African Pastors’ Conference

Dear Pastors,

Many of you requested that I share with you the details pertaining to the recording of your sermons in MP3/digital format. Here are the steps you will need to follow:

1. Ensure that you have a computer (laptop or PC) with a sound card. Most computers come with a standard onboard (built in) sound card. If you do not have a laptop or computer, you may want to purchase one from one of the many Matrix Technology stores. Alternatively, you can purchase a laptop online from Laptop Direct (who I purchased mine from). The microphone port will look like the pink one below the blue port into which the line in jack is going:
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2. Buy a microphone (not cordless). Shure microphones are very good. We use one of these for our recordings at Birchleigh BC. Two companies: Music Mate and Wild & Marr are resellers of Shure microphones in South Africa.
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   Music Mate are the cheapest of the two companies and have stores countrywide. You can locate a store near your area on their website. Alternatively, you can go to a nearby audio/video store and ask them for a microphone. Whether you buy from Music Mate, Wild & Marr or your local store, ensure that you get a microphone with what is known as an XLR cable:
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3. Buy a female XLR to male 1/8″ microphone transformer from an audio/video store. This will enable you to plug the microphone cable into the microphone port of your computer. The transformer should look something like this:
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4. Connect the microphone to the XLR cable to the Transformer to the computer. If you cannot get a microphone with an XLR jack, please contact me (David Peyton) and I will be more than happy to advise you further.
5. Ensure that all your sound and audio device settings are correct. These settings can be located in the Windows Control Panel (Click Start Menu >> Control Panel >> Sounds and audio devices).
6. Download and install Audacity. Click here to download the latest version. Audacity is free software.
7. Run Audacity (from the Start menu):
   1. Click on Edit >> Preferences. Ensure that your “playback” device and “recording” device are correctly configured to your PC setup (refer to point 5. above). Also ensure that your Audio I/O recording channel is set to 1 (mono).
   2. Read the Audacity online quick reference guide. Then go back to Audacity’s main screen.
   3. Click the record button (round red one) and speak into your microphone.
   4. Monitor the audio track to ensure that it is within its boundaries (i.e. the recording input volume is not too high). It should look something like this. Remember that you speak louder when preaching than while testing. If it is too high or too low, change the level on the mixer toolbar.
   5. Once you have finished recording, export the message as a WAV file. This can be done by clicking File >> Export as WAV. It is important to do this for backup purposes. No sound quality is lost in WAV format (although it is the biggest file type).
   6. Then follow these instructions to use the free LAME encoder to export MP3 files with Audacity. It is important to export your messages as MP3’s because they are a much smaller file type than WAV.We have found that the best settings to export MP3’s at are the following (found in the Edit >> Preferences menu):
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An important point to remember: there are two types of CD’s that you can burn: 1) An Audio CD or 2) An MP3 CD. An audio CD stores a maximum of 80 minutes of audio. This means it will only be able to store about one or two sermons. However, audio CD’s can be played in almost any CD player. On the other hand, an MP3 CD can contain approximately 50 MP3’s. However, an MP3 player or MP3 CD/DVD player is necessary to play MP3 CD’s.

So, if you have Windows Media Player 10:

• You can burn your newly created MP3 file(s) to an MP3 CD by following these instructions.
• Or, you can burn one or two of your WAV/MP3 files to an audio CD by following these instructions.

I have tried to make these instructions as simple as possible. If you have any problems, please contact me and I will be more than happy to advise you further.

The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)

David Peyton
(084 512 8356)