means that the bigger hard disks get, the more impracticable this form of back up becomes, unless you are well organised and split your hard drive into several smaller partitions and only need to back-up one or two of them. You may also want to purchase rewritable CD-RW disks for doing this on, so that you can erase them and do further update back-ups to them from time to time. Note that at the time of writing (February/March 2004, using Nero Version 6.3) the Nero hard disk back-up feature does not work with Windows XP if the hard disk has been formatted using the NTFS system. It only works for earlier operating systems or for XP if standard 32 bit formatting was used. However, you can use Nero HD back-up with NTFS formatted disks on Apple Mac computers. To Create a back-up disk or disks: 1. With a Blank CD or DVD in the burning drive drawer, if the Nero New Compilation is not already open, press CONTROL N and then Press ALT R (for Recorder) and then ARROW down to "Burn Hard Drive Backup" and press ENTER. 2. You will encounter important notes to read (in mouse mode) and be told that you must have at least 10 per cent empty space on your hard disk or partitions to be able to proceed. If your disk/partitions do not have this amount of spare capacity, close down this procedure and delete some files or an unimportant program until you reach this requirement. Then return to this stage and press ENTER on the "OK" button. 3. You will be on the select hard drive list showing all hard disks on your computer, if you have more than one hard disk to back-up, otherwise only your single hard drive will appear here. ARROW to the drive you wish to Back-up. 4. Press TAB again and you will be on a list of all of the partitions on the hard disk selected above, if you have more than one partition, and the first option is to back-up all partitions simultaneously; otherwise, if you only wish to back up a given partition, ARROW to that one. 5. TAB on several times and ensure that "use Data Compression" is checked on to reduce the number of Disks you will need to to the job. 6. The next option lets you choose between backing up to CDs or DVDs, ARROW to your choice. You will, of course, if you have a DVD burner, require many fewer DVDs than you will need CDs. 7. TAB on to "OK" and press ENTER. 8. After a few seconds the standard "Burn" dialogue will load in and offer you the usual options of simulation, speed to burn at, etc, and you TAB to "Burn" and press ENTER to commence the process. You will be prompted for additional CDs or DVDs as they are filled and others are required. Each CD, for example, may take perhaps 10 or 15 minutes to fill with compression turned on and the percentage of burning already completed can be viewed in the Title Bar. 9. After the backing up is complete, you are confronted with the usual list of options to select from after a burn has finished, e.g. "Save Log", "Done", etc, so press ALT D to finish. 10. The back-up disks you create will have many files on each of them with most of them being .msg files. The other files of note are such as "bk_01_02.dat" (signifying the first disk in the back-up set), "nrestore.cfg" and "nrestore.exe". The nrestore.exe file is what you would run from the DOS command line to reinstall the back-up. Note: It is only advisable to back-up with the Nero hard disk back-up feature if you intend to restore to the same PC/hard disk. Restoring to a different hard disk, of a different size, with different partitions, sector starting points, different file systems (FAT 16, FAT 32, etc), is likely to result in problems. 6.21. Restoring Hard Disk Back-Ups From CD or DVD You can only restore a Nero hard disk back-up from pure DOS mode, not from Windows or the MS DOS prompt in Windows. This means that you will have to have a bootable CD-ROM or floppy disk containing the standard bootable system files plus your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive drivers, including your autoexec.bat, config.sys and mscdex.exe files. For example, you can use a Windows 98 boot disk as it should contain all of the essential files and drivers (see the "Readme.TXT" file on the Win98 boot disk for more information). Obviously, unless you can see enough to use a monitor, you will either require sighted help or a DOS screenreader to be able to follow the procedure for a DOS restoration. You achieve this as follows. Note: If your computer has not crashed and you simply want to over-write your hard disk with a fresh copy of what was originally on it, you can skip step 1 and go straight to step 2. 1.A. With Windows 98 and later, place your system boot disk in the A: drive, then switch your computer on and allow the system files to copy over (which they will do automatically), then keep pressing ENTER until all of the Cd drivers and the ramdrive have been set up. Floppy disk activity will fail to take place when you press ENTER as soon as all of the necessary files have been copied over, so listen so that you can tell when this has been achieved. If the generic CD-Rom drivers do not work, you will have to use the DOS driver disk which came with your CD drive to set your CD-ROM up. 1.B. If you are using Windows 95, you will have to install some form of generic CD driver or, again, use the driver which came with your CD drive, as a Windows 95 system boot disk does not carry CD drivers. 2. Now you are at the DOS command prompt, you insert your first back-up CD into the CD-ROM or CD-RW drive and change to that drive, e.g. by typing "d:", and then type: nrestore.exe and press ENTER to start the process. 3. You now type the initial letter of the language you wish to continue in, e.g. "e" for English. 4. With the ARROW keys or by pressing the drive letter of the drive your back-up CD is in, e.g. D or E, (or whatever method your DOS screenreader permits), select the source drive for your back-up, i.e. the drive your back-up CD is in. 5. You are now asked to select the drive letter where your hard disk is for over-writing, e.g. typically your C: drive, so either ARROW to this and press ENTER or press the letter C to achieve this. If this does not work, try pressing the number of the main partition to back up to, e.g. "1", then press enter, if you only have one hard disk partition on your PC, i.e. the C: drive. 6. The restoring will be under way and may take several minutes, depending on the amount to be restored and you will be asked for any second or third CD back-up disks if there is more than one in the back-up series. There is a countdown of the percentage of the restore that has been completed at any time at the bottom of the screen. 7. After the restoration, you must reboot your PC. Note: I have tried this Nero back-up and restore feature and it worked OK on my computer. However, the first time I restored with it (directly over the old data on the hard disk without formatting it) the system was not entirely running correctly afterwards, so I formatted my hard disk (format c:/s) and then used the Nero restore again. This time it functioned fine afterwards. It is best to ensure that no programs are running during the back-up, as these might not be backed-up properly if running or they may be restored at a slightly different address on your hard disk than the one they originated at. For example, as you may have no choice but to have your screenreader running whilst backing-up, it is possible that any Start Menu or Desktop shortcut you had to it will not work. Your screenreader may now be at a different address but all you have to do is delete the old shortcut to it and then make a new shortcut in the normal way. 6.22. Backing UP and Restoring with Nero Backitup A newer back-up facility than the above Nero hard disk back-up feature which has appeared in Nero 6 is the "Backitup" utility. With is you can back up whole hard disks to other hard disks (if you have more than one on your PC) and you can back up drives/partitions if you have your hard disk(s) split into more than one drive/partition. You can also back up and restore selected folders and files. 6.22.1. Backing up Folders to CD, DVD or to Other drives with Nero Backitup To back up individual folders with their sub-folders and files: 1. Launch Nero StartSmart, TAB to "Choose Your Category" and right ARROW to the"Copy and Backup" button. 2. TAB once and then ARROW down to the "Backup Files" button and press ENTER. 