Converting sounds so they open in ActivStudio

[tai_ann2003]

Hello!

I am fiercely :mad: fighting to convert some sounds that I PAID for through i-tunes to WAVs so that I can insert them into some flipcharts. I figured that since I bought the songs, I would like to add them to my flipcharts for educational purposes... I have downloaded 3 different "converting" softwares and I STILL can not get it to work. I have seen people rename some files so that they are able to be opened in different programs, and I tried by right clicking and converting them under "properties" to MP3 files, but then I still can't open them. The sounds/songs are MPEGs right now, and I can't even play them or insert the sound link on my flipcharst. I have spent about 3 hours trying to solve this problem yesterday and today and I am about ready to toss my computer out the window - which would really defeat my purpose to begin with. :D

Does anyone have any solutions to save me from pulling more hair out?

Thanks!

Tai

[Dug]

http://www.zamzar.com/

Works every time for me.[clap]

[Peter Lambert]

Hi Tai

I-tunes songs are protected so they are not standard format. Suggest you try Zamzar. Does this beat the protection Dug?

[Dug]

Pretty sure it will. Haven't tried it for a while. No harm in trying.

[markrobinson]

I battle with similar issues trying to make Garageband songs (MAC recording program) into plain, old mp3s via iTunes.

Apple's Rights management prevents conversion of downloaded music to open formats.

Midi-files are perhaps an alternative for contemporary music - most tunes that come out have a midi-version... and there are tonnes of copyright free copies of older music in midi format.

Search "midi-file" on the web. You can also mix midifiles with other sound objects - which has many educational possibilities.

[Vicky-d]

Just like to point out that if you want to copy sounds from a CD, iTunes can import the songs in WAV format. You have to change the import options under the Advanced tab.

Haven't tried this but maybe if you burnt a CD with sounds on that you wanted then reimported them back into iTunes with the import options changed this just might convert them to wav format?

Failing that there's always Audacity - free audio software.

[tai_ann2003]

Thank you for all the help and advice. Unfortunately, www.zamzar.com (http://www.zamzar.com) does not help convert the I-Tunes M4P files... Gene (if you are reading, you were right!!). :o

Also - another side step, my CD drive happens to be broken right now. I can here the snickers right now as Vicky's great idea is shot down. I am waiting to decide if my warrantee will cover the CD drive or if I have to buy a refurbished one since my laptop is "outdated" (seeing as how it is 2 years old!!) :D

I will search online for the MIDI files. I, ironically, am looking for "OLD" songs - ones that match "Old Western" movies and t.v. shows (like Bonanza). I am creating a Southwest Flipchart, so if someone does have western wav files, I would LOVE to get my hands on some!! ????

Thanks everyone!! I am so impressed at how quickly everyone came to chime in advice!

Tai

[LisaD]

On my Mac, in the resource library, there are three icons, My Resources, Shared Resource and a little computer screen.

When you click on the little computer screen, you will see some new icons down the side.

One is iTunes, one is iPhoto and one is iMovies.

It's a great way to access media stored there without having to go through a bunch of steps.

This is a Mac-only feature, I think. But it shows how integrated the Mac programmers are to the iLife applications!

Lisa

[tomerf]

I'm primarily a Mac user, too. Somewhere on the Forum I think I remember seeing stats on the number of posts in each category. PC was far larger than Mac, and I wondered how much of this related to v3 only being available for PC. So many cool ideas are being shared there versus in the Mac category (including this post). Your observations about the integration of iLife tools, Lisa, makes me wonder how much more ACTIV the Mac threads will become once v3 for Mac is released.

[tomerf]

While this does not convert a file's format directly, there are programs that will record whatever sound is coming out of the computer (even error tones - oops!). I use YoGen Audio Recorder on my PC and Wire Tap Pro on my Mac. They only record in real time so, while it's possible to record something you are playing in iTunes whether it is protected or not, it takes as long as the song to record it. I have been using it recently to record 10 to 30 second samples of various songs and place them in the folder to select when I use the countdown timer. When involved in classroom activities, my fourth graders don't mind the transition when it is signaled by something like Jungle Boogie. Stars and Stripes Forever, on the other hand kind of freaked them out. I think the speakers were turned up too loud....

