Converting Audio from Vinyl to MP3?

superpat asks: "My father-in-law recently disposed of his turntable, and I foolishly volunteered to rip his vinyl from my turntable to CDs. The process seems to be: rip to WAV -> process to remove surface noise, find track boundaries, encode as MP3 -> burn CD. Presumably I can use sound recorder to rip from the line in port to a WAV (I'm on Windows ME, unfortunately), and I have RealJukebox with Roxio CD Creator to do the last step. Now there seems an amazing variety of software available to do the middle stage, from comprehensive general purpose sound processing packages such as Soundforge to special purpose apps such as LP Ripper. Has anybody has any success with this process? Any recommendations?" Has anyone had luck with a specific program or set of programs that might make this process any easier, regardless of OS?

Comments

In case you missed this:

[Bazzargh]

Not tried it myself but there was an article on this on O'Rielly network:
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/01/ 05 /record_cd.html

Which reccomended Gramofile:
http://panic.et.tudelft.nl/~costar/gramofile/

Don't be put off by the Linux-centric title - gramofile works on DOS/Windows too. Looks to be more fully featured than LPRipper and costs a whole heap less (ie nothing) than SoundForge _plus the noise reduction plugin_ ($290 on top of the cost of soundforge).

At that price it's got to be worth a go!

Re:In case you missed this:

[wings]

I've used Gramophile to post process for clicks and pops, and I heartily recommend it. The last time I used it, it had maybe 6 different algorithms for impulse noise identification and elimination. It is just a matter of finding the one that gives good results with your recordings. Be careful though, as some methods can be too agressive with the supression. Also be careful with how you set the sensitivity for impulse noise reduction. If you make it too sensitive, then it begins to massacre the audio on musical transients. Play around with the filter types and paramaters, listen to the results, and Gramophile will do a very good job. Gramophile can also be used to split album sides into tracks at the silence if desired, I haven't used that feature.

If you can find or buy the album on CD (used) it's worth the effort. It can take a LOT of work to clean-up a recording from vinyl, especially if the record hasn't been taken care of, and the purchase price of the CD, even if you have to get it new, can easily be worth it.

Never use Sound Recorder

[KnightStalker]

If you must sample the LPs, do *not* use Sound Recorder. It does not have the necessary granularity to record accurate sound, and you *will* end up with terrible skips and pops. Use a specialized audio editing program like SoundForge or CoolEdit. Trust me on this one.

I think this can be done faster...

[nsebban]

You should have a look to Total Recorder . It's an app for Windows, that hooks the system audio stream. The good thing to know is that it can dump the sound it hooks to the disc. Better, it can convert sound to misc formats (including MP3, WMA and OGG) on-the-fly, using the CODEC you chose.

So you just have to connect your turntable to the Line In port, then launch the windows media tool and Total Recorder. I bet you will save a lot of time converting on-the-fly !

I did this a few times, and it worked perfectly, in no time :)

dBpowerAMP

[angelo]

Try dBpowerAMP. It accepts line input and can buffer a high-quality wav to disk. Since you are coming over from an LP, 128kbps is probably the max recording you need for an mp3. Also, try ogg vorbis files, which dB writes as well.

LP Output != Line In

[sdirector]

Just as a warning, most turntables do not output the same signal stength as a line-in is expecting. If you can, connect the turntable to a tuner or pre-amp that has an input jack labled "Phono" (which is probably wired to accept the lower phono signal) and then use one of the Rec outputs from the tuner to go into your computer. Otherwise, your recordings are going to sound even worse.

Missing a piece of the chain?

[ktakki]

Presumably I can use sound recorder to rip from the line in port to a WAV.

You do know that you can't just patch the turntable into the card's line in. You need a pre-amp to boost (and equalize) the turntable's output to line level. Patching the turntable into an amp and taking the signal from the tape outputs should suffice.

In addition to pops and clicks, keep an ear out for subsonic artifacts (rumble) and make sure your turntable is physically isolated from the speakers to prevent feedback.

k.

Re:WHOOP WHOOP "Golden Ear" Alert

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.snopes2.com/music/media/marker.htm