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LAKE HAMILTON BIBLE
CAMP |
The Ministry of "Helps"
By Kevin King
Last Updated
01/30/2009
1Co 12:28 And God hath set some in
the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers,
after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues.
Helping in the ministry is not all about being
center stage in preaching and teaching, or leading worship. There is so much
that goes on behind the scenes with needed helpers to make it all happen
more smoothly. If there is no background work, there would not be as much
front end ministry to bear even more possible fruit.
Lake Hamilton Bible Camp has one of the richest resources of tapes in the country. My vision is to preserve the cassette messages and get them converted to CD, as well as to clean up all those audio messages that have background noise like, hiss, microphone pops, muffled sounding audio, very low, or too high volume. I've only converted a little over 700 tapes now. You can see the amounts in the camps CD shopping cart. Yet, there are over 2,200 cassette masters listed at Lake Hamilton Bible Camp's website. So, I have an endless job, as well as the future 8 camp-meetings to record each year.
My goal here is hoping you'll catch a vision of a unique niche service you
could develop in helping any ministry while working at home on your computer
in your spare time.
While many ministries, big or small, might still be recording their services on audio cassette, most have moved on to CD recordings, or even DVD Video (which still has a need for audio enhancement). There is still a big need in converting all those older anointed treasures on cassette to CD. You have probably bought audio CD's that still need some tweaking. And with your help they could have a more professional sound quality.
All these problems can be easily fixed on a basic Pentium 3 or 4 computer. You don't need the latest technology to start for just transferring cassettes and editing and saving. But if you have one of those Pentium D's, or one of the new Intel Core 2 Duo computers, you'll just get your work done so much faster when running software filters to fix all these audio problems.
My home computer is an e-Machines Intel Pentium 4, 2.93 GHz. But, it has allowed me to convert hundreds cassettes to CD since December 2004. Not only do we list them on Lake Hamilton Bible Camp's website, I've taken some of these *.WAV files and convert them to Windows Media (.wma) so people anywhere in the world can click to listen freely.
Computers today are all about gaming and hooking up 2-6 speakers where it becomes your personal entertainment system for the back end. Most computers still only have one microphone in-jack. What you really need is to buy a professional sound recording card for a higher resolution recording, especially if you’re doing anything with enhancing music at your church. Recording the minister can be saved as a single track (mono) recording; I personally like to save the file in stereo to make CD copies unless I'm uploading it to our website. Web files need to be in (mono) single track. The file size is much smaller, which allows us to have more room to share more audio files for listening online. I'll explain more about this later in detail.
We bought three of the Juli@ cards for our basic recording: on for the chapel PC, one for our editing workstation in the camp’s office, and one for my home system. Now www.Tracertek.com sells the Audiophile 2496 card. They sell quite a few of these type audio cards from different manufacturers that would work, like those made by M-Audio. I'm just am happy with what I bought.
If you only have a laptop and can't install a physical card into your computer, you can also buy a USB audio powered devices too.
You need software to record and then a fast way to quickly edit your *.WAV file. I recommend the home edition of Sony Sound Forge it's so fast to edit files and save to any file format.
To transfer a cassette into the computer, we bought those inexpensive Radio Shack cassette decks. You might consider buying an extended warranty. The tape head won't wear out in a year, but pressing the button keys hundreds of times will.
I plug my patch cord bought from Radio Shack
into the earphone jack on the player and the other end has two plugs that
hook up to the left and right jacks on the back of the computers sound card.
Test your cassette out first before recording into the computer and adjust
for medium volume. Make sure your recording software is set to 44,100
Hz, 16 Bit Stereo. Press record on your software, and press play on your
cassette recorder.
Remember you have to be there to turn the tape over when it's time unless
your cassette deck has auto-reverse. No need to stop recording, unless you
want to save side one as a separate file name and then copy/paste side two's
file to the end of side one. For me it's easier to make it all one file and
just take out the long gap between both sides.
After you save your *.WAV file, look at your file at 1:1,024 magnification. The audio should be within the fixed audio lines on screen. Everyone speaks either too soft, or too loud, so it might take you an hour to go through the whole file raising volume in places, and normalizing screaming volume above the lines. This is a tedious job, and most people either don't have the time, or are not interested in making the minister sound the best they could be.
