If the recording has lots of clicks and pops, select a built in cleaning preset. Once you are satisfied, click "Next" Step 5: Tag / Name Your Recording

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Enter in the artist, album, genre and track names if your CD burner supports burning CD-Text. (This screen is more important when creating MP3s or other audio files.)
Click "Next" when you are done. Step 6: Click "Burn CD" Click the "Burn CD" button, click "Next" to accept the default settings and click "Next" again.
Insert a blank CD and wait for it to finish! Enjoy your new CD in your car or home stereo! Don't forget to print a CD label with the optional Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker. The track list will be automatically imported from step 4!
Record An LP/Tape To Audio Files

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If the recording has lots of clicks and pops, select a built in cleaning preset. Once you are satisfied, click "Next" Step 5: Tag / Name Your Recording Enter in the artist, album, genre and track names. This will affect how the individual MP3s are named and tagged.
Click "Next" when you are done. Step 6: Pick A Destination & Format. If you want to put it on an MP3 player, make sure it's plugged in and then click "Choose" and select it from the list. Otherwise, choose a folder on your computer. You can also choose a format (MP3*, OGG, WAV or WMA) and click "Details" to change the bit rate and other advanced settings.
Click "Next" and it will create your audio files! * Creating MP3s is not available in some bundled versions of Spin It Again.
Type Or Look Up Album Information During Recording

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Type in the track names and track lengths that correspond to the recording. To add a new track, click the "Add" button. Move tracks around by selecting them and clicking the "Up" or "Down" buttons. If you don't feel like typing, click the "Look Up Album Information" button. Type in an album and/or artist and click "Search".
You may need to adjust your search query if you are not finding the results you would expect. Also, make sure that you can connect to the Internet!
Split An MP3 File Into Multiple Tracks
Step 1: Load An MP3 Run the software and click "Load A Sound File".

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Select your audio file and click "Open". Step 2: Preview And Edit Your Multi-Track Audio File The software automatically splits the audio file into multiple tracks. If there were any erroneous tracks created or if there was extra silence, you can edit it by clicking "Split" and/or by dragging the track markers. See more on manually creating tracks here.

Once you are satisfied, click "Next". Step 3: Tag / Name Your Tracks Enter in the artist, album, genre and track names. This will affect how the individual audio files are named and tagged.
Click "Next" when you are done. Step 4: Pick A Destination & Format. If you want to put it on an audio player, make sure it's plugged in and then click "Choose" and select it from the list. Otherwise, choose a folder on your computer. You can also choose a format (MP3*, OGG, WAV or WMA) and click "Details" to change the bit rate and other advanced settings.
Click "Next" and it will split your tracks! * Creating MP3s is not available in some bundled versions of Spin It Again

Manually Creating Tracks

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In some cases, the automatic track detection will not work as desired. Luckily, you can manually create your own tracks with some built in tools. Select a track on the top track view. Click the "Split" button to split it into two tracks.
Notice that it splits it exactly in half. Alternatively, you can right click at an exact position and select "Split Track At Cursor" to create tracks. In the bottom track view, use the zoom buttons, the scroll bar and the play back controls to find actual spot where one track ends and the next one begins. Drag and drop track markers by cllicking near the top of a start or end marker and dragging it to a new position. In this example, the red boxed area shows the noise area we want to get rid of.
Click an arrow or drag the head of the marker to the right to trim out the unwanted record noise, etc.
Use the "Delete" button to remove false positive tracks, ie: record or tape noise or a bad track. Use the "Create" button to restore a deleted area.
Reduce Clicks And Pops From A Record
Step 1: Load An Existing Recording or Record An LP Run the software and click "Load A Sound File" or go through the steps to record an LP Step 2: Select A Click & Pop Reduction Effect On the bottom of the "Preview And Edit Your Recording" screen, you will be able to choose a Cleaning & Effect Preset. Choose "Vinyl Clean & EQ" from the drop down box. (Or choose

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anything with the word 'vinyl' in it.) Effect Presets Explained ** Please note: When you select an effect preset, it will be instantaneously applied! (You do not need to play the entire recording, unless you want to double check the quality of the noise removal effects.)
Click "Play" to listen to your recording without record noise. The cleaning algorithms are applied in real time when you play the recording or burn a CD. (You do not need to listen to the whole recording to clean it as some users have tried to do.) [ Don't forget to clean your records before recording them! ] Learn more about Cleaning And Audio Effects

Reduce Tape Noise Hiss or Hum
Step 1: Load An Existing Recording or Record A Tape Run the software and click "Load A Sound File" or go through the steps to record a tape Step 2: Select A Noise Reduction Effect On the bottom of the "Preview And Edit Your Recording" screen, you will be able to choose "Tape Noise BeGone" from the drop down box. ** Please note: When you select an effect preset, it will be instantaneously applied. Effect Presets Explained
Click "Play" to listen to your recording without tape noise. The cleaning algorithms are applied in real time when you play the recording or burn a CD. (You do not need to listen to the whole recording to clean it as some users have tried to do.) Step 3: Preview The Recording Without Noise Click the "Play" button to listen to the recording without noise. If it sounds warbly or as if its under water, it means that it needs a better "noise print". The noise print is a part of the recording that is just noise and not music. The software subtracts the noise print out of the music to create noise-free music. To automatically choose another noise print, click "Next Noise".

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The noise print will look like this: If it's still not sounding great, you can try right clicking on a noisy area and choose "Set As Noise Print". (Make sure to not choose an area with music.) Right click on the noise print and choose "Play Noise Print" to hear what it sounds like. You can also drag and drop the noise print. If it's sounding like it's under water or warbly, check out the noise reduction troubleshooting area. Learn more about Cleaning And Audio Effects

Built-in Effects Presets

Spin It Again comes with 14 built in presets to help clean, declick, decrackle and de-hum! Here is a description of each preset. Of course, you can create your own presets, as well.
Clean Anything! Use this if you are not sure how to clean the recording! Moderate noise reduction Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction Basic middle EQ cut to help bring out the treble and bass frequencies Damaged Record 1 Use this for moderately damaged records. Light noise reduction Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Damaged Record 2 Use this for severely damaged records. Moderate noise reduction Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Damaged Tape 1

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Use this for moderately damaged tape recordings. Strong noise reduction Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Damaged Tape 2 Use this for severely damaged tape recordings. Maximum noise reduction Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. No PreAmp Blues Use this for recordings made without a preamp. Moderate noise reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Tape Clean & EQ Use this older tape recordings. Moderate noise reduction Moderate hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Tape Light Cleaning Use this to apply a very small amount of noise reduction to a recording Light noise reduction for removing constant noise, such as hiss or hum. Tape Noise BeGone Use this to apply a moderate amount of noise reduction to a recording Moderate noise reduction Extra hum & hiss reduction Vinyl Clean & EQ Use this for vinyl recordings with a touch of noise reduction and EQ. Light noise reduction Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Vinyl Declick & Decrackle Use this to just remove clicks, pops and crackle. Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction Vinyl Declick & Decrackle Use this to just remove clicks, pops and crackle with a touch of EQ. Aggressive vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction "Classic V" EQ to reduce mid frequencies and boost bass and treble. Vinyl Light Cleaning Use this to lightly remove clicks, pops and crackle. Moderate vinyl declick & decrackle with hiss & hum reduction Warped Mind

