making a cd to time student exams.

[gingernut]

Ok, this is the situation.

My students shortly sit their practical exams which involves examining patients for a 5 minute period, then moving on to the next "station" to perform further examination for 5 minutes.

At the end of each 5 minute period, the student moves on to the next station, and this carries on until the student completes the 12 or so stations we've devised.

There are about 10 students in each test, and they all shift along the line after each 5 minute period, to move onto their next station.


(are you with it so far?)

At 4min30s into the session, the student recieves a warning that there is 30 seconds remaining, (a claxon) and at 5minutes, the students recieve a notice (bells ringing) to move on to the next station.

The warning system consists of the warning sounds played on a mini disc, set to repeat. The current system is a bit tempremental, and not very "student friendly." And its a bit stressful for me too

I'd like to change the system to a verbal prompts, via a cd, which can just be inserted into a portable cd player.

I'd like to "burn" a cd, that has two verbal messages, "please move to the next station and begin," and "thirty seconds remaining" at the required intervals.

I have a laptop, no microphone, "Microsoft Sam," text recognition software, a dvd/cd burner, a portable cd player, and windows xp movie maker. I won't be taking my laptop to the exam.

I just havn't got the brain power to mix them all together. Any ideas ppruners ?

[matelot]

You could get a cheap microphone for next to nothing and record on your laptop. Or, as I've just done, voice record into an MP3 player (USB) which can then be burned straight to a CD (may need converting .wav to .mp3.)

[Mac the Knife]

1. Double click the VOLUME control on the taskbar (lower-right of your screen)
2. Option -> Properties -> Recording -> Wave Output -> Ok -> Select wave output
3. Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Sound Recorder
4. Play whatever you want (e.g. Microsoft SAM or a piano program)
5. Press the RECORD button ... it will record whatever is being outputted to your sound-card
6. Save the file as "move_to_next.wav"

Rinse & repeat.

You can work the messages into a batch file (anyone remember those?) with the appropriate delays. When I've got a moment I'll post a sample for ya!

[gingernut]

Thanks chaps I reckon I'm halfway there.

I've now recorded the appropiate Microsoft Sam sounds, using "Sound recorder," and saved the .wav files.

I'm having difficulty with inserting a silent interval.

I guess the easiest way would be to record one (five minute) .wav file, and burn the track repeatedly onto a cd, but sound recorder only seems to let me record 60 seconds at a time.

Any ideas?

[stickyb]

A lot of CD recording software allows you to alter/control the gap (silence) between tracks, from zero (as the musicians would say, volte subito) upwards. So i suppose you could have a gap of however long you wanted.

[Mac the Knife]

Windows Sound Recorder is a miserable crippled thing.

Try Audacity (free) - sound recording software - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

"Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems."

Linux people use it a lot and it works a treat - there's a free Windows version and that should do the trick!



Anvil Studio - http://www.anvilstudio.com/ - is another freebie that I haven't tried.

[gingernut]

Thanks Mac, I seem to have solved the problem using Audacity.

Kids will love it also, something to do with creating "Hip Hop."

Told them it was from a man more interested in "Hip Op."

[matelot]

Audacity will also convert on export .wav to .mp3!

[gingernut]

Thanks Matelot, I havn't tried burning the cd yet, 'scuse my ignorance, but will it be problamatic?