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How do I digitize my old vinyl records?

How do I digitize my old vinyl records?

Digitize bestseller records

How do I digitize my old vinyl records?
How do I digitize my old vinyl records?

In this little "workshop" I would like to show you how old records can be digitized - all in just 10 steps!

Step 1: Connect system to PC

A short, high-quality connection is a prerequisite for transferring records to the PC.

For this they use the Rec-OutConnection of the amplifier and connect it to the line-in of the PC sound card using an adapter cable. If only vinyl LPs are to be digitized, it is usually worth buying a simple one phone-Preamp. This prevents some turntables or audio components mains hum and additionally amplifies the output signal.

Step 2: Select recording source and prepare

In order to achieve an optimal recording, you must first make a few settings. Above all, this includes choosing the right input.

If the system is connected to the computer, it helps to look at the "recording control" in Windows XP (I'm assuming this is the operating system). The recording control can be found in the start menu under "Programs" - "Accessories" - "Entertainment media" - "Volume" (or optionally via the control panel). In the "Playback Controls" window, use the "Properties" item in the "Options" menu to switch between the volume control for playback and recording.

Now select the "Line-In" input in the recording control and make sure to remove the corresponding checkmarks from all other audio sources. This avoids possible feedback, for example from microphone inputs or background noise. Otherwise, these would later have to be laboriously removed from the recordings.

Step 3: First test run for driving

If the level is too tight, the title will be too quiet and may hiss when you turn it up. At overdrive distortion occurs. You should therefore take a moment for this point.

Windows' own audio recorder is not particularly suitable for recording longer music titles. But before you think that you should buy an expensive, professional audio editor like "Samplitude", rest easy. There are enough good programs on the software market, such as B. GoldWave, Cool Edit or WavePurity. You can download these free of charge from many websites (e.g. www.chip-online.de). This example uses WavePurity.

After installing and starting the recording tool, create a new audio track with the parameters stereo, 44,1 kHz sampling rate and 16-bitResolution at. Before hitting the Record button, make sure the "Record Controls" are still open. Now start playback of the record to optimally control the recording.

To do this, press the record button in the audio editor and observe the recordlevel. Reach both the right and the left Channel regularly hits the 0 decibel mark, turn down the volume using the Windows "recording control" until the maximum deflection almost reaches this level.

Step 4: What should be digitized? The entire LP or just individual tracks?

To make the audio restoration less time-consuming later, we recommend recording a complete LP side - after all, corrections to tracks can be done in one go, even if the music software does not offer batch processing.

When the recording is finished as desired, first save the file as "Windows PCM' in WAV format on the hard drive.

Step 5: Remove crackles with WavePurity

A gentle audio editor such as WavePurity, mentioned earlier and used here, is recommended for removing crackles and pops.

The Light Scribe version is particularly suitable for this. Restrictions compared to the full version are the recording time, the display of registration prompts and the limited MP3-Encoder. But you can also work well with the Light Scribe version.

In order for the WavePurity filters to be able to use the maximum distance between the audio stream and the background noise during the restoration, it is recommended to use the original recording. The program calculates a little longer, because the breaks between the songs have to be freed from crackling, but noise suppression also reduces the difference between Signal and noise.

Step 6: Filter Settings

You should be particularly careful with the settings of the filter, because the right setting is important.

Before WavePurity's filters can be used, load the WAV file to be edited into the program in "edit mode". If you want to optimize functions and parameters for your needs first, mark the beginning or the end of a music track with the mouse. This section can now be used to set the features hidden in the "Digital Filters" tab.

The "repair filters" for removing crackling and cracking have proven their worth. The sensitivity both options can be found in the sample-Adjust length. Default values ​​range from 7 to 15 samples for crackles and 25 to 35 for crackers. The "Multiple search" option allows the recordings to be cleaned of noise that occurs in quick succession - which is of course particularly important when it comes to crackling. Optionally, several applications of the digital filters with modified parameters also help.

To check the result after removing the noise, it is advisable to listen to the track from time to time. It can be helpful not to overwrite the file but to save it under a new name. Although WavePurity has an undo function, this only applies to the last step. It is annoying that some hardware configurations can cause problems when playing music directly from WavePurity. Then only the Windows Media Player, WinAmp or the audio editor can help.

Step 7: Remove hum and noise

The recording has now been cleaned of cracking and crackling, now the hum and noise have to be removed.

If only noise and hum are present in the recording, I recommend the program Cool Edit (shareware).
The shareware Cool Edit 2000 starts with a selection dialog. In the unregistered version you have access to two of eight function groups. Which these are can be selected each time the shareware is started.

