honestech™

Audio Recorder™ 2.0

Deluxe

Instructions for use

Tchibo GmbH D-22290 Hamburg • 58934AB6X6
Dear Customer
This program — honestech Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe — offers you the
following features:

– Copying analogue cassette recordings to the computer

– Easy installation thanks to USB 2.0

– Easy-to-use audio editing software

– Easy editing of audio recordings (formats: WAV, MP3 and WMA)

– Automatic separation of cassette recording tracks thanks to pause

recognition

– Burning audio CDs or MP3 CDs

– ID3 tag support for MP3 files

We are sure you will enjoy using this product.

Your Tchibo Team

Carefully selected products, exclusively made to excellent quality

standards. Only products that meet these criteria are awarded the
Tchibo quality seal.
For more information, go to: www.tcm–quality.com
 Contents
4 Safety warnings
5 System requirements
6 Installing the software
9 Two routes to the same goal
10 Easy Wizard Mode
15 Advanced mode
15 Digitising analogue cassette
recordings
18 Playing an audio file
19 Splitting an audio file
22 Publishing the album
23 Burning or Saving
27 Uninstalling the software
28 Troubleshooting
29 Glossary

3
 Safety warnings

Read the safety warnings carefully and only use the article as described in these
instructions to avoid accidental injury or damage.
Keep this manual for future reference. When handing over this product to
another person, be sure to pass on these instructions as well.
Intended use
The software “honestech Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe” is intended for digitising
analogue cassette recordings on the computer. You can then edit the recordings
and burn them to CD. The software is designed for private use and is not suitable
for commercial purposes.
CAUTION – data loss
• In unfortunate circumstances the installation of new drivers on your PC may
crash the system and cause loss of data. Close all open files and programs
before installation. Make backup copies of your hard disk on external data
media.
• When creating new files, always use new file names. Files with the same name
will be overwritten without warning.
Legal information
• Be sure to observe the statutory provisions on the use of music. You are only
allowed to digitise files of which you are yourself the owner, or for which the
authors or copyright holders have granted you the appropriate rights of use.
If you infringe such rights, the holders of the rights may take action against
such criminal acts and bring claims against you.

4
 System requirements
• Windows XP Service Pack 2/3, Windows Vista, Windows 7
• Intel Pentium 3 CPU, 800 MHz or faster
• USB 2.0 interface is a minimum requirement for using the cassette digitiser
• Min. 256 MB RAM
• Min. 4 GB free hard disc space for audio editing, plus 70 MB for program
installation
• DirectX 9 compatible graphics card
• Windows Media Player 6.4 (or better)
• CD recorder for audio CD, MP3 CD

Note on the software

• The installation instructions and software description are based on Win-
dows 7. Other operating systems may differ slightly. Follow the information
and instructions shown on the screen.

5
 Installing the software

CAUTION – data loss

• In unfortunate circumstances the installation of new software on your PC may
crash the system and cause loss of data. Close all open files and programs
before installation. Make backup copies of your hard disk on external data
media.

You are supported during installation by step-by-step instructions from an

installation wizard. Follow the information and instructions displayed. Depending
on your operating system, the prompts may differ slightly from those shown
here.
1. Switch on your PC and launch Windows. Close any applications that are
running.
2. Insert the installation CD. The system window “Auto-play” opens. Click on
“Run setup.exe”.
If installation does not start automatically on your PC, go to the “Start”
menu and open “My Computer”. Select the CD/DVD drive, then double-
click on the file “Setup.exe” to launch it.

3. Select Deutsch (German) or

Englisch (English) as your program
language and click on Next.

4. Click on Next.

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 5. Read the licence agreement.
Tick the appropriate box to accept
the licence agreement. Then click
on Next to proceed with installation.

6. Click on Next or select a different

location to install the software.

7. Click on Next.

7
 8. Click on Install.

Installation begins. You can see the

progress on the status bar.

9. Click on Finish.

There is now a new icon on your desktop which you can use to
launch the software.