3. When the Backitup feature loads in, press CONTROL B to open the Backup Wizard and then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 4. You will be on a "Select Files and Folders" option for starting a new back-up or you can ARROW down to "Use Existing Backup" to modify and back-up more to an existing already created back-up file. For this example, leave focus on the former of these and then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 5. You will come onto your Desktop in a Windows browsing tree to select the drive the folders are on which you wish to back-up. So ARROW down to "My Computer", right ARROW to open it and then ARROW down to your c: drive or wherever you want to be and open it up with the right ARROW. Keep ARROWING down and right until you reach a folder which you would like to back-up with all of its contents and leave focus on it. Then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 6. You will come into a "Select Target" list of places you can send your back-up file to, which will include any other drives/partitions on your hard disk if you have more than one partition and any CD or DVD burning drives as well. Leave focus on the place you want the back-up file to be copied or burnt to. 7. TAB through and note that there is a "Filters" list where "None" (for no filtering) is the default option but you can arrow down to have certain files filtered out of your back-up file, e.g. no image files, and there is a "Compress Files Before Backup" checkbox which you should leave checked on to reduce the size of your back-up file by half or less. Passwords can also be set so that only you can restore and view the back-up file.Leave "Verify Data" checked on to ensure that your back-up file is not faulty. Then press ENTER on "Next". 8. The dialogue you now come into confirms the drive you will back-up to, the folder(s) you are to back-up and their is a filename editfield with the filename of "Default" entered, so just overtype this with a filename of your own choice, e.g. "mydocs". and press ENTER on "Next". 9. You now fall on the "Backup" button to press ENTER on to commence the backing up to your chosen target source drive or disk under your specified filename. 10. When the back-up is complete, you press ENTER on the "OK" button. If you are backing up to CDs or DVDs and more than one disk is required, you will be prompted to insert them as needed. Note: If you have backed up to a CD or DVD, when the process has finished, the drive drawer will automatically open so that you can remove the completed disk. If you have asked Nero to verify the integrity of your backup burn, however, do not remove the disk at this point, as Nero now needs to close the drive drawer again and do the verification check before opening the drawer for the last time for you to remove the disk. 6.22.2. Backing Up Hard Disks to other Hard Disks or Partitions to other Partitions with Nero Backitup To back up whole drives/partitions to other hard disks or CD/DVDs: 1. Launch Nero StartSmart, TAB to "Choose Your Category" and right ARROW to the"Copy and Backup" button. 2. TAB once and then ARROW down to the "Backup Files" button and press ENTER. 3. When the Backitup feature loads in, press CONTROL D to open the Drive Backup Wizard and then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 4. You now select any partition or complete hard disk for back-up and the list you are in will have your whole current hard disk highlighted. To move to and instead select any other drive or partition on this hard disk, press right ARROW Or down ARROW. When you are on the drive or partition you want to back-up, press the SPACEBAR and a "Next" button will appear below for you to TAB to and press ENTER on. 5. You will come into the "Target" dialogue to select where you want your hard disk or partition back-up to be backed up to, e.g. your CD-RW or DVD-RW burning drive. You have other choices by TABBING through this dialogue, such as backing up to a DVD or a CD in your DVD-RW drive, and you should leave data compression turned on. Then press ENTER on "Next". At this stage you can use your screenreader's mouse mode to view some facts on screen, such as what the size of the resultant back-up file will be. 6. You will now be on the "Backup" button to press ENTER on to commence the procedure. There will be a progress bar saying such as "Burning on Disk 1", etc, and you will be prompted for extra disks if they are needed. A percentage of back-up done will also be available and the whole process could take quite some time, possibly several hours. 6.22.3. Restoring Nero Backitup back-UPs If you need to restore your whole drive, a given partition, a folder, etc, because of hard disk failure or file/program corruption, you can do this by: 1. Launch Nero StartSmart, TAB to "Choose Your Category" and right ARROW to the"Copy and Backup" button. 2. TAB once and then ARROW down to the "Restore Backups" button and press ENTER. 3. When the Backitup feature loads in, press CONTROL R to open the Restore Wizard and then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 4. You come onto a two choice list on "Restore on Original Path" and you can also ARROW down to "Restore on Selected Path". Leave it on the former if you want your back-up file restoring to where it came from originally. If you choose the latter, you will have to provide a new path to restore it to in the editfield provided. For this example, leave focus on the former option. Then press ENTER on "Next". 5. You now get a list of different back-up files which you have created, if you have created more than one, and you can ARROW to the one you want, before pressing ENTER on "next". 6. The next stage provides you with a list of four options for types of back-up, e.g. "Replace Local File with one Available in the Backup if Local file is Older" and this is the recommended type of restore but make your own choice in here. Then press ENTER on "Next". 7. Finally, you reach the last button to press ENTER on called "restore" to commence the restoring. 6.23. Viewing and Entering Album and Tracks Details from Your Local Hard Disk Database (CDDB) A compact disk database (CDDB) is a library of CD titles and track titles for those CDs, plus several other optional CD facts. In order for the Nero databases to be automatically accessed when you burn, save, etc, you must set several preferences. However, this is not essential, as you can always place entries into the user or program databases manually later if you prefer (see below). The CDDB database is only available in Nero Version 5X and later. The preferences to set for automatic prompting for CD title, artist, year of CD release, etc, are: 1. Press ALT F (for File), F (for Preferences) and then press CONTROL TAB until you reach the "Database" property sheet. 2. There are two main database options you can TAB through in here and have checked on or off, i.e. "Program Database Path" and "User Database Path". If they are on, you will be asked for details to update your databases each time you insert an unregistered CD into your CD drive. If left unchecked, this will not happen in respect of these two databases, although you may still get such prompts in respect of the online Internet CDDB, unless you elect to not receive such prompts in the dialogue which comes up at such times. You can also still enter CD details manually if you like (see the two headings immediately below). 3. The most likely of these two databases you might like to check on is the "User Database Path". If you do this, you will be given, on the next line, the path to the "Userdb" file, which is the name Nero gives to the user database. If this path is not correct, just backspace it out and type the correct path in. 4. TAB through the rest of the options and note that you can change when the user database is automatically loaded in by checking or unchecking the appropriate boxes. 5. When finished, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. Now, at the stage in creating a new compilation where you normally select and then add tracks to your tracks list (just before you give the "Burn Compilation" instruction, the database(s) will load and ask for CD title, artist name, etc. If these editfields are completed, these facts will be saved to your user database. Note: At step 5 above, if you do not have the Nero database on your hard disk (and you will not if you are using a downloaded copy of Nero or have not installed it from your CD-ROM installation disk), you will be asked if you want to open a new user database. Either install the Nero database in the path indicated above or TAB to "Yes" when asked to create such a database. You may firstly have to create a folder in such as My Documents or wherever else you might like it to be held before you can do this. 6.23.1. Creating Your Own CDDB Database The program database sometimes (but not always) supplied on the installation disk can be updated whenever you like from the internet. You would therefore not want to place your own album details in this, as, if updated again from the Internet, they would be over-written and lost. You can therefore create your own separate CDDB for your personal use by: 1. Ensure that the user database is checked on in Files, Preferences as directed in the last section. 2. Press ALT D (for Database) and then C (for Create a New User Database). 3. You then have to navigate to where you would like the database creating, e.g.: C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\ or C:\My Database or wherever you prefer. 4. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. You will be told that Nero is creating a new database and after a short while that it has succeeded. 5. TAB to "Yes" to finish and have the new empty database made your default database for use in future. 6. If you now go into the Database menu by pressing ALT D you will now find that "Open User CD Database" and "Open User Title Database" are enabled, whereas before they were disabled. Pressing ENTER on either of these enables you to search for album or title details in the "Search String" editfield you land in. Of course, the database will be empty at this stage. You have to complete the details of each CD you burn or simply want to label into the database as you create it, either at this stage, manually, or have the database completed automatically after you type details in at the burn or save stage, as outlined in several of the foregoing sections. 