Digital Sound and Music

Tom O'Haver                  Mary O'Haver  
 toh@umd.edu                ohaverma@verizon.net
      http://www.wam.umd.edu/~toh       http://www.wam.umd.edu/~toh/mary.html   

Workshop contents and format

Part 1 Introduction to digital sound recording and playback. Digitizing sounds with a microphone and from a tape recorder. Use of sound processing software to edit, amplify, display sounds graphically, and change file formats. Downloading sounds from the internet. File formats and sound player programs for au, wav, aiff, and mp3 files. Playing sounds in Web pages, slide shows, and Powerpoint presentations. Constructing an audible alphabet book.

Part 2 Copying songs to your hard disk from audio CDs. Recording (burning) custom audio CDs from sounds and music files on your hard disk. Converting audio tapes and vinyl records to audio CDs. Reducing noise in old recordings. Making slideshows with backgrouond music. MIDI: downloading, arranging, and playing MIDI songs. Computer Karaoke.

Each workshop participant will receive a free custom-made CD-ROM containing copies of the handouts; sound processing shareware used in the workshop; sample sounds in various formats, and a collection of Web sites related to sound and music.

Complete set of current workshop handouts are avaiable here in PDF format: Section A (6 pages) ; Section B (11 pages) ; Section C (7 pages) ; Section D (2 pages) ; Section E (4 pages) ; Section F (5 pages) ; Section G (2 pages) .

Contents of the Workshop CD-ROM (Version 12)

Step-by-step activities

1. How to install the software. How to install all the software needed for the workshop activities.

2. Recording and Writing Audio CDs using MusicMatch. How to copy songs from an audio CD. How to burn a custom audio CD from your previously-copied music tracks.

3. Recording and burning with Windows Media Player. How to record and burn audio CDs with Windows Media Player 8.

4. Recording and burning with Windows Media Player 10. How to record and burn audio CDs with Windows Media Player 10.

5. Recording sound with your computer's microphone input. Connecting and adjusting a microphone for recording spoken comments. Checking the sound settings. Making high-quality recordings with Audacity.

6. Mixing and blending Music with Audacity. Combining songs into a continuous medley; Adding a vocal track (singing or spoken commentary) to a music file.

7. Converting records to audio CDs. How to convert vinyl records and tapes into audio CDs.

8. Cleaning up. Reducing Noise in Old Vinyl Disk and Tape Recordings

9. How to open sound files. How to Open and Listen to Sound Files.

10. Playback and Downloading. Playing back sound on your computer. Downloading sounds from Web pages. Recording Internet radio stations and other computer-generated audio.

11. Buying Music Online. Buying music online: CDs via mail order; Digital Music Services.

12. Computer Music Activities. Computer music activities: you don't have to be a musician to have fun with music. Arranging MIDI songs using Sweet MIDI Player. Computer Karaoke.

13. MemoriesOnTV3: (2 pages - WordPad or MS Word document). Memories On TV is a commercial ($50) program that you can use to make professional-quality Ken Burns-type documentary video slide shows of digital pictures with background music and narration that can be played on a DVD player. The CD-ROM contains a fully-functional evaluation version of this software and two short examples of home-made video slide shows made with Memories On TV and Audacity. There is also a handout for the older version 2.

    Additional Information Handouts

14. Kinds of disks. Kinds of Music Disks and Players: A brief explanation of several different types of Music Disks and Players. Also available in Table form.

15. AutoPlay. How to control what happens when you insert a CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive.

16. Home Theater. Setting up a low-cost home theater system for movies and music: DVD player, television set, speakers, how to hook it up.

17. Programs. Types of Sound and Music Programs. A brief explanation of several different types of programs used in working with computer sound and music.

18. Formats. Sound and Music File Formats. A description of the different sound-based and note-based file formats commonly used for computer sond and music.

19. Compare. Six different ways to represent 50 seconds of music as a computer file. An example of a short piece of music (J. S. Bach's Two Part Invention, #8), in several different sound-based and note-based file formats.

    Software

20. Windows software: A folder containing freeware, shareware, and demo software for sound and music applications for Windows computers. See the Windows Software file for a description of each program. See How to install the software for installation instructions.

21. Mac software: A folder containing freeware, shareware, and demo software for sound and music applications for Macintosh computers.

22. Sound visualization programs. A folder containing software for sound and music visualization, for PC and Mac.

    Sound and music data files

23. Sound file examples, Other MIDI examples, and Karaoke examples. Folders containing examples of sound and music files in various formats.

24. Bird Songs. A folder containing a small collection of bird calls in WAV format, plus some shortcuts to Web sites with more bird information.

25. Old Records. A folder containing original (unfiltered) digital recording of old vinyl records created using three different recording programs (MusicMatch, Cool Edit, and Analog Recorder) and saved in three different sound file formats (MP3, WAV, and WMA), for use in practicing noise removal techniques. See the handout "Reducing Noise in Old Vinyl Disk and Tape Recordings" for instructions.

    Classroom Project Handouts

26. TalkingBack. Talking Back(wards): test your pronunciation accuracy.

27. ABC. Step-by-step procedure for completing the Audible Alphabet Book project.

28. PPoint. Adding music, sounds, and videos to Powerpoint presentations. How to inset an audio CD track onto a slide. How to record a voice narration into a slide show.

29. Analyzing. Step-by-step activity involving visualizing and analyzing sounds using the CoolEdit program (Science, math, multiple representations, graphing).

    Sample Projects and Web sites

30. Sound and music Web sites. A folder containing a collection of over 300 Internet shortcuts (links) to Web sites related to sound and music, examples of student projects, tutorials, and other useful ideas, including Digital Music Services, PowerPoint sound, Greeting Cards with voice message, Downloadable sound and music files, Technology and software, Technology and software, Music education, Musical instruments, How sound works, Animal sounds, Sing-along and Karaoke, Speech recognition programs, and Text-to-speech programs.

31. Web templates with sound. A folder containing three templates for constructing Web sites with sounds on each page. See the ReadMe file in that folder for a description of each template. (Detailed instructions for each template are in the ReadMe files within each folder).
32. Slide Show Idea Sampler. A small Web site on the workshop CD-ROM illustrating some possible multimedia projects involving sound, based on the "Slide Show Template with sound" template.
33. Example Student Projects. A collection of multimedia projects including recorded sound, created by students and teachers. Includes Famous Americans Biography Book Reports, Electronic Self-portraiture, "Old Yeller" Slide Shows, The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz from Fairland Elementary in Montgomery County, MD.
34. Maryland ABC book and Florida ABC book: Two partially-completed alphabet-book Web sites, based on the "Alphabet book template with sound", that are for you to complete by recording spoken comments for each letter. See instructions in ABC.doc.
35. Powerpoint Examples folder. Sounds in PowerPoint Presentation, a simple Powerpoint presentation that plays WAV, MIDI, and audio CD tracks; Keep playing sound demonstrates how to keep a sound playing over several Powerpoint slides.