Led by Dr Paul Kenyon, University of Plymouth

Launch the Sound Recorder application. Click the Windows NT Start button at the bottom left of your screen then select Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, Sound Recorder

Launch the Volume Control application

Note that your screen display will not look the same as mine (cluttered ...)

Although the Microsoft Sound Recorder application is limited to recording 60 seconds of sound, we can illustrate the basics of adding streaming audio to a web page with this application.

Record the following commentary:

"The male Regent Bower Bird is brightly coloured but builds a relatively simple bower with a few leaves which contrast with the forest floor. These are arranged light side uppermost. This can be tested by turning a leaf over so that the darker side is uppermost. The bird returns this leaf to its original orientation.

The Tooth-Billed Bower Bird also constructs a simple bower consisting of brightly coloured leaves. Although the male appears drab in this picture he does have an eye-catching display for the female when she has entered the bower.

This Western Bower Bird has constructed an avenue of twigs and arranged a collection of white objects in front of it.

Archbold's Bower Bird makes a simple clearing in which he displays his collection of exotic plumage, shells and beetle's wing cases."

"One of the biggest stumbling blocks to success is the Windows Volume Control, found at Start/Accessories/Multimedia.

Windows Volume Control needs to be regularly monitored and adjusted to adapt to volume fluctuations.

The Volume Control has two modes,

• Play Control and
• Record Control.

Record Control is found at Options/Properties/Recording. The Properties window has a "Show the following volume controls" dialogue box that allows you to select the volume controls you need to use. Check this accessory program periodically to ensure that the control you need is selected and that the volume is set appropriately.

Leave the program open while you work. If you develop problems with your audio levels, a quick check of the Volume Control will often solve the problem."

From Digitizing Media Files

The audio section of the Yale Web Style Guide recommends that audio is digitized at 44.1 kHz with a 16 bit sample rate. This ensures that we begin the process of sound editing, and conversion to a format that can be streamed across the web, with an audio file of the highest quality.

You can change the save format of an audio file by selecting the 'Change ..' option in Sound Recorder's 'Save As' dialogue.

Save the commentary with the filename bower_birds.wav

Move to the computer that has a copy of the CoolEdit software.

• Launch CoolEdit 2000.
• Use CoolEdit's open file icon to open bower_birds.wav

• Place the mouse over these CoolEdit control icons.
• Pause, and read the brief message explaining the control's function.
• Press the Play icon and explore the effects of the Pause, Zoom In and Zoom Out icons

• Click on the waveform and drag the mouse to highlight a piece of audio.
• Hit the play button to hear the selected sound.
• Use Edit, Cut to remove the audio segment.
• Use Edit, Undo Cut to restore the removed audio.

Use these techniques on sections of the audio commentary that you want to remove.

Tip - You can use SoundEdit to record as well as edit audio files. This can be useful if you 'fluff' a single word or phrase.

• Select File, New from SoundEdit's menu.
• Record the word or phrase.
• Cut the offending section from your original commentary and then, using Copy and paste, insert your revised audio into the original audio file.

Normalizing the sound wave

Normalizing a sound file boosts the entire signal to maximum levels without distorting it. Normalizing finds the loudest peak in the file and then amplifies the entire file to make that peak's volume 100%.

• Select the entire wave using the appropriate options on CoolEdit's drop-down menu.

• Normalize the audio file by selecting Transform, Amplitude, Normalize from CoolEdit's drop-down menu.

Accept these settings:

• 
  Save the normalised audio file as bower_birds2.wav