Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

A couple of random computer questions..

11:55 / 25.03.03

God only knows how much time I've wasted on computers over the years, and I'm still baffled by the simplest things, so..

1. Is there any simple way to steal pictures from .PDF files?

2. I still don't understand how you go about recording music directly to a computer. Not in terms of software etc., but on a purely physical level - what do you plug into what? How does it work?

12:08 / 25.03.03

you can't really steal images from .pdf files. none of the elements can be played around with on a pdf once it has been distiled - which is why the format is so good for publishing - it prevents people with fiddling with your work.

having said that you could maybe save the page with the pic you want as an eps or take a screen shot of it and then play around with that in photoshop or some such - but i think the image quality would be severely effected.

12:15 / 25.03.03

Rizla>

To record music from your stereo, you need:

- a soundcard installed in your computer with a line-in socket to plug a lead into

- line-out (or tape-out) sockets on your stereo to plug the same lead into. Failing that, a headphone socket

What sort of lead you need depends on the sockets. Tell us about your holes, Riz.

13:07 / 25.03.03

You record audio into a soundcard.

Soundcards have one, possibly two "in" sockets: a Line In, for line-level signals, and a Mic-in for mic level signals. Occasionally the two are combined, and you switch the levels from Windows Volume control.

Basically, dynamic microphones (the type most people know of) output really quite low levels, and need more pre-amplification. Line outputs (stereos, most musical equipment, output devices, post-amp guitar direct outs) have a much higher "gain" as we call it and need less preamping. You essentially hook the output of whatever it is you want to record (say: your minidisc player) into the appropriate "in" socket on the PC, pull up volume control, select "adjust properties for: Recording" and make sure the checkbox by "line in" is selected.

Any application that you can record into will now accept sound in.

(Thing that absolutely does not work: plugging a guitar straight into the mic in... yes, it'll preamp it a bit, but it'll be horrid. DI it from an amp or something, or mic up the amp). Any questions... feel free to PM me. Is that clear enough?

.

14:39 / 25.03.03

It's easy to steal pics from anything really, including PDFs. Look on your keyboard (assuming you've got a PC) and above the Insert button, just right of the F12 button, there should be a button labelled "Print Screen". Press Ctrl and Print Screen, and anything shown on screen gets copied to the clipboard. Open up MS Paint, or whatever, paste from the clipboard, and crop the bit that you want out of the rest of the pic. Save it in jpg, bitmap or gif, and there you go.

18:31 / 25.03.03

Or go to download.com and there will be some easy screen-capture ones that allow you to pick out which bits of the screen you want to save in the first place.

06:47 / 26.03.03

You should be able to highlight, copy and past pictures in PDF docs using the graphics select tool (default G - on PC) providing that the document in question doesn't have any security on it.
Check the Document Security details under the File menu. If it is locked then the solutions above should all work anyway.

09:56 / 26.03.03

ii [259]'s method works a treat! Nice one!

I'll have a fiddle with the sound stuff when I've got more time than I do now..

13:43 / 26.03.03

Beyond soundcard usage for audio input and output...there's midi controllers that communicate through your usb/firewire interface. It's a fairly standardized system that allows one to route and reroute audio to and from equipment with the use of software. A bit more high-end than standard line-in recording, it allows for looping effects and information as well as maintaining track information and separation for use in your own constructed mix.

14:00 / 26.03.03

Riz, just out of interest, what sort of stuff are you thinking of recording onto your PC?

15:23 / 26.03.03

Beyond soundcard usage for audio input and output...there's midi controllers that communicate through your usb/firewire interface. It's a fairly standardized system that allows one to route and reroute audio to and from equipment with the use of software. A bit more high-end than standard line-in recording, it allows for looping effects and information as well as maintaining track information and separation for use in your own constructed mix.

I don't want to get into an audio bitchfight, but this is pretty much rubbish.

MIDI is not an audio protocol, it transmits lots of numbers from between 0 and 127, I really don't understand what you mean by "looping effects" but am guessing it's an entirely misguided phrase. "Track information and seperation" because, well, audio interfaces with multiple ins and outs also maintain track "seperation", and MIDI is a 16-channel protocol.

But the main reason I'm bringing this up is because we're trying to keep things simple for Rizla here, and he wants to record audio into his PC - not MIDI, which is not audio. So not only have matters been confused, but your post is largely confused within itself. None of this is helpful. Least of all, this post.

08:17 / 27.03.03

If you're just interested in learning about this shit and/or ripping mp3s then you can probably experiment just fine with a bog standard PC soundcard and some software like Cooledit, Soundforge or Wavelab. All these progs are equivalent to each other. I generally use Soundforge as its precise and comprehensive. You can download a trial version of Cooledit from www.syntrillium.com.

If you're interested in producing music you can get USB or firewire audio interfaces. there's a whole lot of them out there with varying tracks available. they pretty much work the same as 4-track/8-track etc. tape machines except they allow you to record on the PC/MAC and then edit it after. Generally the price range of these can go from $300 up to $10,000 depending on number of tracks, quality of recording and additional processing.

A good general indication of what's available now can be found in the UK mags Future Music, Computer music.

New shit comes out all the time so its pretty much a question of getting the best you can afford.

Some manufacturers that make good, reliable (most important) stuff are M-audio, Digidesign, MOTU. Do a search and their websites are pretty informative.

I'd be glad to answer any other questions yerself or anybody else has about sound because its the only thing I really know anything about.

09:27 / 27.03.03

Ditto.

I would, however, say that whatever your interest, stay away from Future Music and (to a lesser extent, it's almost useful) Computer Music. You have the Internet. If you want to pay £5 to be told advice less useful than banshee's post, go ahead; I learned everything I know about audio in the past six years from hanging out on a very good forum and starting at the bottom and discovering what I needed to know.

Really, thuogh, I think Riz just wants a "how do I get stuff into my soundcard" answer, so let's keep things s-i-m-p-l-e. And not use big figures of money just yet.

14:20 / 27.03.03

Paleface: Are you interested in doing a thread dedicated to making and recording music?