Please Recommend Good LP Recording and Editing Software (1 Viewer)

[Andy W]

I would like to record LPs and burn them to CD-Rs for archiving and to create my own favorite mixes. What software do you recommend I use for this application? I would like the software to be user friendly, have basic editing capability (mostly to edit where tracks begin and end, sometimes with fading), and level matching among different LPs for mixing, if possible.

Thank you in advance for your recommendations.

 

[Andy W]

Anyone? Please?

 

[Darren Lewis]

Hi Andy. Although I haven't done this personally, I believe software such as CoolEdit 2000 will allow you to do this.
This page should have all the info that you require.
Good luck.
Darren.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Andy,

You don't need a specific "LP Editing" program- rather what you're basically looking for is simple audio editing.

For your process, there are 3 issues:

1) Source. Obviously you need a decent turntable with a good tone arm and cartridge. Now, you cannot connect this directly to the computer- t must go through a phono preamp circuit first- so you will either need a stand alone phono preamp-- or you will need a receiver/mixer with a phono preamp and line outputs.

2) Soundcard. The quality of the soundcard you use will be the most crucial element if you expect to get quality recordings. I usually find regular stock creative type cards to be nasty sounding- and usually suggest anyone serious about archiving their collection get a nice 2 channel card like the Echo Audio Mia or something from the Maudio line (expect to spend $150+).

3) The editor. I personally like Sound Forge for a simple, professional quality editor. The stock SF package has all the tools you mentioned, plus excellent reasmpling and a few useful filters in terms of normalizing or basic EQ. Cool Edit is also a decent program- although usually considered the top of the "hobbiest" choices without the quality to be a professional application.

So, just remember that CD is 44.1/16bit audio. You can capture from LP at that rate, or if you have nice card like the ECHO with pro 24 converters- you could capture at 24bit 96k and experiement with resampling and see if you hear a difference.

-Vince

 

[Michael Harris]

I have a followup question since I am planning to do the same thing. I've built a computer for doing all of this but I went and installed a Creative SD Audigy Platinum (the one with the front panel in an empty drive bay). Since I am not going to buy yet another one, are there any problems, limitations, etc that I should know about?

 

[Scooter]

Has anyone tried using a stand alone CD recorder to get an LP to CD and then do editing/click and pop reduction using the burned CD in a PC? It would strike me that, converting the LP that way is fair bit more convenient than dragging a turntable to where your PC is...at least in my case.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I haven't done it that way personally- but I can't see why it wouldn't work (my only reason personally for not doing it is the added step of a CD and the fact that I have a better A/D conversion system in my PC than any standalone CD recorder under $3000).

One major factor in this process would be making sure you have a good ripper to pull the audio files back off the CD for PC editing. Most ripping software uses no jitter detection or overlap reading- and many of the ones that do have no way of telling the user if there were errored sectors or not. It is important to get jitter free rips, if you don't have access to a professional level CD extraction tool- try using CDEX, which gives custom ripping settings, and lets you know if there are any errored sectors.

Secondly, I have used (played around with) the "digital cleaner" packages- and want to make clear to everyone that the correction is not magical. It doesn't just remove all the noise without problems- it leaves audible artifacts where the pop originally was. I would say that I would spend three times as much of my efforts on cleaning the vinyl and using quality Turntable and tone arm before even trying to play with record cleanup tools in the digital realm.

Certainly these tools have their place, but anyone who is recording nasty vinyl and figuring they'll just "fix it later" will be disappointed.

-Vince

 

[Andy W]

Thank you all for your thoughtful and informative replies.

For the record (no pun intended), I don't think my LP playback system is an issue. It includes a Sota Star Sapphire Series III turntable with vacuum hold down, electronic flywheel and reflex clamp, SME 309 tonearm, Alpha 2 moving coil cartridge, Arcici Lead Balloon stand, and a Nitty Gritty 1.0 record cleaner. My preamp is a Counterpoint SA-3000 tube/FET hybrid.

I do not plan to digitally clean the recordings of any inherent LP noise, as my turntable system already produces remarkably low noise and minimal tics and pops.

My sound card may be an issue however. It is a stock (came with my PC) Analog Devices SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio. It has options to record up to 16 bit, 48 KHz in two channel. If it does okay with 16 bit, 44.1 KHz (red book CD), I may stick with it.

I will also try using Sound Forge, as recommended by Vince.

Thanks again for everybody’s input.

 

[Grant B]

I have a stand alone cd recorder -phillips that I use to record cds from lps. It works great unlike my pc.

you do get pops still but they don't seem as noticable

one thing bad about it: you need to manually set the tracks or else one side will become one song

i bought a new pc around xmas with a cd/dvd burner which i not gotten to work after countless hours and applications

BTW does anyone know if the hardware (cd/dvd drive) can be bad for burning but not playing?

all i know the stand alone works and cost much less than the pc (and took about 5 minutes to learn how to use)