Useful Information / How To Guides

This page contains various tools and guides that may prove helpful when creating and compiling your songs. See links opposite to visit sites for downloads, etc. All the below are free full software downloads.

Media Human Resources

What is it: Various Tools for Audio Conversion

How to use: Download from the various tools from their site and install. Some are Freeware, (inc. the Audio Converter) others are demos.

YTmp3

What is it: youTube to mp3 Converter and Downloader

How to use: Visit the site (Link opposite) paste link of youTube video and press convert. Download mp3 to PC when ready.

Fre:ac

What is it: Conversion tool and CD ripper

How to use: Freeware tool that rips CD to PC in various formats, and audio converter. Download and install from their site.

CDEx

What is it: Tool to Rip from CD to mp3

How to use: Download from the CDEx site and install. Put CD in PCs drive, start CDEx. It should find the drive and display the CD's tracks. You will need to add your email address, go to settings and find where. You can then go to the CDDB menu and select 'Read from Remote FreeDB', this will then name your album and the tracks on it saving you the time and effort! In settings again, choose where to save your ripped mp3 files, and also select the bitrate (quality) for your mp3's. Higher is better quality but will create a larger file... suggest 320 as size is not really an issue with today's PCs.

Now use the right-hand buttons to rip the CD to your chosen destination.

Audacity

What is it: Audio editing/enhancing tool. Useful for shortening tracks over ten minutes long - if you insist on doing so!

How to use: Download from the Audacity Toolkit site and install. Drag and drop mp3 files (or other audio files) into it's main viewing pane. They then appear as a graphic representation of the audio/music. Use the cut and paste tools by highlighting areas of the song, etc. You can also enhance the audio, useful on very quiet mp3s, again highlight an area (usually the whole song in these circumstances) then go to the effects menu. To amplify a track use Amplify.. (obviously!). You can also Fade In and Fade Out songs. Worth playing with for good results. To save, use the Export To... option under File.

WeTransfer and MailBigFile

What is it: Website. System for sending large files.

How to use: email does not generally allow you to send/attach files of a large size. These two sites (others are also available) allow users to send large files to each other (up to around 4gb). They act as an intermediary server. You need to zip up your files into one single zipped file, upload it to the server/site and complete your email and recipients email addresses. The file then goes to the server and an email is sent tothe recipient stating who sent it and what it is plus any message you added. The receiver also gets a download link so can download the file to their PC, and will need to unzip it. Note: You do not need to register/pay to use either of these sites for the size of files in question.