The first one, "Save, External Clipboard Functionality and Sample Conversion" is absolutely necessary, otherwise you would not be able to save WAV files. The “Filter and Noise Reduction” functions help when editing noisy vinyl recordings.

Once the selection has been made, load the previously edited WAV file. Now look for a place where only hum or noise can be heard, for example right at the beginning or end of a track.
Highlight this area and choose Noise Reduction from the Transform menu. In the following dialog, click the "Get Profile from Selection" button. Cool Edit now determines a cross-section of the noise and remembers this frequency profile. It makes sense to obtain a profile of the audio sample that is as detailed as possible. You can achieve this by maximizing the value of the “Snapshots in Sample” as much as possible – sizes of 500 or more snapshots have proven successful. Now first click on "Close" because you don't just want to remove the background noise from the selected part of the track, but from the entire file.

You can now use the key combination [Ctrl]+[A] to select the entire recording. When you open the Noise Reduction dialog again, Cool Edit 2000 has remembered the frequency profile. To preview the cleaned audio track, press the "Preview" button.

The "Noise Reduction Level" slider can now be used to set how much the filter should hide the frequency components from the WAV file. The higher the value, the more it may also become Klang influenced negatively by the music. If you are satisfied, close the dialog with "OK".

Cool Edit 2000 now first saves the original file and then eliminates the determined frequency components. This can depend on the profile and the length of the audio track to be edited and of course the systemPerformance take a while. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can do everything via "Edit | Undo.

Step 8: Polish up recordings with effects

Especially with older, poorer recordings, it is worth amplifying the highs and lows a little.

The corresponding option can be found in the unregistered version of Cool Edit in the "Distortion, Quick Filter and Reverse" function group. After loading the audio track, select Filters | from the Transform menu Quick Filters". At the top right select "Loudness“. This changes the controls on the left. If you then press the "Preview" button, you will hear the effect.

The "Echo, 3D Echo Chamber and Reverb" function group also hides options that can be used to audibly enhance restored audio files. For example, you can use the “Reverb” effects to polish up live recordings: Simply move the recordings to a large, crowded concert hall (“Large Occupied Hall”). The other options in this function group hide almost 50 effects that are worth trying out, especially with older mono recordings.

Step 9: Split WAV file into individual tracks

Now the large files have to be divided into tracks so that the CD player recognizes these songs as separate tracks.

You can of course use the audio editor for this purpose, whose virtual working memory also allows you to copy and paste minute-long music passages. You find the break between the first and second tracks and highlight the first track, copy it to the clipboard and paste it into a new file. Follow the same pattern for the other titles.

This task can be done more conveniently with the burning program Nero Burning ROM from Ahead. Like almost all burning tools, Nero comes with an audio editor into which you can load the entire music file. Nero's Wave Editor offers its own "pause detection" in the "Edit" menu, which is able to split a completely recorded side of a record into individual tracks using various parameters such as pause and song length.

Alternatively, of course, the Wave Editor also supports the manual copy & paste of parts of the WAV or MP3 file. The "Copy to file" command from the "Edit" menu is helpful here.

Step 10: Prepare data for the music CD

To finally complete your work on CD to save, use a burning program like Nero.

In Nero Burning ROM, for example, the pauses between the tracks can be designed uniformly or even deactivated if the songs are to merge into one another. To do this, select all tracks, click on the selection with the right mouse button and select "Properties" from the context menu. Here you adjust the length of the pauses between the pieces. If you already have breaks within the files, it is best to set the value to zero.

In the next step, click on the "Filter" tab: Tools for improving the quality are available here again. You can use the normalization option to bring the volume of different tracks to a uniform level: check "Normalize" and set it to "Maximum". In this way, Nero sets all tracks to the highest possible volume without distorting the sound. Then close the dialog with "OK".

Finally, the individual tracks can be provided with titles via the "Properties" entry in the context menu. If the "Write CD Text to CD" option is ticked on the "Audio CD" tab in Nero's "New Compilation" dialog box, both the entered album title and the respective song names with the associated artist will later be copied by CD-Text capable players during playback.

Now insert a writable CD and click "Burn".
Now the songs from your old vinyl are on one CD!

Graphic Variants of Record Digitization

Alternatively, it is also possible to connect a USB record player to the PC. With this you can conveniently record the tracks with a program (e.g. no23 recorder), name them etc. during the playback process. A good USB record player costs around 100 euros (as of February 2008).

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