8
 Two routes to the same goal
The program is designed both for beginners and for PC users who already have
experience of using software.
Easy Wizard Mode offers …
… clear, step-by-step instructions for digitising and burning your cassette
recordings.
Advanced Mode allows you to …
… digitise the cassete recordings
… carry out extensive editing of the digitised recordings
… burn the digitised recordings in a choice of CD formats
(audio CD or MP3 CD) and
… save the recordings as MP3 files on your hard disk, selecting your own
settings for sampling rate and compression level.
Or you can record your cassettes in Easy Wizard Mode and then edit
them using Advanced Mode.

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 Easy Wizard Mode
1. Start the program if it is not already running, e.g. by clicking on
the program icon on the desktop.

m You may be asked to register the product. You can postpone registration by
up to 14 days by entering the relevant number under Do not display this
message for ... days in the drop-down menu and clicking on Cancel.
Registration:
Enter your name under Customer Name and
your E-mail address under E-mail. Select the
appropriate Country in the drop-down menu.
Click on Register.
This opens a window with the message Your
registration was successful. Click on OK.

If you have not registered the product, you will be reminded to register
at the end of the set period.
As a registered user you will receive any updates to the program as they
become available.

2. Move the mouse over the left

window: Easy Wizard Mode.
The frame turns green.
Left-click on this window.

3. Connect the cassette digitiser to

your PC.
Then click on the right arrow at
the bottom right of the window.

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 4. Start the cassette playing.
5. Click on Help .

If you cannot hear any sound, check that …

… the cassette digitiser is properly connected to the PC.
… the volume of the speakers connected to the PC is high enough.
… your PC’s audio output is not set to “mute”.

m Use the mouse to drag the slider to the

right to increase the recording level, or
to the left to decrease it. Alternatively
you can use the arrow keys  and  on
your keyboard.
m Click on OK.

m Adjust the recording level so that it stops just short of the red zone on the two
control instruments. An occasional peak is acceptable, but output that is con-
stantly in the red zone can result in distorted sound.

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 m If the recording level is still too high,
click on Cassette Digitizer volume
control.
m Tick the box for Enable.

m Use the mouse to drag the slider upwards to

increase the level or downwards to reduce it.

m Click on OK to save the change. Or click on

Cancel to abandon the procedure.

m Repeat this step if necessary to optimise the recording level, then click on OK.
m Now click on the right arrow . You can use the left arrow to return to
the previous window.

If the volume is high when playing the cassette, but the recording level
peaks on the two control instruments are low, turn down the volume of
the speakers PC attached to the PC. Adjust the level as described, then
turn up the volume of the PC speakers if necessary.

6. Now adjust any background noise.

Activate Noise Reduction by clicking
in the checkbox, then move the
slider with the double arrow to
the left or right. Make this adjust-
ment by ear.
7. If necessary, click on the
symbol and select a different
output folder. Then click on the
right arrow . You can use the
left arrow to return to the
previous window.

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 8. Under Album Name, enter a name
for the recording. Highlight the
existing name and overwrite it.
9. If you want to set a recording time,
activate Set Recording Time and
enter the time in the format
hours : minutes : seconds
(maximum 23 : 59 : 59).
10. Activate Auto Split if you want to
record the music from the cassette
as separate tracks. The program
identifies tracks separated by a
break and creates a track list.
11. Wind the cassette to the point where you want to start recording. Press the
PLAY button on the cassette digitiser to start the audio cassette playing.
Click on Record , to start the digitised recording. The Record button
automatically changes to a Stop button.

If you have set a recording time, the progress of the recording is shown on a
status bar. The current duration of the recording is shown to the right of the
bar.
12. If you have not set a recording time, you can end the recording by clicking on
Stop. This stops the recording

Repeat the steps above as necessary to make further recordings.

13. Click on …
… Burn to burn the recording,
… Back to return to the previous window, or
… Exit to quit the program.

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 14. Select a CD recorder from the
drop-down menu Burning Device.
15. Click on and insert a blank CD.
16. Under Output Format, select
Audio CD or MP3 CD, then click on
the right arrow .

