Background Music Under My Voice

[sandyg]

We all know what the answer is to, "What are friends for?". Well, Forum Friends are there for the same thing; help when you need it. Well, I need it!

I've just purchased a batch of CDs containing royalty-free music, timed for laying down a musical under-bedding for my voice-overs. I downloaded (ripped) 40 tracks from the 1st disc onto Windows Media Player. I've named some of the tracks, if for no other reason than to locate and use them through Goldwave. However, performing a search of my computer doesn't show me where these tracks are.

In brief, I need to know how to make the contents of these CDs available to Goldwave for use. I'd be happy to use the tracks either directly off the CDs or from my hard drive, having previously ripped them there. Any way possible!!!

I've also attempted following the directions in the "Goldwave Voice Plug-In Pack Manual". What is actually available to me on my screeen and what the manual states, are very divergent.

Please help. And, oh yes, layman's language is essential.

Serious thanks!

Sandy G

[DougDbug]

Are these regular audio CDs that you can play on your CD player? Or, WAV files? Or, are they some "funny" format?.

I've named some of the tracks, if for no other reason than to locate and use them through Goldwave.

Did you keep the file extension? i.e. Wave files should be named MyFile.WAV and MP3 files should be named MyFile.MP3. The wrong extension won't keep Windows from finding them, but they might not show-up in GoldWave's open-file dialog if they don't have a standard audio extension.

However, performing a search of my computer doesn't show me where these tracks are.

Try searching for files named *.mp3 or *.wav. (Use the Windows Search or Find feature, depending on your version of Windows.)

maybe you didn't actually rip them... maybe you just "indexed" them, so that WMP can identify the CD when you re-insert it.

[Skrewpa]

Open Media Player and click on the tools menu and select 'options.' Next click the tab labelled 'rip music.'

The directory listed in the 'Rip music to this location' area is where any ripped files can be found.

[donrandall]

I believe Sandy's files will be .wma files because he is using the Windows Media Player.

[GoldWave Inc.]

You could use the Tool | CD Reader command in GoldWave to read the tracks from a CD and save them in a folder where you can find them easily later.

I'm not sure about the GWVoice problem you mentioned. Try using one of the effects under the Effect | Plug-in | GWVoice menu, then choose the Help button. That should give help for that particular effect.

Chris

[sandyg]

Thanks to all for your responses.

I initially did rip 40 tracks from 1 disc onto Windows Media Player. They're there! I've named a few but cannot locate them using the computer's "Search" option.

Chris, I've followed your advice as far as my computer will allow. I've inserted a disc into a drive and then, in GW, used Tool and CD Reader and was able to see all 40 tracks on this CD. I then transferred all tracks to a new folder which I just created for all bedding. However, I'm really not certain if I should initially save these tracks as .wav or MP3. My voice recordings are initially .wav, but I convert them to MP3 when I send them for auditions.

Since I have 10 discs with approximately 35 to 40 tracks each, can I safely transfer everything to this newly created folder? Or will this overwhelm my system. My new computer has a 250 Gb Hard Drive and 1Gb of RAM, expandable to 4 Gb.

Per your other suggestion, Chris, I went into Effect, but couldn't go further into Plug-In since this is greyed out and won't allow me to go further.

From suggestions received thus far, I've learned how to use the GW CD Reader option and storing disc contents, but still can't progress to what I'm supposed to do after this. I still need some stepwise clarity in getting from point A to point B.

I await further details from all.

Again, sincere thanks.

Sandy G

[GoldWave Inc.]

I'd recommend storing all tracks as .wav files. 10 CDs would use less than 10GB of your 250GB hard drive. Saving as MP3 will lower the quality slightly and if you'll be editing and saving the tracks again later, that will further lower the quality. Saving as .wav avoids that problem. Another option would be to transfer only the tracks you need when you need them, then delete them when you are finished.

If the Effect | Plug-in menu is greyed out, that means GoldWave did not detect any plug-ins. Try re-installing the GWVoice plug-in, but be sure to close GoldWave before installing it. The next time you run GoldWave, the GWVoice item should be under the Plug-in menu.

To make a voice-over with background music, you'd open a voice recording, use Edit | Copy, open a music file, then use Effect | Plug-in | GWVoice | Voice Over.

