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Soundtrack Basics

A quick overview of Apple’s Soundtrack, a non-destructive audio editor designed for video soundtracking (duh) and long audio file arrangement.

soundtrack controls

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Introduction to compositing

For this tutorial we will learn the very fun technique of selecting specific images out of a picture and placing them against a new background.

Let’s start with our source image, our beloved friend Jason Brown. Go ahead and drag this image to your desktop, if you haven’t already done so.

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how to load paper in the epson

types of paper

we have four main kinds of paper we’re printing currently.

* Ink Jet 17×22 – thin yet big. good for seeing what stuff looks like or making posters.
* Ink Jet 13x 19 (Super B/A3). thin yet large-ish. good for seeing what stuff looks like or making posters.
* Velvet Fine Art Paper 13×19 (Super B/A3). Thick and arty. Nice for finished pieces. Matte – not great for photos
* Velvet Fine Art Paper 17×22. Thick and arty. Finished pieces that can use the larger scale of 17×22. also Matte.

loading thin papers into the paper tray

Both thin Ink Jet papers are loaded into the printer via the paper tray

To load the tray follow these steps.

Step 1. Lift up the tray cover
Step 2. Flip up the roller guide and load the sheets
Step 3. Adjust the paper guide to the size of your stock
Step 4. Replace the cover and extend the tray

loading heavyweight paper manually

In order to print on the heavier Velvet Fine Art paper choose Manual Feed and follow these steps for manually loading the heavyweight paper into the printer

Step 1. the heavyweight paper has a smooth side and a textured side before loading the paper determine which side is smooth
Step 2. select the paper icon with the “paper source” button, release the paper lever and open the top cover.
Step 3. Insert and align the paper with the smoother printing surface facing up.
Step 4. pull the paper lever back down and extend the paper tray

Using My Webs

To put files on the web from the DARPA computers:

  • Find your My Documents folder
  • Inside My Documents, go to My Webs
  • Anything that goes in My Webs is live on the web.

To get to your files on the web, go to http://pages.pomona.edu/~YouUserId/

For example, Jason’s files are at: http://pages.pomona.edu/~jb004747/

You can’t see a listing of files, so to get to a specific file, you must enter it’s exact name. For example:
http://pages.pomona.edu/~jb004747/images/capybera.jpg

printing on the epson

really, this will be fun…

Load the Paper

first load the paper. We have four main kinds of paper we’re printing currently.

* Ink Jet 17×22 – thin yet big. good for seeing what stuff looks like or making posters.
* Ink Jet 13x 19 (Super B/A3). thin yet large-ish. good for seeing what stuff looks like or making posters.
* Velvet Fine Art Paper 13×19 (Super B/A3). Thick and arty. Nice for finished pieces. Matte – not great for photos
* Velvet Fine Art Paper 17×22. Thick and arty. Finished pieces that can use the larger scale of 17×22. also Matte.

We’ll go over in order how to print each kind of paper. In this tutorial we’ll be printing from the PREVIEW program, but the steps should be similar for other software.

Step 1.

Select File > Page Setup. Under paper size select the size of paper you are printing. It may be listed by the inch measurement or by the type (Super B/A3). Under Format for select Epson Stylus Pro 4800. Here is an image of how the dialogue box would look if we were printing onto the 13×19 paper (Super B/A3)

Step 2. Select File > Print to open the print dialogue. Select Epson Stylus 4800 as the printer. I know you already selected that in preview, yet you must do it again for it to work.

Step 3. Using the third drop down menu in the print dialog box, select Print Settings Select Paper Tray if you are using the thinner, ink jet paper (which is is loaded automatically from the paper tray). Select Manual Feed if you are using the thicked, fine art paper (which is loaded manually). Under media choose either Velvet Fine Art (for the thicker paper) or Photo Quality Ink Jet. The dialogue box should look something like this.

Step 4. Click on Preview. Does your image look like what you are expecting? Is it the right scale? If so, go ahead and print.

Step 5. Is the printer printing? If so, go get some coffee and come back in a couple minutes and your art will be ready. If not, check the following – Did you send it to the correct printer in both print and print set up? Did you select the correct source of paper (paper tray or manual feed)? Did the printer get upset loading the paper?

Troubleshooting – when in doubt, delete the job from the print queue, then turn off the printer, turn printer back on and try again.

Eagle – board layout

using our schematic from our last exercise we will now generate a circuit board for manufactoring our circuit. Open up the LED schematic and type BOARD into the command line to create a new board. Eagle will tell you know that no board yet exists for this schematic – allow it to generate the new board. The board and the schematic will be linked together, so a change in one will be reflected in the other. Neat!

