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General discussion

10/20/06 Converting old vinyl records and tapes to digital

Oct 19, 2006 7:17AM PDT
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

Discussion is locked

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I also use MS Plus! Digital Media Edition
Oct 24, 2006 12:44PM PDT

In addition, the low cost MS Plus! Digital Media Edition allow you to filter out hiss and pop from your analog tapes and vinyl recordings.

Another nice feature is the built-in CD/DVD Label Maker. In addition to making nice labels for your new CD/DVD media it automatically adds artist, track, and album information for you.

It has many other features too for handling photos, music, movies, and portable devices.

Ken

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Thank You
Oct 20, 2006 10:00AM PDT

Thank you so much...you provided some good information there...you effort is highly appreciated.

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Converting old vinyl records and tapes to digital
Oct 20, 2006 10:04AM PDT

Ok,

Now talk about just converting cassette tapes to digital. Talk about the hardware and the software. I have over 300 cassettes I want to convert to CDs.\

Ed R
Dallas, TX

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That's what we've been discussing
Oct 20, 2006 8:33PM PDT

You need a tape player with audio out. If your sound card doesn't have audio in, then you need a Video Capture device like DAZZLE which you can plug your audio cables into, then USB2 it into the computer. Using AudioGrabber or Audacity, both free, you can then record and edit the music, then using something like MusicMatch JukeBox, WMP, Nero, etc., burn your music to CD.

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I understand that
Oct 20, 2006 11:48PM PDT

After all that, can i use realplayer instead of the other software you mentioned to finish editing.

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Vinyl to CD...time consuming? It's worth every minute!
Oct 20, 2006 11:47AM PDT

Vinyl to CD...time consuming? It's worth every minute!

Ferdi,
Aside from all the good & common recommendations here...

If you are seriously into your music like I do (I own more than 400 out of print European treasures) you can't take short cuts...at least in converting your ''out of print'' vinyl collection to CDs, either do it right the final time or don't do it at all. Also, you can't really compare the natural warmth and textured sound of the vinyl record with a commercially digitized CD anyway (unless it is new music)!

First and foremost is hardware:
A good turntable: Technics with a good cartridge needle like Audio Technica, etc. with a frequency response of at least 20-22KHZ. Clean your records with Gruv-Glide ($24.95) and clean them good, this will ensure that your records will sound its best and static-free during recording. A good clean record, when converted will need only minimum restoration; it will also yield and retain its maximum audio quality, because a good source is a good source.

Here is the easiest and most effective approach: Get a stand-alone CD recorder deck (check out ebay)
*record them into CD-RW discs (you can erase and re-record them if the record jumps or skips, and believe me, they do!)
*upgrade your soundcard (PCI type, preferably up to 192khz) and disable the one from your motherboard, this will reduce interference and ensure crystal-clear sound during production.
*convert them into WAV files (NOT compressed mp3)

The most effective software out there now is *SONY SOUNDFORGE 8.0 w/ CD Architect 5.2 & Noise Reduction 2.0* (www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=961),
I buy this software alone just because it came with an ''audio scrubber tool'', a feature which lets you independently zoom into the file to capture its actual pops & clicks (shown as sharp spikes on graph) and specifically move the spikes down to its normal level, because these sharp spikes, when played normally, produces loud pops/clicks. You'll be surprised to see how many of those on your vinyl.
This is the ONLY software that totally lets you ''in control'' of your editing without filtering the whole song just because there are only a few clicks/crackel or pops. You remove ONLY where the audible clicks and pops are and at the same time without reducing the quality of the format. Finally when that's done, you can further reduce any audible hiss or hum with the *Noise Reduction 2.0* (again, only on sections needed) and save them on blank CD-RW discs for storage and/or rip into mp3. Now you can use your computer DVD/CD writer to produce ''red book'' audio CDs using the included *CD Architect 5.2*. This software's limitless and its got so much more, even for video encoding, etc, etc.

My final restoration sounded SO MUCH BETTER yet still retains its originality and quality, an overall warmth, rich low and smooth high audio which can only be described by a vinyl recording to the ears' desire, yet faithfully preserved on CD.

