Song Stalker Internet Recorder

Automatic Track Recording, Saving, Naming & Numbering

Drew's Song Stalker Tutorial
Separate Tracks
As You Record On The Internet

This is the Holy Grail of recording. Get separated tracks as you actually record. And the Song Stalker is the best of the best I've seen. As you record and as the Song Stalker sees the silence between tracks, it automatically closes each track it's recording and begins a new track.

Plus the Song Stalker will automatically save your tracks in the folder of your choice. Not only does the Song Stalker automatically number the tracks for you, but it lets you assign a prefix name so you'll easily and effortlessly know what you've recorded and where it is. It's actually a separate program that's now built into new DAK Wave & MP3 Editor/Recorder Pro.

Music on Records, tapes and the Internet is usually separated by 1-2 seconds of silence. That silence is what separates one track from another. Unfortunately, most records and tapes have too much noise for the Song Stalker or any silence sensing track separator to work, so use the Visual Track Tracker for noisy sources.

The Song Stalker continuously monitors the Noise Floor of your music and looks for the silence that connotes a track separation. When it finds the silence,

It creates a New Track.
It Names Your Track With a Prefix
And It Numbers your track for you.

It's like a robot that essentially presses a virtual stop button, names and numbers the track, clears the screen and starts recording a new track. Wow, it does a lot. And it does it all without you.

It's very sophisticated. But in short it looks for silence. It uses very sophisticated algorithms to determine what silence really is. And it does a really good job.

It often reaches a totally automatic success rate of 7 or 8 tracks out of 10. But have no fear. You can separate the few remaining tracks using the Wave Editor itself or the all new Track Tracker technology that's just been added to the DAK Wave & MP3 Editor/Recorder Pro. See below for more on track splitting theory.

Using the Song Stalker is super easy and super fast. And the recordings will be flawless digital copies of whatever you want to copy which you can save in either Wav or MP3.

OK, Let's Automatically Record from the Internet and let the Song Stalker Separate Our Tracks, Name the Tracks and Number our tracks for us on its own.

Choose Where To Save FIRST

Because this is a real time recorder it records directly to your hard drive. You don't have to stop and go to File/Save as like you do with other programs to save the file when you are finished.

When the Song Stalker decides that a track is ended, or when you click stop, the recorder will automatically save, name and add a sequential track number to your file. So first you choose the folder you want to save to and choose a name for your saved file. The Song Stalker will take care of the rest.

Arrow 1**.) Click the INVISIBLE Save File(s) to: Button where the arrow is to open up a dialog box to navigate to the folder you want to save to. You DO NOT TYPE IN the folder name. Click this button and navigate to the folder.

Arrow 2.) DO NOT TYPE IN THE FOLDER NAME. You click the INVISIBLE Save File(s) to Button to navigate to the folder to save your files to. You can make a new folder or use a folder you already have anywhere on your computer.

Arrow 3.) Give your recording a prefix. This is the name all your saved files for this recording session will have. It can be an artist name, a station, a date or anything you like so you'll know what you have recorded.

The Song Stalker will append the track numbers like this My Name_1, My Name_2 and so on. Then you can rename them later in the Playlist Manager or Tune Library, or anywhere you like. It's fast. It's easy and this is a fully automated Track Separating Recording.

Easy Automated Recording

It's totally automated and you'll control your recording just the way you want it. You'll choose where you want to automatically put the tracks you record and what Prefix you want them to have. Then it numbers all your tracks automatically for you.

Arrow 1.) Choose a prefix. What's a prefix? If the Song Stalker just numbered your tracks 1-10, the next time you record Live Internet Broadcast, Satellite Radio Broadcast or music from your digital cable TV music channel it would also number those recordings 1-10 and you'd have no idea what was what. So by using a prefix, you'll never forget what you've done.

So, use an album name, broadcast name, date or an artist name as your prefix and it will then be automatically recorded using that prefix. For my example here I was using a Limeliters album named, In Concert, that I was recording from an Internet Broadcast. So my tracks read, InConcert1, InConcert2, etc. Then next time you can choose another prefix. We've really tried to think ahead to make this incredibly easy and automated.

Arrow 2.) Choose a folder to put the tracks in. You can have all your tracks from all your recordings stored in one folder or you can have a separate folder for each album. Or anything in between. It's up to you and it's easy to do. You're in total, easy automated control.

Arrow 3.) What do you want to record? Here I've chosen What You Hear so I can record from the Internet. You can also record from a microphone, Line In or anything connected to your computer. If you can hear it you can record it.