7. The user database holds CD details arranged by "Artist" or "Title" and you can choose which to view CD album and tracks in. there may be an "Add CD" button which, if you press ENTER on it, will go to the CD inserted in your CD drive and automatically take any information from that CD or let you register the CD on the database and complete the details. You may also be able to use an "edit" button to change any already entered information. However, different versions of Nero and different databases may have more, less or different options in here. There are two lists you can TAB to, the first being a list of CD titles and the second a list of the individual tracks on that CD. There are also control tabs for each letter of the alphabet which, when you have TABBED to one of them, you can ARROW right and left through to seek CD information with that initial letter. The 27th tab will hold information for CD titles or tracks which begin with a figure rather than a letter. Your version of Nero may also contain a "Sort By" control which you can ARROW up or down in to get a given alphabetical list of tracks or artists. 6.23.2. Configuring the Program Database Your Nero installation CD may contain (it is not always there) a zipped file called "CDDB.ZIP" which contains a downloaded version of the FREECDDB Internet database, which you can use and also update from the Internet from time to time. Keep this separate from your own personal user database "see the last sub- section). If you want access to this vast library of CD details, you will have to unzip this CDDB.ZIP file (which may be at d:\freecddb\cddb.zip) and place it in a folder on your hard disk, e.g.: c:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\CDDB or C:\My Documents after first creating the "CDDB" sub-folder in Windows, as normal. You then have to: 1. Press ALT D (for Database) and then I (for Import CDDB Database). 2.B. If Nero advises you that it no longer supplies the database on CD, you will be told you can download the latest version of the database files from the Website at: www.freedb.org and you will be warned that the database is at least a 160 MB download. Note: If your Nero disk does not supply the freecddb database, the one you will have to download, if you wish to do this, is actually a different database with a slightly different name, called "freedb". 2.B. If Nero does not tell you that it no longer supplies the database or after you have download the freedb database from the above URL, continue as follows. Navigate/browse to where the unzipped CDDB database was copied and open the file. 3. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 4. Nero will tell you that it is creating and configuring the database and this may take several hours. 5. As with the user database described in the previous sub- section, you will now find that the second and third options in the Database menu are now available to you. 6. At any time you can download an updated CDDB album database from the Internet to over-write your old one from: www.freedb.org But be warned that this may take up to a day to download if you do not have a broad band Internet connection. So you may prefer to simply let Nero take you online every time you create an audio CD to download just the album and tracks details for each CD as you create it. 7. As with a user database, you can add to, edit, search through, etc, CD and track details in the program database (see step 7 in the last sub-section). Note: The program CDDB database may require over 200 Mb of hard disk space. If you have to download it because it is not on your installation CD or want to download an update, the download and new configuration will take several hours, if not a whole day. It contains hundreds of thousands of audio CD albums. 6.24. Manually Entering and Viewing Text of CD Tracks and Artist Details If your CD-RW supports this, you can manually type CD tracks and artists details onto a CD you are about to burn so that they can then be read and displayed by CD-ROM drives and audio players directly from the inserted CD. This is a different thing from what you are doing in the above database sections. Your CD or CD- RW drive must also support and be using the "Disk-at-Once" writing method (press ALT R, R and view the CD-RW drive information contained here, which will tell you if Disk-at-Once is supported or not, amongst other things). 6.24.1. Entering Text before Burning a Disk You can enter text to an audio CD to be contained on the disk itself by: 1. If the New Compilation window is not on screen, press ALT N (for New Compilation) to bring it up. 2. TAB forward four times to the types of CD you can create list and You will be on the data copying (ISO) option, so ARROW down to "Audio-CD. 3. Now press TAB until you get to "Write CD Text on CD" and check this on if it is not already on. 4. TAB again to the "Title" editfield and then type the title you want for the CD in here. 5. Press TAB once to "Artist" and enter the name of the group or individual musician. 6. TAB again to "Copyright" and, if you created the music to be placed on the CD you are burning yourself, put your copyright details in here; otherwise, leave it blank. 7. Continue to TAB through the editfields, completing any appropriate boxes. If you are unsure of what is required in a field, just leave it blank or press SHIFT F1 to hear what it is for, followed by ESCAPE to return to where you were. You may have to use your screenreader's read line hot key to hear this explanation or go into mouse mode to view it. 8. Eventually, TAB to "New" and press ENTER to open the Audio 1 compilation window to select and burn tracks as normal but this time with the text being burnt to the beginning of the CD as well. 9. If your CD-rw does not support the burning of CD text, you will be informed of this and given the opportunity of continuing the CD copying without the text. Obviously, there is no point in you using the CD text facility again with your current burning drive if this happens. 6.25. Viewing Sessions and Files with the Nero Multimounter By default, Windows Explorer normally only allows you to view the last session or track of a multi-session CD or DVD. You can use the Nero multimounter, which is installed when the Nero program is installed, to view and access all sessions and files recorded on a multi-session CD. Oddly enough, though, this is all done not through Nero itself but via the standard Windows Explorer utility and you would then use Windows Explorer and not Nero itself to view these tracks. What you do is: 1. Insert the disk you want to read different sessions or tracks on into your CD-ROM, CD-RW or DVD drive. 2. Without Nero running, simply open Windows Explorer by pressing Windows key and E or by any other means you prefer. 3. Go to the drive with your multi-session CD or DVD in it in the normal Windows Explorer browsing way and leave focus on it. 4. Press F (for File), then R (for Properties and in the two page dialogue which you come into, CONTROL TAB to the "Volumes" sheet. 5. TABBING and ARROWING down in the above sheet will reveal a list of all sessions/tracks on the CD or DVD. ARROW to the track you want to view and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. You have to do this to view tracks other than the very last track on a CD or DVD because Windows automatically accesses only the last track on a CD and what you have now done is change this Windows default way of viewing a disk to your own preference, so that it will now be able to view other tracks than just the last one. 6. This means that Windows will now display the track you selected in the last step under the drive of the CD-ROM, CD-RW or DVD drive instead of the last track which is contained on the disk. 6.26. What to do if Your CD or DVD Burning Drive is Not Automatically Recognised by Nero It is unlikely that Nero will fail to recognise your CD-RW drive but if it does you can try to remedy this via the "AutoDetect CD- ROM" feature, as follows: 1. With Nero running, press ALT X (for Extras) and then A (for AutoDetect CD/DVD-ROM). 2. TAB through the options and Arrow to the type of CD-RW or DVD- RW drive you have, e.g. SCSI or IDE. 3. TAB to "Identify" and press ENTER. If this doesn't work, you will have to contact the burning drive supplier or Ahead support for assistance. You can also go to the Ahead Website and download such as the most up-to-date "CD-ROM.CFG" file, which contains the CD-RWs which Nero can recognise, to copy over your current one. There site is at: www.nero.com Please note that from Nero 6.0 the Nero makers have been claiming that their latest auto-detect technology incorporated in the Nero program should automatically detect and be able to use any CD- RW/DVD-RW drive made since 1997 by any manufacturer. Therefore, it is logical and likely that at some point in future Nero will no longer provide the above means of identifying drives which are not automatically detected by Nero as this should no longer be an issue. 