Community Newsletter: Q&A: 10/20/06 Converting old vinyl records and tapes to digital
- 10/19/06 5:01 PM
10/20/06 Converting old vinyl records and tapes to digital
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 10/19/06 5:01 PM
Question:
Hello, I have a project that's been brewing for a long time and am wondering if someone out there might have a similar one. I have tons of old vinyl records and tapes that I would like to convert into digital music--DVDs, CDs, and so on. I'd like to know if someone can give me pointers as to how to do it with the least cost. Please include choice of hardware, software, and other alternatives or options. My PC consists of a Intel P4 2.4GHZ, 1GB of RAM, and 80GB of disk space. I recently purchased an external DVD/CD burner to complement my system; my OS is Windows XP Pro. If anyone can give me helpful and constructive suggestions, it would be most appreciated. Thank you very much.
Submitted by: Ferdi W.
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Answer:
Ferdi, converting vinyl records or tape to digital music is straightforward and doesn’t require anything particularly exotic in terms of hardware (details below), but it is time-consuming; you can easily find yourself spending 20 minutes per song doing a high-quality conversion from vinyl. Because of this, I usually recommend that if the music that you want is already available in digital format, that you just acquire it already converted rather than do a new conversion. In the long run, you will save a lot of time and possibly get much better quality as well. That said, many of us have songs on vinyl or tape that are not available in digital format, even if paying for them is not an issue, so at times, manual conversion is the only way to get an old audio track into a digital format.
Let’s cover the hardware first. On the computer side, you need one with a sound system and line-in jacks. That excludes most laptops (most don’t have such jacks) unless you use an add-on PC Card or USB sound card, but almost every desktop computer meets these requirements. However, if quality is important, you might want to use a computer with a high-quality sound card rather than the integrated motherboard audio systems that many PCs have these days. Don’t get me wrong, audio on the motherboard will work and can do the job, but it often doesn’t have the frequency response and freedom from electrical noise found in a more premium audio system.
The other thing that you need is a stereo system that can play the source material (Vinyl, cassette, open reel tape, 8-track, whatever) and that has “line out” jacks. Virtually any stereo system will meet this requirement. But do note that you can’t just connect a bare turntable directly to a computer. While the level of a turntable cartridge output might be compatible with a computer’s “Microphone” jack (if the computer supports dynamic microphones), when recordings are made on vinyl the frequency response is intentionally “screwed up” (called “pre-emphasis”) to counteract physical limitations of the vinyl recording process, and then the playback audio preamplifier is expected to compensate for this by feeding the sound through a “de-emphasis” network. All tuners, receivers and amplifiers with a “phono” input handle this internally, but there is no input on a computer that directly supports it. So you need to connect the turntable to a stereo system or at least a preamplifier with a “phono” input and line level outputs for proper sound reproduction.
Connect the Line-out of the audio playback system to the Line-in jacks of your computer’s sound system with common stereo cables (normally having a pair of red and white RCA phono plugs) and your hardware configuration is done.
[If you want convenience and don’t mind spending some money, another solution to vinyl conversion is a “USB Turntable” made just for vinyl to digital conversions. There is one made by Ion that is sold by Amazon (as well as other electronics outlets), and you can see information about at: http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO. This one is about $130; there may be other such products on the market as well.]
With the turntable connected to the computer, the next step is to convert the analog audio to a digital file. Basically, you play the record and record the line-in signal on the computer. It’s possible to do direct conversion to MP3 or WMA, but a more conventional approach is to do the initial capture as a “wave” (.WAV) file, because this is more easily captured and edited. You need some software that will record the “Line In” input of the sound card to the desired file format (whatever it is). For wave files, such software comes with virtually all computers and sound cards, and can also be bought separately if necessary. If you need a program that can do this (and a lot more), a free one that is very good is “Audiograbber”. It is available at http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/. This program can also perform some of the other steps about to be described. Alternatively, the full retail versions of both of the major CD recording software packages (Nero and Roxio) have software that can perform all of the steps required and described in this paragraph and below (the OEM versions of Nero and Roxio that come with computers and optical drives are stripped down and do not necessarily include these components in all cases).
When you do your first recording, you need to do some experimenting to set the “level” (record volume) on the recording correctly so that the captured wave file is “as loud as possible without being too loud” [technically, we want to use the full dynamic range of the sound card without clipping]. Hopefully your sound recording software has some kind of level indicator to show you what the level is and when the music is clipping. You want to turn the level up as far as you can without getting any clipping anywhere in the song (given a choice, a bit low is probably better than any setting which clips (and thereby distorts) the highest-volume passages of the material). Unfortunately, the ideal setting will vary from song to song and record to record, so some experimentation may be necessary, which may require playing or even recording the song several times. This is one of the ways in which the process can become time-consuming.
After the song is captured digitally, you may want to do some editing and cleanup. I usually trim the beginning and end and if necessary adjust the “fade in” and “fade out”. I also usually “normalize” the song to get maximum dynamic range. I prefer to do this with an audio editor that has an oscilloscope-like display of the audio waveform, but exactly what you do and how you do it will depend on your skill level and on the software that you are using.
Another thing that you can do at this point (to varying degrees depending on the capabilities of the available software) is to “fix” the recording to remove noise, clicks, pops, wow, flutter, hum, tape hiss and “rumble”. The details of this vary with the available software, and significant cleanup may require using purchased (and potentially expensive) cleanup software. If you get too aggressive with this, also, you can ruin the material, but in some cases you can achieve dramatic results turning an old, scratchy vinyl record into something which sounds a lot more like it was originally recorded on CD. Again, this depends on your skill level, and on how much time and money (for software) you want to put into this aspect of the conversion. But even if you do no cleanup at all, you will still have a digital version that will sound no worse than the original source material.
Finally, once you have the wave file the way that you want it, you can use any number of software programs (including Audiograbber, Nero, Roxio, MusicMatch, Windows Media Player and probably software that came with your sound card) to convert the wave file to an MP3 or WMA file. Note that if you use Audiograbber to do the MP3 encoding, it requires separate installation of an MP3 codec. If you don’t have one (the full retail versions of the Nero and Roxio packages usually install one), the “Lame” MP3 codec is well regarded and is available without cost at http://lame.sourceforge.net/.
It’s possible to capture and encode directly to MP3 or WMA in a single operation with some software products, but personally I find that I’m not happy with the results unless I can trim the start and end and normalize the file prior to encoding. Also, I recommend that you “tag” each song so that the song information (title, artist, etc.) is actually “in” the MP3 or WMA file and will be displayed when the song is played (on most MP3 players). For tagging, I find Winamp and MusicMatch Jukebox to be the best available tools (both are available online for free download, although both have paid (but still low-cost) “premium” versions that can do a lot more. See http://www.winamp.com and http://www.musicmatch.com for additional information on these programs.
This should get you well on your way towards completing your conversion project.
