control which hardware devices contribute to the audio signal that will get recorded.
Different SoundCards support different audio sources. Most SoundCards can only record from a single audio source at one time.
They, have a <b>Selected</b> box beside each audio source like this:
<br><br><img src="audioSrc.gif"><br>
<li>If you want to record from a Microphone, make sure the Mic's Selected box is set, and its Volume control is set to full (all the way to the right).
<li>If you want to record from a guitar or an audio tape deck, make sure the Line-In's Selected box is set, and its left and right volume controls are set to full.
<li>If you want to record from a Music CD, make sure the Music CD's Selected box is set, and its left and right volume controls are set to full.
<li>Some SoundCards can record from a mixture of audio sources. They have a <b>Mute</b> box
beside each audio source to control which sources are not to be recorded.
<LI>Select the Audio Track by clicking on it and making a green dot appear at its left.
<BR>This makes it the active track - the track that will get recorded.
<LI>Erase the track by selecting <B>Erase track notes</B> from the <B>Edit</B> menu.
<li>If you are recording from an electric guitar,
and if the output of your guitar is line-level (usually is), connect it to your sound card's
line-in jack, getting an adapter if necessary from someplace like Radio Shack.
<LI>If you are recording from a Music CD, put one into your computer's CD-ROM drive.
<LI>Press the <B>VU</B> button to <EM>warm up</EM> the audio device, so you don't record <EM>power-on</EM> noise.
<LI>Press the <img align=center src="recbut.gif"> button on the Mixer screen.
<li>Play your guitar, sing into the microphone, or play your music CD or audio tape.
<li>Press the stop <img align=center src="stopbut.gif"> button, or the <img align=center src="recbut.gif"> button again when you are ready to stop recording.
<LI>Right-click the audio track's <B>On</B> field so that it changes to <B>solo.</B>
<LI>This makes it the only track that will be played when the Play button is pressed.
<li>Press the play button <img align=center src="playbut1.gif">
<LI>Press the stop <img align=center src="stopbut.gif"> button and right-click on the track's <B>solo</B> field,
so that all tracks are enabled again.
<LI>If the track is too quiet or too loud, adjust the audio source's volume at the bottom of the Mixer screen.
</OL>
<br><hr>
<h3><a name="ImportMp3">Import an existing .MP3 file into an Audio track</h3>
<br>
Anvil Studio does not yet directly support .MP3 files.
You can use other shareware/freeware tools to convert .MP3 files to .WAV files you can use with Anvil Studio.
http://www.mthreedev.com has some very good free mp3->wav and wav->mp3 conversion programs.
After you convert the .MP3 file to a .WAV file, read the next section to see how to import a .WAV file into Anvil Studio.
<br><br>
<h3><a name="ImportWav">Import an existing .WAV file into an Audio track</h3>
To load an existing .WAV file into an Audio track:
<dir>
<li>Select <b>New</b> from the <b>File</b> menu
<li>Select Mixer from the View menu
<li>Click the <b>Type</b> field of <b>Track 1</b>, changing it from <b>Instrument</b> to <b>Audio</b>
<li>Select <b>Save</b> from the <b>File</b> menu to save the new song
<li>Select <b>Import</b> from the <b>File</b> menu, and then select a .WAV file to import.
</dir>
You can also import .WAV files as individual drum sounds on a rhythm track as follows:
<dir>
<li>Select <b>Mixer</b> from the <b>View</b> menu,
<li>Select the <b>Track / Create / Rhythm track</b> menu,
<li>Press the <b>Compose</b> button, or select <b>Composer</b> from the <b>View</b> menu,
<li>Press the <b>Add Sounds</b> button, then
<li>Click the <b>Samples</b> tab, then
<li>Press the <b>Create Sampled Sounds</b> button.
</dir>
<br><hr>
<h3><a name="CreateAudio">Creating a song with Audio Effects</h3>
This example creates a WAV file with Audio Effects:
<dir>
<li>Select <B>Mixer</B> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<li>Select the <b>New Song</b> menu item from the
<img src="filemenu.gif" align=center>
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
<li>On this screen's track list, there is a row for every track in the song,
showing that track's name and other attributes of the track.
Now, change track 1's <b>Type</b> from instrument to audio by clicking on <b>Instrument</b> and selecting
<b>Audio</b> from the list.
<li>Select <B>Composer</B> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<li>Save the song file by selecting the <b>Save Song...</b> menu item from the
<img src="filemenu.gif" align=center>
menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
<li>Press the record button <img align=center src="recbut.gif">,
sing into the microphone, and then press the stop <img align=center src="stopbut.gif"> button when you are ready to stop recording.