Get A Strong Recording Level Later on, after your recording is done, make sure you don't have a weak recording. If your recording looks like a weak recording, you may still need to adjust a volume or input to get a stronger recording level. Example of a weak recording level:

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Example of a strong and desired recording level:
Clean Your Records Before Recording Them
Start with the cleanest records possible. If you can see dust on them, that will turn into clicks and pops in the recording. That should be avoidable. You can use a soft lint-free cloth or brush to clean them, or you can purchase a special spray. Do not use TAP water to clean the records as this can cause corrosion. If you are going to use water, purchase some distilled water. Purchase a new needle if possible. If you've been using the same needle for 50 years, it might be time to replace it. If you record player is really warped, you may need to get a new one. After all, it's not the record player we care about, it's the music! Visit our accessories and equipment page for helpful links: http://www.acoustica.com/spinitagain/buyequip.htm

Recording 78s at 45 rpm

Most record players play at 33 or 45 rpm. If you have some non standard records that play at 78 or 16.7 rpm, you can still record them at the closest speed and then adjust the rate later.
1) Set your record to 45 rpm and place your 78 rpm record on the player. 2) Record both sides of the album. 3) On the "Preview And Edit Your Recording" page, go to the botton and look at the "Recording Speed Adjustment" drop down control. 4) Choose "78 recorded at 45 rpm" 5) Note that the "Playback Rate" is now 173.9% Of course, you can do the same with 16.7 speed records. And, if you have recorded some other non stardard rate, you can calculate and manually set a new playback rate with the following equation: Playback Rate = (Actual Speed of Audio / Recorded Speed Of Audio) * 100

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Hardware Hookup Wizard
The Hardware Hookup Wizard guides you through the sometimes complicated process of hooking up your record or cassette player to your computer's sound card. Click the "Hookup Wizard" button to start it. (You can find this button on the first screen or on the recording screen.)
The wizard may recommend some additional equipment: A cable to connect the tape or record player to your computer's sound device. A preamplifier for LP recordings. A new record or tape player More tips on hooking up your record player or cassette deck to your sound card. You may need to purchase the right kind of cable from an electronics or audio store such as Radio Shack, Best Buy, The Good Guys, etc. Support your local "Mom & Pop" family audio/electronics store, if possible! The cables usually cost less than $5. Visit our accessories and equipment page for helpful links: http://www.acoustica.com/spinitagain/buyequip.htm

Recording Level Wizard

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Sound card or USB sound device If you have more than one sound card or USB sound device, choose the sound card that you'd like to record from. Make sure that your record or tape player is connected to the line in of the selected sound card. Source Your sound card has multiple inputs, such as Microphone, Wave, Line In, CD, Auxiliary and others. If you are recording from the Line-In, make sure to choose a source that has "Line-In" in it's name. If you aren't sure, play back some music on your cassette or record player and change the input until you see the levels in the Level control. Level This shows the signal from the left and right channel inputs based on the selected Source and Sound card. Volume This is the recording level. It is automatically adjusted when you run the wizard. You can also adjust it manually. This will control how strong the signal is recorded. If it is strong, you may record distortion, depending on your setup. Open Mixer. This button launches the Window's sound mixer which will let you adjust the playback and recording levels of all controls on your sound card. On some computers and sound cards, this may not do anything. Start This button starts the Recording Level Adjustment Wizard and will help you set the optimal recording level. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) Voice On/Off This turns the voice assistant on or off. Get A Strong Recording Level Later on, after your recording is done, make sure you don't have a weak recording. If your recording looks like a weak recording, you may still need to adjust a volume or input to get a stronger recording level. Example of a weak recording level:

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Choose Tape, LP or Existing File Screen
On the first screen of Spin It Again, you can choose to record an LP, tape or load an existing audio file.
Record A Vinyl LP * Choose this option to record a 16's, 33's, 45's or 78's. Record A Cassette Tape * Choose this option to record cassette tapes, reel to reel or 8-tracks. Load A Sound File Choose this option to load and edit an existing MP3, WAV, OGG or WMA file that is already on your computer. Hookup Wizard. Click this for help on connecting your record or cassette player to your computer. More. Voice On/Off Turns the voice assistant on or off. Settings Brings up the settings and advanced preferences. * Note: You can use the software to record from Microphone, MIDI, Wave, Auxiliary or

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whatever you'd like. Just choose either one of the recording buttons to record from a source other than LP or tape.

Recording Screen

Step 1: Make sure you are ready to record! If you haven't hooked up your cassette or record player to your computer, run the "Hardware Hookup Wizard" If you haven't adjusted your recording level, run the "Level Wizard" Step 2: Adjust "Auto Pause" if necessary. The software will automatically pause recording after a certain amount of time. If you are going to be gone for any amount of time, this allows you to set the maximum time it will record. Otherwise, it would fill up your hard drive with hours of silence. Choose an auto pause time which is a little longer than the music you are going to record. For cassette tapes, make sure you rewind it first! Step 3: Start recording Click the "Record" button and then start playing the record or press play on the tape deck. Step 4: Type or look up album information during recording While the software is recording, click "Type or Look Up Album Info." button and enter in the album and track information. On this pop up window, you can also click a button that lets you type in the album or artist name and automatically get the track and album information so you don't have to type it! (The track times and number of tracks can help in track detection, especially if the album has continuous audio such as a live or concert recording.) Step 5: Record the other side of the tape or record The software will automatically pause when it senses the end of the record. Flip the record or tape over and play side two. If the software auto-paused, click "Record" before playing side two.

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Step 6: Finished Once the software senses the end of the side two or it auto-pauses, click "Next" to go to the "Preview And Edit" window. Tutorial : Record A LP/Tape To CD BUTTON REFERENCE Record / Pause button Press the Record button to start recording. As soon as you press Record, it turns into a Pause button. Clicking Pause will pause the recording so that you can take a break, flip over to another side, etc. Stop button The Stop button ends a recording. Once a recording is ended, you aren't able to append any more audio to it. New button This clears and deletes the current recording and lets you start over. Monitor checkbox If you have a USB sound device and you'd like to monitor or hear the recording in real time, click "Monitor" to turn it on. Auto Pause After controls If you are going to be gone or not actively monitoring the recording and you'd like to make sure that the software will not fill up your hard drive for hours and hours, make sure to check "Auto Pause After" and then select the maximum number of minutes that it will record for. (Spin It Again will stop recording if it thinks it has reached the end of an album, but if the record or tape player is noisey, it may not automatically turn off, which is why we created this fail safe for you.) Voice On / Off Turns the voice assistant on or off. Level Wizard. Runs the Recording Level Wizard Hookup Wizard. Runs the Hardware Hookup Wizard

Preview And Edit Screen

After you've finished recording, you have the chance of previewing and editing the recording so that you can remove extra silence, clean up the clicks, pops and remove unwanted tape

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hum. By default, the software will automatically split up the recording into multiple tracks based on a silence location algorithm and/or typed or looked up track times. (In some cases, it doesn't accurately split up the tracks and you'll need to edit the tracks manually. See track splitting troubleshooting.)
There are two views of the recording. The top view shows all the tracks, the track numbers and is a quick way of getting around the entire recording. The bottom view allows you to zoom in and out, and adjust the start and end of each track. (In the screen shot above, track three is shown in green.) You can adjust a track's start and end by dragging it or clicking the track adjustment buttons. The figure below shows some unwanted record noise highlighted by a red square.
Adjust the start marker by dragging it to the right to get rid of the record noise.
Track one now starts at the beginning of the music. You can also set the name and volume for each track as shown in the figure below.

