| As the soundman and projectionist for my local | | | | course, this all took some time, but so would have |
| church, I found it to be frustating and time | | | | cataloging all the songs and info into a database. |
| consuming when searching for a particular song | | | | Then I ran into a problem. Not being very familiar |
| among all our cds for choir practice. I was determined | | | | with media players I was determined to find one that |
| to sit down at some point and catalog all those songs | | | | was small and easy to use. After finding one I liked, I |
| and cd's. I took some time to search the Internet for | | | | installed it on the pc and simply dragged the song |
| a simple, free database I could use for this purpose. I | | | | folder into the playlist window. By double clicking the |
| even considered creating my own database but | | | | first track the song began to play as it should. The |
| never quite got around to it. | | | | problem occurred when changing tracks. Since each |
| One evening during choir practice, as I was searching | | | | track contains a section of the song, there needs to |
| for a particular cd, a friend stopped by the sound | | | | be a smooth, undelayed transition between tracks in |
| booth and made an interesting suggestion: rip all the | | | | order to have no interruptions in the song. |
| songs from the cd's and save them to my projection | | | | Unfortunately, this wasn't happening. There were |
| computer. The idea sounded entirely plausible. Not | | | | burps between the tracks that I couldn't remove |
| only could I have the individual songs available in | | | | even by changing the buffer settings in the player. |
| alphabetical order, I could also play them through the | | | | After more searching I found another media player |
| sound board via the computer's audio out and | | | | with a buffer ahead setting that played the song |
| eliminate our stand-alone cd player for this purpose. | | | | perfectly. |
| I gathered up several cds, took them home, and | | | | Since I am responsible for the sound as well as the |
| ripped the songs from them. It was at this point I | | | | projection of the songs' words on a screen for the |
| had to use a little creativity - here's why. The choir's | | | | choir to read, this is an excellent setup for me. I can |
| practice cd's are recorded in a different fashion than | | | | have the projection software and the media player |
| a typical music cd. Each track is recorded with two | | | | both running on my computer's desktop screen. I |
| mono channels - vocals on the right channel and | | | | click the play button to sart the music, then use the |
| instruments on the left. This allows the choir to hear | | | | keyboard to advance the slides with the song lyrics. |
| how the song should be sung with or without music, | | | | Initially, I had some concerns about the sound quality |
| or to practice (and perform) with music only; simply | | | | I would get by playing MP3 files through a computer |
| by shutting off one channel or the other. | | | | sound card, then through the mixing board. After |
| Also, each song is divided up into sections, each one | | | | hearing the results I can tell you that I was very |
| being a separate track. In other words, the first song | | | | pleased. The sound was crisp and clear and the |
| on the cd might be composed of tracks one through | | | | reduced quality of the MP3 file was not |
| seven, the second song tracks eight through | | | | distinguishable. |
| fourteen and so on. This allows the choir director to | | | | Obviously, there are hard drive recorders/players on |
| go back to a specific point in the song and start | | | | the market that are designed for these kinds of |
| again in order to work on a troublesome area. | | | | audio applications, but they are somewhat expensive. |
| To record the cd's, I would rip all the tracks of a | | | | If you already have a fairly powerful computer in |
| single song and save those tracks (in MP3 format) in | | | | place for projection, this method costs nothing |
| a folder with the name of the song title. Then I'd do | | | | (except for a cable and some adapters to run from |
| the same with the next song. I placed each individual | | | | your audio card to the mixing board). Give it a try. |
| song folder into a master "Choir Songs" folder. Of | | | | |