Recording

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Setting Recording Options

When you select Record Settings from the Audio menu or Toolbar, the Recording Options dialog window appears. This window allows you to set several parameters, which are explained below. Please note that the settings you choose here override any previously set with the Sound Control Panel.

The Recording Options dialog
You will notice several pop-up menus and buttons in the Recording Options dialog. These allow you to select which hard drive to record to, what file format you’d like to record in, sampling rate, source input, and so on. There are sliders where you can adjust the input volume. You may also wish to record in real-time through your Premiere™ audio plug-ins. The next few paragraphs describe how to set all of these parameters using the Recording Options dialog.

Record
The Record pop-up menu allows you to choose which hard drive you would like to record to. If you have more than one hard drive connected to your Macintosh, use this pop-up to select your record drive. (This option will default to the largest drive currently available to your Macintosh unless you select otherwise.)

File Format
The File Format pop-up menu allows you to select the file format for the incoming audio. You can choose from AIFF or Sound Designer II. (If you need the newly recorded audio file to be in a different format, you can always use Save As.... to save it as a another format once recording is complete.) If you do not select a file format for recording, Peak will default to 44.100kHz 16-bit stereo.

Audio Levels
The three sliders in the Recording Options window allow you to adjust the input volume of the incoming signal. For stereo recording, you can use the Left (“L”) and Right (“R”) sliders independently, or use the slider in the middle to adjust the two channels simulta-neously.

Auto Gain Control checkbox
The Auto Gain Control checkbox allows you to disable the Automatic Gain Control feature used by the Sound Manager with some Macintosh microphone inputs. If the recording device you are using supports this feature, check the Auto Gain Control checkbox.

Split Stereo Files checkbox
The Split Stereo Files checkbox allows you to record the incoming stereo audio as dual mono files rather than a single stereo file. Dual mono files are used in programs like Digital Performer, ProTools™ or DECK, so this option is useful if you are going to use the recorded audio in a program that requires dual mono. You can use the checkbox in the Recording Options dialog to enable or disable this feature.

Device and Sample Format....
Clicking on the Device and Sample Format button brings up the Sound dialog. This dialog contains a pop-up menu that bring up three sub-dialogs, and, on the right side of the dialog, a Speaker select pop-up, Volume and Gain controls, and an audio input level meter. The Speaker pop-up at the right of the Sound dialog can be set to Speaker On, Speaker Off, or On While Recording. Selecting Speaker On will allow you to monitor audio to adjust the input levels prior to as well as during recording, while On While Recording will only allow you to monitor levels while you are actually recording. As you might expect, Speaker Off will mute the outputs completely.


Compression
Sound’s compression option is not supported, so leave Compression set to “none”.

Sample 
Selecting Sample from the Sound dialog pop-up menu allows you to choose the sample rate and bit rate, as well as whether the incoming audio will be recorded as a Stereo or Mono file. To some degree, the choices that appear here will depend on your audio hardware. Possible sample rates are as follows:

48.000kHz This is one of two standard sample rates for digital audio tape (DAT) recorders, and is often used by sound editors working in audio post-production for video or film.

44.100kHz This is the standard sample rate for Compact Discs, digital audio tape (DAT) recorders, and high-fidelity audio applications on Macintosh and PC-compatible computers with 16- bit playback capability. Most sound engineers working in music production— or anything that may be distributed on a CD—work at “forty-four one.”

22.050kHz & 11.025kHz These sample rates are often used for lower-fidelity audio playback on Macintosh and PC compatible computers that have 16-bit playback capability. Many games and other multimedia productions utilize 22.050kHz 16-bit or 8-bit audio, since it uses one-quarter of the disc space of CD-quality audio. 22.050kHz 16- bit is the Shockwave audio standard. 16-bit is the current Compact Disc standard for professional-quality recordings.  8-bit is often used for computer-based and web-based multimedia and games.

Source
Selecting Source from the Sound dialog pop-up menu allows you to select and configure the audio input you wish to use for recording. If you have a third-party audio card installed in your Macintosh, you can select it as the input device using the Device pop-up. Use the Input pop-up to select the hardware inputs you wish to record through.

