There are quite a few CD formats that have been developed over the years; here is a brief description of them. If you need more information, search for the term on the web – there is a wealth of information there.

Red Book – This was the original standard created by Sony and Phillips in the 1980’s. This is still the universal standard for CD Audio and is the standard on which all the others are built.

Yellow Book – This was the original data Format standard developed by Phillips and Sony in 1983. This was a very general spec that evolved into ISO-9660, the HFS format for Macintosh , and hybrid HFS-ISO.

ISO 9660 –  This is a standard CDROM file system that allows CD compatibility independent of platform. This standard was written by an industry group named High Sierra, and was issued in 1988.

There are several levels to ISO-9660. In level 1 the filenames are in the 8.3 format. (No more than 8 characters in the name followed by a three character suffix). All characters must be capitalized; directories can have a maximum of 8 characters and no more than 8 nested directory levels. Use this level for compatibility with MSDOS and old versions of Windows.

The specifications for levels 2 and 3 allow file names up to 32 characters long.

CDROM-XA – This format based on the Yellow Book (XA being short for Extended Architecture) allows for new types of sectors to display data, graphics, audio and video at the same time. CD, Photo CD, Video CD and CD Extra are outgrowths of this standard.

Joliet – This is an extension to ISO 9660, developed by Microsoft, which allows the use of Unicode characters in the file names. These are need for international use. File names up to 64 characters in length are permitted.

White Book – This standard was created to allow the playback of interactive disks on players that support the green Book and CDROM-XA standards. This standard is commonly used for the creation of Video CD disks.

Green Book – The Green Book standard was developed in 1991 for CD -I (CD Interactive)

Orange Book – This is the most recent standard that defines the specifications for CD recorders and media.

In general, for opening music, the usual procedure is to let the music play at full volume for 6 – 10 seconds – I usually let a musical phrase complete, then fade the music down over the period of one second. Let the music continue under the narration for an appropriate period of time and then gradually fade it out. Make sure that the music under doesn’t interfere with the voice track. The amount of gain reduction necessary will vary with the style of the music and the narrator’s voice. Experience will give you a good starting point for how much to lower the level of the music under the voice, but often a couple of attempts will have to be made to get it perfect. With the undo button, it’s easy.

For closing music, determine where you want the music to start near the end of the narration, slowly fade it in under the narration and then do a 1 second fade-up to full volume after the narration ends. You can either fade out the music after an appropriate period of time or let it come to a natural end. Letting music come to a natural end sounds more polished, and once you’ve done it a few times, it’s not hard to figure out the timing.

Mixing in Sony Sound Forge

1. Here’s the technique for mixing in opening music in Sony Screenblast Sound Forge.
2. Load the music into Sound Forge and cut the music to the part you want to use, usually about the first 20 or 30 seconds.
3. Using the graphic fade function lower the level of the music to about 25% after the music plays for 7 or 8 seconds.
4. Insert a fade out after about 20 or 30 seconds. The fadeout should last 3 or 4 seconds.
5. Open your narration file and insert about 8 seconds of silence (Enough to cover the time between the beginning of the music and the point it has faded down.) at the beginning of the file. Move the cursor to the beginning of that file.
6. Go to your music file and copy the opening music you have just edited.
7. Go back to your narration file and use the Paste Special command and select Mix when the options appear. Set both volume faders to “0″ db (which is the default) and click on OK. This will mix the music and the narration and paste it into your narration file.

When you play back the file you should hear the music start at full volume and then fade. The narration should start with the music under and then the music should slowly fade out after about 20 seconds.

If it’s not quite right, click undo and readjust your music levels or timing as necessary, and then cut and paste again.

The technique for closing music is the same but the timing is a little more difficult. Once you’ve figured out how to do opening music, you should be able to master this technique with a little practice.

Here’s a checklist for you to use before you start a recording session. Don’t leave anything to chance. If you are recording someone other than yourself, make sure you are ready to go long before your speaker or narrator arrives. Feeling rushed greatly increases your chances of making mistakes that will be costly in terms of time and aggravation.

