Before Entering This Module

Introduction

In this module, you will learn how to download and configure useful software tools for your DiGI project.

Software plays a key role in the digitization process. There are many options for you to choose from depending on your data management and editing needs. This module will discuss two free, open source choices that are also industry standard programs: Audacity and BWF MetaEdit. There are certainly proprietary choices as well. For example, a DiGI Kit contains a Focusrite digital interface (converter) that comes pre-installed with the software Ableton Live.

If you are interested or curious about other potential software that might be beneficial for you and your project, please contact James (james@fpcc.ca) or Ben (ben@fpcc.ca) to discuss additional programs that might be right for your diverse digitization needs.

This module specifically addresses the steps to install Audacity and BWF MetaEdit and contains useful suggestions for their internal settings. Short descriptions of the software and their purposes are below:

Audacity

Audacity is a useful tool that is utilized by sound technicians and language professionals in many other fields. Audacity has many purposes including, but not limited to, trimming, reducing transients, segmenting, labelling segments, recording, and creating silence in sound files. For more information on how to perform some of these functions, please follow this link to the FirstVoices Team's article on audio editing: https://firstvoices.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FIR1/pages/1704440 .

The next modules in this series will also contain lessons on how to manage and edit audio quality in Audacity.

BWF MetaEdit

BWF MetaEdit is a software program that embeds metadata and checksums into audio files. It is a digital archiving tool that adds organizational information to recordings, so future digitizer and archivists will know more about the nature of how audio recordings came to exist or help technicians identify if files ever become corrupted. You will use BWF MetaEdit to document and aid in filling out your digitization log.

The next modules in this series will contain lessons on what is metadata, why it is important, and how to use checksums to verify data integrity.

After completing this module, please feel free to review it again or continue onto the next one.