6.27. Viewing and Customising Nero Preferences To view or make changes to customise some of Nero's main functions and preferences, you might like to: 1. Press ESCAPE to close the Nero Burning-ROM or StartSmart window and then press ALT F (for File), followed by F (for Preferences). 2. You will come into a nine property sheet multi-dialogue box. Some of the main features in here are: A. The "General" sheet: The first few controls are to do with Nero's various coloured level indicator markers. These are visual markers and you will probably not be able to see them, so, as they are not essential, you will more than likely want to leave these alone--particularly as it is possible that, if you make your screenreader read the markers line or Status Bar during a burn, you may cause the copying to be corrupted. The "Start with File Browser" and "Start with New Compilation" should be left checked on. B. The "Cache" sheet: Note that the default caching location is c:\windows\temp. This can be changed by BACKSPACING and typing another path in but is probably best left where it is. The "Minimum Disk Space Reserved" option allows you to type in a smaller or larger hard disk cache in megabytes. Increasing this may speed up your burning and should make a problem-free burn more likely but takes up more space on your hard disk. If you press ENTER on the "Test All Drive Speeds" button you will discover the copying speeds of all of your drives and be able to allocate the cache on the hard disk to the burning drive which is the fastest, if you have more than one. The size of the cache only affects data burning. C. The "Language" sheet: This permits you to change the language which Nero is displayed in and also the "Choose Font" option permits you to change the type, colour and size of the font it uses on screen. D. The "Sounds" sheet: This is where, if your screenreader does not automatically read out some of the messages you get on screen, you can get Nero to provide you with specific musical sounds to indicate what has happened, e.g. Checking all three of the controls in here will provide a trumpet sound to let you know that your burn was successful, a boo sound to let you know if it was unsuccessful and a dingdong sound to tell you to place a CD in the CD drawer. I would recommend that you check all three of these on. E. The "Expert Features" sheet: Here is where you can enable "over-burning" of CD disks but this is not always recommended-- see the warnings and conditions which Nero provides in this property sheet. The concept of over-burning does not mean that this has to be enabled for Nero to be able to copy to larger than 74 minute/650 Mb disks--it can do this anyway. It means that you are trying to get Nero to squeeze more burning space out of any size disk you are using, e.g. trying to get two or three more minutes space out of a standard 74 or 80 minute disk. However,it must be said that with the most up-to-date versions of Nero and modern CD burning drives, this overburning feature is on by default because most modern CD burners can work in this way without any problems--just think twice about this if you have an older CD burner, say, one which burns at 8 speed or less or is an unknown make. If Nero detects that you have too much data to burn to a given CD, it will bring up a dialogue advising you of this and giving you the option of over-burning or cancelling the burn. If you do elect to over-burn, it is quite possible that the resultant CD will not play in such as a HI-FI CD player. Related to this is also the fact that many CDs will not quite permit the complete filling of the whole 74 or 80 minutes space (or, more likely, the burning software or CD drive) will not quite achieve this, e.g. you may find that you cannot burn 79.50 minutes of data or audio to an 80 minute CD without allowing over-burning, so if this occurs, you may wish to reduce the size of your file to be burnt to slightly under 79.30 minutes and try again rather than overburning. F. The "Database" sheet: This lets you activate automatic loading of one or both of two CD details databases (see "Viewing and Entering Album and Tracks Details from Your Local Hard Disk Database (CDDB)" Above). If you want to not only be able to receive CD information from the online CDDB but also to be able to contribute to the database by submitting CD details to it yourself, you will have to check on "Submit Emial Address" and complete the two editfields which open up below this with your e-mail address, e.g. jwjw@onetel.com and the SMTP server address, e.g. mail.onetel.com (but please do not enter my details as just given--I only put them there as an explanatory example). If you fall in love with the idea of information databases, you can check on several instances of automatically opening the database when you perform given actions, e.g. for when you save tracks. G. The "Ultra Buffer" sheet: The size of the buffer you have in RAM memory can determine the reliability of your burns. Mine was set at 20 Mb but if you have plenty of RAM, you could set it to, say, 80 Nb as I have now don on my computer but you should not exceed 40 per cent of your total memory or 80 Mb. My RAM is 256 MB. Otherwise, if you are unsure, leave it on its current setting or on "Auto". If you find that you are getting buffer underruns at higher copying speeds, increasing the buffer level may overcome this problem. Having said this, in the last couple of years, with modern Cd drives and burning software, buffer underruns are increasingly unlikely, because the technology now incorporates "burn proofing". H. The "File Browser" sheet: In here you might like to check on "Always Show Files and tracks on CDs" but experiment to make up your own mind about how you would like to view things. I. The "Misc" sheet: You are not likely to want to change anything in here. Note: To be able to view all of the details and changes in the above property sheets you may have to go into navigation or mouse mode. 6.28. An Alternative Method of Selecting Files or Whole Folders for Burning with Windows Explorer Another interesting way you can burn files to a Cd, DD CD or DVD with Nero is by first selecting individual files or whole directories/folders of files with Windows Explorer or My Computer using normal Windows highlighting/selecting methods and then copying these to the Clipboard. After this you launch Nero and then burn them using the standard Nero Burning-ROM interface. You would do this by: 1. Launch Windows Explorer as usual by pressing WINDOWS LOGO KEY AND E. 2. Highlight the individual files or the whole folder of such files you wish to burn on your hard disk or on a CD using standard selecting methods, e.g. by holding the SHIFT key down as you ARROW past the consecutive files or folders you want to burn or hold down the CONTROL key and press SPACEBAR on the non- consecutive files or folders you would like to burn. If you want to use this method to burn the whole of the contents of a disk in your D: drive to a blank disk in your E: drive, in a similar way to cloning/copying a whole disk, just press CONTROL A at this stage to select everything on the disk. 3. Next copy your selections to the Clipboard by pressing CONTROL C. 4. Now launch Nero Burning-ROM as normal and, using the Nero Burning-ROM New Compilation window, go through the usual steps up to pressing ENTER on the "New" button. 5. After pressing ENTER on the "New" button in Nero Burning-ROM do not do anything more, i.e. do not press any ARROW or any other keys, otherwise things may not work properly. 6. What you must do immediately now is press CONTROL V to paste the files or folders with their contents into the compilation window. Your screenreader may echo that this is taking place. 7. If you are burning audio tracks, you will now be able to ARROW up and down the list of tracks and can use standard cut, copy and paste shortcuts to move tracks to different positions in your audio compilation or get some of them duplicated if you like. However, this re-arranging of files is not possible if you are burning data files or MP3 files. 8. If you ARROW to the very top of your folders or files list, you will come onto the "New" editfield. This is, in fact, the CD or DVD title or what is known as the volume label. If you want to change this to something more meaningful, when it has focus, just press the F2 key to open up the editfield and then type your new CD title in, e.g. Music Disk 1, and press ENTER. 9. You now burn the files or folders as usual by pressing ALT R (for Recorder) and then O (for Burn Compilation) and check that the burning settings are what you want before pressing ENTER on the "Burn" button. 6.29. Creating a CD from a .ISO File If you receive an image file with a .ISO or some other similar file extension, you can copy it to CD by: 1. Launch Nero StartSmart. 2. TAB to "Choose Your Category" and then right ARROW to "Copy and Backup". 3. TAB once and ARROW down to "Burn Image to Disk". 4. TAB once to "Open With" and ARROW to "Nero Burning-ROM". 5. SHIFT TAB back once and press ENTRE on the "Burn Image to Disk" button. 