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Since a few folks have asked, I thought I'd give you my primer on this. Those with more experience and technical expertise are free to chime in.
First, you need to get a script, or write one yourself. Probably, you want to follow a format along these lines:
If you want some example scripts, go to Taipei Hypnotic at http://phillips.personal.nccu.edu.tw/hypnosis/index.html and you will find a ton of them.
Once you've got your script you need to record your audio. If you want to make a CD, then you should record to follow the advice given by the folks at http://www.homerecording.com which is to note that "Unless your CD burning software has lots of extra features, the only audio files you can put on an audio CD are standard 44.1 KHz stereo uncompressed WAV files (if you're on Windows, this means PCM, not ADPCM, and if you've never heard of these terms don't worry about it)."
[Note from just_curious38 (Mark): "Thanks for this contribution to the club. If somebody wants to make a mp3 for distribution to the group over the web be aware that you don't need 44khz stereo. Covert your wav to 11kHz Mono mp3. I didn't hear the difference. Just experiment with settings to see how far you can reduce the filesize of the mp3. You realy don't need dolby surround stereo for a hypnosis mp3."]
I would suggest a simple way to make your WAV file is to record with Goldwave or Cool Edit with mixer input so you can have some background music if you wish but you could also just use the mic and voice.
If you do want music, don't record with it. Insted make your raw WAV file with just audio, I have all the mixer settings at zero in the volume control box except for Mic at 75 and Mixed Output at 85 (I find that works best for me as it helps me cut down on unwanted hiss and "breathing sounds" - it's a good idea to keep the microphone a bit away from the mouth so you don't get that blasty-nasty-boom-hiss sound . . . after I've recorded everything and cut the files to size I normalize the bunch to 98 anyway, sure it's not as elegant but it works for me).
When you have the parts the way you want them save them on backup as you may want to reuse them later and then combine the files in whatever order you want them and save that big file as your working file. Don't forget to include about fifteen seconds of silence at both the beginning and the end of the big working file (so you have some room to fade the music in and out).
Now, you can lay in the background music. I have a particular file that I use for my hypnosis MP3s, a beautiful Amerindian chant which I loop over and over by repeatedly pasting copies of the file at the end until I get the right length (don't forget to set the music to fade-in and fade-out at the beginning and ending marks - I usually use an eight to ten second fade on each end, so we've got five or so seconds at full before and after the vocal . . . but that's me, you may prefer to work differently). I copy the music into the clipboard and then use the Paste-Mix function in my editor. With my setup I usually paste the music in at five percent volume as it gives it a nice background feel without blasting away and distracting from the induction (experiment until you find the levels you like).
Once you have the WAV the way you want it, you may want to convert it to stereo instead of mono (I don't know about your setup but my system won't allow me to record stereo with my mic through my antiquated sound card). You can use something to paste the wave into both tracks and save the file as stereo or just use your editor's "save as" functions to do this. Goldwave has this capability built right in, as well as WAV to MP3 conversion . . . and best of all, the shareware version is free although you might want to go ahead and buy the beastie to support them as it is an excellent one-stop solution to WAV and MP3 creation. If you want to get really creative you can create a left and right track "deepening and suggestion" bit and play with 3D sound. That's for folks with a lot more time and patience though.
I used to use both programs for my MP3s for the Hypnosis for Women Only group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HypnosisForWomenOnly but now pretty much just use Goldwave. An excellent tutorial for Goldwave can be found at Davemelted's Goldwave Tutorial page.
[ [Note from just_curious38 (Mark): "You are a big help for a lot of folks in this club. Cool Edit is a great program to edit your wav's. You can remove noise and irritating background sounds with it. If you are not happy with the timing in your wav you can insert silence or remove a bit of the silence. I can recommend this program."]
I would suggest an easy way to make multiple recordings for various purposes is to record the various steps I outlined above as separate files so you only need to record a new suggestions section each time. Actually, I prepare my script and record everything in one long session and then go back and cut each section into a separate file for manipulation later . . . that way I have all the levels and mic distances consistent for each file . . . otherwise I might have the mic a bit closer to the mouth for one file or accidentally be speaking louder for another. This way everything comes out consistent.
In this case you want to normalize the files so they sound good together (in case you recorded one file slightly louder than the others which could blast the listener's ears and mess up the experience). Audiograbber can help you Master files by normalizing a batch so they will sound good together.