[tai_ann2003]

I completely wrote this post and accidentally lost it when I got excited and selected a sound website to post the links!! OOops! :p Anyhow, I do have a PC, so the MAC trick won't work for me, but it is good to know so I can reference that later on if needed. Almost every school in Las Vegas (Clark County) is a PC school, so when I hear people talk about the Mac tricks, I get a little envious because it seems like MACs are more educationally geared. I wonder how well the computers that allow people to work between PC and Mac simultaneously are working out. I am probably assuming correct that they would be very expensive!! But - it would be great for the teachers who are tech saavy and would benefit from that option. :D Below are some great sites that I have found in the past.


http://simplythebest.net/sounds/ Free WAV files (By the way, they have thousands of FREE absolutely amazing fonts on this site as well!!)
http://www.midi4u.com/ Free MIDI files
http://www.galeit.com/sounds.htm Links to sound web sites

I have found one more thing to mention real quick since I brought up the free 'new' fonts above... WHEN TEACHERS SUBMIT LESSONS TO PROMETHEAN PLANET AND THEY USE A FONT THAT IS NOT STANDARDIZED, IT CONVERTS THE TEXT IN REALLY WEIRD WAYS!!! I think is something to bring up, because I helped a teacher find a great middle school math lesson, but the text converted to Russian for some reason, so we had to click on EVERY text box and change the font size and type to be able to interpret what was being said. If we can catch that prior to putting it up on Promethean Planet, it would save many teachers the headache of trying to fix a good lesson - or giving up and trashing an otherwise great lesson. Just FYI. ;)

Tai

[tomerf]

I look forward to checking those sites out, Tai. I enjoy the downloadable music from freeplaymusic.com . One can choose very short or full-length versions of music and it is searchable by "mood" - great for background music in iMovie or transition music.

[airskeeter]

The only real way to convert purchased music from iTunes is to burn them to a disc (which I assume is .wav), and then import them back as an Mp3. It is also an excellent way to back up your itunes music. Just remember that .wav files are huge...

You could play the music on your computer and record it using audacity which is an excellent free program that was mentioned earlier on the thread.

[tai_ann2003]

Thank you, again, for all the tips. Vicky D was able to assist me with similar advice. I ordered a new CD burner this morning, and it should arrive in a couple days. I see it as this: I PURPOSELY purchased the songs on I-Tunes for education, so I feel like burning it to a CD for EDUCATIONAL purposes should be just fine - as well as uploading it back to the computer (as an MP3 file) and then using it on a flipchart is okay. Citing the songs and albums should cover the copyright issue. :D Thanks!!

[Vicky-d]

iTunes allows you to burn up to 3 CDs of your purchased music for backup purposes so I don't think that should be a problem.

[davidlloyd]

I]I have found one more thing to mention real quick since I brought up the free 'new' fonts above... WHEN TEACHERS SUBMIT LESSONS TO Promethean PLANET AND THEY USE A FONT THAT IS NOT STANDARDIZED, IT CONVERTS THE TEXT IN REALLY WEIRD WAYS!!! I think is something to bring up, because I helped a teacher find a great middle school math lesson, but the text converted to Russian for some reason, so we had to click on EVERY text box and change the font size and type to be able to interpret what was being said. If we can catch that prior to putting it up on Promethean Planet, it would save many teachers the headache of trying to fix a good lesson - or giving up and trashing an otherwise great lesson. Just FYI. ;)

Tai

The quick answer to this is not to used none standard fonts in flipcharts or any other file you're planning to share with others. It's all to do with which fonts are installed on the users computer. It's nothing to do with Activstudio. So apart from the work involved by the Planet moderators in checking each flipchart, if a moderator has the same none standard font as the submitter of the flipchart, then the errror wouldn't be picked up.

[leslieramsey]

One other solution for PC users, although it is a rather tedious one...:o

You can go to Start/Program/Accessories/Entertainment/Sound Recorder. The Sound Recorder will let you re-record anything you play on (or near) your computer and turns it into a WAV file. Of course, the quality of this WAV recording is dependent upon the quality/settings of your computer's sound recording device (go to Control Panel to check this) and whether you have other external noises going on at the same time, which will also appear on your recording.

You can also use Activstudio's Sound Recorder Tool to re-record music , which of course also results in a WAV file that you can use in your flipcharts.

Hope this helps

[DIR542]

I recorded somebody singing using the Sound Recorder in AP3. I want to link this so that when I click on an object the recorded song plays. I've tried saving it in My Sounds and Shared Sounds but when I go to assign the action and navigate to the folders I can't see the recording. When I open the folder itself, I can see the icon but it's saved as a Resource File rather than a WAV. What am I doing wrong? Can somebody out there help me please?

[Daniel Bunker]

Ideally when you want to link to your own sound recordings in this way you would have set the sound recording settings to save the save sound to a file, or use the both setting, so the sound is added to the page as well as saved as a file.

This can be done by going into settings, selecting recordings and then checking the appropriate box under sound recordings.

If you still want to link to that sound file that is only saved on the flipchart page, then I suggest you extract it by opeinng the flipchart with a zip program and then saving sound file (probably called speech1.wav) to a folder and then linking in the normal way.

When you drag the flipchart sound icon into your library the program gives it an as2 file ext name which means it's no longer recognised as a sound file - hence the need for saving as a sound file as outlined above.

Dan

[DIR542]

Thanks Dan, that worked a treat. [clap]