transfer Lp records onto computer

[punky]

i have got alot of Lps and 45 records and i want to put them onto my computer so i can burn them to cds, how do i do it, and what program do i need. Has anyone done this and do they turn out good,I have got a turntable so can someone please help me

[Lord of the Rings]

A local! heh! I'm further south of you. Yeah I've done heaps. once you've digitised them though, you'll notice any background noises such as scratches & hisses much more than when you play back the vinyl.
Depending on what type of comp you have, you'll hopefully have a stereo input at the back. Connect this to your stereo (generally a 3.5 mm plug for your comp: go to your local electonics store & get a 3.5mm to RCA adaptor.) Now you'll need an audio app to handle the recording. Audacity is a Free editor which will allow you to record & save as wav/aiff file (don't forget to dwnld the manual & plaug-in xtras! They're separate dwnlds!) It will also allow you to edit/separate the tunes & apply any needed filters such as for filtering out any background noise & equalising the sound if need be. (I use Sound Edit II for mac & Peak) Once you've done these things, you can then use Audacity to dsave the tunes as mp3 types of your choice. There are a wide choice of apps to do this I just made a simple but efective suggestion. Even some cd burner apps come with their own recording & editing xtras.

[Lord of the Rings]

Also check the sound levels of the music 1st when you have it set up & ready to record. Play the loudest tune thru & set the recording level so that it doesn't go into the red or whatever the limit says on the sound app you use. You should read the manual of your sound app 1st about this. You don't want to record something & find that it has been 'clipped' (the highest points in the sound wave have exceeded allowable levels.) Clipping will cause distortion & other side effects such as clicking fx when played back on your stereo. Remember each song may have a different level so set it to the loudest tune on the album. Also each album******* etc. will have different levels so you'll need to reset them for each one. Clipping cannot be properly repaired so get it right in the recording stage. You can always safely maximize the volumes later by using Normalise for the entire album. Audacity has this ability. And don't convert to mp3 until you've finished editing & fx, etc. Record & save as wav/aiff initially. aiff & wav are lossless formats but mp3 is a 'lossy' format where it throws away info everytime you save to it.

Another point I forgot to mention is it's best to have some type of volume adjustor between the amp & the computer. Otherwise your outputs from your amp will be at line-out levels.

[Lord of the Rings]

To be more specific, I use a pre-amp b/w the amp & comp. Pre-amps can come in different forms.

Hey Peerless, how do you right-click on a mac? Trick question! I only have 2 fingers on my hand. lol

[Lord of the Rings]

For Audacity, to convert to mp3 you'll need the LAME mp3 enabler which can be dwnlded from here: http://mitiok.free.fr/ & for VST plug-ins you'll need the VST Enabler dwnlded from here: http://audacityteam.org/vst/ & don't forget to dwnld the manual from here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/windows.php The reason for the mp3 & vst plug-ins being separate dwnlds is due to copyrights, so to keep Audacity free these are dwnlded from elsewhere. If you check the VST page there's also some free ones. But you don't really need these.

Further questions about Windows 2000 are best directed to Peerless.
Quote: I've got windows 2000. I have try cd creator but it is saying unable to use sound card for recording another application may already be using it, how do i find out which application is using my sound card?

Easy CD Creator is a top burner app & by the same co. that does the no.1 mac version which has been one of if not 'the' longest running cd/dvd apps around. It has an app called Sound Editor which is a simple editor. There's also Soundstream which is included in the Easy CD Creator mix & with this you can also clean up the sound using Effect tab, & also use Spin Doctor which is designed for cleaning up songs recorded from vinyl records. It can be very effective but be careful about applying the filter fx too heavily. What you take away you'll need to re-add to those frequesncies using an equalising. Spin Doctor does have some presets for songs recorded from viny or tape.

By the way, Spin Doctor can be linked directly to your sound card for direct recording so if you're not going to record directly with this, make sure Spin Doctor is closed when you do decide to record. Else change the SD input source.

punky without spelling it out I'm from the city of oz football. I was an MCC member until now, they hiked fees by 30% this year to help pay for new stand so I'm letting it go. Pity your city didn't quite make it to the grand final this year. Almost!

[Apple Computer]

You can digitize Lps throught the right radio straight to a disk. If you have a radio which allows you to plug in a CD player (that can record disks) and a turntable, get a disk ready to record, start the CD recording and start the turntable. The turntable will send the sound into the radio, in turn, the signal goes throught the pre-amp were the CD player should take the sound and put it on the disk. (The amp controls will not affect the sound on the disk).

[Mattypeejay]

Audacity is a great audio editor however it is a bit limited when it comes to out put files. You may find that you need to download extra plug-ins in order to convert to MP3. So I suggest that you get a program called SOUND FORGE, it is similar to Audacity in many ways but it also has more functions. Also if you have got NERO START SMART or any later versions you will be able to find some useful tool for transferring your LP’s to your computer.
Good Luck, peejay