Clunk!! Hiss!! Scratch!!

We've all heard it before at a festival. There is the performer perfectly groomed and well rehearsed ready to start her dance and the PA suddenly booms out some of the most annoying noises you have ever heard.

What do you think this says to the adjudicator? To me, it says "I don't really take my performance seriously enough to use a quality recording".

So, how can you avoid this?

Technically, the UK copyright law does not allow you to edit music in any form, and this includes cutting it to length. However, in practice you will find that a recording artist would be happier about their music being edited so that it sounds good rather than making it sound horrid.

With this in mind you need to do it right.

This article is concerned with getting your music into your computer for editing and I will explain all the steps needed in a simple manner - and best of all, I will show you how to do it with free software.

I am not affiliated to any software house, so I don't really recommend any one in particular. However a quick search on www.download.com for "free audio editing" shows "Expstudio Audio Editor Free 4.31" as one of the highest regarded free programs to do all that you will need.

For the purpose of this article I will assume that you are using this particular program. It is worth noting that this program will only allow you to save files as WAV, and not MP3. This simply means that you are only able to work in uncompressed file formats - a WAV file is just a higher quality MP3 and your CD writing program will write a WAV file without any problems. If you really need to save your work as MP3 then you will have to purchase the software.

Ok, so once you have the software installed you need to get your music into it. There are a couple of methods of doing this, and it basically depends upon where you are getting your music from.

If you have the music already recorded on your computer it will be a simple matter of opening the correct file.

If your music is on a CD you will have to 'rip' it. This is just a term used to digitally copy the music from the CD into your computer with absolutely no loss of quality, it usually takes much less time than it would to play the track too. Windows Media Player, iTunes and many other programs will be fine for ripping the music from your original CD - just remember where you save it and then open it in Expstudio Audio Editor. use the help files in iTunes or Media Player to help you here.

If you only have your music on cassette then you will need to connect a lead from your cassette player "line out" to the "line in"socket on your computer. The lead you will need has a single plug on one end which looks like a mini headphone plug, and at the other end there will be a red and a white plug. If your cassette deck does not have a line out socket then you can use the headphone socket (in this instance you will need a lead with a headphone socket at each end, and the one on your cassette deck may be larger than the one in your computer).

In the top menu there is an option called "AGC". Switch it on. This makes the recording into your computer as loud as it can be without causing problems.Now hit record (red circle in the top menu bar) in Expstudio Audio Editor and then play on your cassette deck and the software will record the music to your computer.

At the end of the track stop your cassette deck and press stop in Expstudio Audio Editor and save your track with a relevant name.

Great job -now read the other articles in this series to see what you need to do with your music once it is in your computer.