NOTE: Your exact setup will differ slightly depending on the input device that you are using with Peak. You can use either your Macintosh’s built-in audio inputs, or, if you own a plug-in audio expansion card such as Digidesign’s Audiomedia III card or KORG 1212, you may wish to use the audio inputs of your third-party card. Once you have configured the options in the Sound dialog to your liking, click OK to return to the main Recording Options dialog.
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Hardware Options
Clicking on the Hardware Options button in the Recording Options dialog brings up a dialog appropri-ate to the audio hardware you selected in the Source dialog. If you selected the built-in audio hardware of your Macintosh as your Source, a Sound manger input select dialog will appear.

If you selected a third-party audio card as your Source, a different dialog will appear. A Digidesign dialog is
shown below, but the actually third-party dialog will differ depending on the type of audio card you have.

Record Through Plug-In
If you have Premiere™ compatible audio plug-ins installed in your Peak Plug-Ins folder, you can record through them in real-time. This is useful if you want to use a noise reduction or dynamics plug-in during recording.

To configure Peak to record through Plug-Ins in real-time:
1. Open a Peak audio document that has the number of channels you plan to record.
2. Select Record Settings... from the Audio menu. The Recording Options dialog will appear.
3. Click and hold on the Record Through Plug-In pop-up. All of the plug-ins you have installed in your Peak Plug-Ins folder will appear in the pop-up. 
4. Scroll to the plug-in you wish to record through and select it. The plug-in’s dialog will appear.
5. Configure the plug-in to your liking, then click OK or Process to close it’s dialog, and select Record from the Audio menu or Toolbar, or click command-R You are now ready to record audio through the plug-in.

NOTE: To record through a plug-in, you must open an audio document with the same number of channels you plan to record before configuring the Record Settings plug-in parameters.

The Record Dialog
When you select Record from the Audio menu or Toolbar, or click command-R, the Record Dialog appears. There are transport buttons along the bottom to Start, Pause and Stop the recording, an Audio Source display that shows you the waveform as it is being recorded, and a Notepad window. There are also text displays showing you the sample rate, bit rate and number of channels you selected in the Record Settings dialog, as well as the amount of record time you have left on the selected “record” drive.

The Notepad feature in the Record Dialog allows you to type in text descriptions, transcribe a recording, or type in comments called Notepad Cues at specific points during the recording of an audio document. The Notepad feature is available from the Recording dialog and may be used once a recording starts. Each time you press the Return key, a new Notepad Cue is generated for the current recording time. You may then begin typing text to describe the audio recording at that time. When you hear the next significant event in the recording, press the Return key to create another cue, and so forth. When you are finished recording, Peak will create markers in the audio document that correspond to each Notepad Cue you have entered. By clicking on the Create Regions instead of Markers checkbox, you can choose to create regions rather than markers during recording.

Initiating Recording
To record audio to disk, do the following.

To initiate recording:
1. Turn down the volume of your instrument or audio source.
2. Connect the instrument or audio source to the audio input jack on the rear of your Macintosh. If you are using a plug-in audio card, use the connectors on this card. (Some audio cards have an external interface box which contains the input and output connectors. If this is the case, use these.)
3. Choose Record Settings from the Audio menu or Toolbar, and configure the settings as described in the previous section. Make sure that you have selected to have the Speaker on during Record-ing in the Device and Sample Formats dialog, so that you can listen to your audio source as it is recorded into Peak.
4. Select Record from the Audio menu or Toolbar, or click command-R
5. Play your instrument or audio source. You should see the signal levels register on Peak’s Audio Meters (in the Info Strip at the bottom of your screen).
6. Adjust the output of your audio source so that its signal registers relatively high on the meters but never hits top (indicated by the red Clip Indicators.). Remember to always leave 6dB or so of headroom on the meters so that you don’t clip. Use the yellow Clip Indicators and red Clip indicators to help you make this adjustment.
7. Click the Record button in the Record window. You are now recording to disk. You should see the audio waveform begin to scroll in the Audio Source Display window.
8. To stop recording, click Stop. to pause, press Pause.
9. The Save dialog appears, prompting you to name the audio document. You must save the audio document to the same hard drive you selected in the Recording Options dialog. Enter a name and click Save. Peak automatically saves the docu-ment in the audio file format you selected in the Recording Options dialog.. If you wish to later save the document in a different audio file format, use the Save As command.

To play back the recording:
1. Press the Spacebar on your computer keyboard. Playback begins.
2. To stop playback, press the Spacebar again.
3. To start playback from a specific point in the recording, double-click on the waveform at the point from which you want playback to begin, or click the mouse at the desired point and press the Space bar.