6. In the Open dialogue which appears, either type into the editfield you are in the precise path and filename of your .ISO file or SHIFT TAB back to "Look In" and navigate to the .ISO file in question and press ENTER. 7. Press ENTER on "Burn" to commence the burning to CD. 6.30. Using Nero to Encode/Rip music Wav and CDA files to MP3 or MP3 Pro Files Nero can rip and encode other formats of audio files to standard MP3 format or to the special MP3 Pro format. The MP3 Pro format compresses files to around half the size of standard MP3 files but without loosing any sound quality. However, Nero will only let you rip to MP3 or MP3 Pro thirty times before you have to go online and purchase the MP3 converter to be able to get continued ripping ability. You use Nero's MP3 encoder by: 1. Launch the Nero Burning-ROM program. 2. Press ALT X (for Extras) and then E (for Encode Files). 3. The Encode dialogue opens and you are on the files listbox which will be empty. So, to get some audio files added to this files list, TAB to "Add" and press ENTER or press ALT A. 4. The Add Files dialogue opens and you have a typical Windows- style drives/folders/files browsing structure. SHIFT TAB back twice to the drives and folders list and place focus on the CD- ROM or any other drive you have the tracks on which you wish to encode and convert to MP3 or MP3 Pro format. Then TAB to the files list and select your individual tracks as usual. 5. After selecting tracks, TAB to Open and press ENTER or press ALT O. You will return to the first dialogue you were in, on the "Add" button, so that you can add more files from other source CDs or other folders on your hard disk, etc, if you wish. 6. You now return to the first dialogue and have several more options made available to you in this dialogue, so TAB through them to observe what they are. For instance, if you decide you now no longer want one of your selected and added tracks, there is a "Remove" button to erase it. You should TAB to the "Properties for Multiple Selection Output File format" list and then ARROW up to the MP Pro option )also known as MP4) and you will get a message box giving you information and can press SPACEBAR on "Never Show This Message Again" to disable this" followed by ENTER on "OK". 7. TAB on once more to a "Settings" button and press ENTER. In here you can check "Enable MP3 Pro" on to produce an MP3 Pro file or leave it off if you just want a standard MP3 file. 8. TAB again and either leave focus on "Constant Bit Rate" or ARROW to "Variable Bit Rate" but the latter is probably recommended for music files. TABBING through the other lists in here lets you select qualities of file to produce as against the time it will take to encode them and the size of the resultant files, e.g. a fast setting at lowest quality will give you a quickly encoded file of small size but it may not be very good quality whereas selecting highest and highest quality will take longer to encode and will produce a larger but much better sounding music track. 8. After making your quality choices, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER, when you will return to the first dialogue again. 9. To start the encoding and ripping to MP3, either TAB to and press ENTER on "Go" or just press ALT G. You will get a progress and activity message and will have to wait a few seconds per track before you return to the files list to signify that the ripping has finished. 10. To finish, TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. The MP3 files will normally have been sent to your My documents folder if you did not specify that they should go elsewhere. 6.31. The ON-Board Nero Virus-Checker The independently purchased full Ultra or Enterprise versions of Nero 6 (not the OEM copy you get along with your CD or DVD burning drive) comes with its own virus-checker. When enabled, this anti-virus feature will scan all files and tracks you burn to disk to ensure that they are virus-free. 6.31.1. Burning Disks Using the Virus-Checker 1. The steps you go through are identical to those explained in previous sections for running either Nero Burning-ROM or Nero StartSmart, including selecting folders and files, etc, right up to the burning step. 2. After all data or audio folders, files and/or tracks have been selected, as usual, press ALT R (for Recorder) and then O (for Burn Compilation. 3. TAB through and make any burning setting changes you like and, just before you get to the "Burn" button, you will encounter the "Do a Virus Check before Burning" option. Press SPACEBAR to check this on. 4. Then TAB to "Burn" and press ENTER. 5. There will be a short delay before the actual burning to CD or DVD starts, whilst the virus-checker checks the files you are to burn for viruses first. 6. If a virus is detected, you will be warned about this and, hopefully, you will be given a selection of things to do with it, such as quarantine it, delete it, etc. Having said this, because I do not cultivate viruses on my computer, I have not been able to check exactly what options it will present you with but just about all virus-checkers will advise you of the presence of the virus and allow you to delete the file containing it or have the virus-checker repair the file and remove the virus. 6.31.2. Updating the Virus-Checker from the Internet As I am sure you are aware, an anti-virus scanner is only as good as it is up to date. You will therefore wish to update the virus- checker's virus data files regularly, at least once a week I would suggest. To update the virus-checker: 1. Open up an internet connection as usual. 2. Press ALT H (for Help) and then D (for Update Anti-Virus Scanner). If you have not already opened up an Internet connection as above, you should be asked if you want to do so at this stage. 3. You will go onto an FTP (file transfer protocol) site and the most up-to-date version of the scanner's data files will be downloaded automatically and automatically installed to the correct place in your Nero program. 4. The download with a 56K modem may take five to 10 minutes and you will have a "Download in Progress" message on screen, together with information about the percentage of the update file which has already been downloaded and the time already taken. You will have to go into mouse mode to view these facts. 6. The name of the Website you are downloading from is: av.nero.com and the message you receive to advise you that the download is complete is "the Nero anti virus plugin is now up to date" and you just press ENTER on an "OK" button to finish. 7. You can now use the virus-checker as outlined in the last sub- section without doing anything else, as it has been fully installed and updated automatically. Note: Remember, after completing your above download, you are not likely to be taken offline from the Internet by Nero, so if you have a dial-up connection and will be running up a bill, come offline manually as usual. 6.32. The Nero Help System Nero has a quite good help system which is fairly typical of Windows style help. It features the below main components. However, if you downloaded your copy of Nero from the www.nero.com site, it will not come with the Nero help manual and you will have to go back onto the Nero site to download this. It is about a 7 Mb download and you must ensure that you download the exact version of the help file which corresponds to the version of Nero you are using, e.g. if you have Nero 6.3.2, you must download the help file specific to that version number. If you have bought Nero on CD, the help file may install to your hard disk automatically or you may find that you have to physically install it yourself from the CD. It is usually called "Nero.hlp". 6.32.1. Context Sensitive Help When you are on a menu option or in a dialogue box, pressing SHIFT F1 or Just F1 will often provide context sensitive help but not always. Similarly, pressing F1 in a given window will advise you of what that window or browser does. If all of the help text is not automatically read to you, you can view it in your screenreader's mouse simulation mode. Pressing ESCAPE will close help and return you to wherever you were before you pressed F1. 6.32.2. Help topics You can open the full online (on your hard disk) Nero manual by pressing ALT H (for Help( and then C (for Contents). Pressing F1 will also get you to this stage. The "books" you can ARROW down mostly have sub-books or topics in them, so pressing right ARROW will open this tree structure up. Pressing ENTER on one of these topics will then open the text and it should be read to you. If it is not, pressing F6 will take you to the help text and read it or you may have to ARROW down or use your screenreader's continuous read hot key to read it,, viz. Numpad + with HAL, CONTROL SHIFT R with Window-Eyes and INSERT down ARROW with JAWS. To view the next screen of text press the PAGE DOWN key and use PAGE UP to move back a screen. At the bottom of each topic of help text, you will usually be able to TAB to a "Previous" and "Next" button to press ENTER on to jump back to the last help topic within the current subject or jump to the next topic. To return to the book/topics tree structure and ARROW up or down the other books, press F6 again. You press ALT F4 to leave the help feature. 