Griffin Technology Final Vinyl 25 User Manual

Final Vinyl  
User Manual  
Getting Started  
Hello, and welcome to Final Vinyl, stereo recording and  
editing software from Griffin. Final Vinyl was originally  
created for use with Griffin iMic, to make it easier to  
digitize your record collection. But iMic and Final Vinyl  
have many more uses, besides.  
iMic Setup  
Plug your audio device into iMic’s In jack, and plug iMic into an  
unused USB port on your computer. iMic has a selector switch  
on the side; for most turntables, this switch should be set to  
MIC level. If your device has its own preamp, switch to Line.  
To make sure you are getting signal into your computer:  
1. Open System Preferences and click on the Sound icon.  
2. You will see three tabs: Sound Effects, Output, and Input.  
Select Input, and make sure that “iMic USB audio system” is  
highlighted. Begin playing your audio device. You should begin  
to see movement on the “Input level” meter. A good healthy  
signal will generally light up about 75-80% of the blue input  
level indicators. If you do not see signal activity, double-check  
your connections. You will not yet hear audio coming from your  
computer speakers, but don’t worry! We’re almost there.  
3. Select the Output tab. If you want to hear what you are recording  
through your computer speakers or through headphones plugged  
into your computer, select “Built-in Output.” If you need to use  
iMic as your output device (if, for example, your computer’s  
headphone jack is damaged) simply select iMic as your Output  
device, and plug your headphones into iMic’s OUT jack.  
Final Vinyl Setup  
1. Now we’re ready to install and launch Final Vinyl. To ensure  
you get the latest version for your operating system, please  
download the software from our website:  
2. Open Final Vinyl from your Applications folder. With Final  
Vinyl open, go to Final Vinyl > Preferences, and select  
“General.” Under Device, select “iMic USB Audio System.”  
Close the Preferences window.  
Final Vinyl Controls  
1. Zoom Slider: Allows you  
to zoom in and out of the  
recorded waveform, to view  
it in more or less detail for  
editing and placing marks.  
7. Editing Controls: The editing  
commands you use most.  
From left:  
Delete selected audio  
Crop selected audio  
Insert marker  
Delete active marker.  
2. Playthrough/Monitor Button:  
Allows you to hear the audio  
that is coming into Final Vinyl,  
whether or not you are  
6. Levels Meter: Tells you  
how loud the signal is.  
If it is repeatedly hitting  
the red mark, you may  
want to adjust the input  
level in System Preferences.  
actually recording it.  
3. Action Menu:  
4. Transport Controls:  
The Leftmost button  
5. Time/Location Indicator:  
Tools for editing  
your recording:  
equalizers, effects,  
and Auto Mark  
function.  
Tells you how long you  
have been recording, or  
where the Final Vinyl  
cursor is located in  
the waveform.  
moves Final Vinyl’s cursor  
to the beginning of the  
recording; in the middle  
is the Play/Pause button;  
at right is the Record button.  
Recording from a Turntable  
To make the audio sound normal, many turntables  
need a special filter setting, known as the “RIAA  
Curve.” Your old home stereo’s turntable input had  
a special equalization circuit built into it (remember  
when stereos had “Phono” inputs?). Final Vinyl  
recreates this equalization curve using digital  
signal processing.  
1. To add this turntable filter, select “Effects” from  
the Action Menu. A new window will pop open,  
labeled “Effect View.”  
2. At the bottom left of the “Effect View” window,  
click on the plus symbol and choose the effect  
you want (in this case, “EQ”).  
3. Two options appear: “Typical Connection” and  
“Connected to Turntable.” Select “Connected  
to Turntable” and click Apply. (For tape decks  
or other line level audio devices, you would  
select “Typical Connection.”)  
Recording and Monitoring Audio  
You’re ready to start recording with Final Vinyl. You may use any  
audio device you choose; here, we use a turntable as an example.  
1. Press the Record button; Final Vinyl will start recording. If you  
wish to monitor the incoming audio, click the “Playthrough/  
Monitor” button. The Playthrough button works whether you  
are recording or not.  
2. Start your turntable and place the needle on the  
record. While recording, the waveform window will  
turn red and the Record button will blink. The  
elapsed time of your current recording session will  
be displayed in the Time/Location indicator.  
