Speech Analyzer transfer settings

When transferring a recording from a MiniDisc or tape recorder to your computer using Speech Analyzer (SA), use the following recommended settings.

• Click on Record and click on Settings. Check the appropriate box for recorder frequency 22,050 Hz (see Notes on Minidisc to Speech Analyzer Transfer).
• Click on Settings – File Info and enter information (esp. gender). Click “Add Information”
  • It will retain the file info for the next recording, except that it deletes whatever you entered for “speaker”, “gender” and “reference”.
• Leave the “70 Hz highpass filter option” in whatever its default state is. If you want to know what it does, see the SA help files.
• Click “Mixer” to adjust the recording volume. If you click Advanced, there are other options. With the MD player and computer I was using, clicking on Mic Boost caused way too much background noise. Clicking on Mic2 Select caused there to be no sound at all. These options may help with other combinations of equipment, you just have to check.
• Make sure that your computer will not get in the way...
  • Make sure all things like screensavers, anti-virus scans, etc. that might automatically start running are off while you are transferring.
  • Make sure your computer is not set to go on standby or shut off automatically.
  • Try not to be using your battery. If it runs out during the transfer, you will lose the transfer.
• When you have reached the end of the chunk you are transferring, stop your MD player or tape recorder. Then click “STOP” in Speech Analyzer. <ref>Doing it in this order will lead to a little bit of blank space at the end of the .wav file. But that is easily

removed in SA and does no harm. If you stop SA first, then later you will have to be careful to go back to the place where you stopped transferring since the source will have played a bit longer than the transfer. This, of course, will not be the case if you are using the play one-track-at-a-time feature of an MD player.</ref> Then click “DONE” to process the data. For a 60 minute recording, these 2 steps could take about 10 minutes! That is why it is a good idea to transfer in smaller chunks. You cannot always tell that the computer is doing anything, but be patient and just wait. When it is all done processing, you can save the .WAV file. This last step could take another 5-7 minutes with a long recording.

• • My computer could handle all this, but its possible that older computers might not have enough memory to handle all these steps. If this is so, then the transfer must be done in chunks. This will require care so as not to miss any parts. The MD player I am using has a nice feature of pausing and picking up where you leave off even if you hit the stop button.
• Although the manual of the MD player I am using says to set the “AUDIO OUT” option to “LINE OUT”, when it is set on “HEADPHONE” (the default), it sounds much better on the computer. Using “LINE OUT” seems to create too much background noise. Test these two settings to see which one works better for your situation.

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