6.32.3. Index Help Nero also has the typical Windows-type of index searchable help. To get into the help Index, you press F1 or ALT H and then C, then you press CONTROL TAB to move to the index editfield, where you type the word or words you wish to find. Then TAB once to the list of possible topics found, ARROW up and down them and press ENTER on any one to have it opened and displayed. Again, you press F6 to move to the text pane and read it. You also press ALT F4 to leave this type of help. 6.32.4. Readable files on the Nero installation CD There are several .txt (Notepad) and .doc (Ms Word) files on the Nero CD plus an Acrobat reader and several .pdf files. These can particularly be found in: D:\nero\manuals\eng\ but there are several others elsewhere. Use Windows Find to discover where on the CD the .txt, .doc, .pdf and html files can be found. Remember that, depending on whether you purchased Nero separately from your CD burner, what version it is and if you bought it as part of your CD burning drive purchase, these files and places to find them may be different and the maker may change things at any time in future. 6.33. Automatic and Manual Updating of the Nero Program via the Nero Website You can get yyour sub-version of Nero 6 updated (usually at no charge) to the most up-to-date version by mmeans of the Nero StartSmart interface as follows: 1. Launch Nero StartSmart as usual. 2. Press ENTER on the "Nero Product Centre" button, which you are likely to already be on, otherwise TAB to it and press ENTER. If there is an attempt to take you online automatically, you can accept this and get the most up-to-date version of Nero downloaded automatically or, if you want to change how this works, you can press the ESCAPE key to stop the automatic download. 3. Then use your TAB key to move through several options which you can change to suit your personal preferences, e.g. you may wish to leave everything on automatic and have frequent checks for new downloads if you have a broadband Internet connection or turn automatic downloading off and do this manually, say, once a month if you have a pay-as-you-go dial-up Internet connection. 4. If you wish to do this Nero update checking and downloading manually, TAB to "Check Now" and press SPACEBAR to have the Nero site checked for any newer versions and get them downloaded for you. You may already have to have gone online firstly for this to work. 6.34. Nero Features Not Covered in this Manual Some capabilities which Nero has but which have not been demonstrated in this tutorial, either because they are less likely to be usable by visually impaired people or because they are not available with the version you receive with your CD or DVD burner or because they are likely to be minority features for visually impaired people or because they cannot be accessed via the keyboard and screenreaders are: 1. HFS CDs (Apple Mac formatting. 2. Hybrid CDs (Apple Mac and IBM clone formats mixed). 3. UDF CDs (for very large file sizes to go onto more than one Cd or DVD). Nero can burn UDF formats but does not have full support for them. 4. CD-ROM boot disks. You can make one of these on a floppy disk from within Windows. 5. Mixed mode disks. There appears to be no way of creating a mixed mode CD by use of the keyboard. You can only do this if you are able to see sufficiently to use drag and drop with a physical mouse. In this case, the hard copy and online manuals instruct you on how to do this in sighted terms. 6. A number of more exotic and less frequently used hybrid CD and DVD formats with mixed file systems. 6.35. Nero Burning-ROM Shortcut Keys Nero Features the below main shortcut keystrokes for keyboard users. Press ALT AND ENTER: To obtain a readout of the properties of any particular file, program, drive letter, etc, which currently has focus. Press ALT F4: To shut Nero down or close online help. Press ESCAPE: To leave the compilation window, e.g. the ISO or other New Compilation window, and obtain access to the menu bar. Press SHIFT F1 (or F1): To obtain context-sensitive help in many situations. Press F5: To refresh the screen if the view seems to be irregular. Press CONTROL A: To select all of the files or tracks in a particular folder. Press CONTROL E: To eject a CD from the drawer. Press CONTROL F: To search files in the current active compilation by such as title, artist, etc. Press CONTROL F4: To close one of the open compilation windows if you have more than one open and do not need it. Press CONTROL I: To reveal information about the CD currently inserted in the CD drive. Press CONTROL N: To open a New Compilation window. Press CONTROL O: To open an already created and saved compilation template file. Press CONTROL P: To send what is on the screen to your printer. Press CONTROL R: To open the CD Recorder dialogue box to choose between burning from CD-ROM to CD-RW and burning from CD-RW to an image and then back to the CD-RW drive. Press CONTROL S: To save a new compilation template or resave an amended template over the old one. Press F12: To open the Save As dialogue box. Press F7: To view the properties of the compilation currently open. Press CONTROL D: To add selected files to the current compilation. Press CONTROL 1: To add the file which currently has focus or a block of selected files to the compilation. The standard Windows editing commands of cut, copy, paste and undo are also available, with CONTROL X, CONTROL C, CONTROL V and CONTROL Z respectively. ******** >SECTION 7 NERO INCD CD-RW and DVD-RW DISK FORMATTER VERSION 4 7.1. What Does INCD Do? The Nero INCD utility is a separate program from the main Nero Burning-ROM software. Its purpose is to permit you to format a range of rewritable disks, such as CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and CD- MRW disks, in a similar way to formatting a floppy disk, in order to be able to use it like a formatted floppy disk. Thereafter, you can then copy onto the formatted CD with any Windows program that can write to a drive letter. You can make folders/directories on the CD or DVD and you can delete files and folders from Windows or from within a Windows virtual DOS window as you would normally do on a floppy disk or on your hard disk. The difference with a formatted CD from a floppy disk, for example, is that you get almost 400 times more space on a 74 minute CD than you would on a 1.44 Mb floppy disk, although you do not get the full 650 Mb of space which you would have on a 74 minute disk if you simply burnt to it with Nero Burning-ROM. This is because the formatting itself takes up some of the room on the CD. You should find that you have at least 534 Mb of usable disk space on a formatted 74 minute CD-RW disk. You cannot format and use write-only CD-r or DVD-R disks with INCD. 7.2. Installing INCD INCD has to be installed separately from the main Nero Burning- ROM program. Depending on the version/build of Nero you have, it may be found on the Nero installation disk in the path: d:\incd\setup.exe so just use the Windows Run facility to install it by: 1.A. If you have the CD version of Nero: with the installation CD in the CD drawer, press Windows Logo key and R. Type into the editfield: d:\incd\setup and press ENTER, assuming, of course, that your CD-ROM is on the D: drive. 1.B. If you have the downloaded exe file copy of INCD: Go to the exe file with Windows Explorer or My Computer and press ENTER on it. 2. The Welcome screen loads in and you are on a "Continue" or a "Next" button, so press ENTER. 3. You may or may not have to TAB to "Install INCD" and press ENTER. 4. The license agreement appears and you have to TAB to "I do not Accept the Terms of the Preceding Licence Agreement" and then ARROW up to "I Accept all Terms of the Preceding Licence Agreement" and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER to proceed. 5. Complete the personal details of name, company name (type "None" if necessary) and TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. Your main Nero Burning-ROM Serial No will automatically be inserted in the appropriate editfield, if you have one, otherwise you will not be able to install INCD. 6. After a few seconds you will be on a "Reboot" button, so press ENTER to finish. 7.3. System Requirements For INCD to work you will need: 1. A Pentium 90 or higher--probably a Pentium 166 or better if using a screenreader. 2. 32 Mb of RAM. 3. 5 Mb of spare hard disk space. 4. Windows 98 or Windows 95B OSR2 or later. It also works on NT4, Windows 2000 and XP. 5. A supported CD-RW and/or DVD-RW and/or CD-MRW drive. Warning: According to the INCD literature, you cannot reliably use INCD if you have the Adaptec ASPI drivers installed on your hard disk but I found that it worked OK on my system even though I have these installed. If you encounter problems, uninstall these ASPI drivers if you like but note that you may then have audio-related software on your PC which will not work without the ASPI drivers, such as CDEX, Easy CD Creator, elements of the GoldWave audio editing program, and the like. You will just have to experiment to see how things work for you and may have to uninstall and re-install the ASPI drivers as and when required. The ASPI drivers could be installed anywhere on your computer, either in the Windows folder or any other folder, so search for them with the Windows Fine feature, using a search string such as "aspi*.