Audio Tools
One extremely powerful tool for learning Sanskrit is to chant along with a
recording. This can help dramatically in learning the articulation of the
sounds and changes in pitch.
Many excellent recordings of Sanskrit chanting were made in cassette format.
The reason for this is two-fold. The first reason is the difference
between analog (cassette) and digital (CD) recordings. We commonly
consider digital recording to be better because it is vastly superior in filtering out distortion and producing a more clear and crisp sound. Another factor to consider is that analog recording is like a waveform of sound. Digital recording is like chopping up the waveform into tiny little pieces to process the data and then putting it back together to be reproduced. Yes, this does help static and distortion to be filtered out, but one could conclude that it is less of a true reproduction of sound.
I have also heard that analog recording captures sounds that are beyond
the range of frequencies that we can hear. Can sound have a profound
impact on raising our level of awareness even if we can’t hear it?
You decide; this is simply some food for thought.
If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?
(It could make a sound above 20,000 hertz and we wouldn’t hear it anyway!)
The point of all of this is that Analog recording is superior to Digital
for some purposes. (Like recording Sanskrit)
A downfall of Analog (cassette) recording is that it isn’t divided into
convenient tracks like on a CD. These tracks make it possible to easily
skip and repeat portions of a recording.
Although converting an analog recording to digital may reduce certain
qualities of the sound, it can serve incredibly well for practicing Sanskrit.
Let’s look at it this way:
If we were just listening to a recording of Sanskrit chanting it would
be best to play a cassette due to the benefits of analog recording.
(The sound is truer and it may reproduce beneficial sounds beyond our normal
range of hearing.)
If we are using a Sanskrit recording so that we could practice our
chanting and sing along with it, we should consider the benefits of
digital. Since the recording is only being used to help us reproduce
the chanting, the sound quality doesn’t matter so much. The sound quality
of our voice is perfect! If we are practicing the same chant or hymn,
it would be incredibly useful to be able to jump back to the beginning
of the track and repeat it again.
This is the basis of the audio tools provided on this site.
The software tools are very easily accessible and don’t cost anything
if you already have a copy of Windows installed on your computer.
You will need to have the latest version of Windows Media Player
installed and you will need to install a program
called
Audacity that is available for free from Sourceforge.net.
This PDF file (1.3MB) shows step by step instructions of how to convert cassette audio into individual tracks and burn to a CD format.
Please remember that copyrighted materials are protected by law and that
any modification or duplication of them needs to be approved by the owner.