Just Click the Record Source Button to choose your shource. See the Step-By-Step Click here.

Arrow 4.) Click Record. Wasn't that easy?

The default settings for all the automation will probably work fine, so whenever the Song Stalker hears silence, it will automatically create a new track for you using your prefix and store it in the folder of your choice. Plus, it will number it automatically too. It's great.

But there's so much more control that you have.

Want to do more? Scroll Down.

Control Over Your Recording.

Every computer, every Internet station and every other source is different so we've given you the ability to easily control all the variables of your inputs. And I think you'll find that this is the most adjustable recording system ever.

Silence Sensing Rule

Silence sensing isn't easy. And although everyone wants to do it, nobody has it perfect. It's not the technology, it's the music and your computer's noise floor that's the problem.

First you need to adjust the silence level so that it ignores the normal background noise of your computer but does sense the music. So you need to experiment with the Silence Level Slider to get it to recognize your music and not your computer's background noise or it won't ever find tracks. Also cassettes have enough background hiss and records have enough groove noise that it's hard to set that. That's why we recommend this for digital Internet recording.

Then you need to set the New Track After X seconds slider so that it will give you a new track when it doesn't see any sound for X seconds. This is important because if you set it too long, then the 1-2 second tracks you'll hear on the Internet won't be long enough to make the Song Stalker decide to create a new track. And if it's too short, it will pick up pauses in the music as tracks. And that's the reason that a click or pop in a track will cause the recorder to miss making a track on a record or cassette. What it does is say that if it doesn't hear sound for X seconds it will create a track. But a click, pop or scratch makes it start counting over again.

Finally, you have the Discard tracks shorter than X seconds. This is great because it stops you from getting lots of non-tracks during supposedly silent sections like the ends of records and pauses.

In short the DAK Song Stalker is the best of the best. It's job is to distinguish between a low section or pause in the music and a real track. I've not found anything that's as good. But I still usually use the Track Tracker as it's 1st time every time without any settings needed.

I find that it actually finds about 7 or 8 out of 10 of your tracks automatically. And those that it doesn't find, you can simply separate using the Wave Editor itself or the Track Tracker program that's also included in the Wave Editor.

Total control is yours. We give you 3 ways to adjust the track sensing capabilities of the Song Stalker.

Arrow 1.) Your computer and whatever you are recording has a base sound floor level. A record has the grove noise, a cassette has hiss and even an Internet broadcast has some inherent noise. In short, silence isn't really silent. So we have given you control of your nose floor. Just set the Silence Level to somewhere between 30 and 50 for most occasions and you should be all set.

Arrow 2.) How long are the silences between your tracks? On LPs, it's usually about 2 seconds. On Internet broadcasts, it's often 1 second. Just set the New track after X seconds of silence to fit your source.

Arrow 3.) What if the silence runs too long? If a disk jockey on the internet gets to the end of the record and he doesn't take the stylus off, or to the end of a cassette and he doesn't stop the recorder, many recorders will just keep creating tracks. Well, the Sound Stalker is smart. Just set the Discard Tracks shorter than X seconds (2-5 is usually fine) and you won't keep creating tracks where you don't want them. But remember even after saying all this, for most records and cassettes use the Visual Track Tracker as the noise level of most records and cassettes is just too high.

Arrow 4.) Recording Volume. Well this is easy. Just use the Graphic Display to set your input volume.

Arrow 5.) You'll see the Number and Length of your track as you record and you'll see the Song Stalker reset to 00:00 each time a new track is started.

Even More Control Coming.

Easily Set Or Change Your Formats Too.

OK, you probably won't use this section very often, but it's here so you can create your tracks exactly as you want them.

Arrow 1.) Do you want to record Wav or MP3 files? It's up to you.

Arrow 2.) Are you recording in Stereo or Mono?

Arrow 3.) What are you recording? If it's music, use 44100. That's the industry standard. A few MP3 jukeboxes support 48000. It's a high quality sound. But it's not supported by most programs and it's not supported by Audio CDs. But this is a top of the line program, so we support it. Voice over the Internet is recorded at 22050 mono. So we support that too.

Arrow 4A-4B.) We have 6 different types of Wave Form Displays to let you watch your music as you record. Just click the one you like best. I've put pictures of them below.

And What About Live Internet Streaming Audio?

MORE - RECORD LIVE FROM THE INTERNET
Record Anything & Everything From The Internet.

If it's legal to record it, the Song Stalker can record your streaming audio broadcasts flawlessly, and, separate the songs into tracks. It's terrific for this. This is probably its best use.

