Creating Christian music.

Instructions for making your own sound tracks for congregational or solo singing. (As I do it)

STEP ONE: I first use a program called "Noteworthy" which is something like a word processor for music. "Noteworthy" is a shareware program that is worth every penny of its registration cost.
I begin with standard sheet music, or a hymn book, and copy what I see into "Noteworthy." Noteworthy will then play your saved music. It can also make midi files.

SPECIAL NOTE: The Cyberhymnal Web Site, as listed above, has "Noteworthy files" of most of the traditional church hymns, thus you don't even have to create the file yourself. This site is well worth exploring as it has some newer songs, and some older songs that are NEW to today's generation.

STEP TWO: This is the only slightly tricky part. For this step you need a wave file recorder. I use a shareware program called "Ace of Wave." You will find a link to this program on this page. Have "Noteworthy" AND your wave file recorder both running. Using a cheap patch cord (mine cost five British pounds) you run a cord from your EARPHONE JACK to your MICROPHONE JACK. Now, I think you know what we are going to do. Have your song ready to play in "Noteworthy". Now, BEGIN RECORDING and quickly switch to "Noteworthy" and have it begin playing. STOP RECORDING when song ends then simply name and save your recorded wav file onto your hard drive.

You may not have to do this bit ....
Now switch back to the wave file recorder and you should see some kind of volume indicator. Adjust the volume going into the earphone jack so that the wave file recorder is receiving about 85% capacity. You may have to begin your recording session over once you have adjusted the volumes.

Note: Using a modification of this process you can even record cassette tapes as wav files, and then burn CD tracks. This takes a bit more work, but it can be done. And if you use "Acid wav" as mentioned below, they can be "cleaned up" rather nicely.

STEP THREE?….I then use "Ace of Wav" to remove excess beginning and ending space.

STEP FOUR: Use a program that will translate wave files to mp3. I use a program called "MusicMatch" which can be found free on the internet. This is very quick and simple.

STEP FIVE: Burn the mp3’s you have created onto a CD using a program which can burn music CD’s as well as data CD’s.

COMFORT: This all sounds complicated, but it isn’t that bad…and the results can be very impressive. For those of us who can’t play the piano or keyboard this be can be a real blessing. .... Be honest...don't make copies for sale, or reproduce music you haven't bought.