Thank You, and a Few Extra Tips… Audio USB Gadget; Slide Scanning
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Thank you all for your recent purchases of the book. I promised you some tutorials here and they will be forthcoming shortly. I’ve been on a deadline, was interrupted by my annual Thanksgiving flu, and now have to deliver the project after all that by tomorrow. But we’ve got a lot to add in our Ken Burnsian tutorials, upcoming.
Getting Old Audio In to Your Project
Let’s say you’ve got to get audio into your computer, in order to get it into your video. Let’s say that audio is on some obsolete source, like an audio cassette, micro-cassette, 8-track tape, reel to reel tape, or even an old record. There are easy ways, chap ways expensive ways, and hard ways, not all mutually exclusive.
The trick is to convert your old analog signal to a digital signal. This is done via a device that will undoubtedly interface with a USB 2.0 port, or a firewire 400 or 800 port (1394a, or 1394b).
For simplicity, let’s leave it with USB– we’ve all got that, methinks.
If you are starting fron scratch, you can buy phonographs that are usb ready— just tape the usb connector that is attached to your shiny new record player and plug it in. Your computer detects a new usb input source and there you are. But you won’t be as lucky with tape recorders.
Now, I happen to have a lot of the old gear you need to play cassettes, or reel-to-reel tapes, or records. That’s not a problem. If it is for you, go to eBay… you can find lots of affordable used cassette, reel-to-reel, and phonograph gear.
The problem is the analog to digital conversion.
You might want to have a mixer for all your sources but let’s keep it simple. Let’s skip the mixer for now, until we make more money, sell few projects, or save up some dough. I have a $20 solution.
Go to an audio gear retailer on-line or in person. A good example is Guitar Center. Ask for the
Behringer U-CONTROL UCA202 USB-Audio Interface
which looks like this:
Behringer U-Control USB Audio to Digital Converter
Now this is really simple, an unlike a mixer or high end mixer / converter device, this will cost 30 bucks, not $300 or more.
You have two “RCA jack” inputs and outputs. Plud your cassette deck’s outputs into the input jacks. Plug the usb cable that is permantly attached to the U-Control into your usb port.
Your computer will recognize the new usb input, and you will now have an additional input choice to select from in your audio or video digitizing program. All that for 30 bucks. I’ve been using it on some recent audio digitizing projects and it works great, MAC or PC.
What about the Pictures?
The answer is pretty obvious– a photo scanner. But the wrinkle is, “What about slides?”
I have tussled with this one for years. I started out doing slide shows that featured two projectors and a dissolve unit… okay, suffice it to say I had complete shows with 280 slides in them I needed to digitize. And you may too. If Dad or Mom were slide happy, because they liked to entertain the family with pictures of your latest exploits or their trip to Aruba, well, slides it is.
There are lots of ways to get slides into the computer. You could set up a slide projector and a screen, point a camcorder toward the screen, and record until you’ve clicked through every slide. I’ve done it; don’t do it. The slides will look soft, there will be hotspots, and there won’t be enough quality to pan and zoom on later.
You could buy on of the many $69-$99 slide USB slide transfer units that are now on the market, from eBay to Hammacher-Schlemmer. Don’t so it. The early reports are you get what you pay for. You can only color correct a washed out digitization so much.
There are a number of consumer – prosumer devices made that scan slides one by one. They usually claim to be 1800 dpi and look kind of like large external hard drives or small George Foreman Grills. You’ll invest up to $200 for these. I’ve gone through two of these, and while the scan was okay, I always had to adjust the image, and both units blew their lighting element within a year or so and the manufacturer was no help.
So it comes down to this, for the quality conscious bargain producers that we are: invest in a good quality flatbed scanner that has a reasonable capacity slide and transparency scanning capability.
I’ll cut to the chase: the Answer is the
HP ScanJet G4050 Photo Scanner.
It scans paper, photos, and slides. But so do a lot of scanners.
Here’s why I like this one:
Unlike most consumer scanners that do slides, this scanner lets you fill up the entire platen with slides, not just 4 or 6. It’s software lets you preselect all the slides and batch digitize.
You’ll stick want to color correct, remove dirt, etc., but you will have created a little time to do thsat. And the scans are very decent quality.This scanner is about $160, maybe slightly less during some promotions, and you probably will have to order it online. HP Direct, plus almost any other computer supplier can get it for you.
These are real endorsements; no affinity or affiliate or distributor fees are hiding behind the post. Just my honest opinion. Thanks for your patience, the tutorials will be up soon.
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