Also, have you considered just listening to vinyl? I planned to do a lot of needledrops when I got into vinyl, and I've done a few, but get the most pleasure from just spinning vinyl. I know that's not practical for portable use, but give it a try at home instead of digital.
I totally agree that there is no substitute for listening directly to vinyl. I'd made digital copies of many albums in my vinyl collection but I've always listened to the original LP when I'm at home. The difference between the original and the copy is apparent in my system. Good enough for background music and playing through my car deck.
I've used Soundblaster USB sound card for digitization. The recording interface of the included software is very good; it allows me to break up the tracks on the fly without post processing, then I just edit in the track titles and burn to CD. Quality is quite acceptable using the Soundblaster. I've switched to M-Audio Audiophile sound card recently. The software that comes with it is very fat and runs slow, so I've been using Audacity to record instead. The recording quality is a bit better than the Soundblaster, but breaking up the track afterwards takes some effort.
I use KRISTAL software to record the album sides, all done with ASIO support at 24/96 (though it stores it as 32-bit for the time being). I then export the file to 32-bit/96khz .wav and open the file up in Audacity. I get rid of the needle drop sound at the start, normalize to -.3db, fade in/out at the start end or whatever I need to do.
I've been using Audacity to record as well as track splitting. What is the advantage of using Kristal for recording?
I've been using Audacity to record as well as track splitting. What is the advantage of using Kristal for recording?
Hmm... maybe not much in this type of task but, ... in some cases, you'll get better levels and/or clearer recording path by using native ASIO (which isn't supported by Audacity). Even WDM/KS (Kernel Streaming) (incl. Asio4All etc. wrappers) is a bit better driver mode for recording than what MME/DS are (which ones Audacity supports (IIRC)) ...
Hmm... maybe not much in this type of task but, ... in some cases, you'll get better levels and/or clearer recording path by using native ASIO (which isn't supported by Audacity). Even WDM/KS (Kernel Streaming) (incl. Asio4All etc. wrappers) is a bit better driver mode for recording than what MME/DS are (which ones Audacity supports (IIRC)) ...
jiitee
Thanks. I couldn't get ASIO4ALL to work with Audacity and the M-Audio driver. Though the recordings sound OK with MME driver, I'll give Kristal a try.
The best advice you'll ever get about transferring vinyl is ALWAYS back up your raw transfer at full CD quality with no noise reduction. That way, you can always go back and use new and better noise reduction software at a later date when it becomes available to you.
Thanks. I couldn't get ASIO4ALL to work with Audacity and the M-Audio driver. Though the recordings sound OK with MME driver, I'll give Kristal a try.
Kristal is designed around ASIO support. It can seem a bit tricky, and a bit bare bones, but it really does work well once you figure out the basics.
If Audacity would support ASIO I would use Audacity from start 'till end. That way I know if I select 24/96, I know it isn't simply recording 24/96 from the Windows 16/48khz input or however the kmixer is managing it.
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Vista 64-bit -> ESI Juli@ -> KECES DA-131 -> Eddie Current EC/SS -> SR225
If the Kristal looks too tricky then I suggest you to try Cockos Reaper (shareware). It's both, Kristal and Audacity, in one package and much much more. If you need audio editing capabilities then just configure an external editor for it.
If the Kristal looks too tricky then I suggest you to try Cockos Reaper (shareware). It's both, Kristal and Audacity, in one package and much much more.
jiitee
What are the normalization and DC offset options in Reaper?
Also, can it split up one giant file fully tagged, gapless, and to FLAC as Audacity does mentioned in this tutorial:
Normalization is defined on Reaper documentation. DC Offset is defined here.
AFAIK, Reaper does not get tags through some WEB-database while exporting (rendering)... what becomes to those other features, if you're interested, it's all there in the Reaper Documentation.
Normalization is defined on Reaper documentation. DC Offset is defined here.
AFAIK, Reaper does not get tags through some WEB-database while exporting (rendering)... what becomes to those other features, if you're interested, it's all there in the Reaper Documentation.
jiitee
Defining these terms are one thing, what it actually does is another thing.
Will Reaper let me choose a DB amount or a percentage amount to normalize the waveform? Does it do RMS or Peak normalization? Does it correct DC offset? Can I label then export the entire waveform to multiple gapless files?
Web databases aren't useful when recording Vinyl to Digital. It's more about how the program automates my labeling scheme when exporting the gapless files.
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Vista 64-bit -> ESI Juli@ -> KECES DA-131 -> Eddie Current EC/SS -> SR225
Linear Mode
