Playback
Play back the track to hear how it sounds. Trim off any silence at the beginning and ends of the track. If you have an audio cleanup plug-in, use it to automatically remove any clicks, pops, and hiss.

If you don't have an audio cleanup plug-in, try this:

1. Zoom in to each click or pop.
2. Select an adjacent cycle of the waveform at the zero crossing points.
3. Copy it to the clipboard.
4. Paste it over the cycle that contains the click.
5. Listen to the track again and run the hiss removal if necessary.

Normalize
Normalize the track to adjust the volume up or down so that all tracks will play at a similar level. A value of 97 percent usually works well if your software normalizes by peak level. More advanced programs, such as Cool Edit Pro, can normalize by average levels, which is much more accurate.

Fades
You may want to add a fade-in or fade-out. Some CD recording programs, such as Nero, can automatically crossfade tracks as the CD is recorded.

Save files

If you intend to record the track to an audio CD, save it to a PCM format WAV file (PC) or an AIFF file (Mac). Save the file to MP3 format if you want to play it from your computer or on a portable player.

Once again, before you record an entire album, experiment with a short clip so you can determine which settings work best for different types of recordings. Write the settings down for future reference.

Bruce Fries is the author of The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook.