From another board.
"How to get Vinyl Records onto your Hard Drive
Preparation:
Before you start make sure that the sound card on your computer has an 'Input / Line-In' socket.
Connecting the Turntable:
There are two main types of Hi-Fi systems: Separates and Midi / Mini. In order to record any sound to the
hard drive the signal from the turntable needs to be amplified before it enters the sound card. There are three
ways of doing this:
Connect your turntable to a phono preamp and use the 'Line-Out' phono sockets to connect to the 'Line-In'
on the sound card.
Connect your turntable to a Hi-Fi amplifier / receiver and use the 'Tape-Out' phono sockets to connect to
the 'Line-In' on the sound card.
If your Hi-Fi is a Midi / Mini System and does not have 'Line-Out' phono sockets you can connect the
'Headphone Socket' to the 'Line-In' on the sound card.
Preparing your Computer:
The sound will be recorded as a PCM WAV file at 44,100Hz (44.1kHz), 16 Bit Stereo for best sound quality.
This means that a track lasting 3 to 4 minutes could become 40 to 50MB in size. If you have an LP with 12
tracks on it you will need at least 600MB of free hard disk space.
The Recording Software:
Once connected you will need software to record the incoming sound.
All recording software has one main task - to copy sound from an internal / external source onto your hard
drive and that is where the similarity ends. Each software package is completely different and therefore it
is not possible to go into great detail about the recording process. What we will do is run through the
basics to get you started and then you will have to familiarize yourselves with the software that you are
using.
Let's Do It!
Setting up:
OK so you've got your turntable connected and your software installed, what now? The first thing you need to
do is to select the recording format and attributes. Set this to PCM / WAV and 44,100Hz (44.1kHz) 16 Bit
Stereo. Next you need to set the recording levels. Most software will have 'level meters' so you can see
where the noise peaks. As you are playing the record watch the levels going up and down adjust the level as
close to 0db as possible. If it is set too low the playback will very quiet and if it is set to high it will
result in 'clipping' which makes it sound distorted.
Recording:
There are two ways to do this. You can either record each track separately or you can record one whole side
of an LP as a single WAV file and split it into separate tracks later. If you are doing each track separately
it is similar to using a tape recorder. Start playing the LP and click the record button just before the
track begins. When the track ends or fades out click the stop button and then save the file to your hard
drive. Repeat this process for all tracks. If you are recording one whole side click the record button before
the first track begins and stop the recording at the end of the last track. Now flip it over and do it again!
Manipulating
Editing:
Most recording software will have basic editing features but if your software does not you can get an audio
editing program from the net again these programs are all different so we won't go into too much detail.
Separately recorded tracks:
Load the saved WAV file into the editing program and trim off the excess at the beginning and end of the
track. Try to trim it as close as possible to the start and the end. If you are planning to burn the tracks
to a CD-R most CD writing programs will automatically insert a 2 second gap between the tracks.
Whole side recorded tracks:
Option 1: ( The easy option! )
Download _http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~mjmlooijmans/cdwave/ (CD Wave) This small program will save you a lot of trouble. Once you have loaded the WAV file you can view the whole
file and either let the program select split points automatically or add, remove or adjust these points
manually. Once the markers are in place a list of tracks will appear at the bottom. Simply select 'Save' from
the options menu and tell the program where you want the saved tracks to go. It doesn't get much easier!
Option 2:
Load the saved WAV file into an editing program and find the start
and end of the first track. Highlight between these two points, click 'Copy' then open a 'New' file and click
'Paste'. Always start copying before the start of the track and stop past the end. Once pasted into the new
file you can trim up the ends later. Remember it's a lot easier to remove sound frames than to add them.
Option 3:
The alternative method is to trim off the excess at the beginning of the first track and then go to the end of
the first track and delete everything after it.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT CLICK 'SAVE'! At this point you MUST remember to select 'Save As' and give it a different
file name than the original. If you do not do this you will overwrite the original recording!
Now reload the original file and find the beginning of the second track. Delete everything up to this point,
find the end of the second track and delete everything after it. Remember 'Save As'. Repeat this process until
you have split the original WAV file into separate tracks.
Finishing Touches
Cleaning and Refining:
It is possible to remove unwanted noise, clicks, crackles and pops with software. You can manually select clicks
to be removed or run an automatic process over the whole track. Results will vary according to your settings
but some processes will adversely effect the sound quality of the track resulting in loss of high
frequencies, flattening dynamics or compressing the end result.
Burn as an Audio CD and you Done"
Tubebuoy uses Soundforge.
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Last edited by tubebuoy at Today at 4:09 am
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