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At C Crane dot com there is
Oct 20, 2006 12:58PM PDT

There is a cassette tape to PC adapter / player / recorder which wouild make it real easy to do . . Takes all the work out of it you can record the Vinyl to cassette and record the cassette to PC and make DVD's of them . . Simple to do does not even take any work . . just takes time

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Real player
Oct 20, 2006 1:09PM PDT

Can you use the realplayer software to convert old records to MP3

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Useful software
Oct 20, 2006 2:32PM PDT

One piece of useful software you might conside is called "Polderbits." It's not terribly expensive, and is highly regarded, and very up to the task. I recommend you check it out.

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Polderbits vs. Goldwave
Oct 21, 2006 2:23AM PDT

I tried free demo versions of Polderbits and a number of other packages before I bought GoldWave.

Goldwave is much better IMHO.

Try the free demo. www.goldwave.com

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I use an iRiver MP3 player with line-in jack
Oct 20, 2006 8:20PM PDT

I guess you could use any such player with this facility, but I don't know if others have them. My little IFP890 does a perfectly good job. You can set the encoding rate and a number of other recording parameters. With this you can record from any analogue source with a line-out (mic) output (ie virtually anything that will play your source): vinyl, casette, radio... One big advantage is that you don't need any extra hardware or software, and you don't need to move your music system next to your computer or vice-versa.

For editing the results, i use a freeware package: MP3directcut. But if you don't mind some rough starts and ends, this isn't really essential.

Hope this helps someone

John

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Audio Cleaning
Oct 20, 2006 9:02PM PDT

I have for some time been contemplating copying all my old records to cd/dvd but was concerned about the quality i.e. hiss and such like. Having lookedaround I eventually came across SERIF Audio Cleaning Lab 9 at

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Audio cleaning comments
Oct 21, 2006 1:48AM PDT

I've been using two other products for a couple years now.

GoldWave and Wave Corrector.

Goldwave has very good hum/hiss filtering capabilities. These are used by taking a sample of the surface noise between before/after/between tracks and telling the software to remove that signal from the music.

Wave Corrector has very sophisticated capabilities to automatically remove/correct pops/clicks.

Pop/click removal is an extremely difficult problem, and I am very impressed with the job Wave Corrector does. But if you make the Wave Corrector settings too sensitive you get a lot of false positives, if the settings are less sensitive it misses some.

There are free demo versions of both Wave Corrector and GoldWave. I'd recommend trying both alongside Serif.

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Another honorable mention
Oct 21, 2006 12:41AM PDT
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Lets talk about bitrates that will not waste disk space.
Oct 21, 2006 1:19AM PDT

Lets talk about bitrates that will not waste disk space.

Lets take several examples:
1 Vinyl records
2 Audio music tapes
3 Audio book tapes (doesn't need stereo)
4 Old super 8 home movies from 60s and 70s (silent)
5 Old home video camera tapes

With the video and movies, what is the minimum resulution I need before I actually start losing information in the picture? I dont think I need DVD quality on these due to the quality of the source.

What bitrate and format for the audio converted files?
Of course we only need mono for audio books.

I have converted a lot of Audio book tapes (eg Harry Potter) using Roxio and breaking the files into Chapter lenght mp3s.

This would be a great separate topic.
Tom Kregel

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vinyl to digital
Oct 21, 2006 2:40AM PDT

To Ferdi W.
I have been converting vinyl to digital for a little while , but by no definition am I a professional. It is an enjoyable hobby and not as daunting a task as it sounds if you just want to convert your vinyl. It can become complicated and time consuming if and when you decide to use the tools and filters to remove scratches and noises and enhance the audio. If you would like some help feel free to contact me.
mrevad

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Magix Audio Cleaning Lab
Oct 21, 2006 3:46AM PDT

This is a great program that allows you to record to disk, and then clean up. If you have a single speed turntable you can tell the computer you are recording a 45 at 33 or a 78 at 33 or whatever and the program will make it right. The clean up is incredible. It works well automatically or if you desire manually.
The price is reasonable and most large computer software sellers carry it.