Recording Checklist

• Make a test recording to ensure that all equipment is working.
• If you are recording directly to computer, make sure all background programs, screensavers, power control, anti-virus & etc. are disabled. Disconnect from any networks and turn off any wireless network adaptors.
• Make sure you have sufficient copies of script or outline.
• Check for adequate lighting.
• Have a glass of water for each person.
• Provide a box of tissue.
• Have a pop filter on microphone.
• Make sure mike cables are away from power cords.
• Turn off phones, doorbell, noisy appliances, etc.
• Position the microphones correctly.
• Set your volume levels.
• Once everything is ready, listen carefully in the headphones for any extraneous noises.
• Record 30 seconds of ambience or room sound.
• Make the recording.
• Play back & check the recording.
• Make backup copies of files. Label all tapes, MiniDiscs and CDs.

While not difficult once you get the hang of it, setting the proper volume level is really more of an art than a science. In this article we’ll see why.

Volume

Years ago, in the beginnings of audio recording, engineers came up with a way of measuring perceived loudness. They called it the VU standing for Volume Units. This meter ignored short peaks and mechanically averaged the signal so that by looking at the meter, one could get a very good idea of the relative loudness of an audio signal. These meters were built to very specific standards and a VU meter on a tape recorder in Hollywood corresponded to a VU meter at a radio station in New York.

As consumer tape recorders and later recorders were introduced, they all had “VU” meters. These meters were not true VU meters, and the proper setting of levels varied according to the whims of the particular manufacturer.

To further complicate matters, when digital recording was introduced it became necessary to introduce “peak meters and measure the peaks that the VU meters ignored for so many years. Why? In the days of analog tape recording, tape had the nice characteristic of saturating slowly at high levels and acted almost as a limiter for the quick peaks in an audio signal and compressed them without a lot of noticeable distortion.

But digital recording is an all or nothing situation. It records perfectly up to its peak limit, but over that level the encoder runs out of binary digits and creates severe distortion. Now, some recorders and software handle these peaks better than others, but you definitely don’t want to exceed the peak recording level. That’s why digital recorders and software have peak level meters. Unlike analog recorders, it is never acceptable to go into the red when recording. Fortunately with the high signal-to-noise ratio, it is acceptable to record 9 to 12 db below peak level to leave yourself some headroom.

The downside of peak level meters is that they don’t give a very good idea of how loud one recording is compared to another. For a digital voice recording to sound as loud as a commercially produced program it must be limited and normalized.

Normalization

When you are done editing, you should normalize the audio. To normalize means to increase the audio level of each track so that the peak level of each track is at the maximum level allowable on the CD.

The goal is to make your CD, video or audio file sound about the same loudness as a commercially produced product.

The difficulty here is that if your recording has a few loud peaks and a low average level, your recording is going to sound low even if normalized. The trick is to keep the average level high and minimize the peaks in the recording.

Open your Normalize function and set the level to approximately – .5db. Apply the function to your file.

Compression & Limiting

One approach to keeping the overall volume level high is to use a volume compressor or limiter. (Please note that Volume Compression is entirely different from data compression such as is used to make an MP3 file) Compressors can make a signal sound louder and more intelligible without raising the peak level of the signal. The compression ratio control adjusts the factor by which the dynamic range will be reduced, and the threshold control sets the level of input signal at which compression will begin.

A limiter is a special instance of a volume compressor, in which the compression ratio is set at 4:1 or greater. The threshold is set so that the signal passes normally up to the threshold point, but after that, further increases in the input signal level produce almost no level increase at the output. Most compressors can be set to act as limiters. Limiters are used to avoid clipping of the signal by preventing overload of the digital encoders or other equipment.

You can use a hardware device that goes between the microphone and the computer or you can use your software package to perform this function after the track is recorded. There are advantages to each system.

If you use a hardware device ahead of the recorder, you are much less likely to overload the recorder and get distortion. This method can also provide the best signal-to-noise ratio for your recording. The down side is that if you apply too much compression, it is recorded that way and can’t be undone.