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(If you have typed in or looked up album track names, they will appear in the drop down list.) BUTTON REFERENCE Edit Album Info. button This pops up the Edit Track Information window that allows you to type in the track names, track lengths, album, genre, artist and year. In addition, you can click a button to look up the album information automatically online through the MusicBrainz.org lookup service! Clear All button Clears all track information and the recording becomes one large track. Analyze button Click this to reanalyze the recording for tracks. It will attempt to figure out where the tracks are and where the unwanted audio is. It won't always find all tracks. You can adjust three parameters: music threshold, minimum track length and minimum time between tracks. In addition, it will use any typed or looked up album track times to try and determine where the songs are. See track splitting troubleshooting for more help.) Split button This will split the currently selected track into two parts. This is useful if there are two tracks in a spot that the software auto determined to be one track. Merge button This will merge the currently selected track with either the next non-track space or track, which ever is first. This is useful if the software mistakenly made two tracks where there was really only one track. Delete button This will change a track into a non-track and the audio will be ignored for the mix down and burned CDs. If the software recorded a bunch of record needle noise at the end of the record or if there was a track that skipped for ever, use this to remove it. Create button This will restore an unwanted non-track space to become a track. Just select an unwanted non-track space and then click "Create" and it will turn into a track. Rewind button This selects the previous track. If it is currently playing, it plays the previous track. Play / Stop button This plays the recording. It will skip all non-track unwanted areas.

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Fast Forward button This selects the next track. If it is currently playing, it plays the next track. Preview Play button This will play a few seconds of the start and end of each track. If the voice assistant is on, she will say "Start Of Track " and "End Of Track" before each preview. (The default mode is to auto preview play when you first go to this screen.) Zoom In button This will zoom in to the recording for a closer and more detailed view. Zoom Out button This will zoom out of the recording for a larger view. Next Noise button If a noise print is set and the Acoustica Noise Reduction effect is loaded, this button will auto find the next best suited noise print. Troubleshooting noise reduction. The noise print looks like this: Show Noise button If a noise print is set and the Acoustica Noise Reduction effect is loaded, this button will scroll to the current noise print. Note that you should stop play back before clicking this so that it doesn't auto scroll based on the current playback position. Troubleshooting noise reduction. The noise print looks like this: Cleaning & Effect Preset This is a drop down control that lets you choose an effect preset, such as click and pop reduction, noise removal or other custom settings. Choose "<No Effect>" to turn off any processing. Choose "<Create New Effect>" to make your own meta preset. More On Cleaning And Audio Effects Built-in Effect Presets Customize button This lets you customize the currently loaded effect. Choose any effects in the list and adjust their settings. The software will handle third party DirectX and VST effects if installed. More On Cleaning And Audio Effects Recording Speed Adjustment If you recorded a 78 at 45 rpm or a 16.7 @ 33 rpm, click the drop down and select the adjustment. This will set the appropriate playback rate to correct for the speed difference. Playback Rate control Adjust the play back rate to accommodate for record players that don't play back at the correct speed. Voice On / Off This turns the voice assistant on or off. Settings Button

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use. Delete Recorded Files After Use To help cut down on used hard drive space, the software will automatically delete recorded files when you quit the program or start another recording. Show Folder After Rendering Files The software will open the folder where the new audio files were created. Ask Before Allowing Level Wizard To Select The Best Input If checked, the software will ask to automatically change the recording input to "Line In" when running the Level Wizard. Allow Level Wizard To Select The Best Input If checked, the software will automatically set the recording input to "Line In" when running the Level Wizard. Advanced CD Burner Options ---------------------------------------------Use X Minute Blank CDs Choose the length of audio CDs that you are going to burn. The most common length is 80 minutes. (The default is 79 minutes which helps to accommodate for a few burners which can only burn 79 minutes and 29 seconds) Use IMAPI For Burning (XP Only) For Windows XP only! You can have Spin It Again use Windows XP's built in CD burning system. It will take longer and require more disk space. It will also burn your CDs in Track At Once (TAO) mode which may not be as compatible with all CD players. If you are having problems burning, you might try this option. (Please note that you will need to restart the software before this change will be activated.) Use Acoustica ASPI Layer The tells the software to use the Acoustica ASPI layer. If this is unchecked, Spin It Again will attempt to use an Adaptec / Roxio ASPI layer. Try toggling this option, if you are having problems burning CDs. (Please note that you will need to restart the software before this change will be activated.) Goldenhawk Drive Override This button allows you to configure your CD burners that our software fails to recognize. You can set up the software to use a 'generic' CD burning driver or choose from a list of similar CD burners. This is not guaranteed to work, but is there as an option. If, after trying this option that the software crashes when it gets to the CD burner page, you should delete a file called "DEVICES.DEF" located in your Spin It Again folder. (Please note that you will need to restart the software before this change will be activated.)
Cleaning & Effects Settings

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This settings page shows all effect presets which are actually combinations of effects and cleaning filters. You can create new effects, edit them, delete them or rename them. Click on an effect to edit, rename or delete it. New This creates a new effect. Edit This edits the currently selected effect. Rename This pops up a window which lets you rename the selected effect Delete This deletes the selected effect. Load DirectX Effects This will cause the software to load any optional 3rd party DirectX effects found on the computer. These plug ins provide extra processing beyond the default Acoustica effects. Load VST Effects This will cause the software to load any optional 3rd party VST effects found on the computer. These plug ins provide extra processing beyond the default Acoustica effects. Edit VST Effect Folders. VST Effects are not loaded automatically. VST plug ins or.DLL files are located in various folders on your computer. If you have a VST plug in saved on your computer and Spin It Again is not finding it, you'll need to add the folder that the plug in is located in. (VST plug ins end with.DLL. Note that not all.DLL files are VST plug ins, though.) Click "Edit VST Effect Folders" to change or edit the folders that Spin It Again should look for VST plug ins.
More On Cleaning And Audio Effects Built-In Effect Presets Explained

File Tagging Settings

These settings are used when the software determines how to tag and name the audio files. Tag Files If set, the software creates textual tags inside the audio files for artist, album, genre, year and track names. Store recordings in folder with the artist's name. The software will automatically create a sub folder based on the artist's name. For example, if your output file folder was C:\My Documents\My Music\ and you had just recorded "George

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And The Dog Walkers" latest hit, it would store all audio files in C:\My Documents\My Music\George And The Dog Walkers\ Use ARTIST in song's file name This will put the artist in each audio file. IE: "George And The Dog Walkers - Track X.wma" Use ALBUM in song's file name This will put the album in each audio file. IE: "George And The Dog Walkers - Walkin Ze Dawg Again - Track X.wma" Use TRACK NUMBER in song's file name. This will put the track number in each audio file. IE: "George And The Dog Walkers - Walkin Ze Dawg Again - Track X - 01.wma"

Troubleshooting

Here are some common problems that may arise. It's not recording anything. It's not recognizing the tracks correctly. The recording sounds like it's under water and warbly. It doesn't recognize my CD recorder. It is failing to burn audio CDs. What is the maximum length Spin It Again can record? Precisely Split Two Tracks Into One Track How Do I Import Track information Into Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker If your problem still isn't answered, try our online F.A.Q.

