Goldwave Sampling Course

by Johan Lindgren

Step 1:

Start by creating a new empty file, You do that by choosing New under the File menu.

Step 2:

Because of the guitar being a mono instrument choose Mono in the Channels field and set the sampling rate to 44100Hz. The length of the sample depends on how long the entry is and how many times you will have to play it before you get it right (30 secs to 1 minute is usually enough for me). The more time you add the larger the file gets. The larger the file is the longer people have to wait for it to download (Small=fast, Large=Slow).

Step 3:

Click on the record button and turn your monitor off and play . The monitor often generates noise in the guitar pickups so it is recomended that you have the monitor turned off while recording.

Step 4:

Delete the end of the file by marking it with the left mouse-button and press the Delete key on your keyboard. You could also delete the takes you didn't get right, but save some noise in the beginning of the sample for upcomming steps(6,7) in this course.

Step 5:

Offset is an effect that moves the sound to lie in central to the horizontal axis, It´s often nesesary to use this effect so that the volume-maximizer (Step 10) works in the best way. You find the Offset effect under the Effects menu. Don't forget to have the whole file selected before you use offset.

Step 6:

Now you are going to filter out some hi/mid-frequensy noise. (See the picture to the left to find the Noise reduction effect)

Step 7:

The hi/mid noise often lies in the range between 2k-20khz, Make a curve over the spectrum range 2k-20khz . Don´t do anything about the low-frequency (bass) noise and keep the curve just above the hi/mid range spectrum cause to much noise reduction makes samples sound a bit weird.

(Don't change the position of the scrollbar, you are currently looking at the spectrum of the noise before the entry)

Step 8:

Now you can delete the noise in the beginning of the sample, leaving only the entry.

Step 9: (Optional)

Step 10:

Now you are to make the entry sound as loud as possible. This is where the Maximize Volume effect comes in handy. The M.V. checks the highest volume-peak in the sample and than changes the sample-volume so that the peak will be re-set to the maximal volume which has no unwanted distortion. You will find this effect under the Effects/Volume menu.

Step 11:

Save the sample as mp3. See file attributes at the bottom of the save screen? Change the attributes to 64kbps so that the file downloads fast.