MP3 CDs can be played by the CD/DVD drive of your PC and by many
stereo systems (see the instructions for your stereo system). If necessary,
select Audio CD for playing on a CD player that cannot play MP3 files.

17. To insert more audio files, click on

the Add Tracks button. To
remove files from the list, mark
them by clicking on the file name,
then click on Remove Tracks .

If the list exceeds the storage space available on the CD, part of the bar
below the track list turns red. To exclude tracks from the burning process,
remove the tick against them in the first column of the title list.

18. Click on Burn to start burning the tracks to CD. You can see the
progress in the status bar.

19. Nach dem Brennen erscheint die Meldung Successfully burned. Klicken Sie
auf OK, um die gebrannte CD auszuwerfen.

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 Advanced mode

Digitising analogue cassette recordings

1. Start the program if it is not already running, e.g. by clicking on
the program icon on the desktop.

2. Move the mouse over the right

window: Advanced Mode.
The frame turns green.
Click on this window.

3. Start the cassette playing.

The Record window is where you
select the options and where you
start and stop the recording.

4. Click on the Options button.

m If necessary, select the cassette
digitiser from the Audio Device
USB Audio Device drop-down menu. It is called USB
Audio Device.
m From the Format drop-down menu
you can select various combinations
of sampling rates and mono/stereo
channel sound. The standard value
for audio CD quality is 44100Hz
16bit Stereo.

15
m Now adjust any background noise. Activate Noise Reduction by clicking in the
checkbox, then move the slider to the left or right. Make this adjustment by
ear.
m If necessary, click on the symbol and select a different output folder.

After frequent use, the output folder where the recordings are saved may
contain a large number of files. If these include files that you no longer
want to edit, save or burn, you should …
… create a new folder at system level and select it as output folder,
… move these files to a different folder at system level, or
… delete the files.

Under Prefix File Name, enter a name for the recording. Highlight the existing
name and overwrite it.
5. Click on OK to save the changes.
6. To set a recording time, mark the numbers in the field Recording Time and
enter the desired time by overwriting them, using the format hours : minutes :
seconds (maximum 23 : 59 : 59).
7. Use the slider to the right of the level gauges to adjust the recording
level. Set the level so that it stops just short of the red zone on the two
control instruments. An occasional peak is acceptable, but output that
is constantly in the red zone can result in distorted sound.

m If the recording level is still too low,

click on Options .
m Click on Settings.
m Put a tick against Enable.

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 m Use the mouse to move the slider upwards to
increase the level, or downwards to reduce the
level.
m Click on OK to save the changes. You can click
on Cancel to abandon the operation.

8. Wind the cassette to the point where you want to start recording. Press the
PLAY button on the cassette digitiser to start the audio cassette playing.
9. Start recording by clicking on the Record button.

If you have set a recording time, the progress is indicated by a status bar.
The current duration of the recording and the size of the file can be seen to
the left of the bar. You can end the recording at any time by clicking on the
Stop button.
10. If you have not set a recording time, you can end the recording by clicking on
the Stop button.
The recording now exists as a WAV file.
The time is automatically appended to the file name you chose for the
recording. The list of recordings provides you with information on Play Time,
Size of file, and Format.
11. Place a tick against the files you
want to convert to a different file
type, burn to CD or save to hard
disk.

To play a file, simply double-click on the file name. The files are opened in
Windows Media Player.

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Playing an audio file
1. Click on the Edit tab.
This is where you can edit your digitised
recording or other audio files saved on
your PC (formats: WAV, MP3, WMA).

2. Click on Open File to open the file you want to edit. This loads the file.
File loading is indicated by a bar showing progress in percent. It can be
stopped by clicking on Cancel.
Tracks can be controlled by clicking on the following buttons:
Play : Start playing at the last mark
Pause : Pause playback
Stop : Stop playback and mark for splitting
Start Position : Skip to start of track
End Position : Skip to end of track
Rewind : Skip back in 5-second steps
Forward : Skip forward in 5-second steps

Elapsed play time and total length are shown

to the right of the control buttons.
You can set the playback volume by clicking
on and dragging the volume control.
You can change the view of the audio track by clicking on the buttons …
… Zoom in ,
… Zoom out , and
… Fix Window (restore original view).

