Hello all: The following note comes from Charles Francis who is spearheading the effort to produce Bluebird II for the Breeding Bird Atlas project:
Do you have any sound recordings or photos of Ontario birds that you would be willing to share with other atlassers? As you may know, the Atlas released a training CD-ROM in 2002 that was called "Bluebird" written by Toni Salvadori to help teach people bird songs. (Copies are available to atlas participants free of charge from their Regional Coordinator.) On that first edition, there was a photograph or drawing of each bird, and one recording each for as many bird species as we could find songs in a fairly limited time period. We are now working on a new, improved version of this CD-ROM. One of the key features of the new version, is that we would like to include several different recordings of each bird song, especially for some of the trickier species, to make for a more flexible and powerful learning and quizzing tool. SOUND RECORDINGS WANTED As a result, we would like to ask anybody with good recordings of Ontario birds, who would be willing to share them, to let us know. We are looking for high quality recordings of between about 10 and 30 seconds long (if you send something longer than necessary, we can always edit it down). All recordings will be given credits to the recordist, as well as giving the location and date of the recording. Ideally, it would be great if you could edit your own recordings and send them to us either as .wav files or convert them to .mp3 before sending them (in either case, preferably on a data CD). If you have recordings on cassette tape, there are a variety of ways to convert them to a computer readable format -- see instructions below for editing recordings. If you have high quality recordings on tape, but can't convert them yourself (although it can be rather fun to learn to digitize them), contact the atlas and perhaps we can find somebody else who could help out. If you have a lot of recordings, and would like suggestions on which ones we need most, please contact us. Highest priority would be species for which we are either lacking recordings (check the first edition of Bluebird), or for which the original recordings were not very typical. We are also very keen on extra recordings of those species that are a bit tricky to ID because of variations in their songs (e.g. trillers, warblers, etc.). Ideally, we would like to have 2-4 recordings for most species, but we can take up to 8. PHOTOGRAPHS WANTED In addition to sound recordings, we would like to have one good photograph for each species. We already have photos of most species, but if you feel you have better photos, or photos for some of the species we are missing please let us know. We are missing the following species: Alder Flycatcher, Northern Wheatear, Golden-winged Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, Wilsons Warbler. MORE INFORMATION If you have further questions, please contact Nicole at [EMAIL PROTECTED] SOME INSTRUCTIONS FOR DIGITIZING CASETTE TAPES AND EDITING SOUND FILES These days, there is a wide variety of software available for processing sound recordings. We are certainly not experts on this, and some of you may know more about it than we do. However, here are a few steps that I tried (using Windows) and my comments on those. If you know of other ways, or better programs, for editing sounds, let us know! To convert tapes to computer files (.wav format), you first need to use an appropriate cable to connect from the headphone plug (the "line-out" may also work, but doesn't allow you to control the volume) from your tape recorder to the microphone plug on your computer. Once you have done that, you need a program to capture and digitize the sound. There are quite a few options available, many for free download on the web. One option is the built-in Windows program called "Sound Recorder" (on the Start Menu it is under Programs/Accessories/Entertainment). However, you need to fiddle with the volume on your tape recorder to get it right, and when I tried it, it distorted the songs while recording (maybe I did something wrong, though). This program will allow simple editing of files, by trimming off a specified number of seconds at the beginning or the end. We recommend that you digitize the sounds at a fairly high resolution (e.g. 22050Hz or 44100 Hz (the latter is CD-resolution)) to ensure high quality (afterwards, you can use a compression program to convert them to .mp3 and make the files smaller - see below). Another quite flexible program for capturing sounds is a freeware program called "Syrinx". This one will capture sounds and show you a sonogram of the song as you go. It lets you know if things are too loud or too soft. It has several options for editing afterwards, including marking with the mouse the section on the sonogram you want to keep, and deleting the rest. It will also allow you to adjust the volume and even filter certain frequencies (though we don't normally recommend too much filtering). You can find information about this on the web (http://www.syrinxpc.com). You can download the latest Syrinx installation by clicking www.syrinxpc.com/syrinxinstall/syrinxinst.exe (or entering this into your web browser). When run, it creates a folder in your Program Files directory and puts the Syrinx program files there. Syrinx can be "uninstalled" by simply deleting the program. Once you have created and edited your files to select the parts you want, you can either send us a .wav file with all the recordings (the default for these capture programs) on a CD-ROM (not an audio CD, please), or you can convert them from .wav into .mp3, which reduces the size of the file first. A very flexible program to do the conversion is called "CDex". This is available for free as a download from the web (http://www.cdex.n3.net/). Please follow the installation instructions carefully. (This will also allow you to convert CD tracks into .wav files, which you could then edit with Syrinx if need be, and then convert them all to .mp3 afterwards.). If you send us .wav files, we can easily convert the ones we want to .mp3 files. If you have been making your recordings on a mini-disk recorder, then they will already be in .mp3 format. Usually your recorder comes with the cables and instructions you need to upload them to a computer. I presume there is also software to edit the .mp3 recordings, to select the sections you want, but I haven't used them. IMPORTANT: DOCUMENTATION One important request: please give your sound files meaningful names. We suggest you use a name that incorporates the 4-letter atlas code of the species, your initials and a number, all separated by hyphens. For example, you could use "INBU-CMF-1" where INBU is the code for Indigo Bunting, CMF is my initials, and -1 indicates it is my recording #1 for that species. Second, please also include a computer file that gives the following information: Name of the track Recorder's name Location where recording was made Date/Time recording was made Any comments about the recording If possible, please use the following format: INBU-CMF-1: Charles M. Francis, Langton, Ontario, 6 July 2002, 06:30. Notes: American Robin in background. The information after the colon will be displayed by the program when the sound is being played (except, of course, during a quiz!). PERMISSION: Finally, please include a signed note, or at least an E-mail, with the list of recordings, confirming that you give permission for the Ontario atlas to use your recordings for the training CD Bluebird. We will not use the recordings for any other purpose without asking first. -- Mike Cadman Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas Blackwood Hall, Room 211 University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1 Phone: 519-826-2094, Fax: 519-826-2113. e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mike Cadman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