It's not recording anything
1. Make sure that you've hooked up your record or cassette tape player properly. Run the Hookup Wizard! 2. Make sure to set the correct recording source and adjust the level. Run the Recording Level Wizard! 3. Make sure to click the "Record" button and then play back your record or tape. 4. If you are still having problems, try turning off "Pause Recording When Silence Is Detected" in the Miscellaneous area of the settings. 5. If that didn't help, try recording from a different source. Can you record anything at all? See the Recording Level Wizard.

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6. Make sure to click the "Open Mixer" button and double check that the correct source is not muted. Double check the recording settings. Click "Properties" from the "Options" menu. Select "Recording" and click "OK". Make sure that the correct source is selected. Normally, the correct source would be "Line In" or "Analog Mix".
It's not recognizing the tracks correctly
After recording, the Preview & Edit Screen comes up and, by default, automatically chops the recording up into multiple tracks, if possible. If the tracks are not being recognized properly, it could be a variety of problems. 1) Make sure you are recording with a good level. Weak recordings look more like a horizontal line. Example of a weak recording level:
Example of a strong recording level:
If you have a recording that looks like the weak recording image, try running the Recording Level Adjustment Wizard to get a better recording level. 2) Try adjusting the auto track analysis parameters. Click "Analyze" and then change the following parameters to try and better recognize the recording. Consider It A Track When The following parameters will help determine if audio is silence, garbage or a track. The volume is greater than X % - (Music Threshold) If the volume is greater than X %, we consider it signal/music and not record or tape noise. Since recordings are not perfectly silent, this is a threshold that can be used to help separate noise from music. (The default is 10%) It is longer than X minute(s) If the software detects music signal and not noise (see above) for X minutes, it will consider it a track. This helps eliminate false tracks such as record scratches, tape clicks and so on. (The default is 1/2 minute or 0.50 minutes.) It is separated by at least X seconds of 'silence'

Cleaning And Audio Effects
Spin It Again comes with built in Acoustica effects and 14 presets to help clean and process your recordings. To create a new meta effect preset, click "<Create New Effect>" from the "Cleaning And Effect Preset" drop down on the Preview And Edit Screen. When you are starting off with a brand new effect, you will see a screen like this:
Select an effect from the drop down title "Select New Effect To Add" In this case, we will select "Acoustica Advanced Vinyl Cleaner" and then "Acoustica Noise Reduction"

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We now have two effects loaded. To adjust the parameters for either effect, click on the effect title on the left hand side and then adjust the parameters to the right. The list of effects that you choose is also called an "effect chain" because the audio will pass through each effect starting at the top effect going to the bottom effect. In the above case, the raw recording will first go through "Acoustica Advanced Vinyl Cleaner" and then "Acoustica Noise Reduction". When you are done, click the [x] on the top right hand side of the window. It will ask you if you want to save it and give it a name. You can always edit it again later. You can reorder the effects by drag and drop or by selecting it and then clicking "Up" or "Down". If you do not want an effect, select it and click "Delete" Useful Acoustica Effects Click And Pop Reduction - Reduces and muffles clicks and pops. Noise Reduction - Cancels out noise such as tape hum and hiss. You'll need to have a noise print set to hear this. For more help see Reduce Tape Noise Hiss or Hum EQ - A 10 band equalizer to adjust different frequency ranges. Compressor - Great for bringing a quiet recording up in volume. It can work wonders for older recordings. Reverb - Simulate a great concert hall DirectX Effects If you have any third party DirectX effects installed, you will be able to load them as well. (Please note that you must have "Load DirectX Effects" checked in the Miscellaneous Settings) VST Effects If you have any third party VST effects installed, you will be able to load them as well. (Please note that you must have "Load VST Effects" checked in the Miscellaneous Settings)
An LP stands for 'long play' and is a term for a record that is played on a record player. The standard speeds are 33 rpm, 45 rpm and 78 rpm.

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Audio Files
MP3, WMA, OGG or WAV files
Buffer Under-Run Protection
This is an option that most newer cd recorders have. If the CD recorder does not get data fast enough, it won't fail and it will pause the burn until it gets more data.

Burn Proof

Burn Proof, Just-Link is another name for Buffer Under-run Protection.

Burning Engine

Spin It Again uses two burning engines. Goldenhawk is the default. If the software does not recognize your CD recorder by default, it will try Windows XP IMAPI (XP Only)
MB = Megabyte or roughly 1 million bytes. A typical hard drive has 4,000 MB when its completely empty. A typical MP3 file is about 4 MB.

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Help Contents
Welcome FAQ Printing Troubleshooting FAQ Getting Around in Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker Backgrounds Layouts Adding Your Own Images to Labels Clip Art Text Colored Shapes The Tracks Dialog Printing The Instant-Label Wizard The Preferences Dialog
Purchase & Registration About Acoustica Support Credits

Welcome

file://C:\acoustica\cdlabelmaker\help\cd-label-maker-flat.htm

6/13/2006

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Welcome to our help file. If you're looking for help with a particular problem, we suggest you start at the Help Contents page. This section is more or less a philosophical overview of Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker. If you're leaning forward in your chair right now, pupils dilated, mouse in a deathgrip, all because of something you haven't been able to figure out how to do - see the Help Contents. WelcomeIf you're reclining peacefully, with a comforting beverage beside you and perhaps one hand thoughtfully stroking your chin - read on. Our Goals Acoustica's mission is to make fun, quality, easy to use software. We want Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker to be a program that never makes you want to swear at your computer or throw your monitor out the window. We want to help you get your CD labels made quickly and enjoy doing it. And we want to help you bring out your creative side, even if you don't think you have one. One of the first things we realized is that if you want to be able to get where you need to go and try all the things you want to try, you need to have your tools handy. You don't want to have to weed through menus and nested subdialogs and hieroglyphic-laden, randomly arranged toolbars to get at the image or tool you're looking for. When you were four years old and you set out to color a picture, you set your paper in front of you and dumped all your crayons out beside it. Everything you needed was in easy reach. You didn't put all your red crayons in one of the kitchen drawers, your blue crayons in a box in the attic, and your green crayons under the bed at your friend's house across town. That would have been stupid. That would have been the sort of thing that - and I blush to say so, because I belong to this category - a programmer would do. We've tried to avoid the programmer's way and, instead, keep all your tools just a click away so the program doesn't get in the way when you're in a creative trance (you're in those all the time, right?). For more details on our approach to tools and general program layout, see Getting Around in Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker. Our Process "The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas." --Linus Pauling My fellow Acousticans loved it when I brought in a new version of the program with some important new feature. They seemed to think it was one of those carnival booths where you throw darts at the rows of balloons until you pop the one with the prize behind it. "I don't think this is clear," one of them might say. (Pop!) "It's too hard to find this button," might say another. (Pop!) "You need to be a techie to figure this out," a third might add. (Pop! Pop! Pop!) Eventually, having reduced the program to rubble, we'd agree on what seemed to be the clearest, simplest way to access whatever feature we were adding, and I'd head back to my code editor. I soon figured that I could shorten this process by making us all argue over how to add a feature before I wrote a version to try. This would be like having my Acousticohorts help set up the booth, so that they knew beforehand which balloon hid the prize. Surely this would reduce the carnage. But you know what? It didn't change a thing. The same people who swore oaths over the best way to arrange the tabs in the print dialog would violently disagree as soon as they saw it in action. Some things, it would seem, like program interfaces and living room paint colors, just have to be tried out before you know what works. And so, at least partly because of this, it's taken more than a year to bring this program to you. Not that I'm complaining. The painstaking process we've gone through has helped us create a

