BETTER SOUNDTRACKS

A tutorial CD-ROM by

Howard Gregory

If you buy a computer in the High Street, you will get a machine aimed at a typical consumer – someone who wishes his computer to be as cheap as possible, have as many bells and whistles as possible - even if he hasn’t a clue what they are for, who isn’t interested in quality – indeed cannot distinguish good quality from bad anyway, and who mainly plays computer games and downloads music and dubious pictures from the Net.

As AV & video workers, we have a much clearer idea what we wish to do, some of it is a bit specialised or unusual, we are aware of good and bad quality, but are still stuck with a “consumer” computer.

This CD shows you how to make the best of this situation. “Professional quality” results are possible from an off-the-shelf computer – if you know what you are doing.

Today’s best soundtracks are superb. However the average soundtrack is no better than it was in the analogue cassette era.

We don’t accept out of focus pictures – we shouldn’t accept poor sound quality.

This CD-ROM starts at the very beginning with the basics, including optimising computer and software settings for ease of use and for maximum quality. It shows how even an apparently simple act like importing music from a CD can be improved by doing things in a particular way. It is not widely appreciated how quality-reducing conversions can lurk behind many seemingly innocent mouse clicks. The CD suggests which clicks to avoid, and why. It suggests the best order in which to do things, which of the many ways of doing the same job is likely to yield the best results, and how to use those options.

It is very easy to get carried away with all the facilities on offer. Many soundtracks have been audibly spoiled by misuse, or unnecessary use, of apparently “magic” facilities. The CD shows how to decide when to leave well alone. Just because a facility is provided doesn’t mean that it’s sensible, or necessary, to use it on every occasion.

It shows how to recognise problems both audibly and visually (important if your hearing isn’t as acute as it used to be) and what to do to rectify those problems. It’s important to be able to recognise problems with your sound, otherwise you’re not going to realise the need to do anything to improve it.

Total running time is a shade under 2.5 hours, but the story is broken down into 12 “bite-sized” chunks. The dialogue is illustrated by soundbites, pictures, graphics and “screen-grabs” to show exactly what is going on. You can pause to look at a diagram, or go back to listen again to a few sentences at any time.

The CD should run on any reasonably modern PC, or a Mac running Windows Emulator software. If your system will play .exe file AV sequences, this CD will run. If it does not auto-load, access it via Windows Explorer and open “STARTMENU.exe”

The cost is £12, plus 80p p&p and can be obtained from

Howard Gregory, 64 Mill Lane, Heatley, Lymm, Cheshire, WA13 9SQ. Phone 01925 75 3303.