Audio recording/restoration software BESIDES Audacity? (1 Viewer)

[Ron1973]

I just upgraded to a Windows 10 machine after my Win 7 machine died. I've been using Polderbits for 10-12 years. They are out of business, so my "lifetime" purchase is null and void. Oh, you can download the software, but it won't recognize my access key and won't work after the 7 day trial. I downloaded Audacity. I'm overwhelmed and lost. I can't make it work. The onboard tutorials are absolutely no help-I might as well be reading Greek. I don't need a bunch of fancy dancy stuff like cutting and pasting or a bunch of effects. I want to record either from a line in source (turntable, 8-track, etc.) or what I'm hearing on the computer. I use archive.org a lot for their rare selection of 78's. I need to be able to record in mono or stereo, be able to split into tracks, and minor filters such as click removal, preferably done automatically. If anybody knows Audacity and can walk me through it, that would be great, too.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

It's been a while since I used it, but I didn't think that Audacity was that difficult to use. I used it to record the soundtracks from some concerts I owned on Blu-ray, and then used a program called Wave Editor to break up the resultant wav file into individual tracks that could then be both burned to music CDs and converted to MP3. I cannot help on the click removal, as I never recorded any of my vinyl via my PC.

 

[DaveF]

I gave Audacity a look last year for some simple format conversions and found Audacity hard to understand. On the whole, I've found it difficult to find good, cheap / free audio software for home enthusiast use. I solved my specific problems with ffmpeg (I just wanted to transcode audio), but I'm curious what options there are for basic audio editing.

 

[Ron1973]

From what I'm seeing, it looks like Audacity doesn't offer the ability to record sounds coming from the computer. I may have to see about repairing my other computer, even though it's sort of ancient. I'm fairly sure it's the power switch messed up. Music is my hobby. I'm getting more and more accustomed to Windows 10 and wish I would've upgraded my other computer. I emailed a guy I found online who said he has figured out the algorithm that Polderbits used and has been able to crack the security key feature. I have my security keys for both the 32 bit and 64 bit editions, but only certain keys will work with certain program codes. There used to be a website with a huge list of security keys to try, but I can't find it anymore. It royally stinks to buy lifetime access to a program only for them to disappear.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I just launched Audacity to refresh my memory a little. I think all I did was record the audio from my sound card when I played back the BD concert videos (I have an external BD drive for my PC). I cannot remember if I had to change the project rate from 48000 Hz to 44100 Hz -- I think that was a "trial and error" part for me. Once I started the BD playback, all I did was press the red "record" button and let the concert play back in real time. Once recording was complete, I selected "file, export" and exported as a wav file. The freeware app Wave Editor was much simpler for breaking up the wav file into individual tracks.

 

[Ron1973]

I've been playing around with it a bit. I managed to snag Polderbits 64 bit edition and used it for a week until the trial period was over. I then downloaded the 32 bit edition and have a day or two left with it before the trial expires. It stinks to have bought the lifetime access to it and now I'm crap outta luck. I've tried entering my product license key, but those are tied to the specific computer. A guy online claims to be able to get past that problem; I emailed him and got no response.

So, I have figured out how to record from a line in source and what I'm hearing on the computer with Audacity. I just need to work on figuring out how to split tracks. I also found out I CANNOT record in mono like I did with Polderbits. Archive.org has a wide variety of rare 78's that are unrestored. I used the mono function in Polderbits to record those, thereby eliminating a ton of noise. It tells me my sound card doesn't support mono recording.

All in all, though, I'm liking Windows 10. It's a bit different, but not in a bad way.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've been playing around with it a bit. I managed to snag Polderbits 64 bit edition and used it for a week until the trial period was over. I then downloaded the 32 bit edition and have a day or two left with it before the trial expires. It stinks to have bought the lifetime access to it and now I'm crap outta luck. I've tried entering my product license key, but those are tied to the specific computer. A guy online claims to be able to get past that problem; I emailed him and got no response.

So, I have figured out how to record from a line in source and what I'm hearing on the computer with Audacity. I just need to work on figuring out how to split tracks. I also found out I CANNOT record in mono like I did with Polderbits. Archive.org has a wide variety of rare 78's that are unrestored. I used the mono function in Polderbits to record those, thereby eliminating a ton of noise. It tells me my sound card doesn't support mono recording.

All in all, though, I'm liking Windows 10. It's a bit different, but not in a bad way.

I use a freeware app called Wave Editor to split the tracks from Audacity recordings. I save the Audacity recording as a WAV file, then use Wave Editor to break that one long file into individual WAV files for each track. I can then burn an audio CD from the individual WAV files, and also create MP3 files for portable use.

 

[Ron1973]

I use a freeware app called Wave Editor to split the tracks from Audacity recordings. I save the Audacity recording as a WAV file, then use Wave Editor to break that one long file into individual WAV files for each track. I can then burn an audio CD from the individual WAV files, and also create MP3 files for portable use.

That's actually what I'm doing. Someone suggested the Wave Editor to me, so I downloaded it. I've gotten proficient around Audacity enough now to do everything but split tracks. I found the declick and denoise functions and use them, but I had someone suggest a program that runs on Java that I've been using if it's especially bad (especially 78's). It's a free trial for now; it costs $40 to buy it outright. I'm trying to figure out if I truly have anything bad enough that I can't use Audacity for.