11.  Starting a Recording session

Now let's start recording.  First select the track you wish to record and then queue it up.  In sound forge, click on the record button (1) and then a  "Record  -  Sound ??" box will display.  Now check the format before recording.  You must have (44,100 hz  -  16 bit  -  Stereo) (2) selected before you start recording.  In the recording dialog box, click on the record button. (3)  Now start playing your record.  When you have finished recording a particular track, click on the record button again. (4). 

After you have clicked the record button for the second time (4), the gray field in the background will change in to a wave form, as shown in the picture below on the left.

Click on the upper right corner of the "record  -  sound ??" dialog box, where the little X is.  You now have recorded your first track, and it should look like the window above on the right.  The shape of the wave-form may vary, reflecting different songs and loudness levels. 

To save the track, go to file, then select save as.  In the window where they are folders, you'll most probably find your-self in "my documents" or "sound forge".  Click on to the drive letter, to move into your computers root directory.  You should then find the folder you earlier created called "record collection".  Double click on this folder.  You now should be located in this folder which at this stage is empty. 

In the file name bar, type the name you wish to call the audio file.  As shown on the left, we have named it "chris rea  -  fool if you think it's over".

PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION to the next bar that shows "Save as type".  Make sure that you are saving in "Wave (Microsoft) (*.wav) format.  Sound Forge can save into a myriad of different formats.  If you save in the wrong format here, you'll loose the master file you have just recorded.  For example, if you accidentally save into wma format, it will save what you have just recorded into a compressed signal, meaning that much of the sound quality will be lost permanently to that particular file.  If you have made this mistake, the only way to rectify it is to rerecord the material again.

When you have saved it, you can carry out a number of processing functions, such as declicking and denoising.  If you're not happy with the results, you can either do a number of undos, or simply close without saving, and reopen the original file you recorded.