Make sure the audio host is set to Windows Direct Sound then the Speakers to “Realtek High definition”. The input set to “Stereo Mix(Realtek High Definition)”.
12.) Click the drop down beside the microphone icon in Audacity:
start monitoring in microphone
And then click “Start monitoring”.
13.) Play the minus one in Youtube, you should see the volume level meters moving. It should have enough captured volume like what is shown in the screenshot below:
minus one volume meters
If the volume leve meters are barely moving, the recording levels will be very weak so increase either the volume of the music in Youtube or the stereo mix volume level.
14.) If everything is now OK, re-position the minus one video back to its start in Youtube. Do not yet play it. Close all programs in Windows 7 except your browser and Audacity.
15.) Hit the record button (red button) in Audacity and then immediately hit the play button Youtube. The audio wave will then be captured by the recording software. Do not
yet close or stop anything while the minus one is still playing.
16.) When it is done, hit the stop button in Audacity. Select the long silence before the start of audio, see screenshot below:
long silence removed
Go to Edit and then click “Delete”. It will remove the long silence which is not needed. Now do the same after the end of the minus-one, remove also the long silence.
17.) Click anywhere on the wave and press Control- A to select the entire wave. Go to Effect – Normalize. Set to 0.0dB and all options checked. Finally click “OK”. This will maximize the volume of your minus one without distortion. This is how it looks like after normalizing:
normalizing minus one
18.) Click File – Save Project and then click “Don’t show this warning”. Assign a project name. Close Audacity.
19.) Go to this URL and download lame for Windows 7. Install that to your computer.
20.) Open your Audacity minus one project. Its time to create an MP3 version of this audio. Go to File – Export. Under “Save as type”, select MP3 files. Click “Options”. Set the quality to 320kbps and using “constant” bit rate mode. Set the channel mode to “Joint Stereo”. Click OK. Assign a filename to your MP3 file. Finally click “Save”. You can skip the metadata and just click OK.
21.) Try playing the minus one version with Windows media player. It should be perfectly clear and well-recorded. You can then use this MP3 file in your practice.
Content last updated on August 14, 2012