Submitted by: Barry W. of North Canton, Ohio
Honorable mentions
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 10/19/06 4:17 PM
In reply to: 10/20/06 Converting old vinyl records and tapes to digital by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Answer:
I have transferred 100+ records and have been very pleased with the results. Here's what works for me. I have an old PII laptop with 30Gb total and 256m ram, so your hardware is going to be more than enough. Any sound card that can capture 16bit audio with a sample rate of 48kHz will record audio that is better than vinyl. It's important to understand that it won't improve the frequency response of the source, but at least you won't lose anything. You'll want to use a good quality turntable with a good stylus and a good quality amp. I had two albums that were deteriorated in two tracks beyond repair so I ended up purchasing commercial CD's (80s era jazz). My recordings from vinyl of the undamaged tracks were undistinguishable from the commercial CDs. So you should definitely give it a try - you'll be glad you did.
Here's how I do it:
I use Magix Audio Cleaning 2005, but there are many products out there that will do the job for a similar price. I use a "Y" adapter that has RCA plugs on one end to plug into the stereo amp and a .125" headphone plug to plug into the line-in jack on the computer. I clean the album as carefully as I can and start the album on my turntable. The recording software has a volume level meter that I use to set the recording volume slightly below 80% (where the meter peaks are just hitting yellow). I try to set it so that the peaks never get into the yellow. Once I'm happy with the record level, I restart the playback and hit record on the software. I monitor the volume meters to watch for any peaks in the red. If they ever hit red during a recording, just reduce the volume a couple of percent and try again. When the meters hit red, that means the sound is "clipped", which means that it was too loud to capture the high frequency portion and that will be lost. In the old days of analog recording to tape, you'd probably never notice a little clipping (a lot would sound dull and distorted). With digital recordings though, clipping will kill your joy because it will sound like a loud crackle when you play it back.
I record whole sides at a time. You can record a track at a time if you like, but you'll spend more time on it. An album side will typically take somewhere between 150 and 250 Mb in a .wav file. (My software will record direct to an .mp3 which will use much less space, but I like to keep it in .WAV format until I'm completely done. The .WAV format will preserve the full quality of the recording through any post processing where .mp3 will degrade with each generation.)
Once I have my .WAV file, I run the audio cleaning options in the program to remove hiss, rumble, and ticks. The program I use works well (better for hiss and ticks, not as well for rumble), but there are usually a few ticks I have to remove manually. The software gives a graphic representation of the wave form, so ticks are easy to find, zoom in on, and delete. (You lose a few samples, but you have 48,000 samples in each second of audio so you'll never hear the loss in the final output.) Two things I do before I do the final burn is to "normalize" the volume and "remove DC offset". These are both options in the audio editing software. Some purists may criticize that, but between setting the record volume slightly below 80% and normalizing, the signal to noise ratio of the audio sample will be improved. You can try it both ways and see what you like. I can't explain DC offset other than to say doing it seems to noticeably improve clarity.
That done, you are ready to cut and label the tracks. You can use auto detect, which works well, but you'll need to check to be sure the program is not finding silent passages within a song. I think it's a nice touch to add short (1-2 second) fades on each end of the track, but that's not real important. The last step is to use the 'burn CD' option, but I choose the sub-options to burn each track to a file instead of a CD. That makes it easy to combine all of the sides of the album (especially for those multi record sets) into a final compilation to burn to an audio CD. Having individual tracks also makes it easy to convert each track into its own .mp3 for my portable.
By the way, Magix Audio Cleaner can handle the disc burning and .mp3 conversion, but I like Nero Burning a little better for that. Again, there are a lot of programs out there for burning CDs and converting audio formats and I suspect they all work equally well.
Good luck, I hope you enjoy being able to recapture that old collection.
Submitted by: Paul L. of Toronto, Ontario
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Answer:
You're in luck Ferdi! This is actually a simple version of a problem most people deal with -> Transferring Video on DVD's and CD's. This usually requires the use of video captures cards and spiffy software which can get quite expensive!
However, if you're only interesting in transferring audio to preserve all those great vinyls, given what you've already got, you only need a few connectors from your local electronic (or even dollar store sometimes) and some free software off the net to make things happen.
Will start with the Hardware:
Your Cassette player, as well as your record player, are likely to have Head Phone outputs. They may even have RCA outputs which would be good too, either way you still have to get about the same number of connectors. If you have head phone outputs, at the electronics store all you need to get is a 3.5 millimeter to 3.5 millimeter jumper cable that is male on both ends (think of the jack on end of your headphones). Your record player might have a larger jack for which you'll need a converter to a 3.5 millimeter, once again at the electronics store.
For RCA, you just need a "Y" connector that converts standard stereo Red/White RCA in to a stereo 3.5 millimeter jack, which you can probably get at the store for about ten bucks or less. You may also want to get a 3.5 millimeter extension cable too, in case the Y connector is not long enough and/or is awkward to plug in.
Either way, your going to connect the other end into the "Line In" jack on the back of your computer, it's usually grouped together with two others, the microphone jack (mono only) and the line out, which is used for speakers.
Now onto the software:
Everything you need in terms of software is available for free on the 'Net. Doesn't get much better then that. First, the audio capturing software. The best free one to use is Audacity, available from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. To create MP3 files, it might also ask you for the LAME MP3 encoder, which is available in many places to be found with a quick Google search. Then you simply need to connect up to the Line In port (make sure it is unmuted in Audio Properties), hit record in Audacity, and hit play on your record or cassette player and let the music fly. It records in real time, so you'll have to listen through them all, or else just let it run and walk away.
Afterwards, you can use Audacity to do things like remove excess noise, chop up the single file into multiple tracks, and save them all as MP3.
The other software you'll need is a burning program. One may have come with your burner, but if not, a great free one for Windows XP is CD Burner XP Pro, located here: http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
Using CD Burner XP Pro is pretty simple, just start it up, select if you want DVD or CD, and if you want it to be Audio or MP3 (keep in mind that Audio CD's will play in most CD players, while MP3, though you can hold many more songs, will only play in MP3 compatible players). Also, you can create Data DVD's which many DVD players (though not all) will be able to play the MP3 Files directly off of the disc. In case not, your DVD player should still have no problem playing Data MP3 CD's.
That's pretty much all there is to it, pretty simple and cheap. Enjoy your new digital music!
Submitted by: Jason D.
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Hello Ferdi. I’ve just made a start on copying my own collection of vinyl onto CD. The machine I’m using is very similar to yours, with a P4 processor, 756mb of RAM and XP Pro.
I began by connecting my stereo amplifier to the sound input port on the PC, using a lead that has two separate phono plugs at one end and a 3.5mm stereo jack at the other. My local electronics store sells these for approx £1.00 sterling. They suggested I try the in-built sound card on the PC rather than a PCI add-on, and it seems to work fine. However, be careful to connect to the sound in, not the microphone port. Also, use one of the pre-amp or “tape” outlet pairs on your amplifier, not the speaker terminals!
I also fitted a new hard drive. Music takes up lots and lots of space – consider this option if your 80gb disk is getting full. I then reloaded XP Pro followed by my sound and CD writing software which in my case is Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6. It is not my only PC, so now I have it dedicated to sound recording only, running the bare minimum to do the job, which I suspect may assist uninterrupted writing to CD as well as ensuring plenty of hard disk space.
Your new CD writer may have been bundled with similar software to the Roxio. If so, there may be a sound recording facility included, which will save you purchasing a separate programme. What ever you use, you will need to tell your PC to monitor the sound via the correct input. Head for the little volume icon in the taskbar, right click and select Adjust Audio Properties. Hit the Advanced button under the Volume tab, Device Volume box, and the Master Volume box with balance and Volume sliders will appear. Check that the Master Volume and Line In is not Mute. Your faithful old vinyl records should now play from your stereo amp through your PC speakers.