OK, let's record some more from the Internet. Some of this is repeated from what's above, but it's easier for you to see if I show it all to you here too.

Arrows 1A/1B.) Choose a prefix so you'll know what the tracks are later and a folder to keep them in. Just like we did above.

Arrow 2.) Choose "What You Hear" or "Stereo Mix" or "Wave Out" by Clicking the Record Source Button. This is what you use as your source to record Live from the Internet. It's your sound card that chooses the name so mine says What You hear, but yours can say one of the other choices.

Just Click the Record Source Button to choose your shource. See the Step-By-Step Click here.

Arrow 3.) Usually when you're recording from the Internet, it's MP3 audio anyway, so you might as well choose to record in MP3. Of course if you're going to burn a CD later, then switch to WAV. Either way you'll get a flawless copy of exactly what you hear.

Oh, and I didn't number it but the New track after X seconds I usually set to 1 for Internet recording because they often don't leave a full 2 seconds between tracks.

Arrow 4.) Click Record.

That's it. Everything you hear on the Internet can be flawlessly recorded.

Special Note: You should check to see if what you want to record is restricted. Just because you have the capability to record anything doesn't mean you should. If it says don't copy it, don't.

That's really it. Recording is easy. The results are flawless. And separate tracks are great to work with and the best way to listen to your music from now on.

Wow, Here Are Your Named, Numbered, Separated Tracks

There's nothing to it. Just open the folder where you asked the Song Stalker to put your tracks and you'll see all your tracks. They've been Named with the Prefix you chose. They've been numbered so you know which they are. And they're all in the folder you chose too so you never have to go looking for where they are. It's your complete automated music copying system.

Oh, and your Icon Image graphics may look different because it all depends on what your default music player is. But what won't be different is the Track Name and Number. It will be exactly what you want. And it was all done automatically for you by the new DAK Song Stalker Technology.

All that's left for you to do is enjoy your music.

6 Graphic Sound Level Displays

You have your choice of 6 recording displays. It's fun to watch your sound as a spectrum as you record, and the colors are great.

I'd like to tell you that there's a really good reason for 6 choices, but the truth is I like to watch my music and I got the programmer to throw these in.

So it's fun, it doesn't cost extra. And you get to see your music as you record. Pretty neat. That's it. You now know everything about the new Sound Stalker way of automatically creating new tracks as you record.

Enjoy. . . .Drew

Tutorial Review Please. So, What do you think? Good? Bad? Was this tutorial Helpful? Too detailed? Not Detailed enough? What would you do differently?
What do you want to know? What subject would you like me to write a tutorial about?
Please CLICK
to tell Drew (me) PERSONALLY.

A note about track splitting theory. The Song Stalker is good. Very good. Probably the best there is. But, the technology has now gone about as far as it can go and there are several reasons that this technology really can't be 100%, 100% of the time.

If you're recording records, you'll have scratches and other tracking noises that can be in the grooves that are irregular enough to prevent the Song Stalker from identifying the silence between two tracks. Plus, if you hear a click during the 2 seconds between tracks, so will the Sound Stalker and it will start counting over again so you'll miss separating that track.

On some records the singers talk through the tracks, so there's no silence at all. And sometimes when you're recording Internet Audio they don't leave silence between tracks, or they mix two tracks together. Finally sometimes you'll find that there is a natural silence of a second or so in the music and the Song Stalker can interpret that as a track too.

So, in short I wanted you to know that in my opinion this marvelous new technology will automatically separate about 7 or 8 tracks out of 10 on the Internet and about 5 or 6 out of 10 on LPs and cassettes. It will of course save, name and number them too.

So we really do recommend using the Visual Track Tracker for records and cassettes and the Song Stalker for Internet, Satellite Radio and Cable TV music channels.

In Short, IT REALLY DOES A FANTASTIC JOB. OK with all that I've said above, why have the Song Stalker at all?

Because it is the best. It will separate most of your tracks. And there are lots of times especially in Internet recording where recording for hours and hours is better when you separate the tracks rather than get one really large file. Plus, if your records and other sources are as quiet as they are supposed to be, then the Song Stalker can work all the time. It's easy. It's fast. And you'll really enjoy using it.

Oh, and did I mention that it's 100% digital and the sound will be flawless? And I guess the other thing is that it's fun to watch it automatically go through its sequence. It's like having a personal robot doing the recording for you. Record, Stop, Start Name. It's a kick and it's really, really good.

Got a question? Need help setting up? No problem. We've found that we can email you detailed help with step-by-step PICTURES where appropriate to make sure you can make the most out of our products and software much better than trying to describe what to do verbally over the phone.

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