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Vinyl to digital - Is original quality LOST??
Oct 21, 2006 4:51AM PDT

Like many who have taken part in this thread; I also have a HUGE collection of 33 1/3, 45's and even some treasured 78's. (I even have some '50's and '60's albums that have NEVER been played!!)

A friend who is a collector of Vinyl records, tells me that a ''digital copy'' of any vinyl record; LOOSES some of the quality of the original recording.

He has given me a long ''disertation'' of what is lost in the copying; but to be truthful I can't detect any difference listening to the original vinyl recording and the digital copy - side by side. (playing both at the same time and switching back and forth)

I DO understand a vinyl record WILL lose some of it's ''crispness'' from repeated playing. But does the copying loose quality in the conversion??

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quality Loss
Oct 21, 2006 9:11AM PDT

It is my understanging the CD clips off the top high frequencies as part of its technology and industry standards. SO, folks with a good ear will hear the loss while the rest of us will never know the difference. And perhaps even ipod/mp3 clips a bit more out of the process of vinyl perfection.

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Vinyl to digital - Is original quality LOST??
Oct 21, 2006 11:02AM PDT

I'm with you, feeling that the CD copy of a vinyl LP is virtually the same sounding. Much better than the store bought CD, if that particular album is on CD.

But I am talking about using an Audio Cd recorder. I haven't had any experience using my PC doing that.
My primary interest has been music and audio.

Many years ago, I read somewhere, that to preserve the condition of a vinyl LP, that it should idally only be played once every 24 hrs., giving the vinyl groves a chance to restore. But of course as teenagers, we didn't listen to that, especially while enjoying our Beatle Albums>>LOL.

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Vinyl to digital - is original quality lost??
Oct 21, 2006 2:41PM PDT

It depends on the quality of the equipment that you copy it with and how much cleaning needs to be done.

If you use good equipment and no cleaning, there's no reason it wouldn't sound as good as the original. The more you clean (automatic filters) it, the more fidelity it will lose. I use a DFX plug-in that CAN restore the lost fidelity.

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WAV vs. MP3 - I cannot really hear much difference
Oct 31, 2006 6:14AM PST

IN MY OPINION:
I have transferred CD, vinyl, open reel and cassette music to digital files and then to audio CDs.

Whether I went to WAV or MP3 @128Kbps format seemed to make very little difference in the final quality of the CD - except maybe on the very best reel to reel material - and even then it was a very minor difference.

When I tried MP3 compression at 56Kbps (or less), I could hear a slight difference. 128Kbps is the way to go - if you're using MP3 format. It allows you to get almost 200 songs on a standard audio CD that would normally hold 20 songs of the same length!

I am playing back the audio CDs on a standard Sony CD player through a vintage PIONEER Receiver-Amp and some large 3 way Sony speakers.

The WAV files take up way more space than MP3 on the hard drive and to me at least don't seem to be worth the difference.

NOTE: It should be mentioned that some clean-up programs for de-clicking records only work on WAV files. Once they are cleaned up, they can easily be converted to MP3 files. The more processing you do to de-click and such, the more risk you run of really altering the quality of the sound. Those programs work but less is more - IMO.

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Great treatise
Oct 21, 2006 6:37AM PDT

One of the MAIN reasons I even own a computer was to digitalize a VAST 78 collection I inherited so I've been doing this not long after I learned what a mouse was for. What Barry says is just about how it's done. There is one piece of software that, with this much knowledge, he failed to mention: Goldwave, available fer about $45 from www.goldwave.com. For anyone serious about digitalizing analog sound of any kind, this is a studio quality sound editor whose capabilities far outweigh anything I've seen out there. It is to sound handling what ''Hasselblad'' or ''Nikon'' is to celluloid photography!

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Not all CD's are the original material
Oct 21, 2006 8:29AM PDT

The only to be aware of when purchasing a CD of older material is that they are not always the orignal material. I have found in several cases that they have substituted a later release of the masterial. This can be especially true for bands that have had member turnover.

