Tips & Tricks

Converting Conference Messages to MP3

Scope

Considerations

The following presuppose the message has been recorded using Audacity (version 1.2.6 at press time) and that you have access to the source Audacity files of the recording.

• An All-In-One File: This is the entire message as one file. The advantage of this is that people can click this link and hear the entire message if their browser is configured to stream mp3 files.
• Multiple Files: This is a ZIP file that contains the message as seperate, 5-minute, tracks. The advantage of this is for personal music players or playing in a car. One can skip around making it much easier to pick up where you left off, especially if your player always starts at the beginning of a track.
  These files may be of higher quality (higher sampling rate).

Process

Making the Recordings

• Be sure to Save the session before you start recording, creating the properly named directory in the process.
• Select a directory (folder) outside the website area for all the Audacity files and for all the intermediate files you will create (mp3 files to be zipped etc). TODO: Put in an example, in Media.
• When recording, be sure to select Line In:
  

Single, All-In-One, file

1. Open the original Audacity File
2. Trim any unneeded parts of the audio, using Edit-->Cut, or just highlight and then use the delete key
3. Amplify or Reduce Volume on any portions by highlighting the section, and using Effect-->Amplify Use negative numbers to reduce volume, positive to amplify.  Try a number like 5 or 10 and and use "undo" if it doesn't sound right.  Once a desired amplification is determined, it can easily be repeated for other similar portions by using command-R
4. If amplifying causes the offset to no longer be centered, use Effect-->Normalize-->check only the "Remove any DC offset" and click OK
5. Effect-->Fade In or Fade Out is also sometimes helpful
6. If it is already mono, go to step (7).
   If recorded in stereo, convert to mono by clicking the audio track title bar just to right of the X (close) box on the audio track (typically says Audio Track in title bar), and selected Split Stereo To Mono  Then click the X (close) box for the second track to delete it.
7. Click the audio track title bar, then Set Sample Format and set the sample format to 16bit pcm. This takes a minute for the conversion to occur.
   
8. Use File-->Export.  In the Save as Type drop down, select the type of MP3 Files... 
9. Navigate to the proper directory (creating it if necessary, one directory per message) and name file (as Msg1.mp3, etc), and select MP3 under the Format menu.  Click the Options and use the settings for minimum size:
   
1. Bit Rate Mode: Variable
2. Quality: 9, 45-85 kbps
3. Variable Speed: Fast
4. Channel Mode: Stereo
5. OK when done
   
10. Click Save and a dialog box will appear. Type in the tag data. Suggestions are (substitute dates and titles accordingly):
    
    • ARTIST: Ed Marks
    • ALBUM: Spokane Conf. Oct 2010
    • TITLE: Msg 1: Living a Life According to the Highest Peak of the Divine Revelation
    • YEAR: 2010
    • GENRE: Speech
11. Save tag using Save... so that you don't have to retype it. The saving process will take a few minutes.
    (Note: if this is the first time you've used Audacity to export mp3, it may ask you to locate the libmp3lam.dylib file which can be freely downloaded from http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/)
12. Select Ok to save the file

Multiple-Files

Specify the creation of multiple tracks

1. Time to place first label: 0
2. Label placement method: label interval
3. Label interval: 300 (this produces multiple smaller files)
4. Label text: F10Msg01 (etc...)
5. Prepend numbers to label text?: No - Just use text
6. Include final label: Yes
7. Final audio segment equal with others?: No
8. Click Okay (This produces a Label Track)

Export the file as Multiple Tracks

1. File-->Export Multiple...
2. Export format: mp3 files
3. Click Options...
4. Bit Rate Mode: Variable
5. Quality: 4, 145-185 kbps
6. Variable Speed: Fast
7. Channel Mode: Stereo
8. Click Okay to get back to Export Multiple Dialog box
9. Make sure the Export Location is as desired
   Note: It is best to build these files NOT in the website directory. For example, store in (for example,
   C:/Media/Conferences/Messages/EdMarks/Apr2011/F10msg01, etc)
10. Split files based upon:
1. Labels radio control (no change)
11. Name files: 
1. Select the option for: Numbering before Label/Track Name
12. 
13. Click Export button
    Select Yes if prompted to create a non-existent directory.
14. Type in tags substituting the proper title and date
1. ARTIST: Ed Marks
2. TRACK TITLE: F10msg01
3. ALBUM: Spokane Conf. Nov 2009
4. Track: 1 (leave alone, this will increment)
5. YEAR: 2010
6. GENRE: Speech
15. Now click OK multiple times to confirm the tag for each track, notice that the Track number increments though everything else remains the same.
16. Audacity will now create mp3 files for each section. When done it will display a dialog showing all the files it created. Select OK.
17. You can close Audacity now as you are done w/it. (Save the project when prompted if you haven't already.)
18. NOTE: This results in a bunch of files with the track # in front of the filename (02-F11Msg03.mp3) and the track titles are all the same (F11Msg03). Need to figure out what steps are needed to get the track titles to include the track number.

Zip the files

1. Use windows explorer to navigate to where you stored the files
2. select all of the small MP3 files - the ones with the sequence numbers (01-02)
3. Right click select 7-Zip 
4. Then select the item "Add to <file name>.zip" where <file name> is the name of the message you are working on.
5. Move the Zipped file to the directory where the other zipped files are example -EdMarks/April2011/
6. Delete the unzipped small files ( the files used to create the zipped files)

Put zipped files on the website