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Extracting Audio CD Tracks In Sound Forge

CREATING YOUR OWN FOLDER - SELECTING TRACKS - SAVING TRACKS

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: CREATING YOUR OWN FOLDER

Before we do anything, make sure you have a folder set up for yourself. This is where you will save all your work files. If you haven't set one up before, or not on the station you are using, let's set up your folder.

  1. From the Windows desktop, double click My Computer.
  2. Double-click on Media (D:). This is the drive on which you will always save your work.
  3. From the menu, select File > New > Folder.
  4. A new folder will appear prompting you to name it. Type in your name.
  5. Your new folder will then appear with the new name you've given it.

That's it. You've got your own folder on the Media drive.

Remember! Space is limited on each workstation, so when you are done using a file in your folder, please delete it!

SELECTING TRACKS

  1. Place your CD in the DVD drive.
  2. Open Sound Forge.
  3. Select File > Extract Audio From CD.
  4. An Extract Audio menu appears, which offers more features than the one featured in Vegas. The features are as follows:

    - READ BY TRACKS. With this option selected, you can highlight one or more individual tracks to extract. When you hit OK, Sound Forge will extract each track as a separate file.
    - READ ENTIRE CD. Use this option if you want to extract the entire disc as one single file.
    - READ BY RANGE. With this option, you can enter start and stop points (or start point and length) on the disc and it will read that selection of time as a single file.
    - CREATE REGIONS FOR EACH TRACK. In either "Read Entire CD" or "Read By Range" mode, selecting this option will create regions on the file that indicate where new tracks on the original disc start.
    - CREATE MARKERS FOR EACH INDEX CHANGE. In either "Read Entire CD" or "Read By Range" mode, selecting this option will create a marker for each index change on the original disc. (You will learn the difference between regions and markers in a later tutorial on Sound Forge.)
    - REFRESH. This option updates the track list, in the event that you would change CD's.
    - PLAY    . You can select a track and click Play to preview it through your headphones.
    - SPEED. You can select the maximum speed the drive uses to read the tracks. Usually "Max" will work, but if you have problems reading audio tracks, you could select a slower speed from this box.
  5. Select your track(s) and options if necessary, then click OK.
  6. After the drive is done reading, you will have one or more windows that look like the example below. NOTE! Unlike in Vegas or Acid, Sound Forge does not automatically ask you for a file name, so your tracks are not saved at this point! Right now you could go into Sound Forge and edit the file as it is, but it's always a good idea to save it first.

SAVING TRACKS

  1. Select File > Save As... The Save As window in Sound Forge is also more detailed than in Vegas.
  2. In the Save In box at the top, select Data (D:) as your drive. You will save all your files here.
  3. Double-click on your folder to go into it.
  4. Besides the usual folders and boxes you are probably used to, there are some other options you should know about:

    SAVE AS TYPE. You can select between 19 different file formats. There are only -- at most -- four of them that would be useful for everyday application.
    TEMPLATE. Within each file type, there are usually a handful of templates available to use, that make it easy to save files for different purposes.

    See the table below for the most common file types, templates and applications.
  5. Select a file name, a type and template. The bottom three checkboxes (Save Metadata..., Stretch Video..., Fast Video Resizing) should all be unchecked.
  6. Click Save.

If you save in a compressed format, such as MP3, you may get a window after you save that asks if you would like to re-open the file. This is handy if you are saving it as a lower quality format and you would like to hear your file in its saved form. You can choose Yes if you want to hear it.

FILE FORMATS

There are a number of file formats you can save to in Sonic Foundry's product line. So which one should you use? Here is a list of the four most common file formats, the "templates" that you can use to customize them, and common uses for each.

  Wave (Microsoft)
WAV

MPEG Layer 3
MP3

 Real Media Audio
RM		 Windows Media Audio
WMA

COMMON USES
  • Recording high quality audio
  • Creating CD Audio tracks
  • Sharing files on the Internet
  • Storing music for use on handheld MP3 players
  • In Vegas, MP3 files can be used when laying out tracks for burning CD's
  • Embedding audio on web sites
  • "Streaming audio" (hearing audio as soon as it begins downloading, rather than waiting for the whole file)
  • Internet radio
  • Embedding audio on web sites
  • "Streaming audio" (hearing audio as soon as it begins downloading, rather than waiting for the whole file)
  • Internet radio

PRO'S
  • Most common computer file format
  • Most every media player and sound card supports it
  • High quality recording format
  • Nearly same quality as Wave files and CD audio, at about 1/12th the file size!
  • Many portable audio devices and DVD players will play them
  • Stores title and artist information in the file (known as an ID3 tag)
  • You can buy song downloads on the Internet and make your own CD's
  • New portable CD players may be able to read MP3's from CDs, with ID3 information. One CD = 10-11 hours!
  • Compressed format allows audio to be placed on the web, with file sizes small enough to be downloaded on various connection speeds
  • Common internet format
  • Allows web streaming
  • Compressed format allows audio to be placed on the web, with file sizes small enough to be downloaded on various connection speeds
  • Common internet format
  • Allows web streaming
  • Most newer Windows versions (98 or later) have a player built in.
  • Some CD/DVD players or handheld devices now support WMA files

CON'S
  • File sizes are very large (650 MB for 74 minutes of stereo CD quality audio)
  • Needs a program to convert CD tracks or other formats to MP3 (such as Sound Forge).
  • Free file sharing on the internet is usually illegal
  • Handheld players and the storage media can be pricey (64 MB card holds one hour)
  • Requires a player or web browser plug-in to play it (which is free but Real Network tends to place ads in their player)
  • Proprietary format not as universally accepted as WAV or MP3
  • Proprietary format not as universally accepted as WAV or MP3

COMMON TEMPLATES FOR SAVING
  • DEFAULT TEMPLATE
    Use for CD audio and standard recording
  • 64 Kbps, FM Quality Radio
    Useful for saving long files for placing on the web.
    (1 min = .45 MB)
  • 128 Kbps, CD Quality Audio
    Use to save audio in CD quality sound, for use on MP3 players and when creating CD's from MP3's
    (1 min = .96 MB)
  • 56 Kbps Audio (Mono)
    Highly compressed audio, downloadable on a common dial-up modem.
  • 64 Kbps Audio (Stereo)
    Compressed stereo audio, ideal for slower broadband connections
  • 100 Kbps Audio (Stereo)
    Compressed stereo audio, for high speed internet
  • 28.8 Kbps FM Radio Mono
    An approximated mono "FM Radio Quality" format, ideal for streaming voice recording over low speed modems.
  • 56 Kbps Stereo
    Lower than CD quality stereo, but good for streaming music over common dial-up modems
  • 128 Kbps CD Transparency Audio
    Closest to CD quality stereo, but primarily for high speed internet connections.