Audio Recording
Basics
You can record SonicMood's MIDI
instrument sounds in a MIDI-format file, or both the
instruments and the nature “soundfiles” in a number of
different “digital audio” file formats.
Once you've specified the file, its name will be displayed in the message area near the top and the "Record" button will be enabled. Next select the “Recording Method” and, if “Digital Audio,” the desired “Settings.” Optionally check “Timer On” in the “Recording Timer” area and select how long to record. Finally, click the “Record” button to start recording. You can change to a different Mood if you like, and the recording will continue with that Mood.
Upon clicking the "Record" button, a "Recording" message will start flashing and the button caption will change to "Pause". Clicking the button again will pause the recording and the caption will change to "Resume". You can also toggle between pause and resume by pressing ⌘R. If you pause SonicMood (by pressing the spacebar, for example) the recording will also pause unless you have unchecked "Pause audio recording if SonicMood is paused" on the "General" page of the Preferences window. Above the "Recording" message is the elapsed time of the recording in "hh:mm:ss" format.
To time the length of the recording, check the “Timer On” box in the “Recording Timer” area. Specify a recording length by setting values in the "Recording Length" fields (you can do this anytime). When the elapsed time reaches the recording length value, the recording will end (not pause). The “Timer On” and "Recording Length" settings are remembered. A "Record length" of 00:00:00 implies continuous recording; the recording will only end when you press "stop recording". Unchecking “Timer On” accomplishes the same thing but allows you to keep saved a recording length value.
The file that's recorded can be played using the Quicktime Player.app that's in the Applications folder. You can also drag & drop the file onto iTunes and iTunes will play it. To convert the file to MP3 format (to play on an iPod, for example), you can use iTunes (works with v7.0.2 and probably later versions as well). Assuming the file is already in the iTunes playlist, select it and click "Convert Selection to MP3" from the "Advanced" menu.
If you close the “Audio Record” window while still recording you’ll be asked first if you want to end the recording. Audio recordings only take place while the window is open. If you quit SonicMood the recording WILL be saved.
Recording
Methods
MIDI recording is easier to set
up than Digital Audio and takes up less hard disk space,
but will only record the “instrumental” sounds, not the
“soundfiles.” You can play MIDI-format files using the
QuickTime Player or iTunes, and iTunes can even convert a
MIDI-format file to a Digital Audio format. So if all
you’re interested in is the sounds of the instruments, you
might consider just doing a MIDI recording.
To record using the MIDI file format, just select “MIDI”
under “Recording Method” and proceed as outlined above.
MIDI files are generally quite compact compared to digital
audio files. An average MIDI recording consumes
approximately 20,000 bytes per minute of recording. An
uncompressed AIFF file, recording at 44.1 KHz, uses around
500 times as much space or roughly 10 MB per minute.
Somewhere in-between are compressed digital audio files of
various formats that can take as little as 1 MB per minute.
But the user should be aware of the space requirements of
digital audio files.
In order to record SonicMood’s audio digitally, you’ll need to have downloaded and installed “Soundflower” from the “cycling ’74” web site’s download page here:
http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/downloads/list
After Soundflower is installed, you should also run “Soundflowerbed.” You’ll find it in the “Soundflower” folder the installer added to your Applications folder. Just double-click to run it. Afterwards, you should see a “flower” icon on your menu bar. Click the “flower” and select your speakers from the items below “Soundflower (2ch).”
Please note that SonicMood will record ALL sounds coming out of your computer’s speakers while recording in Digital Audio mode. So be sure to mute any other audio sources your might have running, including Apple Mail, etc. Or you can go to System Preferences, Sound and select the “Sound Effects” tab to modify the alert sound settings. Select different speakers or a lower alert volume as an alternative to muting Mail, etc.
Once you’ve got Soundflower and Soundflowerbed set up, select “Digital Audio” under the “Recording Method.” Notice that the controls under the “Digital Audio Settings” area become enabled. You can change any of those settings before you start to record. Once recording has started, however, you’ll only be able to change the “Convert recorded file to” setting. That’s because the setting isn’t used until the recording has stopped and the conversion from “movie” to the selected format (if any) has started.
IMPORTANT: The volume of the sound that’s recorded will be determined by the volume settings on the SonicMood window. Be sure you have the “Master,” “Instruments,” and “Soundfiles” volumes set where you want them for the recording.
OK, let’s get going. First, you’ll want to specify the “Sample Rate” for the recording. The higher the rate, the higher the max frequency that’s recorded. The max frequency is roughly half the sample rate, so a 44.1 kHz sample rate will capture audio frequencies up to about 22 kHz. That’s higher than most humans can hear, and takes proportionally more hard disk space to contain, too. You may want to experiment with the sample rate to see if you can hear any difference at lower rates. I’ve found than even an 11 kHz sample rate is adequate for my hearing.
Next you can specify the number of bits (8 or 16) used to represent the audio data, and the “Compression Type.” Some compression types only allow 8 or 16 bits; in that case the other setting will not be selectable. I’ve found that “IMA 4:1” yields good audio results while keeping the size of the disk file quite a bit lower than without compression. But this is another area where you may want to experiment a bit to find what sounds good to you.
Finally you can select a format to convert the recorded “movie” file to. Here again some experimentation may be in order. “MP4” may be the best overall format for both file size and compatibility, although “AIFF Lossless” is probably the best format for pure fidelity. All the formats except “Sun Audio” (“.SND”) and “AVI” are recognized by iTunes.
When you’re happy with the settings, and assuming you’ve already specified the “Record File” and set the “Recording Timer” (if desired), you can just click the “Record” button. Recording will then start.
During recording of a digital audio file you will see a file named “tempRecord.tmp” instead of the name you gave the file. When the recording ends and the conversion (if any) is finished, the “.tmp” file will be replaced with the named file. If the recording is particularly long, the conversion might take a while. If you can’t wait you can click the “Abort Conversion” button to halt it. The unconverted audio movie file will still be available and have the name you gave.