Applying the processing in the editing system let’s you play with the amount of compression. If you don’t like the sound you can undo the effect. Software compressors and limiters are included with most editing packages, and thus you avoid the cost of buying a physical compressor. The down side is you have to be more careful setting levels so that you don’t get distortion from recording too loud, or noise from recording too low.

Applying Limiting to Your Recordings

Limiting should be applied to all of your voice recordings that are being released on CD or as a digital file. If you don’t, the average level of the recording will be low and the CD or file will sound quieter than commercially produced products, forcing the listener to turn up the volume.

The proper way to apply limiting is to first normalize the track to minus 1 db. as we have done above.

Open the limiter or compressor in your software. Set the limiter so that the threshold is at about -6 db to – 8db. Set the compression ratio for 10:1. Set the attack to about 10 milliseconds (ms.) and the release time to about 200 ms. then apply the effect.

Re-normalize the track. Your volume level should sound louder. Check that it doesn’t sound unnatural. With some experience you will learn how to adjust the settings for the best sound. Read your software manual for the particulars of your device.

My studio is in the lower level of a commercial building on a busy corner in a small town. Upstairs there is a Starbucks® Coffee Shop. While it is a favorite place of mine, I have some friends who have never been there. They refuse to pay $2.50 for a cup of coffee that they can get for 75 cents at McDonalds or Dunkin’ Donuts.

Fortunately for Starbucks®, there are enough people in the world who will pay the price for gourmet coffee, atmosphere, status or whatever to make them a prosperous company. As a matter of fact, in the 10 years they have been upstairs, I don’t ever recall going in there when there wasn’t at least one person at the counter. The place is a goldmine.

What do you think the response would be if someone went in and complained that they charged too much and tried to negotiate the price downward?

This is a good lesson in pricing. There is always a supply of people who will pay a premium price for a quality product or for convenience.

Starbucks can demand a premium price because they deliver value and have established an identity of quality and made the “Starbucks® Experience” something that is sought after.

Concession stands at movie theatres and sports events demand and get exorbitant prices for their mediocre food because they have a captive audience.

Convenience stores can charge higher prices because people will pay for convenience.

Remember this when you are pricing your products and services. If you are selling a commodity product it’s hard to compete on anything but price. But as an information product producer or studio owner, your products are unique. If you’ve chosen your niche market well, you are filling a need that few others are meeting.

If your product saves your clients time, gives them important information that would be difficult to find on their own, or gives them the benefit of your or another expert’s experience – they should be willing to pay a premium price.

If you sell 10 products at $50. each, you’ll make more money than selling 20 of the same product at $25. ea even though your net sales in both cases is $500. Selling 10 products at the higher price will have ½ the product cost and ½ of the handling and paper processing costs.

The same is true for services. People will pay more if your service is more convenient to get to than the studio 10 miles away or in the next town.

Give your clients what they really want and most will be happy to pay for it.

The audio newsletter is an interesting high power format, but probably requires the most work of all of them. It is produced like a news show with a musical logo intro, and would combine comments from the host of the show, interviews and live recordings. Listen to Internet radio for some ideas.

This could be a good product if you have a market that would support a subscription type service. You could produce a CD or podcast and send it out on a quarterly or bi-monthly basis.

As your subscription list builds, users could send in recordings to be included in the newsletter, or you could do telephone interviews with people, making your job easier and the program more interesting.

A few years ago, the California Historical Radio Society produced a few issues of their newsletter as an audio cassette . It was interesting and well received and often included interviews with some of the pioneers of radio.

Other programs I have produced are newsletters for several corporations which were used to communicate with their sales or field service force. I think that this is an excellent format, and very much underused.

This type of program would require developing a consistent format with a standardized open and close and a somewhat regular format. This style works best with shows that will happen on a regular basis. The standardization of format helps you establish a brand.

If you are on the speaking circuit or conduct seminars or workshops, using this style could help you produce a product with little effort. The product is created by recording your live presentation or presentations and then editing them down to something useful. Workshops usually require more editing than a speech. Often, you use a second voice to record an open and close for the program and bridges between the various segments if necessary.

