Setting Recording Options

In addition to simply importing audio files into Studio, you can also import tracks from a CD-Audio disc and record a voice-over narration. This section describes the setup options for both of those activities.

To choose a drive for CD-ripping

1.	From the Studio menu, choose Setup > Video and Audio Preferences. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options screen opens to the Video and Audio Preferences tab (Figure 11.3). Figure 11.3. Here's where you select the drive for ripping CD tracks and set other recording options.
2.	In the lower-right corner of the screen, select the drive containing the CD-Audio disc.

To set voice-over recording options

1.	Follow Step 1 of the previous task.
2.	In the Voice-Over Recording section on the right, make sure the Microphone drop-down menu is set to the correct microphone input source (Figure 11.4). Figure 11.4. Setting Voice-over recording options. Start by selecting your microphone input.
3.	Click the Channels drop-down menu and choose 16-bit mono (Figure 11.5). Figure 11.5. Set capture parameters next.
4.	Click the Sample Rate drop-down menu and choose 22.05 kHz.
5.	Click OK to close the dialog box.

Tips

• Pinnacle recommends using 16-bit mono at 22.05 kHz for narration because speech is less complex than music, and this format saves space without any perceptible change in quality. If the quality isn't good enough for your ear, or if you record your audio with music in the background, bump it up to the 16-bit stereo, 44.1 kHz, used for ripping CD tracks. It'll cost you an extra 128 KB per second, or about 3.5 percent of what DV video costs you.

• When you rip a CD or create narration, you're creating auxiliary audio files, and it helps to know where the system is storing them so that you can reuse or delete them. See "Working with Auxiliary Files" in Chapter 2 for details.