If you've got a stack of vinyl LP's lying around and have been putting off transferring them to CD because you believe that it's either too hard, or too expensive, then it's time to think again!
There are a number of different tools and programs you can use to go about transferring your vinyl records to CD, but when you boil it all down, whatever you decide to use, the process is the same. I'll try keeping this as simple as possible, and aimed towards those without an existing recording setup, such as ProTools or Cubase.
Step 1: Getting your stuff together
For this to work, you'll need the following:
- a turntable;
- a computer with a soundcard and CD burner;
- an amplifier (or pre amp);
- appropriate cables to connect the turntable to the amp etc. The cable types may vary depending on the gear your connecting. You may also require a "Y" connector depending on the inputs of your soundcard;
- some sort of recording software that can 'create' .WAV files.
First you'll want to plug the output of your turntable into your amplifier (or preamp) and then into the Line In of your soundcard. If your soundcard has only one input then you may require a "Y" connector.
If you're converting your LPs to CD, then you are going to want the transfer to result in as close to CD quality as possible right? That's why before you start recording it is a good idea to go into your recording software to make sure you have enabled the CD quality setting. In other words your software should be set up to record at 44,100 samples per second, in 16 bit stereo.
Give your LP a good clean. Make sure it is dust free. This will reduce the chances of 'pops' and 'crackles' which can be a pain to fix once you've completed your recording.
Step 2: Testing your setup
It's a good idea to do a quick test before you dive head long into the recording process. If you've set everything up correctly (on a PC with Windows), in theory, without any recording software running you should be able to play a vinyl LP hear it through your PC speakers. If you're not hearing any sound, make sure your Line In is not set to Mute. If you're using a PC with Windows, double click the speaker icon in the bottom right of your screen. Once you've got your LP playing through your PC, conducting your test record should be as simple as firing up your recording software, hitting play on the turntable, and hitting record on your recording software (please note: all recording software is different. Read the help file if your having troubles 'hitting record').
Use the test to ensure that connections are all correct, and that hum and electrical interference is kept to an absolute minimum. If there is a lot of hum being picked up then you'll need to check that all the items in the recording chain are properly grounded/earthed. Lights, particularly fluorescent lights, can be a prime cause of hum/interference, as can your PC monitor. It's a good idea to keep the monitor as far from the recording chain as possibly to minimise the chances of your recording picking up hum.
Use the test recording as an opportunity to correct the volume and balance levels of your recording. As a general rule, most recording software will come with a way to measure recording levels.
Make sure the recording levels 'stay in the green'. You want your peak sound level to get as close to 0dB as possible without exceeding that level. Anything over 0dB will cause 'clipping' which is basically distortion. You don't want that in your final recording. The peak sound level is the "loudest" section of your recording.
Step 3: Recording your record
One your happy with the sound quality of your test recording, your ready to dive into the whole thing. If you've got this far, the full recording should be fairly straight forward.
As a general rule, 1 minute of CD quality audio takes up around 10Mb of hard disk space, so to record a full LP to your hard drive you will need around 700Mb free.
Record and save each track as its own .WAV file rather than saving the entire LP as one file continuous file. This will make it easier later on when you come to burning the tracks to CD, as well as to edit individual tracks etc. In other words, it's far easier to split the tracks up at this stage than it is latter on.
Step 4: The clean up
This step is really optional, and depends on how happy you are with the sound quality of your recordings. If on play back you are finding yourself annoyed by crackles, pops, hiss and hum, then you may want to experiment with mastering plugins (depending on your software). You can apply pop filters, noisegates, etc. to reduce the incidence of crackles and hum, but you really need to be careful not to over do it. Always make small, incremental changes, and where possible use non-destructive techniques. Otherwise, save before and after versions to compare the differences to see if your 'mastering' has made things better or worse.
Hopefully, if you've taken the time to make sure you set things up correctly, and were happy with the test recording, then step 4 won't be all that necessary.
If you're wanting to make a compilation of songs from various LPs you may way to run the tracks through normalizer software/plugins. Basically all a normalizer does is ensure you have even volume across tracks. This can be useful if not all sound sources have the same levels.
Step 5: Burn the .WAV files to CD
Launch your burning software and start burning. Once you've got the tracks in .WAV you can easily convert them to MP3 if that is what you're after.
If that sounds too hard, there are other alternatives!
There are now quite a few different products on the market that make ripping vinyl to CD a lot quicker and easier. Some turntables now come with audio recording software ready to go. Other units like the TEAC GF-350 offer an all in one solution, with turntable and CD recorder in the one unit. Below are a few samples of things you can pick up off Amazon.com. I guess it depends on how much you're willing to spend, and how often you'll be using it.
Hopefully this helps guide you in the right direction!
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