Now, you can use something like MusicMatch Jukebox to make your MP3s or another MP3 encoder. You can use MusicMatch Jukebox to create CDs too or just use your CD-R burning program. BTW, if you want to be able to make copies of CDs or if you are making Masters for professional use, you will want to use the Disc-At-Once option for your recording session - that eliminates the two-second gap between tracks and allows the CD to serve as a Master for professional stamping runs.
To make your distributable MP3s, you will find quite a few options for file quality. I use MusicMatch Jukebox's intuitive way of handling this task. For the sake of making things easy and having consistent file size and quality, I would suggest using the MP3 CBR format and choose the kbps based upon the quality you want versus file size. If you're distributing your files, then go for smaller file size - 36 kbps is a good quality as the files will remain stereo but the file size is pretty good. If you're not distributing via the internet then screw the compression and go for the highest kpbs available to retain better quality. Of course, you should play around with this stuff to get the quality and file size you prefer. Be sure to back up your raw audio files, your wav, and MP3 files onto archive CD when you've finished. That way you can free up hard drive space to create even more files!
Hit Squad has a ton of software you can download for this sort of thing, including the programs I've mentioned (there are plenty of other tools you can use as well).
Once you've made your MP3s, then put them online at a free server or someplace like MP3.Com (assuming they actually survive the damages Universal has nailed them with in the recent court case) or at one of the many free file or webservers now available - see the list at http://www.webwizards.net/useful for links to more resources than you can shake a stick at. Alternatively, you can use something like WhaleMail to email the file to folks (the files stay on a server until your friends pick it up. Do keep in mind that these are often large files so your target users should use a Download Accelerator type program that allows downloads to resume if they are broken, sometimes over days, otherwise if there's a broken pipe in the connection or if you have your files are a slow server like mine, some folks will give up. Some excellent programs of this sort include Download Accelerator Plus at http://www.speedbit.com and GetRight at http://www.getright.com. The former increases download speed by setting up multiple connections to the same file while the latter is used by some list members who have suggested it.
Please do NOT put someone else's files on Napster or any other server without that person's express permission. That makes it way too easy for those not on the list to get a copy and it may not be meant for public consumption. Folks in the Hypnosis MP3 club or others may like to contact Ryan at here as he is hosting a free server for hypnosis MP3s created by group members and others here (notice that he has MP3 files stored in the Misc and MP3 areas.
If you don't have the computer setup or are just way too frightened to try this stuff on your own you can make a script and record yourself on audiotape and then snail mail the tape to someone who is willing to use Goldwave or a similar program to record your tape into digital format and then remove the hiss and play around with the sucker to make it ready for distribution. Those wishing to distribute for the Hypnosis for Women Only group can contact me via private email at phillips@nccu.edu.tw and I'd be happy to do conversions for you. Please don't record with music background as it will come out a LOT better if you have me lay in the background music digitally.
Be sure to post the location of the files so folks here can download them and try them out. If you want your files added to this list, then contact me.
Folks can play your multiple (or single file session) MP3s in their favorite MP3 player. If you have more than one file in a session, then it's pretty easy for users to setup playlists for each session with all the files in the correct order so that everything comes out seamlessly. Be sure to include a readme file with your files so that we know who you are, what the file is about, and what the correct playing order should be. However, I prefer to have all the parts in one file for easier use.
Of course, if you belong to a group on something like YahooGroups at http://www.groups.yahoos.com you could then post small files to the group or at least upload short MP3s to the files section. Of course, since they only give groups 20 megs of storage, just a couple files would take that up pretty fast anyway - best to have members host their own files somewhere and post locations.
I hope this helps. Let us know how things go and share share share.
If you wish to make CDs of your MP3s, you can just burn them from the WAV files you originally created with your CD burning software which normally comes with the CD-Burner. If you wish to make a CD from someone else's MP3, you may need to convert it to CD-quality WAV first. Some MP3 converter programs do this for you while others need you to do it yourself.
For those of you who wish to convert the MP3 files I made into audio CDs which can be played on any audio CD player (assming you have a CD burner), a friend recommended http://www.yuansoft.com.
At that site you can download a nice program called altomp3maker that easily converts MP3 to wave. Once you do this recording to a CD on your computer's CD burner is easy using the program that came with it. I hope this helps. Yes, I make audio CDs of my own stuff for myself and it is easier to listen to them away from the computer, although I recently bought a portable MP3 player so I don't even need to do that anymore. :-)
Below, I have included a list of example hypnosis MP3s available on the web along with a list of possible resource places. If you know of other MP3s on the web, let me know at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
Email Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H., at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
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