Run the Roxio Sound Editor or similar, make sure that Enable Recording Mode is active, and you should see the recording level indicators dancing up and down in time to the music. Follow the instructions in the software to start and stop recording, and afterwards for splitting up the music into individual tracks and deleting any unwanted silences. Other filters such as “de-crackling” can also be tried out at this stage.
Now transfer the saved recording to CD, using the writing part of the software. Again, follow the instructions carefully - make sure you will be burning an Audio CD (sometimes called “red book”) usable on home or car stereo equipment.
A few more tips: good quality headphones connected to your PC instead of the usual small speakers will definitely be better for monitoring your recording. Listen carefully through the headphones whilst no music is playing. There may be a slight buzz produced by the monitor (or maybe other nearby equipment). If you can do so, switch it off. It’s perfectly OK to do the actual recording with the monitor switched off at the power supply – just set the software running first – you will be editing out unwanted silences later. Having PC and stereo system located a few feet apart may also help. Don’t have anything else such as e-mail software running whilst you burn to CD. Also, when burning to CD, it may be best to select the very lowest option on the write speeds. Otherwise your CD may not work reliably on your home stereo system. When you are ready to experiment, you can save your recordings as individual WAV files and compile your own music CDs from a variety of vinyl albums.
If you have lots of albums on vinyl (and who hasn’t?) this will be a long-term project. Most of all, be prepared to experiment with sound levels, etc, and enjoy your re-born music!
Submitted by: Mike F. of Derby, United Kingdom
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If you’re copying music, the first thing you should do is look for the same material on CD, Check CD stores and web sites; ask your friends and check your local library web sites. Since there sometimes is surface noise on records it’s best to try to use CDs. In addition CDs are very easy to copy to your hard drive for burning to CD.
But there are certainly many records that can’t be found elsewhere, so you’ll need to record them to your hard drive. First you must get the sound into the computer, the best way is to avoid the amplifier and go directly from the phonograph player into the audio input of your computer. That will usually require a "Y" combiner (available form Radio Shack) to get the right and left cables into a mini plug standard that most computers use. If the pre-amp on your phonograph isn't powerful enough you may need to go thru your amplifier. If so, make all the settings flat (treble, bass, etc.), and put the volume around a middle position, some experimentation will be needed. Don't record an entire cut when you're experimenting, take a representative sample of a few seconds from a record that is not a treasure, just to get the settings.
You will also need audio recording software. Windows comes with a low-level program called Sound Recorder. There are many other programs; I downloaded one called Cool Edit Pro from C/Net. Cool Edit Pro has a feature to remove the surface pops. Then put the record on, and if possible record a few seconds of silence as sound processing software can use this silence to figure out what to remove. Once again some experimentation is recommended, since it can take out part of the music. After I've processed the sound, I usually listen to several sample sections to see if it sounds OK, or if you have time listen to the whole recording. The program also has a Graphic Equalizer that can be somewhat effective in making the noise less noticeable. However if the source material is clean it shouldn't require any processing.
I have a Dell 8200 P2.8, with an 80 G HD, But almost any computer should do. Once the material is on your Hard Drive, you can use many programs to burn CD. You probably got some software when you got your burner, even if the burner came installed in your computer. I use Roxio; another popular choice is Nero. You can also burn CDs with Widows Media Player which can be downloaded from Microsoft for free.
That’s it, if the surface noise if not a big concern for you can ignore the middle section, but I find that this could be the permanent version of your recording, so you want to get it right.
Submitted by: Steve S.
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Ferdi,
There's a few schools of thought on doing this. On the one hand, vinyl records and cassettes tend to have background noise - records pop, tapes hiss, etc... - that can be considered by most to be annoying. On the other hand, if you're like my ex, you might consider those hisses, pops and other signs of wear and tear to be "character" that accumulates when you listen over and over again to a particular bit of music over and over and over again...
If your records are showing a lot of wear and tear - more than your ears and sanity can handle, you might consider skipping the conversion routine and see if you can find the music in question online. The positive side of this - you can skip the tracks you don't care for and just go for the ones that you want. On the downside - even though music stores have an immense selection of digitized music available, unfortunately not everything that's ever been available on vinyl or cassette is available. The same is also true of P2P services. The more obscure the track is, the more difficult it will be to find.
Keep in mind, downloading from P2P services is a questionable practice and may be illegal where you live. It may also bring down the long arm of the RIAA's legal department should they catch you sharing or downloading something illegally. Use at your own risk.
There's also another dark side to downloading digital music - and that would be a question of DRM. Depending on the source you're downloading from, you may wind up paying once for a given track (ala iTunes and similar shops) or paying in perpetuity (i.e. paying a monthly membership fee) for all of the tracks you're downloading (ala the latest incarnation of Napster). Should you stop payment, you would lose the ability to play those tracks. Some services allow you to burn at least one copy of the downloaded file while others may not. Research what you're allowed to do with your downloads BEFORE signing up.
Now then, if your records and tapes are in good enough shape for ripping or you don't mind a few hisses and pops or if you've got something that's really close to impossible to find, then you'll first of all need your typical stereo system - turntable, cassette deck and of course an amp. You'll also need to have your computer somewhere within reach of the amp.
You'll also need something that will convert your output (usually RCA ports on the back of the amp) into a signal that can be gotten into the computer (usually a 2.5 mm headphone type connector). These adapters should be available at your local Radio Shack or similar electronics retailer.
If you go to RadioShack.com, you can search for part number 42-2483 and that will get you the exact part I'm referring to. They have it for $7.99. It's 6 foot long so it should give you plenty of room to work with.
Now then, we've got all the hardware together. Connect the Y adapter's RCA ports to the line out port on your amp. Connect the other end to the Microphone or Line In port on your computer's sound card.
In addition to this, you'll need one more item to make it all work. One of my favorite utilities for this sort of thing is a product called Total Recorder. It's available from http://www.highcriteria.com and is $17.95 for the standard version - which should do the job just fine.
With Total Recorder installed, you can tell it to record using the LINE IN (or microphone). At this point, it should be a matter of putting the record on the turntable (or cassette in the deck) and playing the tracks you want while you're recording with Total Recorder. Given the original media is analog, you'll need to start, stop and position things manually as well as start and stop the recording on the computer likewise. When you've got enough music ripped, you can then burn to CD or DVD as either MP3's or upconvert everything to a regular audio CD or DVD.
Keep in mind not every player will be capable of reading an MP3 DVD or audio DVD. Check your player's documentation for more information on the device's capabilities.
Total expense for everything is under $30 and should give you what you need to get the job done.
Submitted by: Pete Z. of Los Angeles, California
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I'm where you are now. Your operating system is fine, but you have to have a program that will do the D/A conversion. I downloaded sample software from Golden Records and found it to be truly user-friendly. It allows you to calibrate for ticks and pops, and even the noise signature of each individual record, and leaves the music intact with the rich highs and lows you want. It takes away noise easily by letting you calibrate from noise in between songs on your records. It takes away ticks and pops nicely, but WILL NOT REMOVE DEEP SCRATCHES. There are other software packages out there, but you really have to study them in depth before you make your first conversion. They have so many bells and whistles that they seem very versatile, but they are cumbersome as well. I personally like anything that works well and is fast and easy to use. Blaze Audio is software that is very versatile but complicated to use. I have it and am still learning to use it.
