User:PeterSampson

Peter Sampson's user page

Rework of "Tutorial - Your First Recording"

This is a condensation of an email thread on the Manual list regarding the restructuring of YFR. This is the plan that I have gleaned from it:

1) I think that Bill's material on Audacity setup on his draft page (minus the h/w plugs sockets etc.) is considerably better than the text that is currently in the Reference/Understanding - it doesn't say much that isn't there already but it does say it better, and it is more up to date. So I propose to update the Reference section withe Bill's Audacity s/w set-up stuff. I agree that the Reference section should focus on Audacity setup and not h/w setup.

• Gale: A decision will be needed on Audacity Setup and Configuration after the YFR and Recording Computer Playback tutorials are finalised. If these tutorials do the hand-holding and step-by-step, then Audacity Setup and Configuration can be trimmed or become redundant. I foresee possibly keeping this "Setup" page as an overview (probably an image of the Audacity project window with arrows) pointing to the relevant parts of the Audacity interface and describing what they do - Mixer, Meter and Device Toolbars, Transport Menu, Devices and Recording Preferences, Project Rate, Temporary Folder.
  • Bill: Let's not forget our motivation for the expanded setup pages - to integrate information from the wiki into the manual and addressing the many support questions we get about recording with an external microphone or instrument.
  • Gale: The "beginner" questions that turn up on [email protected] may be more clueless than the ones you get on the Forum. They suggest people should be warned off inbuilt mics and encouraged to spend a little money. Others have enough knowledge to be dangerous but need a bit of help with condenser/dynamic, polar patterns and where to find out about mic technique. Wiki links may better here (maybe even Wikipedia) - our Wiki information isn't that good yet - see http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recording_Tips

2) As we agreed earlier I will atomize the YFR into its four basic sections. DONE 4Jul11

3) Then update those four YFR sections taking material from Bill's draft page as appropriate. DONE 4Jul11

4) When the YFR tutorials are looking in good shape I propose then to prune Reference/Understanding Audacity/Audacity Setup and Configuration - with pointer to where the h/w setup material can be viewed.

• Bill 19Jun11: Is there a plan for the hardware setup material? Would it be a separate tutorial, sectionized as I've done now? I think the pictures and descriptions of plugs are useful - we know from experience that total noobs don't know an RCA plug from a mini-plug, and don't know a stereo from a mono mini plug.

Proposed sub-tutorial headings

The following are the abbreviated sub-tutorial headings suggested by James. I propose to use these headings, pending no further objections:

• Tutorial - Connecting Up
• Tutorial - Selecting Your Input
• Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
• Tutorial - Recording and Editing

• Gale: - amended "A Test Recording" to "Making a Test Recording"

I note from the email thread that Gale would prefer longer links to indicate the actual structure rather than suggest the subsections are an independent tutorial when according to the TOC they are not. So for example: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tutorial_-_Your_First_Recording/Connecting_Up

• Reasons against:
  • We may wish to use these atomized sub-tutorials as part of other tutorial sets
  • It does make the names longer - and we know James favours shorter names
• Reasons for:
  • makes the subtutorials group properly under the master tutorial title
  • As with the LP Transcriptions we can provide forward/backward links and a link to the master tutorial (at the foot of the page) to facilitate navigation around the tutorial.

James: Peter - being super democratic costs time and energy, and in some cases that's a bigger cost than possibly disgruntling some people. We are also a do-ocracy in that when there is no clear decision the doer decides. 'Tutorial - Making a Test Recording' is better than what I suggested as it means all four are active voice. I'm not a stickler for as short as possible.

Bill 19June11: +1 to James' comment - go for it, Peter. It's more important to get it done. Once we have words on a page then we can concentrate on what's important - making sure the content is accurate and helpful to beginners.

Peter 4Jul11: after much deliberation I opted to stay with the shorter names:

• a) because the subtutorials may end up being referenced in tutorials other than just YFR
• b) it looks better on the page

Proposed tutorial for "Recording Computer Playback"

I agree with comments (in the email thread on YFR restructuring) that a tutorial on "Recording Computer Playback" would be a good idea (whatever we call it) and that it could incorporate some of Bill's material from the links at the material at the bottom of his draft page on Audacity Setup. I will try to find some time later to draft such a tutorial on my user pages. I record streaming audio on XP a lot - but I will need some help from the Mac and Linux elves when I get around to this please.

Tutorial for CD remixing

This is a link to a draft tutorial for remixing a commercial CD: User:PeterSampson/Tutorial: Re-mixing a CD - Mock Up Version-1
This tutorial was originally written by Audacity user Chuck Moore ( Cfmoore1 ) who wanted to remix some Beatles 2009 Remastered CDs, the early ones which were originally mono but which the studio re-released in 2009 in a pseudo-stereo mix. The studio mix is indeed somewhat odd as it places the instruments on one side of the sound stage and the voices on the other. Sounds ok-ish on speakers if you don't listen closely - but sounds distictly odd on headphones. Chuck undertook for his debut project with Audacity a remix of Please Please Me and has recently finished With The Beatles. His objective was to create a more natural sound stage by taking sound clips and remixing (ambitious for a starter project). I gave him some help with this via the forum and through some PMs. I asked him if he would be good enough to write up his process as a tutorial; this is his draft (which I will Wiki-ise with Wiki markup formatting) - once that is done I will be seeking feedback from the manual "list". He says "I do not mind people putting their knives to what I wrote. The procedure is right but if the wording does not convey to the reader what I did then it needs to be changed."

• Peter 18Jun10: Following f/b from when I first floated this tutorial idea I agree that it is not appropriate for the manual as it is too specific - accordingly.I will probably transfer it to the Wiki.

Manual Front Page - TOC

This is a link to mock-up Version-10 of the proposed new Table of Contents for the Front Page of the manual: User:PeterSampson/Front Page Mock Up Version-10

The objective of this change was to give greater prominence and visibility to the Tutorials section of the manual. In order to achieve this we created links to the main tutorials in the TOC. Many thanks to Gale Andrews for his invaluable help in developing this proposal.

Gale implemented this V10 as an interim change on 23Jan2011. We still plan further work on the Front Page. Some discussion may be viewed on the V10 mock-up page linked to above. And in this forum thread: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=52190

Peter 26Jan11: I corrected the div id for the "Using Audacity" section. Following our recent TOC update the "Using Audacity" link in the navigation bar was not redirecting properly. My bad: when I created the expanded "Using Audacity" block, I "borrowed" the formatting/layout from Referece section - including its div id. :-(