Transferring a cassette into the computer is done in real time. So if you have a 90 minute tape, it's going to take 90 minutes to play it all in. Then, save it to a *.WAV file and start editing it with Sony Sound Forge. When I say edit it, I'm not taking anything out of the message itself. I mean editing out the long gaps. You can't get 90 minutes of recording and fit it on an 80 minute CD without taking out gaps. Gaps occur where the speaker pauses for more than 2 seconds. Example: they might say, “turn to so and so scripture,” and then wait several seconds for the people to find the verse. Taking out those long gaps really helps those listening to an audio CD. Why make people wait before the speaker starts up again?
Next, you need to filter your file. When transferring from cassette to your computer, there is always going to be some hiss between the speaking. Not because of the transfer, but usually because of the cassette, especially if it's just a copy of the original master. It's best to transfer from an original master, but that might not be always available to you. Cassette duplicators help to raise the volume in copies made, so if there is any background noise in the master it's also raised in the copy.
In viewing your audio file you'll notice that there is a thin line between the speaking. The line might appear to look darker, thick or spotty. That indicates noise in the audio. Hiss filters are really not the best for taking everything out for noise reduction. I have now upgraded from DC6 to the new DC7. Wow what an update this is. Even bought the training DVD. I learned so much all over again. This program can do anything. DC6 or the new version 7 can be ordered from www.Tracertek.com. They have a free demo you can use that allows only 10 minutes of recording to just try it. This program will be able to fix ANY audio problems. The manual is like 400 pages, but all I did was read the first three chapters and I was out of the gate producing quality masters. This work is not hard. You will be amazed and excited.
In DC6/7 there is a "continuous noise" filter.
Just highlight a half second of the sound file and sample the noise. Turn
your computer speakers up full and listen. Preview the noise, and compare
what it sounds like with what DC6/7 will produce as a sample finished file.
I use the tape recording filter,
then either select all, or just double click on the whole file and run this
filter. DC6/7 makes a destination file copy. So you can see the old one and
also the new filtered file at the same time on your screen. If you like it,
then make the new destination the source. DC6/7 makes a new file name for
you. So you always have the original to go back to if needed.
For microphone pops run DC6/7 Ezclean filter. It's a labor of love to take time and make the master as perfect as possible. This is not about how fast you can do it. You will get your steps down after few several transfers. This can be fun. I have a saying. "Choose a job you love, never work another day".
I'm only using just a few of these great filters, but from time to time I run into a different audio problem. Like the echo effect when a minister is speaking in a great hall, or convention. The DC6/7 “Ping Pong” filter takes the echo out in speech. Got a file that sounds muffled? Click on the DC6/7 10 channel graphic equalizer and sample a few seconds of audio. Choose the filter for raising Treble. All muffled sound will now sound so nice and clear. DC6/7 also has a 20 channel graphic equalizer for enhancing your music too. Wireless microphones have a problem with the speech sounding too sharp. Use a warming a filter to make it sound better. There are hundreds of filters in DC6 or version 7.
Want a better way to transcribe an audio message to make a booklet? With DC6/7 you can run "Stretch & Squish". It's a speed change filter. Its primary purpose is for Forensics applications in which a spoken word recording needs to be slowed down for transcription to the written word. Want to restore an old record that is terribly scratched. When you play it into your computer, and save to a *.WAV file, just run the scratch filter and all those scratch sounds will be totally gone. It's truly amazing.
Over time, I began to have trouble with my right arm. I had pain in my shoulder from hours of clicking taking out audio gaps. So in 2006 began looking for software again to help me with this problem, because I got to a point where I had to leave this job alone for days at a time.
Adobe makes a program called, "Audition". This program is expensive for the latest version. I'm just using version 1.5 and one can get this a lot cheaper on e-Bay. Audition is really packed full of features for music lovers, and might be everything I'd ever need if I knew about it starting out. But right now, all I use it for is running the program and loading *.WAV file and then go to "edit" and click on delete silence. I just tell it to look for gaps over about 2 seconds and it does its job, and it sounds like normal speech and usually fits on one CD. I'm so happy not to be in pain anymore. This program also has fast edit, and has quite a few filters in it as well, but so far nothing compares to what DC6, or the new version 7 can do, so I'm using all these programs.