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program that, I think, makes it easier, quicker, and more fun than it's ever been for you to create labels you like. Without the feedback and ideas I received throughout the process, the program would be nowhere near what it is today. So thanks, Joseph, Ronnie, Lois, Brian, Donda, and the beta team. Please ask your nearest neighbor to pat you on the back. So It's All Done Now? Think back to all the bestselling novels you've written. Once they hit the bookshelves, you were done with them. Perhaps you received fan mail that said, "I just adored your book. I'd mow your lawn with tweezers if I could only have a tithe of your talent. And by the way, if Kermit the Pirate had a peg leg in chapter three, shouldn't he have succumbed to the pack of rabid unicycle beavers in chapter eleven?" And you'd think, "Hey, that's right!" But there was nothing you could do about it now. It was out of your hands. We don't have that problem. We can keep releasing new versions as long as enough of our users register the software that we can afford to keep doing so. If one of our users - you, for instance - find a bug or have a great idea, we can improve the program. As long as you tell us, that is. If you notice a way to make the program simpler, or there's a feature you really, really, really want, let us know. Your suggestion might find its way into the program. That sort of thing doesn't happen in many places. No matter how many touching letters you write to William Shakespeare, he won't change Romeo & Juliet to let the poor kids wake up in time and get married after all. No matter how much you threaten Leonardo Da Vinci, he won't add a moustache to the Mona Lisa. With us, you have a chance. We make no guarantees, but we do listen to our users, and we like to hear from them. Without them, after all, we wouldn't be here. Enjoy Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker; we hope it helps you find your inner cd label making artist.

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Fixed width columns work well for left-justified text or cases where you've got more than two columns visible. The variable width columns setting can have a nice effect on centered or rightjustified tracks listings. If the header bar has a blank section before the first column, it's nothing to worry about. It just means that you've got the text object in centered or right-justified mode. The Text Properties Dialog Help Contents
The "Edit Text" Window for Angled or Curved Text
When you set a text object to an angle (see the Text Properties Dialog "Text Angle" Page) that'sText_Properties_Text_Angle_Page sideways or upside down, you won't be able to edit it by just clicking on the text object, the way you normally do. While I was writing the program, I tried editing text sideways and upside down, but I had a roaring headache within a minute. I don't wish to cause pain to any of our users, so I added a right-side-up editing window to use when your text isn't upright. When you set your text to be sideways, upside down, curved, or spiral, the text object's toolbar will grow a new button, away off to the right side:

Click on the

button and the program will launch a window like this one:
You can edit your text in this window. Any changes you make will show up back on your label as soon as you close the window. (You can close the window by clicking on the X in the upper right hand side of the window's title bar.)

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Clip Art
Art Search Art Browse Stuff You Can Do With Clip Art Help Contents
Stuff You Can Do WIth Clip Art
When you see a clip art image in Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker, you will be looking either at a hopeful thumbnail under the Art Search or Art Browse tabs, or a proud, happy clip art image that you have added to one of your labels. The actions you can take differ depending on which of these two situations you're facing. We'll start with: Stuff You Can Do with a Clip Art Thumbnail in the Art Search or Art Browse Tabs * You can drag your mouse cursor over it and just let it sit there. This will cause a tooltip to pop up and tell you the clip art image's name, folder location, size, and date and time when it was last modified. * You can left-click on it and drag it onto your label. * You can double-click it. This will make it your label's background image. * You can right-click it, which will pop up a menu with these options: Set as Background: this will bring up a submenu with these options: 1. Centered (overlap): make the selected clip art image your background image, and center it on the label. This will cover the entire label with the selected image while preserving the image's aspect ratio. If the image's aspect ratio differs from the label's aspect ratio, a portion of the image will get clipped. 2. Centered (underlap): Like the centered overlap option, except that if the image and label aspect ratios are different, the image will underlap the label instead of overlapping (cropping) it. This means that if the image & label aspect ratios aren't the same, a portion of the label

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Art Search
If you want Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker to search for clip art images on your computer's hard drive(s), click on the Art Search tab near the top of the program's main window. Then follow these steps: 1) Type something to search for into the "Search for:" field. The search will find any file names containing the text string you've entered here. If a directory name contains the string you've typed in, the search will find any images in that directory and its subdirectories. If you leave the "Search for:" field blank, the search will find all images in all directories. 2) Choose the image types that you want to search through, in the "File types:" combo box. If you select "All", the search will find any image types that the program supports. Currently this includes file extension types.bmp,.dib,.jpg,.jpeg,.png,.pcx,.wmf,.gif, and.tif, plus various flavors of Raw images. 3) Click the "Search" button. The button will change into a "Stop" button. Clicking on it again will stop the search. Once the search has finished, it will revert back to a "Search" button. Any images that the search finds will show up in the thumbnails list. The search will only find files on your computer's fixed drives -- it will skip floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, Zip drives, etc. If you need to search on a removable drive, you'll have to click on the Clip Art Browse tabClip_Art_Explore and use our explorer control to find the clip art you're looking for. Help Contents

Colored Shapes

In case clip art, background images, and text objects aren't enough to satisfy your creative needs, Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker offers a small assortment of colored shapes that you can plaster all over your labels. Click on the "Shapes" button on the main toolbar, and a dialog will pop up that will let you add them to your label. You can move and resize these shapes just like any other objects: move them by clicking on their title bars or the shapes themselves and then dragging them; resize them by clicking on and dragging any of the little red resize bars scattered around the shape's borders. (These borders, I should add, are only visible when the shape is in a "selected" state, meaning that you've clicked on it and haven't clicked on anything else in the meantime.) Once you click on a shape that you've added to a label, you should see a little shape-editing toolbar appear beneath it. If there's no toolbar, click on the little "T" button in the shape's titlebar. These buttons, taken from left to right, let you: * change its shape * change the shape's background color * move the shape in front of all other objects on the label

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you want to print. If you check the box for a label, it will print. If not, it won't. Once you've selected what you want to print and what you want to print it on, click the Print button to proceed. The next thing you see will be: The Insert-Paper Dialog:
This dialog will prompt you to insert one or more sheets of the paper types you've chosen for the labels you've chosen to print. The buttons on the dialog will behave as follows: Print: print the label(s) Cancel: cancel the entire printing operation. Skip: don't print this label; if you've selected more than one label to print, the dialog will advance to the next label. Help: launch this help page. If you're printing more than one of your labels, the dialog will appear multiple times. If you're printing, say, a CD disc and a jewel case back, the dialog will appear twice, once to prompt you to insert your CD disc label paper, and again to tell you to insert the jewel case back paper. If you're printing the jewel case front/inside on a paper type that has a single face instead of a book arrangement, you'll get prompted to insert the paper for it, and then you'll be asked to reinsert the paper upside-down so the program can print the jewel case inside on the back of the paper. Make sure the fronts have finished printing and you've reinserted the labels before you click the "Print" button on the "reinsert upside-down" dialog. Printing for the First Time: If you're printing with a new type of label stock for the first time, we recommend that you feed plain paper into the printer instead, even though the insert-paper dialog has told you to insert sheets of your label stock. This way you can check your printer's alignment before using up any of your relatively expensive label stock. Once it's printed on plain paper, you should be able to see if it's aligned correctly by putting a sheet of your label stock on top of your freshly printed sheet of plain paper, making sure they line up exactly on top of each other, and then