I have an older vintage receiver (1981) and have no problems with a long chord going to my computer (30 ft). Only problem is cueing up the songs and racing to the computer chair to turn everything on to record. I wont move my turntable because its all leveled and set, so I guess I will try to move my desktop PC.... something you may consider as well.
As far as cataloging your tracks after conversion, an external hard drive would be my suggestion, because my 80 Gig is getting full. I have over 2000 LPs and have only converted 60 so far. Golden Records makes it easy to file my songs and tag them for later use in making compilation CDs. Im sure you will want to do this as well in the future, and to be able to burn special purpose CDs in the future. I am not a fan of MP3. It is too LO-Fi for my tastes, analogous to making cassette copies of LPs in the analog world. It compresses the nice digital info so much as to cause the sound to be dull and fluffy. After all, wouldn’t you agree that LPs are the sharpest, most vibrant, and keep the best music "impact" of all music media? I do.
The CDs I've made from my LPs far surpass any CDs of the same music I’ve bought so far. Hands down!! My Beach Boys original 1965 LPs are better than anything out there on CD. Same for Roy Orbison, and on and on. Would love to compare notes with you at any time!!
Submitted by: Larry of Alabama
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One definite possibility is Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 10, from Magix software. It is capable of recording and formatting for burning to CD and DVD (as an audio file), has a very reasonable price if $29.95 if bought as a download. I recommend buying the backup disk
The cleaning capabilities of the Magix software are impressive, and a friend using my system has used it to make records of 40+ year old Beatles discs some of which are nearly as good as when they first were made.
It is possible using this software to record directly from the turntable plugged directly into the line input of your soundcard. You do not have to have a phono pre-amp for this because one of the modules in the software is capable of doing that. The only problem with recording it in this way is that the volume is very low, so I recommend that you buy a Phono pre-amp from a local Radio Shack, this might have to be a special order for you.
The steps that I have taken to make recordings off Vinyl are this:
1. Record
2. Convert to RIAA (I don't have the pre-amp)
3. Optimize volume (Balances levels on tracks)
4. Clean audio
5. Edit tracks as desired before burning to CD.
Doing a tape is similar. I just use an appropriate double-ended cable to connect the tape player or deck to the sound card. Record then edit, clean, optimize as above. Magix has a very helpful help system as well as I have found much of its use for me is quite intuitive.
Other hardware needs might be cables to connect the source devices to your PC.
RCA to 1/8" Stereo for the phono and pre-amp. Check the sound card manual for the size of the line-in connection, yours might be different. If it is possible to make a direct connection from the stereo to the PC then a cable of appropriate length would need to be purchased (that would be best, as sound levels will be better.)
Hope this is helpful.
Submitted by: Rich P.
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Hello Ferdi,
First I would like to commend you for being willing to embark upon such a time consuming and honorable task. Your computer’s specifications are perfect for this task, as recording and editing music files is not an extremely resource intensive task. Since you will be recording your tracks in real time, this is where most of your time will be spent.
I would suggest buying a simple cable from an electronics store, that has a 3.5mm stereo plug on one end, and RCA plugs on the other end. Get one with gold plated connectors so not to introduce too much noise into the stream. Using the line out on the record player connect the device to your computer’s “line in” port on the sound card. Adjust your system’s volume properties (adjust the “line in” so that it is about in the middle) so that you are able to hear the music, but not so loud that it is distorted. In the recording properties, adjust the level of the line in to match what you selected in the volume. Make sure that “line in” is the only thing selected to do the recording.
As for software, I have had success with Wave Purity, and a couple others. While Wave Purity is not free for an unlimited experience, you can get it free and play around with it (registration is 45 Euro for the pro version). There are a few freeware programs out there that will do the same thing, but if you want to encode them to MP3 in order to save disk space, you will most likely still have to pay a fee for licensing the encoder.
The burning software that came with your burner should be sufficient for burning tracks to CD, and some will let you make DVD music disks too. You may want to delete the tracks from your computer after burning, or archive them, as MP3 to save on disk space. The PCM Raw files will be taking up a ton of disk space. If you convert to mp3, the best bit rate for is going to be 128Kbps considering the input source. I wish you the best of luck.
Submitted by: Dave B. of Ypsilanti, Michigan
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If you really want to know the cheapest and easiest way to convert vinyl and tapes to CD or DVD, the first thing to do is check to see if any of them are still in print or have been reissued. Then, buy 'em or download 'em. The conversion process is very time consuming. With what you'll have to invest in equipment, software and supplies, plus the time involved, it's the easiest way to go. Your cost will be about the same as if you did the conversion "manually". However, if you insist...
You'll need a good turntable and cassette deck to playback the source material. You'll need recording software, too. A simple shareware program will do, like Audacity on the Mac (I don't know if there's a Windoze version). Then, you'll need a way to input the source material to the computer. For the turntable, you'll have to have a preamplifier to boost the signal strength to an adequate level. The output of the cassette deck will do as is. ART makes an interface where you can use either your turntable or cassette deck, and input them directly into your computer via USB. Street price is around $90.
Once you've put all this together, you're ready to start recording.
Remember, you'll need a fairly big hard drive to store the audio (it takes up 10 MB/stereo minute). And make sure the drive onto which you save your audio is NOT the same drive as the one with your OS on it. That'll mess things up good. Input your material, save it, then use your burning software to put it on CD or DVD.
Submitted by: Stan P.
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Ferdi, I'm pretty sure there is an easy, almost costless way to do this. It simply involves bridging the connection between your record player and your computer, and, when I used to record old tapes, I used an auxiliary cable, which is a cable with 2 headphone jacks, one at each end. I don't know whether your record player has a headphones-out socket, but it usually will. You can buy these auxiliary or "line" cables from most general stores, or reputable music stores at that. If it has one of those massive headphone jacks, don't worry, adapters are available.
The second most important thing is checking your computer has the appropriate input slots for recording, and, it sounds like you might. If you can locate the sound card, on the back of the system case, there is usually a headphones-out, a Mic, and in some cases, a LINE IN. You really want the Line In, usually bearing a symbol that looks like a wire going into a speaker. A Microphone usually bears a Mic symbol, so that's no trouble.
If you have a Mic, that's good. If you have a LINE IN, that's fantastic, because I often find that recording via a Line In delivers a much crisper signal than via a Mic, with very little hiss.
Anyway, assuming you've plugged in the line cable, and bridged the connection between record player and PC, you'll now need some reputable software to record from audio sources. Realplayer Platinum and Nero do this I think, as well as my Creative Software. Maybe do some Googleing. If you know for sure you have software that records from the Mic/Line In, then we are on a roll. Basically now, all you need to do is play the record and record into the computer as tracks, saving each as an MP3 file as you go. Don't forget to back up!
Here are some sites I found -
1) http://www.br0wn.co.uk/vinyltocd.htm - similar to my process, but elaborated.
2) http://www.convertfromvinyl.com/ - some software to get recording.
