Tips Of The Week

Tip 1:

If you are attempting to record an online stream into MP3 file as I have described, you should be careful not to touch the VOLUME and MUTE buttons of your keyboard while the recording is going on. Since we are just redirecting the audio output into Mic, any changes unknowingly made by you by touching the VOLUME and MUTE buttons will affect the recording.

Tip 2:

Instead of Sony Audio Studio, you can also use Nero Wave Editor to record audio tapes and online streams into MP3 files.

Tip 3:

The displayed results in Speedtest.net mean only the BANDWIDTH for download and upload streams. The ACTUAL download and upload speeds will fall between 10 to 15% of the bandwidth. To find out the dfference between bandwidth and actual download speed, kindly click HERE.

How To Record Audio Tapes into MP3?

Question Of The Week

How To Record Audio Tapes into MP3?

Many a times, you would've wanted to download a particular rare song from internet. But it wouldn't be available. You might just have that song in your old audio tapes.
What would you do?
Very simple. Convert it into MP3!! All you need is a stereo cable with 3.5 mm stereo pins at both ends (and of course, Sony Audio Studio program).
Step 1:
Connect one end of the cable to HEADPHONES socket of your tape recorder. Connect the other end to MICROPHONE socket in the front panel of your PC.
Step 2:
Double click on the REALTEK Audio Manager Tray Icon in the task bar (Right Lower corner of Desktop). Go to Audio I/O -> Analog -> Connector Settings. Unselect "Mute Rear Panel Output When Front Headphone Plugged In". Then select "Disable Front Panel Jack Detection".
Step 3:
Right click on the VOLUME icon in the task bar. Click on ADJUST AUDIO PROPERTIES. A new window named SOUNDS and AUDIO DEVICES PROPERTIES will open up. Go to Audio -> Sound Playback -> Volume. Now another window named MASTER VOLUME will open up. You will find a series of Volume controls. Keep the MASTER VOLUME about halfway. See that MIC volume is not muted. If you don't find MIC volume at all, go to OPTIONS -> PROPERTIES of the MASTER VOLUME window and select MIC volume in the given list.
Step 4:
In the SOUNDS and AUDIO DEVICES PROPERTIES window, go to Audio -> Sound Recording -> Volume. Select MIC Volume and keep the window open... You'll need it.
Step 5:
Open your Sony Audio Studio. You'll find the menu bar starting with FILE, EDIT etc, as usual. Below that you can see two Icon bars. Click on the first icon of first icon bar. A new window named SOUND1 will open. Now, Click on the first icon of second icon bar. Another window named RECORD - SOUND1 will open. Choose the mode as MULTIPLE TAKES. Select MONITOR; it will show you the decibel levels of both channels of stereo.
Step 6:
Start playing your favourite song in the tape recorder. Now see the decibel levels in the RECORD - SOUND1 window. You should see two active greenish columns with a yellowish tinge on top. If you don't see active columns, kindly repeat Step 2 now. If you happen to see Orange/Red tops, go to SOUND RECORDING Volume Control window which we kept open in step 3. Adjust the selected MIC Volume until the decibel levels in the RECORD - SOUND1 window reach the desired levels (Greenish columns with a yellowish tinge on top). Then press the STOP button of your tape recorder and REWIND it to the starting point of the song.
Step 7:
Click on the RECORD icon in the RECORD - SOUND1 window. Then press the PLAY button in your tape recorder. When the song is finished, click on the RECORD icon again in the RECORD - SOUND1 window and CLOSE it. Now SAVE the SOUND1 file. That's it. Congratulations. You have converted your favourite song into MP3 successfully.
P.S:
You can open the saved file later to trim the edges (Unwanted recording before starting and after stopping the tape recorder). Read the HELP section of Sony Audio Studio to CUT, COPY and PASTE !!

Registry Defrag

Program Of The Week

Registry Defrag

Windows registry is the most often used part of your computer. All configuration data of both your hardware devices and software applications are stored in the Windows registry. Although CCleaner is an excellent program in cleaning the junk, it lacks an important functionality called Defragging the Registry.

Defragging is a short form of Defragmentation which means Rearrangement. It becomes necessary because after the removal of invalid registry keys by CCleaner, Windows Registry somewhat becomes fragmented (disarranged files). Fragmentation can cause problems in running some applications and thus slowing down your PC.

Registry Defrag is a FREE software. It analyses your registry and defrags it if the fragmentation is significant (more than 2%).

Speedtest

Website Of The Week

www.speedtest.net

You can test your bandwidth usually with your Internet Service Provider's website. If, for some reason, you want to test your bandwidth somewhere else, there are many sites available in the web. But, most of them are inaccurate because they do it with only one server located somewhere in the world. Since the Latency (pinging time) varies according to the distance between the server and the user, test results are usually atrocious.

Speedtest website utilises 100s of servers located all over the world and minimises the latency as much as possible and hence the test results are good. If you retain their cookie, you can even view all of your previous results, share them easily, and compare them to others in your immediate area or around the globe.