Chris

[sandyg]

Chris, thanks for the advice. I did follow your instructions and re-installed the GWVoice Plug-In. The installation was successful. However, GW still doesn't recognize it since Effect | Plug-in is still greyed out. And yes, I did reboot after the installation just to make sure. I also reinstalled the GW Voice plug-in when GW itself was not open.

If all of this has not helped, what can I now do? I must say, this is extremely frustrating and very disheartening. I'm sure none of this is supposed to be occurring.

Sandy G

[holtram]

Hi Sandy,

If you go into Start Menu > All Programs > Goldwave > Goldwave Setup there are click boxes for disabling plug-ins. Check to be sure you haven't checked the "Disable Effect Plug-ins" box as that will cause them not to load.

Hopefully this helps....

[donrandall]

Sandy -

The installation was successful. However, GW still doesn't recognize it since Effect | Plug-in is still greyed out.

The plug-in is probably ready to use - it remains grey until you have copied some audio into your clipboard. Until you have done that, the Voice Over plug-in will remain grey. Try this: Open a track that you have voiced. Click "Copy". Now look at the toolbar and see if the Goldwave Voice Over plug-in is lit up. (You will also need to have some audio open in Goldwave - the plug-in needs two things in order to function: it needs a music bed and it needs a voiceover.)

I do not keep my production music on hard drive. I do not want to use that much hard drive capacity for storage of wav files, and for reasons Chris has discussed, I don't want to store them as mp3 files. I load a track as a wav file when I need to use it. I do not use the cd player that is built into my computer - I use an outboard indexing cd player which is routed to my computer thru a mixer. I start Goldwave, audition a bit of the track, set my level in Goldwave and record the track as a wav file. I then take my voiceover and mix it, using the Goldwave Voice Over plug-ing.

I can help you with the Goldwave Voice Over plug-in - but I don't have any idea what to suggest as far as finding your lost music is concerned - so, whenever you are ready to tackle the use of the plug-in, just give me a call. I can have ya workin' that thing like a pro in about ten minutes.

[GoldWave Inc.]

The Effect | Plug-in menu should be working if the plug-in installed successfully. Make sure you have the latest version of GoldWave installed and it is installed in the default folder (C:\Program Files\GoldWave) and the GWVoice plug-in is installed in the same folder.

Chris

[sandyg]

Well, I've tried following your joint inputs(?) and have encountered some pretty confusing things.

First, I tried following the chain that "Holtram" suggested. I have no explanation for it, but Goldwave is not listed under "All Programs" as it should be. And yet, I have it installed and use it! Crazy!!!

I then searched my system to find where Goldwave was situated. I found it, as anticipated, in many locations. It seems that "Goldwave.exe" represents the shortcut that I've been using from my Desktop. It is this that has not allowed me to get beyond the greyed out "Plug-In". I noticed that there was another Goldwave selection without the ".exe" and I moved this to my Desktop. I then tried accessing Plug-In and it works!!
I've made a modicum of progress.

Now, I can open Plug-In, go to GW Voice and onto Voice Over. The window that opens under Voice Over shows me a red area titled Clipboard, another untitled red area, and a blue area titled Background. I also have a dropdown menu.

I've got one of my music CDs in my E-Drive but it isn't being recognized by Goldwave. The Drive is, the CD isn't. If I do nothing at this time but click the OK button and use Playback, I hear my voice recording superinposed on itself with about a half second delay.

OK. I'm still at loose ends and need further assistance. But, unless I'm wrong, I did make some sort of advance. Yes?

Sandy G

[GoldWave Inc.]

It sounds like GoldWave was not installed correctly on your system, but since you found the working copy, I'm not sure you'd want to uninstall it, delete all the links and reinstall it again.

You'll need to use the CD Reader tool to copy the background music to a file first (or use one of the file's you already saved from the CD). You'd then open that music file, open the voice file, use Edit | Copy, close the voice file, then use the Voice Over effect.

Chris

[sandyg]

I'd like to thank all who've taken the time to offer their assistance in this dilemma of mine. At long last, I believe I've got it!! Going forward, it will now take practice for me to get the various steps in their proper sequence.

A King-Sized THANK YOU, ALL!!!!!!

Sandy G