Also, don't go to the limit of your 80 minute CD, try to make your .WAV file under 79 minutes. You're going to need some space to add what you want to say in the beginning of the file as a header. The speaker’s name, date, where given, etc. Also at the end of the message add, "This is the end of this CD or message." Try and keep your file as close as you can to 79 minutes for your 90 minute cassette, or you'll end up having to make two CD's of one tape. It does happen, but not if I can help it.
For making these little .WAV files for my heads, I just open Windows word pad and type what I want to say and record a little .WAV file and save it as "EndOfCd.WAV", etc. Then I just copy/paste this to end of every CD master I make. Saves time!
Another small utility program I bought too is "Wave Breaker" from www.blazeaudio.com We we're getting all kinds of little complaints early on when we ended cassette recording and went to CD only. Since I was saving one big *.WAV file to burn a master, the problem came when playing it. You needed to hit pause if you wanted to stop it and then continue where you left off. But if you instead hit the stop button, you are forced to start listening to it from the beginning all over again. I'm told the same thing happens if you play one in a car. If you turn your engine off, you got to start over again from the beginning.
Wave Breaker takes an audio file, and detects smaller silent places in the file, and breaks the file into smaller files automatically between those silent places. This is what you need for splitting long speeches into segments. You can't even tell where one track ends and the next one starts, it's that smooth. And in your player if you pressed stop. You can still use the skip track feature on your player to better find where you left off. This program will cost you only $10.00. So when you’re ready to burn a master. Run this program, and then use whatever software you’re using to copy and burn to make a final CD. I'm using Nero 7.
Do not delete your original finished *.WAV file once you burn a master copy. Instead save it in a compressed Windows Media file format on your hard drive. Example a 700 meg file can be compressed down to 50 meg, using Sound Forge and saving in Windows Media 9 at 128kbps 44,100 Hz Stereo. I have a second drive for just storing my masters. They can be loaded and saved back to a bigger *.WAV keeping the original quality in your finished restoration.
I accidentally dropped one of my masters and scratched it, and when I put it in our CD duplicator it gave me an error – BAD!!! I'm so glad I'm saving my masters on my second hard drive, or I would have to play this cassette back in all over again. Get yourself a USB backup hard drive and make sure you don't just store your masters on your computer either. These drives can be unplugged and stored in a safe place till you need it again to back up another file.
If your ministry has a website you could save your audio files as Windows Media 9 to about 8,000 kbps, 16 bit, mono. The quality won't be as good as stereo, but clear enough for anyone wanting to listen online as a freebie. The file size will only be around 4-5 megabytes. If you take the time and take those gaps out it will make your file size even smaller, get that hiss out too, because compressing this tight is going to magnify any background noise.
On my home Pentium 4 computer using a 7200 RPM
drive, it can take 2-4 minutes to run certain filters in DC6/7. If you ever
upgrade to a faster computer regardless of what you buy, please consider
buying a Western Digital 10,000 rpm SATA drive for at least your C: drive
(you will also need a SATA controller in your PC to use this type of drive).
If you can afford it, buy two of them, and even consider configuring your
system for RAID 0 for extra performance in filtering or video rendering.
RAID 1 is for mirroring for data protection - But that makes a computer run
slower! These drives are being installed on higher end computers for gamers.
They need speed, and so do we if we're going to be more productive for the
Kingdom of God for audio restoration and also video rendering. Audio filters
should only take seconds, not minutes to run. But I guess I need to learn
some patience too. :-)
Anyway, I just drool knowing how a 10,000 RPM can greatly enhance any basic
32 bit computer system for office, audio or even video rendering. Just be
careful if you're considering one of those new 64 bit computers. Many 32 bit
programs won't install till it's rewritten to take advantage it. I
don't think much I'm using now in audio software is 64 bit compatible yet.