3. To stop recording, press the flashing Record button  
again. Final Vinyl will then calculate and draw the  
waveform, a visual representation of your audio  
signal. The longer the recording, the longer the  
calculation will take, so be patient!  
4. If you wish to record both sides of an album as one  
continuous file, after the first side has finished, press  
Final Vinyl’s Record button to stop recording. Turn  
the record over, press the Record button, and start  
the turntable again. Final Vinyl will automatically  
continue recording where the other side left off.  
Playing Back Audio  
You will know when Final Vinyl is ready to play back  
your recording when the waveform is visible in the  
window.  
1. To play the recording, press the Play button (or  
press the space bar on your keyboard). You can  
use the Zoom slider to view the waveform in  
greater detail. When you are zoomed in, you can  
use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the  
waveform display to move forward (right) and  
backward (left) through the recording.  
2. To stop playing, press the Play button (or the  
space bar) once again.  
3. If you’re in a big hurry to save (export) what you  
just recorded, skip down to “Importing/Exporting  
a File.” However, we strongly recommend you  
read on to learn about special settings for  
turntables, EQ settings, and some of the time-  
saving features Final Vinyl has to offer.  
More About EQ Settings  
The sliders in the EQ window let you set the bass,  
treble, and mid-range to control the way your music  
sounds. The Gain slider at the far right of the EQ  
window will increase or decrease the overall volume  
within a range of +/- 20dB. Once you have the EQ  
settings the way you want them, press the “Apply”  
button, and Final Vinyl applies the settings to the  
recorded audio.  
An equalizer increases or decreases the volume  
within a selected frequency range; for example, you  
can move the EQ sliders to boost the bass range  
without affecting the treble. Keep in mind that  
boosting a band of frequencies boosts your overall  
signal as well. For example, if all of the frequency  
sliders are raised 50% above normal, the audio will  
be 10dB louder; if all the sliders are lowered 50%  
below normal, the sound will be 10dB softer. The  
trick is to balance all your various volume controls  
(including your Mac’s sound panel, Final Vinyl’s Gain  
setting in Preferences, Final Vinyl’s EQ settings, and  
possibly others, depending on your setup) so that the  
resulting audio never exceeds 100%.  
Continuing the example of raising all the sliders 50%, and assuming  
the incoming audio is set so that the loudest sound in the recording  
reaches 100% loudness, that would mean the final audio volume would  
be at 150%! If the total volume is more than 100%, the “peaks” of the  
audio signal will be “clipped off,” which results in a very nasty-  
sounding distortion of the signal. Your ability to perceive distortion will  
depend on the environment where you listen (a very noisy environment  
will make it hard to hear distortion) and on the style of music itself.  
Very light distortion is easy to hear in soft classical music, but nearly  
impossible to hear in thunderous heavy metal, which already contains  
large amounts of distortion as part of the music.  
Adding and Removing Effects  
Final Vinyl allows you to add multiple effects to your  
recording.  
1. Click the ”+” button and choose the effect you  
wish to add. You can add as many as you want,  
going back and forth among them and changing  
settings to get the best possible sound.  
2. If you want to remove a specific effect, just click  
on that effect to highlight it in the list, then click  
the ”-” button right beside the ”+” button.  
3. Once you have all the effects the way you want  
them, click “Apply”; all of the effects settings  
will be applied to the audio waveform, and the  
waveform will be re-drawn in the main window,  
reflecting your changes.  
AU Effects  
In the provided Effects list, you will see many  
names preceded by “AU.”  
Audio Units (AU) are a set of Apple-designed  
plug-ins provided by Core Audio in Mac OS X.  
AU are used by Macintosh applications such as  
GarageBand, SoundTrack Pro, Logic Express,  
Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and most 3rd party  
audio software developed for Mac OS X.  
If you’d like more information on AU effects,  
there is documentation on Apple’s website  
that provides a list of the various Effect Units  
and descriptions of what they do:  
MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/  
SystemAudioUnits/chapter_951_section_1.html#/  
/apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40003577-CH8-SW2  
Other Action Menu Items  
1. Auto Mark: This is a function that places marks  
in silent areas of your recording, such as the  
spaces between songs. This provides an easy,  
automatic way to separate your recording into  
multiple tracks.  
