What are your suggestions for capuring/recording the output of a NW song to WAV or MP3 so I can then put it on a CD? What programs are available to do this?
Thanks
Alan
I do this many times each week. The following procedure works for me with nary a hitch or problem.
There are a lot of unknowns in your question, but assuming that you are using a Windows based machine and have access to the usual pre-loaded programing then, in a nutshell:
1) Create and/or obtain a NWC file, open it with NWC, then "Save As" a MIDI file (Type 1).
2) Play the MIDI file on Windows Media Player using MS Sound Recorder to record the tune.
You may have to append some more "empty" sound to the 60 seconds initially available with Sound Recorder. (Save the initial 60 seconds of available recording time (silence) as a .wav file. Then use Sound recorder to append this 60 seconds to the one already available and save the result as a new (empty) .wav file. This gives you an "empty" .wav file 120 seconds long. Repeat this process until you have an "empty" .wav file long enough to accomodate your tune. I find that in most cases 360 seconds is enough for me. In other words, create a .wav file 360 seconds long by appending new 60-second clips of silent .wav files to the original until an "empty" .wav file 360 seconds long (or whatever you want) is available, then record your tune OVER this "empty" file.
3) Use Sound Recorder to delete the unused portion of the original file. Save the music you have recorded as a .wav file with a name of your choice.
4) Use a CD recording program to create a CD from the recorded .wav file. I use "Record Now" -- it came pre-loaded on my machine -- but many other programs will create CD's from .wav files. I think Media Player will do this, but I have never used Media Player for this purpose.
I use a similiar process to create audio CD's from MP3 files.
Yeh Debo is right (Hi Debo) but if you don't want to have to make a long "blank" for the windows recorder, there is another unlimited time windows recorder mentioned in the NWC site somewhere. Also a good recorder (freeware) is Audacity (www.soundforge.com I think) or if you use Nero burning software use the bring up the "Wave Editor" and use the recording tab.
If you happen to have one of the Soundblaster cards, it should have come with Creative Wavestudio. That will capture the sound output directly from the sound card as it's being sent to your speakers. No limit on file size. I imagine other soundcards will have similar programs.
I bought ( for a scant few bucks ) a little program that works like a charm for ripping almost any audio signal to a .wav format. If it were any simpler to use then it would scare me.
The program name is "RIP Vinyl" and is available from ( http://www.ripvinyl.com/orderinfo.htm ).
I have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of old vinyl LP Albums and I am slowly converting these to CD's with this program. Slowly??? Well, it rips in "real time", and I am ripping them while I listen.
It is also easy to rip ANY audio output from MS Media Player (and the like) directly to .wav format using this program.
One can then use almost any CD recorder to convert the .wav files to CD's.
See https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=3468
I too use RIPVinyl and have found it very satisfactory after I got round how to set it up.
Tony
Step by step instructions for recording directly from NWC (or any midi file) into CD (or MP3) format through MusicMatch are located on my site at http://www.psalmistry.com/midi_mp3_cd.htm
MusicMatch can be downloaded as freeware and used to produce "near CD quality" recordings. One can also pay a fee to get up to "CD quality", although for web publishing purposes, I have not discovered much difference in quality in connection with recordations from midi and nwc files (other than that "near CD" quality provides a smaller file for downloading purposes.
Further advantages of MusicMatch: (1) can record the whole song at one time; (2) fade in and fade out options are available; (3) creation of sound clips, if desired, is a breeze.
Hope that helps.