Entertainment For Lively Minds
Anyone have any good vinyl to mp3 converters they can recommend?
Posted by sandamiano on 16 December 2009 - 7:48pm.
Or bits of software or whatever else you may have used?
This looks handy = http://www.roxio.co.uk/eng/products/easy-lp-to-mp3/standard/overview.htm...
but i've seen it get a shoeing elsewhere.
I don't move without consulting you people on such issues i tell you.
Thanks all.
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Since 1997 I've had my Mac(s)
wired up for in-and-out audio, I used SoundStudio till it stopped working after a few OS X updates. Now I find Audacity well stable and a great piece of fun software (ever wanted to add some echo and flange to a Dave Gilmour guitar solo, now you can!) - I'm sure it runs on lower lifeforms like peecees ;)
2 options
1) Get an external soundcard (about £25) and the free Audacity software recommended above. If you have a laptop plug that into your hifi via the external soundcard and appropriate lead, if not move the record deck to your computer.
2) For best sound quality get a second hand CD recorder off ebay (eg the excellent Pioneer PDR609) and a pack of re-writable CDRs: record, upload the CD to itunes, erase and repeat.
A question...
Will the CD-RWs 'play' on a Mac without being finalised?
If so - it sounds an excellent idea.
No
But as they are re-writable you can still erase the contents and record on the same disc again even if you do finalise. The d/a converter on something like the Pioneer is way better than the typical sound card. No complicated software to faff around with is the upside, having to insert track breaks as you record is the downside.
ADS Tech
I use a similar USB device called the ADS Instant Music using Audacity as recommended above. It works fine and has done so from both cassette and vinyl. It works on a Windows XP PC and an OS X iMac. Got it because I heard poor reports of the Ion turntable and have not regretted it.
also there 5 or 6
strands on here about this elsewhere on the site which are be worth checking out
if you've got a sound card just use audacity
Previously on the Word
The Massive were very helpful to me when I posted a similar question here http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/vinyl-i-pod-help-needed earlier this year.
Magix Audiolab has always
Magix Audiolab has always worked for me. I ocassionally use Audacity but you have to add plug ins to convert WAV to MP3 and probably to remove hiss and pop, etc and I don't find it particularly user friendly. Magix audiolab does all that out of the box. You can download a free trial from their website and if you like it activate the software online. I think its about £25.
Audacity is fine and free, I just find Audiolab friendlier to use and happy to pay a bit to get that.
Hardware? An old Sherwood amp and turntable have been fine, just need a stereo line out cable to 3.5mm plug to connect the amp to the PC's line in/mic port.
I say Goldwave
I swear by Goldwave but then I'm happy to dive into the registry and change a few keys to make it work all the time. If I didn't do that I would use the more clunky Audacity and I've been using Goldwave for about 11 or 12 years so why change?
What I like about Goldwave is that you can save a side of a record as FLAC and then set up cue points in between tracks then get it to chop it into MP3s automatically. Once tagged, I can go listen to it on my ipod and then if I feel it necessary, go back to the original file and get rid of the clicks and pops and remake the MP3s without any more fiddling about (perhaps Audacity can do this as well these days). If you follow this path, make sure you use something like MP3tag to do the tagging so that you can export your tags to a text file for reuse should you remake the MP3s.
how is software
that you have to change the registry user friendly? Audacity allows you to save a project so you can go back and clean it up. Never done much cleaning up as I think most of the tools are rather blunt. I would go with audacity to start with and then buy something if you find your doing loads of ripping.
Perhaps I misled
You only need to go into the registry if you want to avoid paying for it. If you use it as intended then there's no need to go there.
If the Audacity tools are blunt then that's a good reason to go for Goldwave where you can (once you've found it!) eliminate single clicks however short on either or both channels.... hours of fun - especially in the old days when most PCs didn't have enough memory to hold even a complete track and almost every mouse click sent the disk into action!
still reckon
most people better off with audacity which is free to download without any messing around.
I agree
They are, but only because it's free. It's the same as most software, there's usually a free application that will do everything 99% of people want to do but if you're in the other 1% and want to do a bit more it's worth paying for another application that will let you do it with ease instead of struggling. I've spent hours trying to get a freeware application to do something when it would have been cheaper with my time to buy a £50 application and work a couple of hours overtime to pay for it but believe me, if there's some freeware that does what I want it to do then that's what I'll use.
Polderbits
Their software is pretty good and not very expensive as I recall. They also do a 30 day trial. You'll need the usual cable to go from the amp to the pc line in.
From earlier blog
....
...is I have my turntable plugged into the hifi amp, then a lead from the amp's Tape Out to my mixer which boosts the signal a bit to the sound card inputs. I record into Wavelab, which I then use it for removing noise (in Wavelab it's the Denoiser and Declicker plugins) and if I particularly like the album and there are big scratches I'll remove them manually with the pen tool. Then I use a mastering programme called Ozone 3 and run the "CD Master" preset over it - this basically adds a bit of top end and makes it a bit louder. THEN I add markers and either burn it to CD (usually) or maybe save certain tracks as MP3s. I get it into iTunes in the usual way. Spookily, quite often iTunes knows what it is!
There is a Wavelab Lite available which is pretty well spec'd.
I've also used Steinberg Clean which is quite good and simple, but I find Wavelab does everything I need, mind you I use it for a lot more than cutting vinyl onto CD!
I recently transferred a very good condition LP of John Martyn Live at Leeds and it sounded fantastic on CD. Using Tape Out means I can record anything which is plugged into the hifi amp, so my precious collection of concerts, radio recordings etc on cassette are slowly being digitised too.
Pay for Goldwave ...
It's a great bit of software and a lifetime licence
Pay for Goldwave ...
It's a great bit of software and a lifetime licence