Digital Recording

With your Fx Audio Recorder you can digitize any sound that is being played through your computer sound device. For example to digitize the sound track from a video tape or the audio from a tape player simply connect the audio output to the auxiliary input port of your computer. Typically you will need nothing more than an adapter that will split the mini stereo input from your sound card so that RCA cables from your electronic device can be used or a cable specifically designed for the purpose.

t may be important to stress that the recorder will record ANY sound, therefore if an email arrives while you're in the middle of recording music you will also record the sound associated with arriving mail. The same is true of message boxes and other system sounds that are associated with events.

Your Fx Audio Recorder will use any device installed on your computer that is capable of audio capture.

If you have more than one such device they will be listed in the drop down list of devices in the top panel.

Before you can record you must first set the format, the name and the path of the target file.

Rotate through the various file formats with the Up/down buttons.

Each format's a property window can be accessed with the set button.

Filters

The Notch Filter is used for eliminated AC hum.

The High Pass filter is used to pass only high frequencies.

The Low Pass filter is used to pass only high frequencies.

Auto Gain Control (AGC)

The Auto Gain Control compensates for compression errors and prevents the audio from dropping below or rising above the preset levels.

Before you can record you must set the output file name and path. This can be anywhere on your system but sound quality will be better if you use a faster drive. Keep in mind that unlike the Windows Recorder that uses a file of fixed size, this file is dynamic and it can become very large. In fact if you start the recorder and forget to stop it, the file may continue to grow until all available hard drive space is used.

To set the file name and path, click the Save as icon.

For a detailed explanation of how to browse for a file see the Save as...  topic.

You can start recording in two ways: Pressing the Play and Record button will simultaneously start playing and recording. To use this feature you must have a file loaded in the player. In this mode stopping the player will stop the recorder but stopping the recorder will not stop the player. Pressing the record button begins capturing all sounds that are played through your selected sound device Unlike the Windows Recorder that uses a file of fixed size, the file used by this recorder is dynamic and it can become very large. In fact if you start the recorder and forget to stop it, the file may continue to grow until all available hard drive space is used.

In the above illustration the recorder has been started without any source sound being played. As you can see, the two LED volume indicators are registering a substantial amount of ambient noise. Some may be coming from un-muted sources such as a microphone or auxiliary inputs, some may be from unshielded wires and some may be systemic ( a fan or another device that creates internal "sparks" for example). Unless you can eliminate ambient noise your recording will be sub standard to the original.

Recording volume can also impact on your recorded output. Setting it too high will clip the tops of the wave forms in spite of auto gain and filters. Setting it too low will degrade the depth of the data .

If your computer uses the standard Windows SNDVOL32.EXE to access the volume controls for your sound device you will be able to open your recording control with the volume button. If you must use another method please read through the Recording Control notes below. Being able to open your Recording Control without all the property windows and applets may make it worth your time to find sndvol32.exe on your Windows CD and to copy it to your hard drive. You can put it in the application folder or anywhere in your system path. By default it is located in the windows/system32 folder on all NT based operating systems. (FYI: Windows 2000 and XP are both NT based.) If some future operating system SNDVOL32.EXE is renamed just make a copy of the new file and name it SNDVOL32.EXE.

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Recording Control

Although their are some notable differences between devices, your sound device probably has a separate mixer for playback and a mixer for recording. If you open the mixer from your taskbar's tool tray or through your control panel applets you will probably see the playback controls instead of the recoding controls.

To access the recording mixer you may have to select the Properties dropdown from the Options menu of the Master Volume mixer.

Then in the frame labeled Adjust volume for select Recording .