3) http://www.digitalaudioworld.com/vinyl-to-MP3.html - more tech info on recording Vinyl to MP3
4) http://tinyurl.com/y3wns9 - Google Advanced Search on Converting Vinyl to digitized music. (Around 26 results)
I use McAfee site advisor and all above listed sites/searches were greenlisted, so no need to worry about dodgy downloads.
And as for the tapes, this one is much simpler, but based on the same principle.
If you can get a boom box, stereo, or anything with a headphone jack that plays tapes, that will do. Put in the tape, find the song you want, plug the cables in their corresponding places and record, just as with the vinyls.
I hope it helped, as I know how much you may want the tracks on digitized form!!
Submitted by: Callum S.
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In response to Ferdi W.'s question as to the easiest way to transfer vinyl records to his computer. This is a project I put off for a long time, too since it must be done in realtime and is a little more involved than simply ripping CD's. The process isn't difficult, nor does it cost very much.
Assuming you already have a turntable and stereo receiver, the only hardware you'll need is a patch cord with RCA plugs on one end and a mini plug on the other. This can be found at Radio Shack and other places for just a few dollars. For software, I use the Plus! Analog Recorder that is part of Microsoft's Plus! Digital Media Edition package. This usually retails for $20 but often goes on sale at stores like Office Max for $10. It has an easy to understand interface, sets up quickly and produces good results. The help file will tell you exactly how to connect everything and what to do. Upon starting the program, you have to play a sample from the record, preferably the loudest passage on the recording, to set a level. After this, I let the whole side of the record play through, flip it over and play the other side. Then I manually break up the tracks using the song timings from the record jacket as a guide.
The software has a feature that claims to separate the tracks automatically but it doesn't work very well and, from what I've heard, the same feature doesn't work that well in most other LP transfer software either. After the tracks are separated, you type in the artist's name, album title and label the individual tracks. Then, before creating the permanent files on your hard drive, you decide what format and sound quality to save them in and also if you want the software to clean up the tracks by removing pops and clicks and/or hiss. Then it's just one more mouse click and the software makes the files. By default, the files go to Windows Media Player in WMA format @ 320 bps, the highest quality available. This will take quite a bit of room on your drive. For example, a CD rips @ 128 bps and a 4 minute song takes up 3.7 megabytes of space. A 4 minute song transferred from vinyl A 320 bps will take up about 9.2 megs. If space is a consideration, you can always lower the bit rate you save at but I prefer the higher rate so the music sounds exactly as it did on the vinyl.
Once you've transferred an album, open Media Player while online. I use the new version, MP11, and recommend it. In this version, you'll see a blank CD case to the left of the song titles. Right click on that and then click on Find Album Info on the drop down menu. Media Player will do a web search for your album and replace that blank cd case with the album cover photo, if it's available, and will also get info such as song composers, genre and release dates. Some records won't have art available but, with a digital camera, you can supply your own and paste it in.
So far, I've transferred several dozen records and cassettes using this method and am very pleased with the results. I hope you have similar luck.
Submitted by: Mustangj36
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There are many options at several price levels, to accomplish your goal. The easiest way, and also the cheapest way, is to start with a decent stereo system that has both a record player and tape player in it. As far as software goes, you can get Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) for free. Version 1.2.4 does everything you will need to edit and clean up the recorded audio. You will need to download a mp3 encoder but it is free as well. Next look at your stereo and try and find RCA jacks that are labeled Audio Out or Speaker Out or something similar. One should be labeled Left and Right and colored red and white each. If there are no jacks check to see if there is a headphone jack. Next, go to Radio Shack or a music supply store, such as Sam Ash or Guitar Center, and ask for a Female RCA to 1/8 inch male. The RCA will plug into the stereo and the 1/8 inch male will plug into the audio card on your PC. For reference a 1/8 inch adapter is on the common headphones and is very thin. A larger male adapter will be needed if you are using the headphones jack on your stereo, often a 1/4 inch jack. Make sure the cable is long enough to reach from the back of your stereo to the back of your PC. Usually 6 feet or more of cord is needed. The cord will run you about $10 or so.
Next connect the stereo to the PC in the line in position. There are usually 3 holes on your audio card. Headphones are usually green colored, Microphone is usually colored red, so stick it in the third hole. If there is no Line In, plug it in the Mic hole. Turn everything on and start playing a record or tape. Open Audacity and tell it where you plugged in the cable from the stereo (Mic or Line In) You should see the levels at the top jumping around . Get the record to the loudest part of the song, usually the chorus or something similar, and look at the levels on the computer. If it is going all the way to the right and filling up the bars, turn down the stereo or PC line in volume. When the box is completely full it is called Peaking. Try to get the music where it is safely below peaking. Play with the volumes on both devices to make sure nothing is distorting. Restart the record and hit record on Audacity. Make sure you see wave forms being created in Audacity. If it is a flat line, chek your settings and connections, the audio is not getting to the software. Stop the record after a few minutes and check the recording by hitting play. Make sure the sound is not distorted.
Finish recording the Record. You will have to go back in and edit the recording since you just recorded the entire side of the record in one lump. Label each song as you cut it to make it easy. Saving the file as a mp3 is best at 128kbps up to 192kbps. That is pretty much the optimum balance between file size and audio quality. Records have a very high quality fidelity somewhat past a CD quality, while tapes are on the lower end of the scale of quality. Once you decide what quality level, stick with it. Seperate the recordings into seperate folders according to Artist or Album, whatever is easier. Using Nero or similar, burn your music to CD's or DVD's when you have finished polishing them with the varying tools in Audacity,to save space.
Software alternatives include Goldwave http://www.goldwave.com/ ($45) and Sony's Sonic Forge http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/soundforgefamily.asp ($70 - $300). Clean your records and Tape Heads to reduce pops and clicks and hisses in the recordings. After editing you can get something like mp3Tag 5.2 http://www.download.com/mp3Tag/3000-2141_4-10583041.html?tag=lst-0-5 to edit the tags on your new mp3 to add the artist name, track #, and much more. Adding Music Label 2006 http://www.download.com/Music-Label-2006/3000-2141_4-10555772.html will help you manage your new Collection. It will take some time but it will be nice to pop in a cd with 2-3 of your favorite Albums on it.
Submitted by: Nathan B.
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Hello Ferdi!
If you're planning on transferring your vinyl and tapes, your computer equipment is plenty strong enough to handle the job. For tapes you'll need a decent tape deck that doesn't have the tape heads worn out. Don't use a "boom box". Also be sure the tape deck has "line out" outputs on the back. Next you need a patch cord with left and right RCA plugs at one end and a stereo mini-plug at the other end.
The software you'll need is not only absolutely free but also the best I've found for the job: The name of the software is HardDiskOGG for recording the music on your computer and Audacity for editing the music you've copied. HardDiskOGG can be found at http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php and Audacity can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . HardDiskOGG is actually designed to record directly to a compressed format like OGG or Mp3 but my advice is to record to the non-compressed WAV format first, edit each track with Audacity to make sure it sounds perfect and then save each track as an Mp3 with a bit rate of at least 128. You could do it all with Audacity but HardDiskOGG is more versatile and automatically adjusts the volume.
You can do the same for your vinyl as described above except you'll have to connect the turntable to a receiver first and use the "line out" connections on the back of the receiver. It goes without saying of course that you'll need a good turntable with a new needle.