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holding the two sheets in front of a light so that the printed label on the plain paper underneath is visible. This should help prevent you from wasting custom paper stock tracking down your printer's alignment problems. If you haven't run the Printer Calibration Wizard yet, try it as well. It prints an alignment test sheet that can help you determine whether or not your printer has enough calibration error to require alignment adjustments. You can launch the Printer Calibration Wizard from the File menu. For more information on setting your printer's alignment, see theThe_Printer_Alignment_Dialog Printer Alignment dialog. Help Contents

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Move by (up/down): This allows you to move a label up or down on the page. Units, again, are in millimeters. Diameter (mm): This allows you to edit a CD, DVD, or mini-CD's diameter, in millimeters. The label maker will automatically center your size changes against the original center of the CD. Which might sound a bit confusing, but just means that if you change your disc diameter from, say, 118 millimeters to 110 millimeters to fit the type of printable CD you've got, you don't need to also change the left/right and up/down settings to keep your resized disc from getting printed off center. It's taken care of already. If this still isn't clear, just try playing with the diameter setting, and you'll notice that the label's thumbnail in the top half of the dialog stays centered in the same spot. Hole Diameter (mm): This allows you to edit the center-hole diameter of a CD, DVD, or miniCD. The label maker will automatically center the hole on the disc, no matter what disc or hole diameters you've set. Width (mm): Allows you to change the width of a label (for non-CD/DVD labels only; for discs, you adjust the diameter instead). Units are in millimeters. Height (mm): Allows you to change the height of a label (for non-CD/DVD labels only; for discs, you adjust the diameter instead). Units are in millimeters. Reset: If you mess up your settings so badly that you just want to start over, click the Reset button and the current label will get reset to its original, unaltered settings. Not that you would ever need this. This is strictly for our other, less gifted users. Print a Ruler: If your desk resembles ours, you might have a ruler on it someplace, but who would ever know? There could be a Yeti under that mountain of stuff, happily using the ruler for a backscratcher, and it wouldn't surprise you. For people like you (and us), we present the Print a Ruler button. Click it to print a brand new ruler that you can use for all the fine-grained calculations that this dialog allows. OK: Happy with the changes you've made in this dialog? Want to keep them? Then click the OK button. Cancel: Having second thoughts? Did you open this dialog and do things that you're afraid could alter the nature of space & time and unleash gophers from another dimension onto our unsuspecting planet? Just click the Cancel button, and it'll all go away like a bad dream. Help: Something tells us you've already figured out what this button does. When you save changes you've made in this dialog, the label maker saves them in text files under your "My Documents" folder. In particular, your "My Documents" folder should have an "Acoustica" subfolder, and the "Acoustica" subfolder should have a "paper align" subfolder. Here you'll find your adjustments, saved in text files with a.paj extension and a file name matching the paper type you were editing. If you're running the label maker on multiple computers and you want to copy your alignment adjustments from this dialog to another computer, just copy these files and place them in the same folder on the other computer.

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iTunes playlist to Acoustica without having to export it from iTunes first. Data Type: This control lets you choose what kind of data you're displaying for your project. If you choose the Audio CD/DVD option, you'll get a standard audio playlist with song titles, artists, song lengths, etc. If you choose the Data CD/DVD option, you'll get a playlist for a Data CD, with file and folder names, file sizes, etc. If you choose the Video option, you'll get a playlist for a video disc, with chapter titles and lengths. Show Files & Folders, etc.: This combo box, only available if you've chosen the Data CD/DVD data type, lets you choose whether you want to display file names, folder names, or both. More: This button, only available if you've chosen the Data CD/DVD data type, launches the Data Layout Details dialog to let you set a variety of display options for the files and folders on your data CD playlist. Once you've got all your tracks info just the way you want it, click the Next button to go to the Additional Text Fields page. The Instant-Label Wizard Help Contents
Instant-Label Wizard "Additional Text Fields" Page
Depending on which theme you chose in the Choose a Theme page, your CD or DVD label set may display text for titles, dedications, artist names, etc. This page lets you type in the text you want for each of these fields. One you're satisfied with all your text fields, click the Next button to advance to the last page of the wizard. The Instant-Label Wizard Help Contents
Instant-Label Wizard "Finish" Page
Once you get to this page, your wizard is done. All you need to decide is whether you want to keep it or not. If you like what you've done, click the Finish button. This will close the wizard and keep all the label dcor you picked out in the wizard.

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If you're having second thoughts, click the Cancel button. This will close the wizard and discard all the wizard decisions you're apparently starting to regret. The Instant-Label Wizard Help Contents

The Tracks Dialog

This dialog lets you type in and edit your tracks listing - your song list, for an audio CD or DVD; your file list, for a data CD/DVD; or your chapter list, for a video CD/DVD. If you're editing an audio CD, you can import your tracks from a playlist and save yourself all that tedious typing. You can also import files from audio and data CDs or DVDs. To type in the contents for a field in the contents list - "Song Title", "Artist", "Chapter", etc. click on the field and start typing. Once the contents list has the keyboard focus, you can also move from field to field by using the arrow keys or the tab key. There are several other ways to get a field into edit mode. Here's the lot: press the Enter key: selects the text in the field and puts the caret at the end of the text

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press F2: selects the text in the field and puts the caret at the end of the text click the Edit button: selects the text in the field and puts the caret at the end of the text double-click the text field: selects the text in the field and puts the caret at the end of the text just start typing: replaces the existing contents of the field with whatever you're typing If the contents of a field are too wide to fit in the available space in the tracks list, you'll see a row of periods, like so: at the end of the field. If you drag the mouse cursor over the field and let it sit there, a tooltip will pop up that displays the unabbreviated contents of the field. You can adjust the widths of the different columns in the tracks list by clicking on the borders between the columns and dragging them. This doesn't affect how wide the columns will be on any actual labels. You can also double-click on a column header's right boundary to automatically widen it to fit the widest text in the column. Like many another dialog, this one has a bunch of buttons. Here's what they all mean: Add Row: adds a new row to the end of the list. Remove: removes the currently selected row. Edit: lets you edit the text of the currently selected item. Move Up: moves the currently selected row one row up. Move Down: moves the currently selected row one row down. Import: this button will only be visible if you're working on an audio CD label. It lets you import tracks from a playlist file. When you burn a CD, you usually create a playlist file that lists the songs you burned to the CD. Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker can read most types of playlist files, including the.cbs files generated by our own Acoustica MP3 CD Burner, and automatically create a song list for you. Read CD: this button will be visible if you're working on an audio or data CD or DVD label and you have a CD/DVD drive attached to your computer. It will attempt to get tracks information from the CD or DVD in your drive. For audio CDs, if your CD has an entry in cdplayer.ini or cdburner.ini, the program will use it; if not, it will try to look up a tracks listing for your CD over the Internet. For data CDs and DVDs, it will just read all the files and folders off the disc. iTunes: If you've got iTunes installed on your computer, click this button and the Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker will attempt to find your iTunes library and read in all your playlists, so you can import an iTunes playlist to the label maker without having to export it from iTunes first. Formatting: This button will only be enabled if you checked the "Display Tracks on Current Label" option. It launches the Tracks Formatting Dialog,Tracks_Formatting_Dialog which lets you play with the display attributes of your tracks listing, including layout, fonts, colors, field display order, and which tracks fields should be visible and which should be hidden. Done: closes the window. Display tracks on current label: If you check this box, your tracks will be displayed on

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The iTunes Dialog
The iTunes dialog searches your iTunes library and produces a list of all your iTunes playlists. Click on a playlist name in the Playlists listbox to see what's in that playlist. Once you've found the playlist you want, click the OK button, and Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker will import the playlist you've chosen into your Tracks listing so you can display it on your labels. Replace Existing Tracks: if you check this option and then click OK to import an iTunes playlist, the playlist you've chosen will replace any tracks you already had in your tracks listing. If you uncheck this option, importing an iTunes playlist from this dialog will cause it to get appended to your current tracks listing. The Tracks Dialog Help Contents

Playlist Search Dialog

If you've got a playlist file that you want to import song names from, but you can't remember where the file is, then this dialog is for you. It will automatically search your hard drive and

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display a list of all the files it finds that appear to be playlists. You can just scroll through, click on the one you want, and click "OK", and the label maker will automatically import that playlist for you. Here's what all the buttons on this dialog mean: OK: close the dialog and import tracks from the playlist file you've selected Cancel: close the dialog without importing any tracks Help: Given your presence here, we suspect you already know what this button does. Stop: tells the program to stop searching for playlist files. Once the search is complete, this button will become disabled. Replace Existing Files: If you check this box before importing a playlist file from this dialog, the tracks that get imported from that playlist will replace any existing track information. If this box isn't checked, tracks you import here will get appended to the end of your existing track information. If you're searching for an iTunes playlist, keep in mind that this dialog will only find playlists that you've exported from iTunes with the iTunes export feature. In this case, you'll find it faster and easier to click the iTunes button on the Tracks dialog instead, since the iTunes playlist dialog will read all your iTunes playlists instead of just the ones you've exported. The Tracks Dialog Help Contents

Choose a CD Drive

This dialog pops up when Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker wants to know which of your many CD drives holds the CD that you're trying to read track information from. Your job is to tell it. Just click on the drive letter of the drive that holds your CD and then, once it's selected, click the "OK" button. If you're energy-conscious and you're trying to conserve mouse mileage, you can double-click on the drive letter instead. If you don't remember which drive holds the CD (but you're sure one of them does), you won't do any terrible damage by picking the wrong drive. The program will either import tracks for the wrong CD or display an error message indicating that there's no CD in the drive you picked. In either case, you can just click the "Import" button on the Tracks dialog again to rerun the process and select the right drive this time. Help Contents

The Text Properties Dialog

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You can do a surprising number of things to the text in a text object, and, aside from editing the text itself, you can do them all from the text properties dialog. You can access the text properties dialog by right-clicking on a text object and selecting Properties or by clicking the properties button (the one with the three little dots on it) on a text object's toolbar. This dialog consists of a series of pages for editing different aspects of a text object. Clicking on different lines in the list on the left side of the dialog will select different pages. If you check the "Apply changes as soon as I make them" checkbox, any changes you make will be reflected in the text object as soon as you make them. This is not completely conventional behavior for dialog windows, which normally require you to press the "OK" button before showing you your changes. But we hate the blundering around we have to do when we make changes in a dialog but we can't really tell what we've done until we close the dialog and then we have to relaunch the dialog if it turns out it wasn't what we wanted. It's like flying an airplane by instruments alone: it takes a lot of expertise to do it well, and most people, including us, don't have that kind of expertise. So we added the Apply changes checkbox. We think you'll like it. If you don't have the "Apply changes as soon as I make them" checkbox checked, changes you make won't take effect until you click the OK or Apply buttons. Clicking the Cancel button will close the dialog and reverse any changes you've made, unless you've clicked the Apply button; in that case, clicking the Cancel button will still close the dialog, but it will only reverse changes you've made since the last time you clicked the Apply button. The Apply button will be disabled if you've got the "Apply changes as soon as etc." box checked, because your changes will already be getting "applied" as soon as you make them. Text Properties Dialog "Font" Page Text Properties Dialog "Text Angle" Page Text Properties Dialog "Text Color" Page

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Text Properties Dialog "Size & Position" Page Text Properties Dialog "Margins" Page Text Properties Dialog "Paragraph" Page Text Properties Dialog "Curving" Page Text Properties Dialog "Background" Page Text Properties Dialog "Color/Transparency" Page Text Properties Dialog "Justification" Page Text Properties Dialog "Word Wrapping" Page Text Properties Dialog "Columns" Page Text Properties Dialog "Fields" Page Text Properties Dialog Individual Field Pages Help Contents

New Project Dialog

This dialog lets you start fresh with a brand new, blank set of labels. All you need to do is decide what sort of new label you want to create: CD with jewel case: this creates a project with a CD label, a CD jewel case insert to slide into

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the front of your jewel case, and a CD jewel case back insert to attach inside the back of the jewel case. DVD with DVD case: this creates a project with a DVD label, a DVD case cover for wrapping around the inside of a DVD case, and a DVD case insert for inserting into the left-front panel of the inside of the DVD case. Mini/Pocket CD: this creates a project with a mini CD label (a CD with an 8-centimeter diameter instead of a normal CD's 12-centimeter diameter), plus a jewel case insert to slide inside a mini-sized jewel case.

Save As Theme Dialog

This dialog lets you save your current project as a theme that will show up with all the artistbuilt themes in Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker's Instant-Label Wizard. How often do you get the chance to see your work displayed alongside the work of professional artists? New Theme Name: Enter a name for your new theme here. It will appear under this name in the Instant-Label Wizard after you've saved it. Stuff to Save: Text Objects: If you check this box, any text objects on the labels in your project will get saved in the theme. Images: If you check this box, any images in your project, both foreground and background, will get saved in your theme. Colored Shapes: If you check this box, any shapes you've added to your project will get saved in your theme. Background Color: If you check this box, the background colors you've selected for the labels in your project will get saved in your theme. Help Contents
Tiled Background Settings Dialog

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This dialog lets you set an image from your computer as a tiled label background and control a variety of settings for how the image gets tiled. Here's what all the controls do: Real-Time Preview: If you check this box, any changes you make will display on the label immediately, so you can see how well they work. If you uncheck it, you won't be able to see your changes until you click the OK button to exit the dialog. 150 DPI: This option will tile the image at 150 dots per inch. It's the default option for bitmapbased images. (For vector-based images, such as WMF files, dots per inch effectively has no meaning, so you'll have to set custom rows and columns.) If you tile at resolutions lower than 150 DPI, there's a good chance the image could begin to look grainy or distorted when you print it. 300 DPI: This option will tile the image at 300 dots per inch. Custom DPI: This option will let you tile the image at the dots-per-inch resolution of your choice. Custom Rows/Columns: This option will let you choose your tiling resolution in rows & columns instead of dots per inch. Keep Aspect Ratio: This option only applies to the Custom Rows/Columns tiling mode. If it's checked, the image will always maintain its original aspect ratio, so if you change the number of rows, the number of columns will automatically change to keep the aspect ratio constant, and vice versa. If you uncheck this option, you can set both rows and columns precisely, but if you change the aspect ratio, the image could appear stretched or squished. Cropping Controls: The cropping options let you crop the image so that portions of it don't get displayed. The cropping amounts you specify in these controls are measured in pixels. The default is 0 pixels (no cropping at all). Justification: These options let you control horizontal and vertical justification for your image. You can align your image to the left or right edges of your label, or center it. You can align it vertically to the top or bottom edge of the label, or make it centered vertically on the label. Blend Edges: This option will blend the edges of the image together so that there's not a visible seam between the tiles. This option generally works best on images that don't have sharply defined contours or objects on them - a photograph of clouds, for instance, would be a good candidate for the blend-edges effect. If you're not sure whether or not it will work for your image, go ahead and check the box and see. It takes almost no effort, after all - you'll consume less than half a calorie, in our judgment - to uncheck the box again if it doesn't look good. Help Contents