Many of the popular 6 cassette motivational and sales training programs were produced in this manner.

The advantages of recording live are that it provides an interesting tape program little preparation. There is an energy and spontaneity in a live presentation that is hard to duplicate in the studio.

The disadvantage is that it may require considerable editing to eliminated dated material or material that was addressed to a particular audience, and of course the writing of open and close segments and the bridges between the segments.

In the scripted style, one or more people read from a prepared script . The advantage is that the material gets presented exactly as you want it to. The disadvantage is that you have to prepare a word-for-word script.

This style is useful if you have to present material that requires an exact presentation. For example, one of the markets that I serve is safety training. The training that our programs provide is mandated by law and affects the health and safety of workers and the general public. It is very important that the training be provided in compliance with current regulations and that no details are missed. In this case working from an approved script is mandatory.

After you have prepared and checked the script, you may want to phonetically spell out any technical words or proper names that might be mispronounced. It’s always good to double-space the script, and please don’t do the misguided thing of typing it in all caps which is extremely difficult to read. If the reader is over 45, use a large enough font size to be easily readable.

Another reason to use a script is if you are producing tape on a topic that you have researched and are not an expert on. A written script would probably make it easier for you to talk on this topic.

A final reason might be if you are not comfortable in front of a microphone or for some other reason want to use the services of a professional narrator.

Record the narrator doing retakes as necessary to get pronunciations and delivery correct. It’s then a simple matter of editing the good takes together while watching the script.

In this style you, or the subject expert, sits in front of the microphone and tells the story. The advantages are that it involves only one person and one microphone. The disadvantage is that you have to work a little harder to keep the program interesting.

Like the interview, preparation involves preparing an outline and practicing delivery. It’s obviously easier if the subject matter is something you or the subject expert present before a group on a regular basis. Again, working from an outline or list of essential points will make the material more cohesive and meaningful. Have a list of names, model numbers, statistics, website address and any other details that you are likely to forget.

Note that this style is more conversational than the narrated style that is usually delivered word-for-word from a prepared script.

When you are recording, you or the expert can record retakes on any material that was not clear or drifted off topic. Record verbal editing notes as you go, so that you know what to cut when you are doing the editing. This is especially helpful if some time elapses between the recording and editing.

Make note on the microphone used and any other settings or processing you have used during recording in case you decide retakes are needed. This will help in matching the new audio with the old.

In this series of articles we’re going to talk about the different ways or styles of putting together an audio information product or podcast. In this first article we’ll talk about the interview.

This style is just what it says it is and is produced like a radio show interview. The advantage of this style is that it doesn’t require a script if the person being interviewed is an expert on a given topic, and that the back and forth style of interviewing usually produces an interesting product with minimum effort. If the interviewer is a person known in the marketplace, this is a big plus because he or she can add credibility to the product for a person just entering the marketplace.

Another big advantage is that if the subject expert is not experienced at presenting their material to the microphone, an interviewer can guide them and keep them on track with their questions and comments.

The only real disadvantage, and it’s a minor one, is that it requires two people, and the recording setup requires two microphones.

Preparation

To prepare, you should develop an outline of the material to be covered. Whether you are the interviewer of interviewee, you will need to write open ended questions for the interviewer. How much detail you needwill depend on their skills of the interviewer and how well they know the subject and the subject expert. In any case, the interviewer should introduce the expert and the topic. Write out the details of this so that nothing important is missed.

The interviewer and the subject expert should talk before the recording, so that both of know where the interview s going and what is important to cover.

Recording the interview

The subject expert should be working from an outline or a list of essential points to be covered. He or she should also have a reference list of names, website addresses, model numbers or any other details that must be included in the interview that could easily be forgotten.

With this preparation, the recording should go fairly easy. If the subject expert gets off topic, the interviewer can ask the question again and you record a retake. If an important topic gets missed or needs clarification, the interviewer can formulate another question and the question and response can be edited in at the appropriate point.