2. Clear All Marks: As the name implies, this action  
item removes Marks you may have placed in your  
waveform.  
3. Insert Silence: This function allows you to insert  
a pre-determined length of silence anywhere in  
the recording. Use this, for example, to add a  
couple of seconds of complete silence before or  
after a song.  
3. Normalize: Normalization applies a constant  
amount of gain to any selected region of the  
recording. All parts of the selection stay the  
same relative to each other; the whole selection  
becomes louder, with the highest peak at the  
level you specify.  
4. Rebuild Waveform: You may never have to use  
this command, as Final Vinyl 2.5.1 rebuilds the  
waveform for you automatically whenever you  
apply changes; but it gives you a manual way  
to refresh the drawing of the waveform in the  
main window.  
Using Auto Mark: Configuration  
If you have recorded an entire album as one waveform, you may want to  
save the tracks as separate files. Position the time tracking cursor where  
you want a split to occur, and press the “Insert Marker” button.  
Final Vinyl can automate this process for you. Choose “Auto Mark” from  
the Action menu. Final Vinyl will then search your recording for silent  
areas, and automatically place marks. The default settings work fine in  
most cases, but you can fine-tune Auto-Mark’s performance:  
1. Minimum track length: Tells Final Vinyl that a song should be at least  
(xx) minutes long (thus helps Auto Mark in detecting gaps correctly).  
2. Minimum length between tracks: Some albums have fairly long gaps  
between songs, while others have very short gaps. Adjusting this  
setting can help Final Vinyl figure out where the gaps are.  
3. Background noise level: Tells Final Vinyl how much background noise  
to tolerate in the recording (helpful on old, scratchy records).  
Once you have set some marks, the next time you save your recording  
you will be prompted to name each marked region, and each marked  
region will be saved in its own file.  
To remove an existing mark, click on the triangle at the top of the mark  
to select it, then click the “remove currently active mark” button. This  
will remove the selected mark.  
Using Auto Mark: Saving Individual Tracks  
So, you’ve recorded one side of an album and  
want to save just one song (or region). If you  
have set marks to split up your recording, you  
can save a single marked area (instead of the  
entire recording) by selecting “Save Track (...)  
As…” in the File drop-down menu at the top of  
your screen. The number of the region where  
your cursor is positioned will be the one  
showing in the “Save As” menu.  
For example, if you want to save just the 3rd  
region of your recording (the area between  
your 3rd and 4th Marks):  
1. Place the cursor somewhere within the 3rd  
region of your waveform.  
2. From the File Menu, select “Save Track 3 As…”  
3. Final Vinyl will then prompt you for a track  
title and for a folder location to save the file  
to on your disk.  
Importing/Exporting Files  
Final Vinyl can read and write many of the most popular file formats.  
1. Importing: If you have a file that does not show up as one that  
Final Vinyl can “open,” directly, you will likely be able to “import”  
it, instead. Select “Import” from the File Menu, and choose the  
file you want to import. Final Vinyl will import any audio file  
supported by your currently-installed version of QuickTime.  
2. Exporting: Final Vinyl can directly save a file as either WAV (an  
audio file format that is popular with Windows PC users) or AIFC  
(a variant of the AIFF audio file format popular with Macintosh  
users). But you can also export a file from Final Vinyl in other  
popular file formats, such as MPEG-4, QuickTime Movie, WAV,  
etc. To export your recording in one of these file formats, select  
“Export” from the File Menu, and choose the file format you wish.  
Note that you can import most of these file formats into iTunes,  
from within which you can convert the file into MP3 format, for  
use with iPod or other MP3 players, or for burning onto audio CDs.  
Troubleshooting  
Need help? We are constantly working to improve our products.  
You can find the latest FAQs and software downloads on our  
website:  
At Griffin, we back all of our products with the best technical  
support in the business. In the unlikely event that you will need  
further assistance, call 800-208-5996, and you will be greeted by  
live human beings who are familiar with Griffin products.  
We hope you enjoy Final Vinyl!  
© 2008 Griffin Technology, Inc., all rights reserved. Final Vinyl is a trademark of Griffin Technology, Inc.  
All product names mentioned in this manual are property of their owners, unless otherwise indicated.  

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