The time to do a song. I have found that if you have a good clean album and the corrects tools, you should be able to turn a album into a CD in about double the album time. If you have to deal with a noisy album I suggest that you check out the tool WaveRepair

http://www.waverepair.com/

I have found it to be a very useful tool for repairing and eliminating noise on my ablums. One other thing trick I have found is that if you are noise elimination from your album, apply the noise to the entire side, not song by song.

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Don't have to use your computer
Oct 21, 2006 9:11AM PDT

At the risk of being permanently banned from these discussions, I just want to mention that it's not necessary to use a computer at all to put your vinyl records and cassettes onto CD.

All you need is another component for your stereo system: a CD recorder. Remember recording your records onto cassettes for your car or Walkman? (Okay, you kids won't remember. Ask dad.) A CD recorder works the same way. Once the cables are hooked up and you've made the correct selection on your receiver or amplifier, you just hit the ''record'' button and start playing the music.

Using a computer and special software can give you many more options, but I don't think it can make it any simpler.

By the way, CD recorders are apparently a dying breed. Recently, my local Best Buy and Circuit City had exactly one each (for $200), and I think it was the very same model.

And there used to be suspicion that a CD recorded on a computer was more likely to have problems, initially and in the long run, than one made on a CD recorder.

I'm still wondering if that is or ever was true.

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vinyl to cd recorder
Oct 21, 2006 3:28PM PDT

the suspicion was that cd's made on a recorder would very often not play in an upper end cd play only player..i still have a tascam recorder..and about a dozen other ways to record onto disc..enjoy

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Here's my solution
Oct 21, 2006 9:21AM PDT

I'm a pretty serious amateur audio engineer. I've done hundreds of conversions of old vinyl records to CD. I don't usually bother with cassettes since their original audio quality is so poor, but sometimes I do if I can't find the music anywhere else.

Anyway, here's my solution. Get yourself a quality turntable with a built-in A/D convertor and a S/PDIF output. This is a semi-pro digital audio format and is less prone to interrupted or "glitchy" data than USB. S/PDIF has its own clock and the streaming is very smooth. USB audio is prone to phase jitter and other ickyness.

My personal choice of turntables is the Stanton ST-100, a heavy duty DJ-quality unit with a good pitch control, 3 speeds, and the all-important S/PDIF output. There are plenty of others out there from Denon, Numark, etc... with similar features. Just make sure you get a turntable with a long (should extend past the spindle) S-shaped tonearm. The models with little straight tonearms (used by scratch DJs) will tear up your records very quickly because the tonearm geometry is all wrong. The turntable should also be fully adjustable, with settings for tracking weight, tonearm height, anti-skate, cantilever, etc...

Most modern turntables have decent built-in preamps and line outputs instead of the old phono-level outputs. Good to know if you're going analog, but again, I highly recommend S/PDIF or optical outputs on the turntable.

Belt drive or direct? The Stanton is direct-drive, and will result in a little more rumble (vibration) in the final recording than a belt-drive unit. If you're a stickler for quiet, find a belt-drive model. I use direct-drive tables because they're practically indestructible and I use mine a LOT. I just slap a high-pass filter with a sharp roll-off around 30Hz, on the tracks to remove the subsonic junk.

Depending on what kind of records you have, get a variety of cartridges and stylii, too. 45s and LPs will sound OK with a general-purpose cartridge, but having a couple different needles on hand (spherical and elliptical) is a good idea. If you're transcribing 78s, you'll need a special stylus with a wide spherical diamond. The grooves are much wider, and an LP needle will rest on the bottom, resulting in ungodly noise.

In addition to the turntable setup, you'll need an audio card which can handle S/PDIF inputs. I have a Creative Extigy. There are literally hundreds of options here, from $120 external USB boxes like mine to sky's-the-limit studio-grade PCI cards and firewire interfaces. Pick up an issue of "Mix" magazine and read the ads. A recent issue of "Mix" also had a fine article on turntable setup for transcription - worth a trip to your local library. Don't just run the analog output through your onboard audio inputs, though. You won't be happy with the results.

