DART CD-Recorder Basic allows you to process audio files prior to listening to the playlist or saving it on a CD.The list of available processing functions includes:
Declicking: removing clicks pops and record scratches
Dehissing: reducing a wideband noise
Equalizing: shaping the frequency content of an audio signal
Fading in/out: modifying the volume of the recording at its beginning and/or end
Normalizing: adjusting the dynamic range of an audio signal
To start processing press the PRODUCER
button situated on the toolbar or select the Producer command from the Toolbox menu. The Producer Panel will appear replacing the File Panel. On the left-hand side of the Producer Panel you will find several blocks representing different processing tools.
To activate the tool, click on the green indicator inside the corresponding button (after clicking, the indicator will light up); to make the tool inactive, click on the indicator again. If you activate several tools, Producer will combine effects of the corresponding filters.
To select a tool without changing its activity status, click on the corresponding block. The control panel for the selected tool is shown on the right-hand side of the Producer Panel.
Please note that only the WAVE and MPEG audio files (those with the wav and mp3 extensions) can be processed using the Producer Panel. For this reason the compressed WMA soundfiles are hidden (not shown on the playlist) when the Producer Panel is active; if you close the Producer Panel all WMA files will be shown again.
For uncompressed (WAV) recordings the results of processing can be saved either in a new file or in the original (input) audio file. In the second case the original audio data are overwritten with the output data, i.e. the source audio file is not retained. To enforce the ‘in-place’ processing mode (which allows you to save some hard disk space), check the In-place processing box in the Options/Producer dialog, available from the View menu.
When compressed MPEG files are processed the input file format (MP3) is not preserved – the results are saved in uncompressed wave files.
To change the tool settings click on the corresponding block and make the necessary adjustments in the right part of the Producer Panel.
The Sensitivity slider allows you to control sensitivity of the outlier detector. If sensitivity is too small the detector may become too tolerant and fail to isolate small noise pulses; if sensitivity is too large it may be overly fussy, i.e. raise too many false alarns introducing noticeable signal distortions.
The Click size slider can be used to specify the maximum number of samples in a row that can be scheduled for reconstruction (anything between 1 and 100). Don’t select the values that are larger than necessary.
The Reduction rate slider allows you to control the degree of noise attenuation. If reduction rate is too small the restored signal will contain an audible residual noise; if it is too large the sound will become dull, muted and/or distorted.
The High frequency attenuation slider can be used to supresses the high frequency components of an audio signal. It allows you to trade off between the richness of the sound and the level of residual noise.
The Band sliders allow you to change the frequency content of an audio signal. Each slider corresponds to a different frequency band.
The Gain slider allows you to change the volume of an audio signal.
Each time you amplify a certain signal component (by moving a band slider above its neutral position) or increase the volume of the recording (by moving the gain slider to the right of its neutral position) make sure that the signal is not clipped. When clipping occurs the Clip indicator lights up. Since clipping may result in audible sound distortions it should be avoided. To eliminate clipping reduce the volume of the recording using the gain slider.
The Presets listbox allows you to load one of nine standard equalization presets (Flat, Bass cut/boost, Treble cut/boost, Mid cut/boost, Side cut/boost).
The Fade in slider allows you to gradually increase the volume at the beginning of the recording.
The Fade out slider allows you to gradually decrease the volume at the end of the recording.
The fade in/out time can be anything between 20 ms and 20 s.
The normalization level slider allows you to adjust the dynamic range of an audio signal. When the slider is in its rightmost position the entire available dynamic range is used, i.e. the maximum peak value of the normalized signal attains its largest allowable value (just below the clip level).
The preview panel, situated beneath the control area, allows you to preview the results of processing.
To check the results yielded by a particular tool, click the tool button on the left side of the Producer Panel and choose Selected from the Tools checklist. Then choose the processing mode (On-line or Off-line) and range (All, From cursor, Local). Finally, press the Play result button. If your computer is fast enough to work in the on-line mode, DART CD-Recorder Basic will allow you to listen to the results of processing while changing the tool settings. Each time you modify any of the settings, the green Ready light will go off. It will be switched on again as soon as the results obtained under the new settings are available. At any time during the test, you can press the Play source button to bypass processing and listen to the original recording. If your computer is too slow to perform tuning in real time, choose the Off-line processing mode. In cases like this, all experiments will be performed off-line on a short fragment of the recording centered around the cursor (local preview area).
To check the results yielded by all activated filters, choose Activated from the Tools checklist. Note that only the Off-line/Local preview mode is allowed if the number of activated tools is greater than one.
DART CD-Recorder allows you to store the current Producer settings for later use. To save Producer settings as a preset, press the New button (which can be found in the Presets group, situated in the lower part of the Producer Panel) and type in the preset name. When ready, press the OK button. From now on, each time you select a preset from the list, the settings of all Producer tools will be loaded from the corresponding preset file.
To save new settings under the existing name, use the Save button. To rename or remove the existing presets, use the Rename and Remove buttons, respectively.
NOTICE
If the screen resolution is too low (e.g. 800x600), there is not enough space to display Producer presets along with the associated buttons. To avoid display errors, when working with the low screen resolution check Display simple version in the Options/Producer dialog, available from the View menu. Be aware, however, that presets are not available in the simpler version of the Producer Panel.