The new board should look something like this, a large blank area with all our components grouped together off the the side. Drag the componets onto the screen using MOVE and rotate them so the connections between them have a direct path to each other. It should look somewhat like this

Eagle – basic schematic

Eagle is a neat and free (for the basic user) CAD program for designing electronic schematics and circuit boards. It runs through the X11 server and operates a bit different than software you may have used before. When you launch Eagle it will launch the X11 server as well.

eagle main window

We will use Eagle to create both schematic circuit diagrams and to layout the board for manufactoring. In this tutorial we will be creating a schematic. Both the schematic and the layout are located in a project. To create a new project select FILE>NEW>PROJECT

Creating a new project

After creating a new project you can now create a new schematic by selecting FILE>NEW>SCHEMATIC. This will open the schematic editor window

schematic editor window

Before going any farther, save the schematic with the project name followed by your name. Example led1_markallen

The first stage in making a schematic is to make a sweet frame for our drawing. Load Library frames with the USE button. This library may or may not be already added. Since in the cad software, each part of the drawing corresponds to a component in real life, we need to add the parts from a library instead of just drawing the shapes on the screen.

The frame is just the formatting around our schematic that has your name and date the file and so forth. You can place a frame with ADD. Select frames from all the libraries. Inside of frames (use the drop down arrow to see the contents) select LETTER_P and click ok. Go to the schematic screen on click to drop the frame where you want it (I suggest lining the botton left corner of the frame with the cross mark on the schematic window). Once you drop the file EAGLE assumes that you want to use it again, whcih in this case we don’t. Cancel the ADD command by clicking on the stop sign at the top of the screen.

The next step after adding the frame is to add the power supply. For this example we’re going to use a 9 volt battery. The libraries for power supplies are called supply1 and supply2. Use ADD and select +9v from supply2. Click ok and then drop the part onto the schematic. Then click the stop sign (to avoid placing multiple copies of the +9v) and repeat the process to add a ground symbol.

This simple schematic will power an LED. so let’s place the LED. The two most common LED package is T1 (3mm – the small ones) and T1-3/4 (5mm – the big ones), in the LED lib there are a few that specify 3mm vs 5mm. Use ADD to select LED5M from led > LED and place it on the schematic between the power and ground pads.

Finally, to keep our LED from burning out, we need to place a resistor into the circuit. Resistors are located in the rcl (resistor, capacitor, inductor) library. Use ADD to select R-US_ > R-US_0207/10 0207 is the package type of the resistor, the /10 indicates how much space between the leads. Place the resistor between the LED and the power supply.

At this point we have all the components on the schematic that we need for our circuit. Now use the ROTATE and MOVE tools to place the components next to each other and right side up. When you are done your schematic should look something like this

We need to indicate the value of the resistor on our schematic so we know which resistor to use when we’re building it. Use VALUE to write the value on our schematic. For this circuit we will use a 220 ohm resistor.

Finally, we need to connect all the components together using NET. Select net then click on the ends of the the components in the order you want to connect them. To place a right angle turn, click on the spot where you want to change direction. In order to have the wires conenct correctly, click as exactly as you can on the end of the wire coming off the component.

At this point, your schematic should look like this. Type ERC into the command line, and if no errors are found, congratulations! An engineer you be.

Audacity: Exporting MP3s

Download LameLib:

Due to the license on MP3 technology, the encoder must be downloaded separately. The LameLib files for Macintosh are at spaghetticode.

Direct download link: LameLib-Carbon.sit
This is a StuffIt archive. It should automatically uncompress.

Behold the LameLib:

You should see something that looks like this:
library.png
called LameLib.

The best place to put this file is in the Audacity application folder. If you have trouble doing this, just move LameLib to your home directory.

Tell Audacity where LameLib is:

Open Audacity. Open a sound file — any file will do. Go to File: Export MP3

Agree to the various questions, until you are asked where LameLib is

Edirol R09 – Recording

Turn power on:

press and hold the little power button on the left side. You have to hold it down for a few seconds.

Set the mic gain:

The mic gain switch is on the back. For loud sounds, set gain to low. For quiet sounds, set gain to high.

Check levels:

Press record button once. It should blink red. In the display window, you should see the sound level meters. The input level is controlled with the + / – buttons on the left side. Try to get your loudest sound level as close to “0″ on the meter as possible, without ever making the red “peak” light go on. Red peak light = too loud.

Record:

Press the blinking record button. While you are recording, it glows solid red. To stop, press the “Stop” square on the control panel (below the record button)