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Splitting an audio file
As the playing time of a cassette can be up to one hour per side, the files created
when digitising are correspondingly large. If there are breaks between individual
tracks on the cassette, the program can recognise these and split the digitised
recording into individual tracks using the Auto Split function. You can also
split files manually.
• Click on Auto Split . File splitting is indicated by a bar showing progress
in percent. It can be stopped by clicking on Cancel.
• By clicking in the frequency curve of the two audio tracks or clicking on Stop
, you can insert a red triangular mark in the orange coloured time bar.
Click on the Split button to insert a split there. The split is shown
above the time bar as a title transition and is inserted as a division .
New tracks formed as a result of splitting are added to the title list. Tick

Division Title number

Shift mark

Title transition

Split mark

Time bar

Removing all splits

• To remove all splits, click on Reset .
Removing individual splits
• You can remove individual splits by clicking in the checkbox for the
division. This cancels the split at this point.

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Shifting a track transition
1. You shift a track transition by pointing to it with the mouse. The mouse
pointer changes its appearance and becomes a shift mark (double arrow).
2. Click on this shift mark and drag it.
3. Release the mouse button. The track transition is now in the new position.

Editing tracks
• Place a tick against the tracks to which you want to apply an effect. Click
on the tick to remove it if you want to exclude tracks from this operation.
• Click on Effect and click on the
Amplify
desired effect to select it.
Normalize
Noise Reduction
Fade In/Out

Amplify
You can use the Amplify effect to raise or
lower the volume of the marked tracks as
desired.
1. Use the mouse to move the slider to the
right to increase the volume or to the
left to reduce it. Alternatively you can
use the arrow keys  and  on your
keyboard.
2. Click on …
… Preview to check the effect and
… OK to accept the setting. A bar indicates the progress of file processing in
percent. It can be stopped by clicking on Cancel.
• Clicking on Cancel closes the window immediately without changing the
selected files.

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Normalize
The Normalize effect automatically boosts the volume of all files in the track list:

• Confirm the safety prompt by clicking on Yes. A bar indicates the progress of
file processing in percent. It can be stopped by clicking on Cancel.
• If you click on No, the window closes immediately and the selected files are
not processed.

The advantage of normalization is that it raises the volume of all tracks.

However, this may reduce the dynamic range of a recording.

Noise reduction
This allows you to control background noise.
1. Use the mouse to move the slider to
right or left. Alternatively you can use
the arrow keys  and  on your key-
board. This adjustment has to be made
by ear.

2. Click on …
… Preview to check the effect, and
… OK to accept the setting. A bar indicates the progress of processing in
percent. It can be stopped by clicking on Cancel.
• If you click on Cancel, the window closes immediately and the selected files
are not processed.

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Fade In/out
You can fade tracks in or out and set a specific time for this.
1. Activate Fade In/Out by clicking in the
appropriate checkbox.
2. Define the duration of the effect. Click
in the drop-down menu and select a
time in seconds.

3. Click on OK to accept the setting. A bar indicates the progress of processing

in percent. It can be stopped by clicking on Cancel.
• If you click on Cancel, the window closes immediately and the selected files
are not processed.

Undo
After you have applied the effects, you can remove them by clicking on the
Undo button. Note that this removes all the effects you have applied in the
Edit window.

Publishing the album

1. In the Edit window, place a tick against the tracks you want to burn to CD
or save on your hard disk. Click to remove the tick if you want to exclude indi-
vidual tracks.
2. Click on Publish .

Once you have edited the individual

tracks, the Publish window allows you
to add names to tracks, compile an
album, and save this album on your
hard disk or burn it to CD.

