LANGUAGETEACH Technologies

Windows Sound Recorder

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration (optional) 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses (optional) 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format (optional) 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit (advanced technique)

1. Open Sound Recorder

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

 (point on the paragraph names for navigation)

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Open from LT Development Tool: Use menu bar or click on correspondent tool button as shown in the picture This is a main view of the Sound Recorder

Open from Windows: Click on the "Start button in the left bottom corner of the screen and follow to the item as shown in the picture

2. Check current configuration

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

 (optional)       (click on pictures to enlarge)

   

Step #1.

Step #2.

Step #3.

3. Record audio file

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

.       (click on pictures to enlarge)

   

Start recording

Stop recording

Listen to recorded sound

4. Remove leading and trailing pauses

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

 (optional)

   

If the pauses are exeed 500 ms it's recommended to cut them to aviod unnecessary wasting of a disk space and reduce loading time and network traffic.

Lead pause

Trail pause

5. Save Sound File

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

  

To save audio file you can use standard windows option File -->Save. By default the file is saved in WAV format with attributes: 22 kHz -- 8 kb/sec--mono. An audio file with these attributes has a very good sound quality, but it is very large. In most cases we don't need very high level of sound quality to play  ordinary human voice. Just slightly reducing the quality we can significantely cut down file's size . Making your file shorter you much improve your web site, because your visitors doesn't waste time on the file loading and you save server disk space and network traffic, which are chargeable resources. Every customer's click on the file produces internet traffic equal to the file's size. That's why we recommend to save your audio file with "Save As" option, which let you manipulate with file's size and quality.
There are 3 examples of the same audio file, which has been saved with different attributes. The sound length is 26 seconds.  Listen and compare.

	Format	Range	Stream	Type	Size
	PCM	22 kHz	8 kb/sec	mono	571 kb
	PCM	11 kHz	8 kb/sec	mono	286 kb
	PCM	8 kHz	8 kb/sec	mono	208 kb
	MPEG 3	16 kHz	16 kb/sec	mono	53 kb

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Step #1. Click on "Change" button to change file's attributes	Step #2  (optional)   (convert into MP3 audio format) You can leave default PCM audio format ( .wav ) or conver the file into MPEG Layer3 ( .mp3 ) format. If sound quality isn't the main point it is recommended to use MPEG format as it makes file very compact.	Step #3   Select attributes and click "OK" Recommended attributes: PCM: 8,000 Hz, 8 Bit, Mono. MPEG Layer3: 16 kBit/s, 16,000 Hz,  Mono
Step #4. Enter file name and click "OK" button.

6. Save audio format

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

 (optional )       (click on pictures to enlarge)

  

To make your work a bit easier you can save selected audio format (attributes). If you do it, next time when you save audio file you won't have to remember all these technical parameters and then open long list of attributes and find the set you need. Instead you'll  open short list preset formats and select yours.

Step #1. Select attributes you need as described in the item 3.2. steps #2, #3. Then Click on "Save As" button.

Step #2. Name it and click "OK"

Result: Now when you open "Name" list and select the name you created, correspondent attributes are set automatically.

7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

1. Open Sound Recorder 2. Check current configuration 3. Record audio file 4. Remove leading and trailing pauses 5. Save Sound File    6. Save audio format 7. Get over the 60-seconds limit

 (advanced technique)

   

Windows Sound Recorder doesn't let you record sound file longer then 60 second. But it's possible to assemble long file by combining several short ones. So, to create long audio file:

1.  Divide your text into several parts with length less then 60 second each and record each part separately. 2. Open menu and insert files in the proper order one by one. 3. Save the long audio file as a regular one.