13.   Tidying the beginning and end portion of a sound file.  (fading and trimming)  (part 2 of 2)

Before moving to the next step, take note of the two different cursor types.  When performing fades and mutes, it's important to make sure that the selections you are working on, are carried through as adjoining selections, rather then two separate selections.

(Screen Shot B)  For example, after you have made the fade in, as just performed in the previous step,  don't just click away
(2).  Move your cursor around until you have the horizontal arrows. (1)  Now drag andmove the cursor into the direction of the red arrows, past the point of the selected area, you have just faded (3), and now carry that through again until the selection clock reaches 200 milliseconds. (4)

(Screen Shot B) Now go to the Process menu and go down to mute.  Click on mute and this section will be silenced.  This will be the first 200 milliseconds of the track.  Now move the cursor until you have the horizontal arrows again, (1) in the edge of the selection you have just muted (7).  Now drag that across until the excess area has been highlighted in white (6).  Now press delete on your keyboard.  You should now have the beginning of the track resembling something like the diagram below. (Screen Shot C)

(Screen Shot D) Now that we have successfully cleaned the beginning of the track, it's now time to work on the end.  On the below screen shot, scroll right through to the end of the file. (1)    Then click on the zoom magnification tool.  (2)   Zoom out to 1-1024. 

About a second after the song has finished (cold cut), or around the last second of a song fade (fade out), place the cursor, then drag your selector across until the selector clock counts 2,000 milliseconds, or 2 seconds. (3)  Go to the process tab on the screen top, and then on the drop down menu, select fade, then on the submenu, select "out".  With the horizontal arrows, drag the selection across to the end, then delete the excess trailer, as shown in the screen shot below..

If you are like me, and just love the raw sound of vinyl without any processing, you now only have to perform a normalisation, (explained in section 14), and the track is ready to burn to disc.  However if you like to see some basic processing tricks, skip section 14 and go to section 15 "De-clicking and De-crackling".  You will need the Sound Forge XFX Noise Reduction plug in to perform these processes.  You'll have to purchase these as separate programs from the Sonic Foundry website.   

LP2CD  -  Copying your vinyl to CD
using Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge 6.0.

1.   General Overview. 
2.   Choosing the right soundcard. 
3.   Choosing the right turntable. 
4.   Purchasing a Phono preamp. 
5.   Positioning of equipment. 
6.   Connecting your computer and hi-fi together for duplication. 
7.   Configuring the record and playback controls on Sound-Blaster Value. 
8.   Configuring the record and playback controls on the M Audio Delta 66. 
9.   Recording the sound signal to hard-drive. 
10.   Opening and Configuring Sound Forge for Recording and Playback. 
11.   Starting a recording session. 
12.   Increasing the volume of softer recordings. 
13.  Tidying the beginning and end portions of a sound file. 
14.   Preparing raw vinyl track for CD. 
15.   De-clicking and de-crackling dusty recordings. 
16.   Enhancing the finished track.   


Version 1.2 by Mark Boerebach  -  Updated Tuesday 26th August 2003