If your music collection is especially important to you, I'd suggest also saving the tracks in a lossless format such as WavPack ( http://www.wavpack.com/ ) and archiving them on DVD. This way, as technology improves you'll still have all of your music data intact and be able in the future to hopefully edit the old songs to an even cleaner sound!
Have fun and never let the old music die. Those old songs have the unique ability to trigger the best memories of our lives!
Submitted by: Leland G. of Thonotosassa, Florida
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Converting your old vinyl records and tapes to a digital media is a great idea. Not only will converting your music to a digital format help to preserve it for years to come, but with today's software you can actually make them sound better than they did when they were new. Also, converting to a digital format means that you will be able to burn the music to CD, play it on a PC, or even load it up on your iPod and take it with you on the go. All you need is the right hardware and software to make those old recordings come to life, and the good news is that you aren't as far away as you may think from having everything you need! The only extra hardware you will have to purchase are the cables to connect your record player and tape player to your PC, such as a mini-to-RCA cable to connect from the RCA jacks on your player to the line-in jack on your PC. Next, we need to think about what software you need to record those analog sources to a digital format. Of course you could use the sound recorder that comes with Windows, but it lacks any editing capability and can only record to .wav files which take up a lot of space. There are many professional software titles that do a really great job of recording and editing audio, but most people don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on software, unless they are running their own studio. The good news is that there are many programs that do a great job of recording and editing audio that you can buy for under $100, but my favorite choice is absolutely FREE! Thanks to the ongoing work of the open source community, you can download all sorts of useful programs for free. I would recommend Audacity, a cross platform and completely open source audio editor that was developed by a group of volunteers. You can check it out at http://audacity.sourceforge.net.
Submitted by: Justin D.
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I have over 1,200 vinyl records, as well as some 45's and 78's, along with about 100 cassette's (I gave away my reel to reel tapes). Like you, I was looking for an inexpensive method to transfer and preserve my collections, many of which are not available today on CD. My goal is to record from my collection to computer, clean it up (tape hiss, pops, etc.), save it to a .wav CD and also to a second hard drive as an MP3 in the event the CD dies and I need to make another copy. What I found that worked best for me is a program from MAGIX called Audio Cleaning Lab ($25-$40, also available at http://www.magix.com). Initially, I had a problem hooking my turntable directly to my soundcard input, ugly sound with lots of treble. Then I remembered something called the RIAA curve. There is a great deal of technical documentation on it as to the why, but it was used in all record recording. Technicalities aside, essentially the sound on the record, if played without a record amplifier or other unit to compensate for the RIAA frequency curve, you lose your bass and much of your sound quality. I had to buy a separate phono amplifier to sit between the turntable and the sound card. The current version of Audio Cleaning Lab (ACL) has it built into the software. ACL also comes with an unlimited MP3 ripper (needs registration but no cost). I am able to play the record directly through my sound card into the software, can use either automatic settings to reduce hiss, rumble, noise, etc. or manual settings, which can be applied globally to all songs or individually to each. I can cut out areas of the wave, fade in, fade out, etc. It also comes with a compressor, equalizer, stereo spacializer, etc. Not bad for the money. I would recommend, however, a preamp of some sort that will enable you to plug in more than one device (turntable, tape player, etc.) rather than changing plugs all the time. I found a small preamp at Fry's Electronics for $80 that has 2 turntable inputs, 2 other inputs, fader, mic (XLR) input - primarily for DJ's but it works fine in my configuration. I have had great success with this configuration, from cassette to records. I like the idea of custom control over other programs that remove the hiss, pops, etc. automatically. Noise is frequency just like the music so eliminating noise is going to effect the music also, but with a little effort and patience, you can determine the appropriate level of trade-off. I have tried other programs (Cakewalk Pyro, Microsoft Media Bonus Pack) but they were dogs and I wouldn't recommend them.
Good luck on your endeavors and I hope this will help.
Submitted by: Marvin L.
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I have copied LP's and Cassette Tapes to CD's. The process was long and tedious, but I love a challenge. You first need a turn-table to hook to your computer, in my case I had to purchase a preamplifier because the turn-table I own is not amplified. My next step was to Radio Shack for jacks going from the pre-amp to my sound card. Now I was ready to record, I used Microsoft Plus! Analog Recorder which is one of the programs that comes with Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition. I found the program very easy to use, it can also reduce hisses and clicks and split the tracks. Because of noise in between tracks, it can not always determine the beginning or ending of a song, but the program lets you split tracks yourself and name them also. If I was not happy with the recording, I then opened the track up in Audacity (which is a free program) where I could clean the track more, add a bass boost or amplify it more, etc. Audacity can also be used to record albums to your computer. I say it is time consuming because you have to play the album from beginning to end, then do your editing. Last step was to copy the tracks to a CD. The quality is better than the original album, but not as good as buying a CD. I only did this to preserve our albums. Also, we have always used a high quality turntable and needle, my albums were not full of scratches or cracks. I was asked to do some albums for a friend, they had not taken care of their albums and I found them impossible to do, they were too scratched and most of them skipped.
Submitted by: Bonnie H.
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I have been embarked on the same project for over a year now, with probably another year to go. You will need two things: software to record the music and to edit what you have recorded, and a cable with RCA jacks on one end and a mini(stereo) plug on the other. Tapes are easy, just hook the RCA jacks to the out side of your tape player and the mini jack to the “line in” jack on your sound card. (On my pc, I can also use the microphone jack to record). As for software, I use Roxio’s Easy Media 7.0. There are two basic steps. Use the software’s record function, click on record and turn on “play” on your tape player. Once the tape is recorded, name it and save it to your hard drive. Most software will save it as a WAV file. Use the software’s sound editor to split the tape into individual songs. Roxio’s editor has a feature that auto detects individual tracks, but it does not always identify them correctly. This is a rather tedious process, but it’s still better than recording each track on the tape in a separate file during the recording process.
As for vinyl, you can record them they same way, except you have to hook your receiver to the sound card. This is not necessary when recording from your tape player. What I find easier to do is first record the album to tape and then use the above process. One of the main problems in transferring to your computer is getting widely varying sound levels on the recordings. That’s why I like to tape the albums. Most of the recording software has the ability to adjust sound levels as you record, but doing it on the tape is a lot easier. If the sound levels need to be adjusted later, the Roxio software has that ability.
This is quick and dirty, but any variation will be in the software which you will have to get familiar with.
Submitted by: Michael F. of Dublin, Ohio
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Hi Ferdi,
Vinyls to CD: I’ve done a few now, with pretty good success. It is a lot of work, mind you. Some key points:
- You’ll need a preamp. Your old stereo will do, but I bought a software package that came with a small USB powered preamp, to be connected to the sound card (in my case, to my laptop audio in). The SW is “Clean 4” by Pinnacle. It cost some $40, and is OK to use, if you read the manual well, and practice a little. It works fine for old cassette tapes, too. But you sometimes need to separate the songs manually, when background noise level is high.
- Other SW should also work, maybe even Nero, but sound editing is not always available.
- To make MP3s from the raw files that result, you may want to download the free LameXP converter.
- What is the real trick, is how well you clean the LPs. There are many recipes for the best washing solution. I used dishwashing liquid and pure alcohol mixed in some 50-50 ratio, plus 80% water. Rinse well after washing, and dry in a dust-free place.