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 Note that if you click on Close, you lose all the changes you have
made in the Publish window!

Changing track order

You can change the order of the tracks.
1. In the File column, click on the name of the file and hold down the mouse
button.
2. Now drag the track to the desired position. When you release the mouse
button, the track will be inserted below the track you dropped it on.
You can move two or more tracks at the same time.
1. Select the first track as described.
2. Press the Shift key  on your keyboard and hold it down.
3. Now click on another track. All tracks between the two files selected are now
highlighted and can be moved as a block. You can deselect tracks from this
block by holding down Ctrl and clicking on the the individual track or tracks.

Album name
• Give your new album a name. Enter it by highlighting and overwriting the text
in the Album Name field. Do not use more than 30 characters (this will also be
used as the name of the CD).

Add/Remove Files
• Click on Add Tracks to add more files in WAV, MP3 or WMA format.
• To remove files from the list, highlight them, e.g. by clicking on the file name
in the File column. Then click on Remove Tracks .

Burning or Saving
• Click on the appropriate radio button to specify what you want to do with the
album:
burn as Audio CD
save as MP3 File , or
burn as MP3 CD .

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Audio CD
1. Select a CD drive from the drop-down menu CD Writer.
2. Click on .
3. Insert a blank CD and close the tray of the CD recorder. A green bar below the
track list shows you that the blank CD is inserted and ready for burning.

If a red section appears at the end of the green bar, this means that there is
not enough storage space on the CD.
Compare …
… the storage space required with the capacity of the CD shown to the right of
the bar and
… then compare the difference between required storage space and CD
capacity with the size of the audio files in the Size column of the track list.
Remove the ticks from tracks you decide not to include on the CD until the
red part of the bar disappears.
4. Click on Start to start the burning process.
5. The conversion and burning process is shown as a bar indicating progress in
percent. You can stop it during conversion by clicking on Stop.
6. Once the CD is complete, you will see the message Successfully burned.
Click on OK. The recorded CD is ejected.
7. Remove the CD and close the tray of the CD recorder.
8. You can now burn more CDs or click on Close to exit the window.

MP3 file
1. If you want to change the storage location of your MP3 file, click on Output
Folder and select a different folder.

24
2. You can change various settings for MP3 files.
Click on the Settings button.
This allows you to make the following
settings:
m under Channel you can select Mono
oder Stereo
m under Sample Rate you can select
44100 Hz or 48000 Hz, and
m under Quality (Bitrate) you can
specify 64, 96, 128, 160, 192 or
224 Kbps.
Use the mouse to drag the slider to
right or left. Alternatively you can
use the arrow keys  and  on your
keyboard.
m Click on OK to accept these settings. Or you can click on Default to restore
the previous standard settings.

Selecting a bit rate in the range 64 to 160 Kbps reduces the quality, but
also the size of the file. Conversely, improving the quality to 224 Kbps
uses more storage space

3. Click on Start to start saving the file.

4. The conversion and saving process is shown as a bar indicating progress in
percent. You can stop it by clicking on Stop.
5. When the file has been saved, you will see the message File conversion
completed. Click on OK.
6. Click on Close to exit the window

MP3-CD
1. Select a CD recorder from the drop-down menu CD Writer.
2. If necessary, change the settings for MP3 files as described under MP3 File.
Click on the Settings button.
3. Click on .

25
4. Insert a blank CD and close the tray of the CD recorder. A green bar below the
track list shows you that the blank CD is inserted and ready for burning.

If a red section appears at the end of the green bar, this means that there is
not enough storage space on the CD.
Compare …
… the storage space required with the capacity of the CD shown to the right of
the bar and
… then compare the difference between required storage space and CD
capacity with the size of the audio files in the Size column of the track list.
Remove the ticks from tracks you decide not to include on the CD until the
red part of the bar disappears.
5. Click on Start to start the burning process.
6. The conversion and burning process is shown as a bar indicating progress in
percent. You can stop it during conversion by clicking on Stop.
7. Once the CD is complete, you will see the message Successfully burned.
Click on OK. The recorded CD is ejected.
8. Remove the CD and close the tray of the CD recorder.
9. You can now burn more CDs or click on Close to exit the window.

26
 Uninstalling the software
1. Go to Start / All programs / honestech Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe and open
the program Uninstall honestech Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe .
2. To uninstall, click on Yes.

The status bar indicates the progress of

the uninstall process.

3. Click on Finish to complete the

uninstall process.

27
 Troubleshooting

• No sound • Are the speakers properly connected

to your PC?
• Is the volume of the PC speakers set
high enough?
• Is the audio output of your PC set to
“mute”?

• Recording does not start • Is the Cassette Digitiser properly

connected?
• CD not burned • Not enough storage capacity?
• Wrong drive selected?

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 Glossary

Sampling rate
The sampling rate for digital recordings indicates the frequency with which the
analogue signal is sampled and converted into digital signals. For an audio CD the
sampling rate is 44.1 kHz, i.e. the analogue signal is sampled 44,100 times a
second. The sampling rate is given in Hertz (abbreviation: Hz) or in samples per
second (samples/s), or SPS or S/s for short. It is more common to use multiples
of the basic unit, e.g. kHz (kilohertz) or MSPS (million samples per second) or
even GSPS (billion samples per second ).
Bit rate
The bit rate states the number of bits transferred per second. The transfer speed
of a modem or the compression of audio and video files is measured and stated
in kbit/s / kbps.
Codec
A codec (a made-up word from coder and decoder) is a process or program that
digitally encodes and decodes data or signals. In cases of direct conversion from
one format to another (e.g. MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or MP3 to WMA) the term
“transcoding” is also used.
ID3 tag
An ID3 tag is additional information (metadata) that may be present in MP3 audio
files. ID3 means “Identify an MP3”; the term “tag” is used in the sense of a label.
Kbit/s
Kbit/s stands for “kilobits per second”. Kbit/s or kbps is the unit of measurement
for the transfer rate of a modem or the data transmission rate of an Internet
connection (1 kbit/s = 1000 bit/s).
Compression
Reduces the size of digital files. Data compression techniques make it possible to
reduce the size of image, audio or video files many times over in order to avoid
excessive transmission times, e.g. in the Internet. The greater the compression,
the greater the loss of quality on playback.
MP3
“MP3” stands for “MPEG 2.5 Audio Layer III”. MP3 is an audio format that
permits substantial compression of audio files with very little sacrifice in audible
quality. Frequency range and signal-to-noise ratio remain virtually unchanged.
MP3 is the classic audio format. It is supported by most programs and devices
that play music files.

29
Sampling frequency
see “Sampling rate”
Driver
A driver is a software program that enables a PC (computer) to work properly
with connected devices such as the mouse, printers, modems, a sound card etc.
USB
USB is the abbreviation for “Universal Serial Bus”, a standard for connecting
peripheral devices such as mouse, keyboard, scanner or MP3 player to the PC.
USB 1.1 has a transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s and can control up to 127 devices. The
USB 2.0 standard is a more recent development which, with a transfer rate of
480 Mbit/s, offers a (theoretical) transfer rate that is 40 times higher than
USB 1.1. It is downward compatible with USB 1.1.
The USB standard provides three transfer rates for peripheral devices:
USB 1.1 Low Speed (1.5 Mbit/s)
USB 1.1 Full Speed (12 Mbit/s)
USB 2.0 High Speed (480 Mbit/s)
WMA
“Windows Media Audio”, or WMA for short, is Microsoft’s standard streaming
media format for audio files under Windows and is generated by the Windows
Media Player. It is identified by the file extension “.wma”. Like RealAudio, WMA is
also a standard for real-time transmission of audio and video in the Internet.
WAV
Wave files are identified by the file extension “.wav”. Unlike MP3 and other
codecs, Wave basically does not use any data compression. In other words, the
audio data is stored as raw data and is not usually compressed. It is however
possible to store compressed data in Wave format.

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