But it will all happen eventually. Many of the new professional audio cards
now have 64 bit drivers to take advantage Intel new I7 processor.
I have not upgraded my computer yet. Still works just fine. In 2007 I did
some research for Glen in just what we needed to upgraded the camp's Pentium
3 server and it's two Pentium II computers. Glen gave me the go ahead so
ordered three Core2Duo 2.4Ghz and each system has a 10,000 RPM Raptor Drive
running under XP-Pro, and Office Pro 2003. Ned Duffey who lives here helped
to get the camps office net-worked properly. He also fixed us up with a
secure network so we can
video broadcast all of our services on Sunday morning, plus the camp meeting
over the Internet. Ralph Andrews is our sound and video man. Wow
does he have talents, plus sings and leads us into worship too.
I'm now starting to make available the camp
meetings in MP3 format. My first project was the 2008 Mid-Winter Camp. Many
messages went over time. Even with taking out the gaps, the full message had
to be split into two CD's making an A & B set for one service. This is the
largest camp we have of the year, and a full set of CD's is $95.00. Not
everyone can afford to buy a whole set of those at a time. Most just buy a
few. But now the few they buy can add up more then just what I've got in two
MP3 CD's of the camp meeting. So this is far more affordable and provide
another option for folks. Now the whole
2008
Mid-Winter camp meeting can be ordered on just two MP3 CD's for only
$25.00.
Most newer CD players can now play MP3's I've seen them for around $25.00.
Apple iPod and their compatibles are everywhere. These MP3 files can be
copied to an iPod. Sony Walkman has an extreme portable I'm looking at them
now as I have a birthday coming up. There other makes and models to consider
too. I don't need video, or an FM radio. Just something in maybe 2 gig range
where I can load up several messages and listen. I like to help on the
diesel tractor every summer to help mow these 60 acres. I hope to put
messages on a MP3 player, and enjoy listening to these camp meetings I've
missed over the years this summer. That would be a good choice for me.
I want to go back and start putting out those
previous camps or maybe just some classic messages I had played in from
those old reel-to-reels that Glen recorded of Derek Prince in 1969. Like the
"Inheritance
of The Saints In Light" and awesome set of CD's that Glen and Erma gave
Frank Hammond which brought them into The Deliverance Ministry. Dr. William
Null told me before he died how it was Derek Prince that helped to bring him
into much revelation on deliverance. I just finished compiling these 9
messages on 1 MP3 CD. I also will be putting out a set of all the single
CD's of Win Worley on two or maybe three CD's on MP3. Win Worley has 26
messages he preached here. This is a lot of training on deliverance. After
that want to do Frank Hammond's messages, and others. This is an endless
job.
For better quality, I've save my original .WAV file to MP3 in 128 kbps,
41,100 Hz Stereo for CD quality audio. An uncompressed *.wav file is about
700 megabytes depending on it's length. Saving to high quality MP3 at 128
kbps or even 96 kbps won't sound much different, so if you need to put a few
more on one CD, that will help you. But compressing anymore for resale
purposes you will notice that you'll start to lose a persons tone in their
speech. Filtering can bring some of this back too. These higher quality
files become around 40 to 60 megs depending on length of the message, so you
can see you can get a lot of them on one CD/R.
I know now I can get any of these coming 3 day camp meetings on just one MP3 CD. So after each future camp meeting, going to be doing this. I'm just save my original *.WAV files to MP3 at 41,100 Hz Stereo and I can not tell any difference if I stay at 128 kbps, or slightly lower at 96 kbps. But for just speech 128 kbps or 96 kbps your not going notice much difference, providing you fix your audio problems first before saving, because at a higher compression rate with just a little hiss that sound is going to be magnified.
We have so many new people coming to camp meeting who found us online. All of these free messages while not as good of quality at this compression rate, still it will help you too.
Your part is just as great as the person who
spoke this originally. Learn how to fix and save these messages, then
duplicate yourself and teach others how to do it. Get behind your pastor,
teacher, or layman who is called of God to minister. Put your computer to
work for the Kingdom of God and be a blessing and you will find a wonderful
niche service, as you serve the Lord in the Ministry of Helps.
It's all about serving!
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