- If you have very good LPs, you may want to burn the raw files to the CD, to get the best fidelity. MP3 conversion always blocks something out. Some LPs can give great sound.
- Calculate 2-3 times the play-in time for your sound and title editing. Raw files are big, but external HDs are cheap. Remember not to use stick-on labels for your CDs, or to write on them with anything. I’m planning on buying a LightScribe burner some day.
Good luck!
Submitted by: Sauna6
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Hi Ferdi W.!
Easiest and working way to convert old vinyls and tapes to CD’s that I know, is to use software called Magix Audio Cleaning Lab (http://www.magix.com) . With that software one can convert old vinyls and tapes to digital format.
All that you need is relatively new computer (which you seem to have) and connection from your PC to stereos when using record player. You need to hook up your PC to your stereos when using record player, because you need to amplify record players signal to make recordings to works. Another way is to use pre-amplifier which is connected between your record player and pc. At least Terratec (http://www.terratec.com) has made this kind of phono pre-amp’s for this use.
When transferring tapes to computer, you don’t need amplifier, so you can hook you your tape player directly to your sound card’s line-in connection to start the project.
Just remember, that it will be time consuming to transfer vinyl and tapes, because you have to play those songs that you want to convert. If you want just convert certain songs to digital format, it might be easier still to convert whole vinyl or tape first to digital format, and then pick those songs that you want. In that way you can leave recording on and do something else meanwhile. This is the way that I do it (when I have time).
Best regards.
Submitted by: Ari K. of Finland
Audacity
by revel - 10/20/06 3:39 AM In reply to: Honorable mentions by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I plugged my cassette recorder into my computer, double clicked on ''Audacity'' (free recording studio program) and recorded each track from the cassette. I then cleaned the song up with the different tools that Audacity offers, and converted it into Mp3. These files I then can use to create CDs. Nothing simpler, like back when we recorded our albums to cassettes.
There are problems, time consumption, skips in the data, etc, if one is looking for studio quality, then as most have pointed out, go buy the commercial cd. However, if it is personal listening pleasure you're looking for, the Audacity thing is satisfactory.
Un abrazo,
Audacity
by Angry Write Mail - 10/20/06 5:45 PM In reply to: Audacity by revelI don't understand why the "winning response" has to be the most complicated one. It's just gonna confuse the guy.
Your answer is spot on. Audacity is a fantastic piece of freeware (I downloaded mine from CNET). It does the job - and so much more.
It can even be used for basic multi-tracking. I've mixed as many as 8 tracks. It's remarkably stable - as long as you remember to keep saving your work as you edit and mix.
What I like best is, you can remove Clicks & Pops as if they were never there. I even turn monophonic records into a lifelike stereo recording.
I save the recording as a .wav file and use CDex (another Freeware program I downloaded from CNET) to convert the .wav files to .mp3.
I just hook up my home stereo to the inputs on my Soundblaster soundcard.
At the very worst, he'll spend maybe $39.95 for a decent soundcard, and another $3 for a couple of cable adapters to fit the soundcard's inputs.
Convert with Audacity
by cesareDH - 10/20/06 8:12 PM In reply to: Audacity by Angry Write MailIf you're already using Audacity and like it so well, why don't you just use it's conversion feature to save your files as WAV or MP3. I do it all the time with excellent results, and no need for another application.
Audacity is the way to go
by davejyd - 10/20/06 10:33 PM In reply to: Audacity by revelI went to a yard sale and bought an old ''all-in-one'' stereo system (Casette player, turntable, radio, etc. in one unit) and bought a Y-adaptor plug that went from a ''headphone'' plug to 2 Male RCA Jack Plugs, and plugged into the ''line in'' on my sound card, and into the speaker jacks of the stereo. A couple of minutes to adjust the recording level (using the volume control of the stereo, and the settings in Audacity, anv Viola! I was able to digitize all my cassette tapes and vinyl with one easy-to-use setup. Total time to set up - 5 minutes. Total investment - about 8.00 (5 for the stereo, 3 for the adaptor, and zero for the software!). I have a friend with a similar setup, but his included an 8-track tape player! He is now digitizing some of the ''golden oldies'' of music!
Audacity also allows you to filter out the ''his' and ''noise'' inherent in vinyl and tape, creating a pretty good (not quite studio quality, but what do you want for $8.00???) MP3.
C-Net offered an ''online course'' on digiting old vinyl, and this is the procedure it showed. Sometimes simple is the best!
Re: Audacity is the way to go
by Mark Rooney - 10/21/06 7:23 PM In reply to: Audacity is the way to go by davejydI agree Audacity is a very simple easy to use program but the one I ended up sticking with - after much trial and error is a program called Spin It Again available here http://www.acoustica.com/spinitagain/. I don't have a high end turntable simply a $100 unit with a built in pre-amp which I plug directly into a line in jack on my PC and Spin it Again goes to work, it will analyse the recording and automatically split it into the tracks recorded, cutting out all the dead noise between tracks. You can edit almost all noise from clicks, pops and crackles from your recording and then convert it to WAV or MP3. It is increadibly versatile and adaptable - I highly recommend it, the results you will get will make it all seem worth while and best of all it does it automatically for you. A trial version is available that will let you make upto four recordings for free than after that you simply purchase a license key and away you go!!
Audacity is the way to go
by Sparrows - 10/23/06 3:52 PM In reply to: Re: Audacity is the way to go by Mark RooneyI would love to use Audacity Mark, but I do not have a soundcard, and one of its requirements is a soundcard. I guess this one would not apply to me. 
install a soundcard
by cesareDH - 10/23/06 4:40 PM In reply to: Audacity is the way to go by Sparrowshttp://www.pricewatch.com/sound_cards/
I'd recommend you stay away from Diamond. I use Creative only, and here's an inexpensive one with free shipping:
http://www.upgradenation.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SOUND-SBLIVE
KISS method
by nearone - 10/20/06 7:53 AM In reply to: Honorable mentions by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
In order to get music that isn't in digital, I ask everyone for their old albums and convert them to CD's for them. I have converted hundreds.
There is plenty of hardware information in these posts, so I will only talk about software.
I use three programs that have been around for ages. I don't really need all three, but each has its' own complications and simplicities. I want the simple features of each one.
"Total Recorder Pro" is absolutely the best for converting old albums and tapes. My reasoning is I don't have the time to sit and record each song individually and I don't like to cut the wav at the end. Total Recorder is the best at cutting the songs into individual tracks while recording. That is, I record the whole side of the album or tape and the songs end up as individual tracks in the directory in the computer. I even get the little quips between tracks. I can also manipulate the fidelity of older more used albums creatively if I choose.
"Exact Audio Copy" (free) is my tool of choice for editing the tracks. I don't always edit a track for clicks and pops as it leaves some nostalgia in the recording. Most of the noise is at the beginning of the album and between tracks on the vinyl and does not record. But, if the album is really damaged, and has noise in the middle of a song, I can open the wave in EAC and edit out the noise and manipulate the wav pretty much any way I want. I can expand the wav file so far, I can see the noise and completely remove it without damaging the track.