*. These drivers are automatically installed if you have Windows Media Player 7 or later on your computer. 7.4. Launching INCD INCD resides in your System Tray and should automatically launch every time you boot your PC and run in the background. Therefore, as soon as you insert a rewritable CD into the CD-RW drive, INCD will detect this and bring up the INCD Wizard. This takes you through the steps to use in INCD, as outlined below in sub- section 7.8, et seq. The INCD program installs itself at: c:\Program Files\Ahead\INCD\INCD.exe and it automatically launches itself and places an icon in your System Tray every time you boot your computer. Consequently, as you cannot access all of the features of INCD other than by the System Tray, your screenreader will have to be able to allow you to go to and use the System Tray, e.g. with JFW press INSERT F11 or with Window-Eyes press INSERT TAB to be taken into the System Tray. Unfortunately, with versions of HAL up to 4.5 the System Tray is not accessible but if you have Version 5 you can use SHIFT Numpad SLASH. When you have entered the System Tray and either pressed ENTER on or right clicked on "INCD", you get several possible options to press ENTER on to activate them. These are: 1. The "About" button. 2. The "Help" button. 3. The "Options" button. You may also have available to you one or more of the below three extra options: 4. The "Format a CD" button. 5. The "Delete a CD" button. 6. The "Eject" button. After launching INCD from the System Tray, deal with its features by: Note: In most of the below descriptions of dialogue boxes and property sheets, you can TAB through several information and selection controls but you are likely to discover more details if you go into navigation or mouse mode to have a look around-- you may also have to do some cursor routing to be able to move in mouse mode. 7.5. Version Information By pressing ENTER on the "About" button you are told the version of INCD you are running and several other details pertinent to the software and manufacturer. 7.6. INCD Online Help Manual By pressing ENTER on the "Help" button, you can then ARROW through and open any help topic to learn more about INCD. This is a standard Windows-type help structure which you open sub-help books in by right ARROWING on them and open the help text by pressing ENTER on the topic, followed by pressing F6 to the help text and then reading it by ARROWING down it or using your screenreader's continuous read hot key. Pressing F6 after reading the text takes you back to the topics list to move to and open other topics in the same way. 7.7. INCD Options Pressing ENTER on the INCD "Options" button will give you a single sheet dialogue box in which you can TAB through several checkboxes to turn on or off. For example, you will find that things are set up to have INCD launched automatically when a rewritable disk is inserted into your CD-RW, DVD-RW or CD-MRW drive and you can check this off if you like so that you would have to launch INCD manually to use it in future. The language INCD is set up to use is also displayed in here and you can even hide the INCD System Tray icon if you like. Other than the first- mentioned checkbox in here, you are not likely to want to change anything else but if you do, you just then press ENTER on "Apply". 7.8. CD-RW, DVD-RW and CD-MRW Formatting with INCD To format a rewritable disk: 1. Place your rewritable disk in the appropriate disk bay and shut it. Then: A. INCD should automatically detect the presence of a rewritable CD and launch the INCD Wizard for you. You now press ENTER on the "Next" button. B. If the CD is not automatically detected, launch Windows Explorer and use the drives/folders structure to go to the disk burning drive holding your disk and open up a Context Menu by pressing SHIFT F10. Then ARROW to "INCD Format" and press ENTER. 2. When the formatting dialogue opens up, the burning drive you highlighted above will automatically be selected. 3. You should land on the "Label" editfield, where you can type over the default "INCD" volume label with a name of your own liking for the CD about to be formatted, which should not exceed 11 characters as is the case with labelling a floppy disk. 4. TAB through and note some of the other options in here, including the "Options" button, which opens up the same options dialogue as that mentioned earlier in this section. 5. Now TAB to "Format Disk" and there are two options in here. You have to choose the type of format by ARROWING to it: A. The "Format" option is a full, in-depth format for previously unformatted CDs and may take between 10 and 40 minutes for CD- RWs, just a few minutes to 120 minutes for DVD-RWs and only a few minutes for CD-MRWs, depending on the drive. With the "format" option the program will go through the formatting process twice. B. The second is called "Quick Format", which is normally good enough for reformatting already formatted CDs to erase all of the current data on them and will be completed much more quickly. 6. After making your formatting type choice above, TAB to "Start" and press ENTER to start the formatting procedure. You will be advised that all data on the disk will be lost and you can press ENTER to go ahead. The Title Bar will advise you that formatting of the disk in the drive in question is taking place. 7. When the formatting has finished, you will be told that the formatting is complete and you will have to press ENTER on an "OK" button to close INCD. Unlike with other types of Nero burns, the CD drawer does not automatically open after the format has finished. 8. Lastly, TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. Note: Once a CD has been formatted with INCD, if you inserted into the CD drawer, INCD should automatically detect it and bring up a screen advising you that the CD you just inserted is an INCD disk, together with some details about it. You just press ENTER on the "ok" button to close this message box. If this does not happen, it should not matter, as you should still be able to access the formatted rewritable disk via Windows Explorer or My Computer and copy to it via the Explorer "Send To" command in the File menu. 7.9. Uses for INCD Formatted Disks Large capacity formatted CDs and DVDs can be used for: * Archiving large numbers of data files in many directories/folders, thus removing the need for hundreds of floppy disks. * Acting as a place to back-up parts of your computer's hard disk. * Circulating large files around friends or work colleagues which would not fit on floppy disks. 7.10. How to Copy Data to a Formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW Disk You can read and write files directly to a formatted rewritable disk with any Windows software which can read and write to a drive letter, e.g. from Word, WordPerfect, Windows Explorer, from virtual DOS via a window with the copy command, with any Windows 95/98/ME program which as a "Send To" command on its File Menu, etc. The data CD will be usable in all CD-RW and DVD-RW drives and in any multi-read CD-ROM drive that has the Nero INCD software on that computer. However, it will not be accessible from pure DOS without Windows running, only from DOS through a Windows window. 7.10.1. Example 1--copying via a Windows DOS Window to copy a file to your formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW disk from Windows Virtual DOS: 1. Open up your DOS window as usual, e.g. via Program Files, MSDOS. 2. to copy a file called "memo1.doc" from your My Documents folder to a CD-RW or DVD-RW disk inserted into the burning drive, in the Dos Window, type: copy c:\my documents\memo1.doc D:\ (Assuming, of course, that your disk burning drive is on the D: drive) 3. The file will be copied to the formatted disk. 7.10.2. Example 2--copying via Windows Explorer to copy a file to your formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW disk from Windows Explorer: 1. Launch Explorer as usual with Windows key and E. 2. Navigate to My documents as usual. 3. place focus on the "memo1.doc" file. 4. Press ALT F (for File) and ARROW to "Send To" and press ENTER. 5. Now ARROW to "Disk D" or whichever drive your CD-RW or DVD-RW burner is on. 6. Press ENTER to effect the send command and finish. the memo1.doc file will now have been copied to your formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW disk. Note: The above simply copies files to the root of the CD-RW or DVD-RW disk. If you like, using Windows Explorer in the usual way, you can create a standard folder on the disk first and then copy your files into that. 7.11. How to Eject a Disk To eject a disk after formatting or after copying to it, simply press the eject button on the front of your disk drive panel. If this does not work, you will have to go a more circuitous rout about this as follows: 1. launch Windows Explorer as usual with Windows key and E and use the drives/folders structure to go to the disk burning drive holding your disk. 2. Then open up a Context Menu by pressing SHIFT F10. 3. Now ARROW to "Eject" and press ENTER. 