Help, please ...

[Bonnie]

I am trying to read a book and record it to a CD (the book was written by friend who is now blind). I have a mike that I can attach to my computer. I was able to create a (60 second) .WAV file with the software on my computer, and I assume that I can burn a .WAV file to a CD - but I need a great deal more than 60-second files. My questions:

1. Can I read into the mike and create a .WAV file using Audacity?
2. How large can a file be?
3. How do I stop recording (i.e., if I have to take a drink of water to keep my voice going, etc.)?
4. How do I burn the .WAV files onto a CD, will separate chapters/files be okay, and will they be usable when played back on a relatively inexpensive CD player?

I am not worried about this sounding professional - my friend is simply grateful when I read books to her over the phone ... somehow I would like to create a "talking book" for her that she could listen to whenever she liked.

Thank you for any help anyone can give me!

Bonnie

[steve]

1. Can I read into the mike and create a .WAV file using Audacity?

Yes you can. When you "Save" in Audacity, it creates an "Audacity Project" which is NOT a standard audio file, so you need to use "Export" to create a standard WAV file.

2. How large can a file be?

As big as you like as long as you have sufficient disk space (about 10 MB per minute of recording). Some users have reported problems when recordings exceed 12 hours duration.

3. How do I stop recording (i.e., if I have to take a drink of water to keep my voice going, etc.)?

Press "P" to pause, and "P" again to resume.

4. How do I burn the .WAV files onto a CD, will separate chapters/files be okay, and will they be usable when played back on a relatively inexpensive CD player?

You will find a number of good tutorials that will guide you through this, and other tasks, here: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tutorials

There are also some handy tips here: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tips

This is an important tip to avoid many of the common new user problems: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... ement_Tips

[Bonnie]

Thank you, Steve - I have 3 test files audio-recorded, have exported them as .wav files, and finally managed to burn them onto a RW-CD.

Only problem (which I'll put out as another post) is that you don't hear anyting when you place the CD in a regular CD player - works fine on my computer, but not a stand-alone player.

I've read the helps, they suggest a R-CD for better resolution, but I'm getting NOTHING... no sound at all ...

Any suggestion????

Thanks, Bonnie

[waxcylinder]

Bonnie,

see my response to your other posting - please don't double post, it wastes everbody's time and confuses the forum structure.

WC