I have been a fan of "Musicmatch Jukebox" for years for creating CD's. I like to see the detail of the Album and Name of the song streaming on my player. The tagging on Musicmatch is the best I can find. The Gracenote look up feature does not always work with vinyl and tapes as the new digital CD versions of the same albums do not always have the same songs or in the same order. Since I allow Total Recorder to cut the songs into tracks while recording, Musicmatch allows the best tagging after recording without much effort.
The CD recording features of Musicmatch for volume leveling and fade in and out are quite sufficient for the average person.
Exact Audio Copy will also record the CD. It is a more sophistacated process, but if you use it, you will get quality that is unsurpassed by other than very expensive equipment and software. It has been around for years and the cost is a postcard.
Everyone is amazed at the quality of the CD's I make from their albums.
The conversion recording is unattended with my Total Recorder setup and the CD finish time is unattended with my Musicmatch setup. The only actual time I spend on a conversion is the EAC edit on the older dirtier albums and the Track Tagging with Musicmatch.
KISS method And DAK Industries
by Milo98 - 10/20/06 1:11 PM In reply to: KISS method by nearoneConverting vinyl and tape to digital is relatively easy and very effective results can be had first time out IF you have the right equipment and software. One of the best and simplest routes to take is to get the vinyl recording package from DAK Industries (no, I am not an employee; I use the product).
First, don't worry about the quality of your sound card, at least until you have tried the recording methods mentioned here. All you need the sound card to do is basic analog to digital conversion and they all do that well. The only thing more expensive cards do is more channels and digital features which you don't need.
Second, if you get the package from DAK you don't even need to mess with the hassle of trying to play records through your stereo and possibly having to unhook it and move it to your computer. This is probably the most significant feature of this post. The DAK package includes recording software and sound clean-up software (pops, clicks, hiss, rumble, etc.) But the core element of the DAK package, and the most important element is a little high quality mixer/amplifier that simply hooks between your turntable and your computer audio input. The reason this is important is because among other features, it has audio isolation transformsers that eliminate hum pickup. This is essential to good quality recordings. In addition, it has separate volume controls for the phono input and tape or auxillary input, recording level indicators, headphone output with separate volume control for monitoring, and is DC powered so there is no hum pickup. All in a neat little metal box about 5'' X 7.5''. It has the proper equalization for the phono cartridge. If nothing else, this set up is much easier to deal with physically than playing records though a stereo system, which for most people is not going to be near enough to their computer for hookup without moving one or the other (and you do NOT want excessivly long cables).
IF YOU HAVE 78's, you'll love the DAK software. You can record using any standard turntable and the software converts the 78's to the proper 'speed'. Is that not something? I don't know if other recording software has that feature, but this one does.
DAK also has this package that includes a high quality turntable that is ideally suited for recording. It has adjustable speed for correcting old records (if needed) and has a built-in synchronizing feature allowing adjustment to the EXACT proper rpm speed. If you only have a record changer instead of a turntable, I would strongly suggest you get this turntable option. It is a very good deal.
The DAK site is http://dak2000.com/Reviews/2020Story.cfm
Everything you wanted to know about converting analog recording to digital you will probably find here. Very detailed descriptions of the products. Even if you choose to use another software, the DAK package is worth it for the mixer/amplifier device. It is key to not only good recordings, but vastly simpler recording process. It is much easier to monitor recording levels and change them with a physical level control than trying to change level using the computer level controls. I set my computer level controls to mid range or so and leave them alone, adjusting the final recording level with the mixer controls.
The first person's answer (the main one) said it would take 20 minutes PER SONG to record. I don't know what he was doing, but it doesn't take that long. Obviously, it takes at least as long as it takes to play the record. Then, if the record is noisy (most are, but you wouldn't have that problem with tapes) you have additonal time to run the audio clean-up software, and then split out and (usually) name the tracks. If you use DAK's clean-up software, you can record a number of records and run the noise clean-up program against multiple files all in one unattended execution; then split out the tracks for each album. It is time consuming but four hours for a twelve-track album is excessive. Mine usually took between an hour and a half and two hours total, start to finished track files on computer. If you only intend to burn your album to a CD, it isn't necessary to rename the tracks. Keep in mind, however, that if you DO rename the tracks, when you burn them to CD, the software MAY change the track order to alphabetical. Check this and see if there is a way around it.
There are lots of other variables you have to decide upon depending on what you want to do. For instance, do you only want MP3 files? Or do you only want to burn the tracks to CD? Some people insist on recording only in the lossless wav format. Some MP3 converters don't have the higher quality bitrates. Remember that analog recordings only have so much audio quality to begin with. But you don't want to degrade them unnecessarily either. If you are going to burn to CD and not keep a copy of everything you convert on your hard drive, it's probably good to record using the wav format instead of MP3. You can always convert to MP3 later. For analog recordings converted to MP3, I would use no less than 128 kbps. For ripping commercial CDs, I usually use 192 kbps. Somewhere in that range should be good for analog recordings. Very few people can tell the difference even from a CD source at recordings higher than 192. Those are just some guidelines; you can play around and make your own decision.
If you are serious about vinyl or tape conversions, get one of the DAK packages. You will not be disappointed. They also have an excellent support staff for all of their products and will answer any question you have about using their products. They are a reputable outfit. I have bought from them for years and have never been disappointed.
Nearone - MusicMatch question
by Jeanne321 - 10/21/06 9:28 AM In reply to: KISS method by nearoneSince you mentioned MusicMatch Jukebox -- do you know of a way to get technical help from them? I enjoyed MusicMatch for downloading music until I had two major problems -- 1) downloads I'd paid for got stuck and never finished 2) I paid for a software upgrade that never took effect -- every time I logged in it invited me yet again to upgrade.
I had the same problem--plus got spammed to death
by Marysue - 10/21/06 11:34 AM In reply to: Nearone - MusicMatch question by Jeanne321Yeah, it's too bad, for it was great--until it didn't work anymore. A lot of programs are like that. Trend anti-virus is a pain, for you never get any human help with it (they never answer your call for help), nor can you add anymore spam to its blocker. Spyware doctor, on other hand, blocks out everything, including the sun! You wind up taking the programs out, just to download updates from Microsoft. The only program I can handle for downloading songs is itunes. Too bad it didn't have more choices on songs. Today's music is mostly forgetable, if not regretable. No wonder we want to download vinyl!
Musicmatch Jukebox support
by stahu - 10/21/06 3:13 PM In reply to: Nearone - MusicMatch question by Jeanne321Hi Nearone,
Go to Google and type in "Musicmatch Jukebox. That will take you to a page where the third one down will be "Musicmatch Jukebox-worlds best music player". Listed under that is "Support". Select the appropriate topic for your problem. This will give you a place to start. It's going to be a struggle, but be persistant. It took me SEVERAL times of complaining to FINALLY get someone that handled my problem.
My ten cents worth.
by Wazu_wazu - 10/23/06 12:34 PM In reply to: Honorable mentions by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I agree with everything said so far, but...
I have a high quality turntable that I bought back in the late 70's. It's output saturates my Soundblaster Audigy regardless of how I set it up.
The answer to my problem was a mixer. I have a four track unit by Behringer that I bought from Guitar Center for $40. Two track units are also available. I use mine for more than converting vinyl to plastic which is the only reason for the four tack.
Not only does this solve pre-amp issues but allows a degree of adjusting the bass, treble and midrange.
Just another opinion...
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