William and Gayle Cook Music Library
Information Technology Services

Recording audio from a MiniDisc player using DSP-Quattro

Using the Macintosh Advanced Audio Workstations 3-19 & 3-20

Setting up the recording system

1. Login to one of the two Macintosh Advanced Audio Workstations. Locate the cable beside the MOTU interface labeled “MiniDisc Transfer Input Cable.”  Plug this cable into the 1/8” output jack (headphone) of your MiniDisc player.

2. Turn on the MOTU 828 Firewire audio interface, which is located in the rack next to the monitor.

3. Click on the Finder icon in the dock at the bottom of the screen.  In the Finder window that appears, click on Applications in the leftmost column.  In the list that appears in the next column, scroll down to and double-click on MOTU Audio Setup.

In the MOTU Audio Setup window that appears, click on the 828 button at the top.  Verify that the Sample Rate is set to 44100, that the Clock Source is set to internal, and that the Default Stereo Input and the Default Stereo Output are both set to Analog 1 – 2.  Also verify that the Optical Input, Optical Output, and Monitor Input are set to None.  If any of these setting is different from these, change the using the dropdown menus on each setting.  The MOTU Audio Setup window should now look like this:

Close this window.

4. Click on the Music Department folder in the dock.  In the window that appears, click on the DSP-Quattro icon.  When DSP-Quattro has opened, click on Options on the menu bar at the top of the screen and select “Audio Settings…”  In the window that appears, select “MOTU 828” for both the Input Device and the Output Device settings.  The DSP audio settings window should now look like this:

Click “OK” at the bottom of the window.

Setting volume levels for recording

5. On the menu bar, click on File and select Input > New Audio Input.  An Input window appears.  Now play the audio from your MiniDisc player or other audio playback device.  You should see the level meters responding to the sounds that your device is playing:

If the level meters are not moving, make sure that your device is playing and that the volume is turned up sufficiently on both your device and the Input Gain knobs for channels 1 and 2 on the MOTU 828 Firewire interface.  If the volume settings are too high, the level meters will “clip” into the red and the sound will distort:

If this happens, lower the volume levels on either your playback device or on the MOTU 828 or on the sliders on the Input window so that the level meters do not peak at over the zero mark.  If you wish to hear what these setting sound like, plug a pair of headphones into the phones jack on the MOTU 828.

Recording the sound

6. Now click on the “Rec” button in the Master Outs window.  The Master Output Recorder appears:

Before you begin, cue your MiniDisc player or other playback device to the spot in the recording that you want to digitize.  To begin recording, click on the record button (the button with the small circle in it) in the Master Output Recorder window.  Then begin playing the sound on your playback device.  When the sounds that you wish to record have finished playing, stop your playback device and then press the stop button (the button with the small square in it) on the Master Output Recorder window.  Then press the “Done” button in the Master Output Recorder window, and the sound wave of your recording will be displayed in a new window that should look similar to this:

Saving the recording

7. On the menu bar, click on File and select “Save Audio File” > “Save Audio File As…”  In the Save File As window that appears, type the name that you would like to give to the audio file that you just recorded and select the location on the computer to which you would like to save the file.  For File Format, select WAV, and for Bit Depth, select 16 Bits.  The Save File As window should now look similar to this:

Now click Save.

Finishing the recording session

8. To finish your recording session, you may either close each of the DSP-Quattro windows individually or quit DSP-Quattro under the File menu on the menu bar. To burn your WAV file onto an audio CD, please consult the CD burning tutorial, OR visit the STC Consultant or MLTECH Assistant in M373.

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Last updated October 16, 2006.