The Printer Calibration Wizard

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If your printer just can't seem to line up your labels correctly on your label sheets, this wizard can help. It prints a test sheet that helps you measure how much alignment error your printer has and then automatically compensates for it on future printouts. Please note that since this wizard works by printing calibration tests on paper, it works well for handling alignment errors on label paper, but isn't suited for handling alignment errors for CD trays that you insert into your printer for printing directly onto printable CDs or DVDs. To align your printable CDs, try using the "Edit Paper Templates" Dialog, which you can access from the "File" menu. Printer Calibration Wizard Test-Sheet Page Printer Calibration Wizard Alignment Page Printer Calibration Wizard Finish Page Help Contents
The Printer Calibration Wizard: Print a Test Sheet Page
On this page of the wizard, you'll intialize your printer to print an alignment test sheet that you can use to measure how far off your printer's alignment is. Once you click the "Next" button, the wizard will print the alignment test sheet on the printer you've chosen on this page. Printer: Choose the printer you're testing alignment for. Make sure the printer is turned on and hooked up to your computer before you click the "Next" button. Paper Bin: Choose the paper bin that you want your printer to use for printing the alignment test page. Properties: Click this button to launch your printer's custom properties dialog, which lets you set features unique to your printer, such as print quality, ICM management, etc. The alignment test sheet is a simple black-and-white printout, so it's unlikely that you'll need to make any adjustments here. Number of Copies: Decide how many copies of the alignment test sheet you want to print. Just printing one will help, but printing multiple copies and comparing them will help you determine whether your printer's alignment is off by a consistent amount or whether it varies from print job to print job. If your alignment does vary from sheet to sheet, it's difficult to pick a precise alignment amount that will work. You might try picking average values and then using the stretch settings on the Printer Alignment dialog (click the "Alignment" button on the Print dialog to get to the Printer Alignment dialog). Paper Size: Choose the paper size that you'll be printing your alignment test sheet on. One more note on paper alignment: be sure your paper fits snugly in the paper tray, and there's no space between the edges of the paper and the tray's paper guides. If your paper

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has room to slide around inside the paper tray, there's a good chance that this will cause alignment errors on a large variety of printer models. Printer Calibration Wizard Intro Page Printer Calibration Wizard Alignment Page Printer Calibration Wizard Finish Page Help Contents
The Printer Calibration Wizard: Alignment Page
On this page of the wizard, you'll enter the horizontal and vertical offsets to account for the alignment error you measured on the aligment-test sheet that just printed. Horizontal Adjustment: Unfold the sheet you printed, turn it sideways, and see where the fold crease crosses the axis labeled "Horizontal Offset". Enter the number you measure in this edit control. If the fold crease is above the center line, you'll be entering a negative number. If the crease doesn't have the same offsets on the two grid lines at the edges of the sheet as it does on the center grid line/axis, it's an indication that your printer feeds paper through itself crookedly. (Although it could mean that you just didn't fold the sheet perfectly -- check that first.) If it doesn't feed straight, try using the value at the center of the sheet and then compensating for the printer's drift with the stretch settings in the Printer Alignment dialog (accessible by clicking the "Alignment" button on the Print dialog). Vertical Adjustment: Unfold the sheet you printed, turn it right-side up, and see where the fold crease crosses the axis labeled "Vertical Offset". Enter the number you measure in this edit control. If the fold crease is above the center line, you'll be entering a negative number. If the crease doesn't have the same offsets on the two grid lines at the edges of the sheet as it does on the center grid line/axis, it's an indication that your printer feeds paper through itself crookedly. (Although it could mean that you just didn't fold the sheet perfectly -- check that first.) If it doesn't feed straight, try using the value at the center of the sheet and then compensating for the printer's drift with the stretch settings in the Printer Alignment dialog (accessible by clicking the "Alignment" button on the Print dialog). Print another test sheet with my revised settings: If you check this box, once you click the "Next" button, the wizard will print another copy of the alignment-test sheet with the horizontal and vertical adjustments you've entered on this page, so you can see if they produce a perfectly centered page. A Few Bonus Calibration Tips: * Make sure your paper fits snugly in the paper tray! If your paper has room to slide around inside the paper tray, there's a good chance that this will induce alignment errors. Checking this could eliminate the need for alignment correction altogether.

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* If the alignment-test sheet indicates that your alignment is much worse than you expected, make sure you checked the correct paper-size option before you printed the sheet. The paper size that the wizard thinks you printed on will be noted near the top-left corner of the alignment test sheet. If you checked the A4 box but inserted a sheet of letter paper, for instance, the alignment sheet will obviously be off center. * Some printers will feed differently depending on the paper thickness. If you want to be absolutely sure you've got your alignment as accurate as possible, try printing the test sheet on a sheet of your actual label paper. This will cost you a sheet of your label paper, of course, so you may prefer to wait and see first whether you were able to compensate for your printer's alignment just by printing the test sheet on plain paper. If you do decide to print an alignment sheet on a sheet of label paper, make sure you've checked the right paper size setting. In particular, lots of DVD-case-cover sheets use A4 paper. If you're used to printing on lettersized paper, measure your DVD cover paper before you print an alignment test sheet on it to make sure you know what size it is. * Some printers just don't have consistent alignment. One printout will be off in one direction, and another will be off in a different direction. You can test for this by setting the "Number of Copies" control on the Test-Sheet page of the wizard to print multiple copies of the sheet. If each sheet has a different alignment error, you probably can't make alignment adjustments that will always work. Your best bet is probably to enter an average value on this page and then try to compensate for the printer's inconsistency with the stretch settings in the Printer Alignment dialog (accessible by clicking the "Alignment" button on the Print dialog). Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker defaults to a stretch setting of two millimeters, which means that a label you print will be two millimeters taller and two millimeters wider than the actual size of the label on the sheet, in the hopes that this extra bleed area will prevent minor alignment problems from causing edges of the label not to get printed on. If your printer is a schizophrenic wreck and displays wildly different alignments from sheet to sheet, you might need to increase this value. * Since this wizard works by printing calibration tests on paper, it works well for handling alignment errors on label paper, but isn't suited for handling alignment errors for CD trays that you insert into your printer for printing directly onto printable CDs. To align your printable CDs, try using the "Edit Paper Templates" Dialog, which you can access from the "File" menu. Printer Alignment Wizard Intro Page Printer Alignment Wizard Test-Sheet Page Printer Alignment Wizard Finish Page Help Contents