<li>Press the <b>Filter</b> to show the filter window, and press its Ok button
to filter noise from this track.
<li>With the left mouse down, drag the mouse over part of the window to select part of the recorded song.
<li>Press the <b>Play Selection</b> button to hear the selected sound.
<li>Select <b>Reverse</b> from the <b><u>E</u>dit</b> menu
to replace the selected sound with the same sound played backward.
<li>Press the <b>Volume</b> and <b>Pitch</b> buttons to adjust the volume and pitch of the selected sound.
<li>If you have the Multi-Audio accessory, add another Audio track to this song by selecting the <b>Create / Audio Track</b> menu item from the
<b><u>T</u>rack</b> menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
<li>Record some sound onto this track.
<li>Select <B>Mixer</B> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<li>Click the <b>fx</b> column for any track to add a delay, or echo effect to that track.
<li>Click the <b>fx</b> button in the upper-right corner of the screen to add native or DirectX effects to the entire song.
<li>Press the play <img align=center src="playbut1.gif"> button to hear all the tracks played together.
<li>Experiment with the Track Volume, Delay Intensity and Time controls, pressing
the <b>Play</b> button <img align=center src="playbut1.gif"> to hear the effect of the change.
</dir>
<br><hr>
<h3><a name="MixToWav">Mix all tracks down to a single .WAV file</h3>
<br>
After your song sounds the way you want it, you can mix the entire song down to a single .WAV file by following these steps.
<dir>
<LI>Select <B>Mixer</B> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<LI>Open the song you want to work on using the <b>File</b> menu.
<li>Select <b>Export Mixed Audio...</b> from the <b>File</b> menu
to save the mixed audio track to its own .WAV file.
<br><br>If your song has any MIDI notes, and your SoundCard does not support mixing audio and MIDI to an Audio file,
it will ask you:
<dir>
Your song has some MIDI notes, and your SoundCard does not support converting these to an audio file.
<br>Do you want to just mix your song's audio tracks and sampled rhythms?
<br><br>If you reply Yes, it will just mix the audio tracks. Otherwise, it will do nothing.
</dir>
<br>or it will ask you
<dir>
<br>Do you want to include your song's MIDI notes?
<br>Your song has some MIDI notes, and your SoundCard does not support mixing these to an audio file.
<br>If you want to include these MIDI notes, you need to press Yes and then select:
<br> "Create / Audio Track by mixing enabled MIDI tracks" from the Track menu.
<br>That will create a new audio track that contains a mixed copy of all of your MIDI tracks." & vbCrLf & "Then, select ""Export Mixed Audio"" again, but this time, just mix audio tracks." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "If you just want to mix Audio tracks, press NO.", vbYesNo)
<br>Press Yes if you want to only mix enabled Audio tracks and sampled rhythms.
<br>Press No if you want to mix Instrument tracks as well.
</dir>
</dir>
<h3><a name="StereoToMono">Split a stereo track into to mono audio tracks</h3>
<dir>
<li>Select Mixer from the View menu.
<li>Click on the stereo audio track that you want to split, to make it the active track.
<li>Select <b>Split Track into two Mono Audio Tracks</b> from the <b>Track</b> menu.
</dir><hr>
<h3><a name="MonoToStereo">Merge two mono tracks into a single stereo audio track</h3>
<dir>
<li>Select Mixer from the View menu.
<li>Click the On column of all other tracks, so that the only two tracks that are On are the two you want merged.
<li>Set the left track's Pan column all the way to the left.
<li>Set the right track's Pan column all the way to the right.
<li>Select <b>Create / Audio track by mixing all enabled audio tracks</b> from the <b>Track</b> menu.
</dir><hr>
<h3><a name="Drums">Creating a Rhythm track</h3>
<dir>
<li>Select <b>Mixer</b> from the <b>View</b> menu
<li>To the right of <b>Track 1</b>, click on <b>Instrument</b> and change it to <b>Rhythm</b>
<li>Click the <b>Composer</b> button at the bottom of the screen, or
select <b>Composer</b> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<li>Click on the grid where you want various drum sounds.
<li>Press the play button <img align=center src="playbut1.gif">.
<li>Select Save from the file menu to save the song.
<li>The file you save can now be played on any standard MIDI player,
copied to a web page, sent by email, etc.
</dir>
<br><hr>
<h3><a name="RecMidi">Record instrument tracks from a MIDI synthesizer or sequencer</h3>
<dir>
<li>Ensure that your MIDI cables are connected as described in the
