PhoneValet Podcasting Tutorial
Using Your PhoneValet Podcasting Software
While PhoneValet Message Center can accurately record your phone conversations or phone interviews, sometimes you need more than just accuracy. Editing the content of an interview to fit an allotted time or removing background noise from a conversation - either task is is often required.
For these reasons, we have added BIAS' Peak Express and SoundSoap to make up the PhoneValet Podcasting bundle. We believe this bundle is an ideal package for budding Podcasters.
BIAS provides a quicktime movie that shows the capabilities and features of SoundSoap. We strongly recommend that you watch this movie. The movie can be viewed or downloaded from http://www.bias-inc.com/soap2movie/. In the Podcasting bundle, SoundSoap features are available in the plug-in that operates within Peak Express.
The following tutorial shows how to improve your call recordings using the bundled software. You may wish to print this reference page while working with the software.
1. Record Your Call in PhoneValet
In the PhoneValet General Preferences, set the Recording format to WAV. WAV is an uncompressed format that is an exact duplicate of the recording from the phone line. Since we will be Podcasting audio, it is best to start with an uncompressed source for the best quality.
2. Retrieve Your Recording from PhoneValet
In PhoneValet, display the call in the Call Log. On the Details drawer, on the side of the window, choose Reveal Audio File in Finder from the Audio Options menu. If the Details drawer is not displayed, click Details in the toolbar at the top of the window.
Now that the file is displayed in the Finder, hold down the option key and drag the file to your desktop or another convenient location. This will make a copy of the recording. It is recommended to work on a copy because editing mistakes are made. It is also recommended to leave the original in its folder for future access by PhoneValet.
3. Open the File in Peak Express
Open the Peak Express Application and open the file you copied from PhoneValet. If this is your first time using Peak Express, you will be asked to register using the serial number emailed to you from BIAS Inc. You should now see a screen similar to this:
Use the controls at the bottom to play, stop, rewind, etc. You can also click anywhere within the main waveform window to start playing from there. If you want to only play part of the file, drag a selection across the waveform and use the controls below — they will only act on the selection.
4. Normalize the Audio
Normalizing the volume of the recording adjusts the range of your recording (if necessary) to fill the full volume capabilities of the audio file. If you normalize all of your recordings, you will find that the quiet ones are now set at the same volume as the louder recordings. This process is important for broadcasting: Your listeners need a standard volume level.
Before you normalize, ensure that no part of the sound file is selected: Simply click once in the waveform to deselect the audio. Now choose Normalize from the DSP menu. The system will ask you to set a percentage. 100% is fine for most recordings — so click OK. Your quiet recordings will now be set at a standardized volume level.
5. Remove the Noise With SoundSoap
SoundSoap exists as a plug-in to Peak, so it can be used directly within the application.
Before bringing up the SoundSoap plug-in, first select some background noise (without speech) from the recording by dragging a selection in the waveform. Noise is usually a sequence of very shallow waves and sometimes looks like a straight line. Noise can be located anywhere within the recording. Usually about two seconds of noise with no speech is sufficient. If you do not have a full two seconds, you can Loop the selected noise. Just select Loop this Selection in the Action menu.
With the noise still selected, go to the Plug-Ins menu and choose Insert 1:VST: SoundSoap.vst — a new window will pop up over your sound file. Under the Broadband section, Off should be selected.
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In the SoundSoap window, click Learn Noise. It will highlight.
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Now, back in the Peak control window (at the bottom of the screen), click the Play (also at the bottom of the screen) — you will hear the noise you have selected.
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Look at the Learn Noise button in the SoundSoap window. If it is no longer highlighted, then it has learned the noise in your recording. If it is still highlighted, there was not a long enough sequence of noise in your selection — select a longer length of noise in your recording or loop the first selection and click play again. When you've selected enough, Learn Noise will stop highlighting because it has learned the noise in the recording.
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If you needed to loop the selection to learn the noise, you can turn off looping by clicking Loop in the play controls at the bottom of the screen.
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Click anywhere in the waveform to select nothing specific. Now play the sound file again. You will notice that it sounds much cleaner.
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The knobs in the SoundSoap window allow you to adjust the amount and level of noise that is filtered out of the recording. Adjust them and play the recording again to hear the changes.
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If you click Noise Only in the broadband section, you can hear just the noise filtered out, rather than the "good" audio you want to keep. If you hear the good audio in the noise, turn down the Noise Tuner knob until you don't. You can then increase the Noise Reduction with the right knob to filter more noise.
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Click On in the broadband section to set the plug-in to preserve the good audio.
Once you are satisfied with the results, you need to apply the changes SoundSoap made to the file. Even though you now hear the differences, saving does not apply the changes. By choosing Bounce from the VST menu, the changes are applied to the file Do this now. Click Yes when the system asks to disable plug-ins. Your settings have now been applied to your audio recording. You can now save the file with the changes.
6. Convert to an Audio Format for Podcasting
Currently Peak Express will only save in an uncompressed format.
First, convert the audio file to stereo for playing in iTunes:
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Still in Peak Express, choose Save As... from the file menu. Choose the AIFF format. Save the new file in a convenient location.
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Open iTunes and drag the new file into the Library.
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Select the audio file and choose Convert to AAC in the Advanced menu. (Note: the menu item may say Convert to MP3, if MP3 is set in the iTunes Preferences under Importing).
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To access the file for uploading, choose Show Song File in the File menu in iTunes.
The file is now ready for Podcasting. Upload this file to your site. It is now ready for downloading by your listeners.
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