Matt’s Desk: Editor’s Blog

I had several old audio recordings made with a microcassette recorder that I wanted to transcode to digital files.  Problem was, the resulting digital files had a lot of background noise I wanted to get rid of before archiving. 

But I don’t know much about audio cleanup.  I did, however, find a very easy-to-follow tutorial that teaches how to use Audacity, a free audio utility, to get rid of unwanted noise in a digital file.  I’m sure there are far more powerful (and expensive) solutions, but I was shocked by how well the noise-removal process worked in Audacity. My files sound better than ever.

You can read the tutorial here.  Of course, you’ll also need a copy of Audacity, which will run on Windows or Mac OS X. 

Much appreciation to the authors of both the tutorial and the software.

-M

Several years ago, I ripped a short story from an audiobook CD (Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual) and stored it on my Mac.  I came across the book last week at the local library, and decided to listen to the tale again.

But when I found the folder that contained the audio, I discovered that I hadn’t used iTunes’ built-in joining feature at the time I ripped the CD; there were several .MP3 audio files, one for each track of the disc.  This is not the ideal way to listen to an audiobook on an iPhone or any other device.

So, I decided to re-rip the original disc, but it was missing from the case.  Typical.  I was stuck with those 25 or so files, but still wanted a single Audiobook file for the story.  So the search began.

Turns out there are several tools for joining MP3 files on a Mac, but most are paid applications and I didn’t want to shell out $20 just to join a few tracks.  But I found a free solution that worked quite well, and offered a lot of other useful features as well.

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On those nights when insomnia rears its torturous head, one tried and true method for getting to sleep (at least for me) is a move to the living room sofa; there’s just something about the couch that helps ease me off to sleep.  And when I’m trying to catch some Zzz on the sofa, or if visiting family or staying in a hotel, my MacBook is usually my alarm clock.  There’s no built-in alarm app in the Mac OS, but there are several available for download – some good, most bad.  But the one that has consistently worked best is an app called Awaken from Embraceware.

Awaken [Mac OS App Store] is a powerful alarm clock app designed specifically for the Mac (there’s also an iOS version).  It’s been around for a while, and is now up to version 5.x.  Here’s what makes Awaken so great.

First, there are multiple alarm settings.  You can wake to one of several pre-loaded alarm clock sounds (most are chimes or buzzers) or to iTunes music.  Waking to iTunes is also a multi-option affair with the ability to wake to your general music library, specific playlists, or to books or podcasts.  You can easily create multiple alarms so that you can turn on the one you need at a given time without having to constantly set new alarm times and sounds.  Need an app to run when your alarm sounds?  There’s also an option to launch an item (a file or app) alongside the alarm.

Second, there are great sleep options as well.  I like to listen to audiobooks when I am having trouble sleeping, but you can also sleep to music or podcasts or even nature sounds if you have them in your iTunes library.  The built-in sleep timer fades the sound to mute after a set time and can even put the Mac to sleep.

Other features include timers (great for cooking or chores), full screen mode if your Mac is at a distance, Apple remote support, configurable alarm duration, snooze control, and alarm and timer labeling.

Awaken 5 is available for $9.99 in the Mac OS App Store, which is a pretty good deal if you use – or want to use – your Mac as a full-featured alarm clock. 

I’m engaged in a bit of much-needed spring cleaning this early April, and reached the point where it was time to wipe my office PC’s boot drive and do a fresh install of Windows 7.  And since I was going to backup and restore anyway, I decided to upgrade my SSD while I was at it (in case you’re interested, I went with the 128GB Crucial Real SSD C300 – amazing!).

I perform a fresh install of Windows every so often, and have for years, so I have a pretty well established backup-and-restore routine, but this year I decided I wanted to look for a way – if possible – to backup Windows Live Writer along with my email, documents, iTunes library, etc.  And I found one: the creatively named Windows Live Writer Backup.

The software, developed by ScottIsAFool, is a free utility that’s been available for just over two years and is currently in v3.0.  Happily, it does exactly what you’d expect: it looks at your current installation of Windows Live Writer and backs-up the account settings, local drafts, theme configurations, plugins and more, so that you can quickly restore Windows Live Writer to its former glory on a new PC or an existing PC with a new Windows install. 

The resulting backup is a single file that you can copy to a thumb drive, external hard drive, Dropbox, etc.  Once your new PC is up and running, reinstall Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Writer Backup, then restore away  (be sure Windows Live Writer is closed during the restore).  Make note of your account passwords, though; they’re not stored in the backup.

And it works, at least it did for me, very, very well.  Scott is obviously no fool, because he’s written an excellent and handy utility for those who use Live Writer to update their web sites or blogs and don’t want to have to reconfigure the software after a new installation.

-M