7.12. How to Erase Data on a Formatted CD or DVD You can use the Nero "Quick Format" facility to delete all of the folders and files on a CD as explained above. Alternatively, you can erase files and folders on a formatted CD in the same way as you would do this on a floppy disk or hard disk, e.g. with Windows Explorer, with a delete file option on a context menu, from Windows DOS with the DEL command, etc. 7.13. How to erase both data and formatting on a CD or DVD You can delete both data and formatting from a Cd with the main Nero Burning-ROM software via the "CD-Recorder" menu: 1. Launch the main Nero Burning-ROM program. 2. With the CD-RW CD or DVD in your disk Burning drive, press ALT R (for Cd-Recorder) and then W (For Erase CD/DVD Rewritable). 3. You will come into a listbox with a list of your recordable CD and DVD burning drives in it to ARROW to the appropriate drive in. 4. Next you can check on "Use Multiple Recorders" if you wish to erase several rewritable disks in several burners simultaneously. 5. TAB once again to a two choice listbox. You have choices in here to ARROW through of: "Quick-Erase Rewritable Disk", "Full- Erase Rewritable Disk" and "Unclose the Last Session". The former of these quickly erases a disk, which means that the job will be done quickly, although there is not a complete thorough deleting, rather files are renamed for over-writing--it would be possible for someone to recover these files; if you choose the second option you will get a complete physical erasure of the whole CD which will take quite some time; and the latter option removes the closing/finalising marker on an existing burning session on the inserted CD-RW/DVD-RW disk so that you can burn more files to that session (but is not appropriate to formatted disks). 5. TAB past the erasing speed, leaving this on "Maximum" and press ENTER on the "Erase" button. 6. After the erasure you will no longer be able to write to the CD as if it was a floppy disk but you can now use it in the same way as any other write-only CD again--something you would not have been able to do whilst it was formatted. Note: You can also erase a disk via Windows Explorer by selecting the drive it is in, opening the Context Menu with SHIFT F10 and then pressing ENTER on "INCD Erase". 7.14. INCD Updates and Supported CD-RW and DVD-RW Drives For information on which CD-RW and DVD-RW drives INCD supports, go to: www.nero.com or www.ahead.de You can also download the latest version of INCD from here, which might support your CD-RW drive, if your current version does not. Please note that from Nero 6.0 the Nero makers have been claiming that their latest auto-detect technology incorporated in the Nero program should automatically detect and be able to use any CD- RW/DVD-RW drive made since 1997 by any manufacturer. ******** >APPENDIX 1 AHEAD SUPPORT FOR NERO For support, enquiries or technical problems you can contact the makers of Nero and INCD called Ahead. They are at: E-mail: techsupport@nero.com or E-mail: support@ahead.de Fax: ++49 724 8911888 Website: www.nero.com or Website: www.ahead.de Note: The Ahead support e-mail facility only elicits an automatic response from a computer, not from a person. It tells you to go to their Website and look up answers to your problem/question there. If you cannot find what you want, there is said to be an e-mail link on the Website which you can use to send an e-mail which will reach a member of staff. Other e-mail contact points are: sales@nero.com suggestions@nero.com ******** >APPENDIX 2 LIST OF NERO SHORTCUT KEYSTROKES Nero Burning-ROM Press ALT AND ENTER: To obtain a readout of the properties of any particular file, program, drive letter, etc, which currently has focus. Press ALT F4: To shut Nero down. Press ESCAPE: To leave the compilation window, e.g. the ISO or Nero Wizard window, and obtain access to the menu bar. ESCAPE also closes Nero online Help Topics. Press F1: To obtain context-sensitive help in many situations. Press F5: To refresh the screen if the view seems to be irregular. Press CONTROL A: To select all of the files or tracks in a particular folder. Press CONTROL E: To eject a CD from the drawer. Press CONTROL F: To search files in the current active compilation by such as title, artist, etc. Press CONTROL F4: To close one of the open compilation windows if you have more than one open and do not need it. Press CONTROL I: To reveal information about the CD currently inserted in the CD drive. Press CONTROL N: To open a new ISO or Nero Wizard compilation window. Press CONTROL O: To open an already created and saved compilation template file. Press CONTROL P: To send what is on the screen to your printer. Press CONTROL R: To open the CD Recorder dialogue box to choose between burning from CD-ROM to CD-RW and burning from CD-RW to an image on your hard disk and then back to the CD-RW drive. Press CONTROL S: To save a compilation template or resave an amended template. Press F12: To open the Save As dialogue box. Press F7: To view the properties of the compilation currently open. Press CONTROL D: To add selected files to the current compilation. Press CONTROL 1: To add the file which currently has focus or a block of selected files to the compilation. The standard Windows editing commands of cut, copy, paste and undo are also available, with CONTROL X, CONTROL C, CONTROL V and CONTROL Z respectively. ******** >APPENDIX 3 OTHER TUTORIALS AVAILABLE BY THIS AUTHOR All of the below titles are available as plain text files as downloads from my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard Tutorial titles and brief descriptions 1. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 1, covering Web and e-mail protocols, Web Search engines, navigating the Internet with Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5/6.0, e-mailing with Outlook Express 5.0/5.5/6.0, Downloading files and programs from the Net, using a range of Internet search engines, Joining Internet newsgroups with Free Agent 1.92, configuration and hints and tips for screenreader users, and much more. 2. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 2, covering hints and customisation, Download Managers, Online Auctions, Internet Chat Rooms, RealAudio, Internet Shopping and Internet Banking. 3. A selection of separate and individual manuals instructing visually impaired people how to use off-the-shelf print scanning/reading programs via screenreaders and the keyboard, including TextBridge Pro 98, TextBridge Pro 9 and Millennium, Omnipage Pro 10, 11 and 12, ReadIRIS Pro 6, TypeReader Pro 6 and Abby FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7. Each scanner tutorial is an independent manual in its own right. For example, the titles of the principal two of these scanner tutorials are entitled: "Using OmniPage Pro 10, 11 and 12 from the Keyboard to Scan Print" and "Using FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7 from the Keyboard to Scan Print". 4. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 1. This covers Easy CD Creator 4, Sound forge 4.5, Windows Media Player 6, Windows Recorder, Winamp 2.72, Freerip.mp3, RealPlayer 8 Basic, and much more. 5. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 2. This covers Winamp 5.0X, GoldWave audio editor 5.06, CDEX ripper 1.51, Basics of burning with Nero 5.5 and much more introductory and general sound-related information. 6. "Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4,5 and 5.5 from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 3.3 and Nero Media Player). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero Wizard, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 7. "Nero Burning-ROM 6 Ultra and Enterprise Editions from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 4). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero StartSmart interfaces, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions or folders to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, ripping sound files to MP3 or MP3 Pro files, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 8. "Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". This takes spreadsheet users from the beginner stages of Excel through much intermediate material and also covers a few more advanced features. It will give you the skills to use Excel for home accounting purposes, for keeping self-employed small business records and for use in the employment workplace. 9. "Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/XP from the Keyboard". This is a tutorial instructing on how to use the richly-featured suite of programs which is a must for anyone seeking employment or wanting to do advanced e-mailing or calendar and other related tasks at home or at work. It covers all of the main features of MS Outlook and many other more technical topics. Covered is: E-mailing, Calendar, Journal, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, arranging appointments and meetings, searching, plus customising Outlook for visually impaired and blind users and appendices of Outlook general shortcuts and HAL, JAWS AND Window-Eyes hot keys and much more. 10. "Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". Available as a plain text file and instructs on how to use over 45 separate skills in these powerful leading word-processors for use at home or in the workplace to make you highly productive and efficient. ******** The End.