You'll also need some kind of audio editing software. My choice is SONAR, but again, dozens of possibilities here. You'll have to edit your tracks since the recording from the record will be one long file, and I assume you'll want to be able to skip through the tracks like a "real" CD. So, you'll have to chop them up into a separated track for each song.

I don't do much fancy processing on my tracks. I cut them up, remove the spaces from the beginning and end of each song, and then add very short, steep fade-ins and fade-outs. That way there is actual silence between songs instead of snap-crackle-pop.

I apply a little EQ, mostly high-pass to remove subsonic garbage and sometimes a notch at 60Hz if there's AC hum in the original recording. If a record sounds bad I'll mess around with the frequency response to taste. I don't usually do any noise removal, but it's always an option if you have the software for it. Again, there are literally thousands of digital audio processing and mastering plug-ins out there. This part is like seasoning stew - to each his own. I also occasionally apply a little gentle compression to make a track warmer and fuller.

Then, all that's left to do is normalize the tracks and export them. Normalization locates the "loudest" sample (highest voltage) in the track and brings it up to 0dB, and brings up all the other samples by the same amount. If you do this to all the tracks, they will be consistently loud and "CD-like". Then export them to a folder and burn them to CD. Stay organized here - export them with file names including track number and song name, and put each album in its own subfolder.

Oh, yes - make sure you clean your records VERY well before recording. The classic Discwasher D-4 system is still the best. And make sure that the recording level NEVER peaks about 0dB during the digitizing process. If it does, do the track over. This is another reason I use S/PDIF outputs - they cannot peak over 0dB since they're already digital. If you're digitizing an analog signal, you have to watch the levels like a hawk and may need to use a limiter if the song has a lot of dynamic (volume) changes.

Happy transcribing!

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Oh, and I forgot...
Oct 21, 2006 9:34AM PDT

Get yourself a really good set of headphones! Very few of us have good enough speakers or room acoustics to properly monitor how a recording sounds.

Do your monitoring through headphones, and invest in a pair of real studio-grade cans like AKGs or Sennheisers - the kind radio DJs use. Your ears will thank you. I have AKG K-271s, and they allow me to hear glitches and noises that no home speaker system would ever reveal. Not cheap, but worth every penny and they'll last a lifetime.

The first time you try a pair of real studio 'phones, you'll toss those ghastly little iPod earbuds in the trash and never go back. I guarantee it.

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Have you tried Instant Music?
Oct 21, 2006 11:41AM PDT

Instant Music from ADS Tech (http://www.adstech.com) is a device that costs around $40. You plug the cable into the output jacks of your amplifier/tuner, then into the Instant Music device. Then you plug the device into the USB drive of your computer.

It comes with Nero SoundTrax software which allows you to edit a .wav file to your satisfaction, but also has some quick & easy options which will automatically edit noise for you (if you're not picky) while creating a CD, . Depending on how much of an aficionado you are, you may or may not notice any loss of quality.

Personally I am drawn to the ease of purchasing commercial CDs but the idea of spending money on music I've already paid for bugs me, so I am sitting on my album collection waiting for the day I don't have anything else to do but convert them. Meanwhile I settle for putting the albums on my turntable and changing them every 15 minutes or so. Sigh...

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GOOD LUCK with ADS TECH !!
Oct 21, 2006 1:28PM PDT

I bought their Video Capture device and tried to get support for over 2 weeks before I sent the stuff back to TigerDirect. I wrote to them 5 times and left 4 messages on their answering machine and the only thing I ever heard from them was, "We'll try to get back to you within 48 hours". Never did hear from them again. It didn't matter what time of day I called, after going through the recorded option menu I always got "Operator is not available at this time, please call back". I would recommend DAZZLE with Pinnacle software, available from TigerDirect. At least you can get an immediate response if you need the Pinnacle support. And TigerDirect is hassle free if you should need RMA.
FYI - If you don't have Left/Right audio IN on the computer, you use the audio connections on the video capture device to connect to your output device (stereo, turntable, whatever), then USB2 into the computer.