Converting vinyl to CD?

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Can this be done? I've got a CD burner and would love to transfer some of my LPs to CD-R's to play more coveniently. Would I end up having to make a GIGANTIC wav file out of them first, too big for my computer, or what?
Thanks,
Jim

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

You can burn directly to CD, but I advise against that. Any kind of a glitch or problem and the CD blank is trash.

I've done some with tape and direct with a record player would be the same. However you may want to use a program that will minimize or take out some of the record noise.

I use Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4 and it has a noise reduction function.

I "record" each song to disk as a wav file. I then burn the CD from the wav file songs on CD. That way is less prone to problems and trashed CD blanks. That also lets you place as many (up to the CD's limit) on a blank and in what order. You can delete them from the hard drive after you successfully burn the CD.

I keep the wav files for my CD on the hard drive, for when I need to burn additional CD's. I have 14 songs and it takes up 477Mb. My wife has an album also (singing) and it has 12 songs on it and takes up 377Mb.
If you don't have enough room left on your hard drive to store at least that much you are in trouble and need to upgrade the hard drive anyway.

The reason I keep them on the hard drive is burning CD's from the wav files on the hard drive is faster than copying a CD.

André Sommer · Posted 30 Nov 2000 4:57 pm

Hi Jim,
There's a program by Steinberg called "Clean" and "Clean plus" (which includes a phono preamp)that is specifically written for this purpose: http://www.steinberg.net/products/index.phtml?action=showline&id=030203&sid=02921856

I don't know what kind of CD burning software you currently use, but if you want to burn songs in seperate steps you must make sure you don't close the CD.( so-called Track-At-Once). Only close the CD when you add the last track to it. There is a possibility that you'll wind up with clicks between the tracks this way,though.
Some CD writers insert a gap between tracks using this TAO method. This will not happen if you write them as "Disc At Once", if your CD writer supports that.Useful if you have created a compilation of songs in one 'gigantic' wav file (Max. 650 MB)

When you use the DAO method,the CD is written without interruption, including the gaps between tracks. This is the preferred method, because DAO will give you control over the gap between tracks and the "PQ"-channel (in case you are planning to use a CD as Master CD).

Of course you could decide to compress them into MP3's (see my post in topic "MP3 Files")and burn them that way but then you can't play this CD in a regular Hi-fi player.

André.

Graham · From: Marmora, Ontario, Canada

Jim:
This is a very easy process to do. I do it all the time for both my Real Audio steel clips page and also for my live365 broadcast. You just need a good wav recording program. I use Cooledit2000 and have found it to be an excellent program. Liked it so much I bought the registered version. They also have a plug-in (sold seperately) which can be installed and cleans up old records and cassettes, removing hiss and scratches and pops.
The downside is that as Jack says, you have to record them to your hard drive. Easy solution for that is to install a second large hd in your computer. That is what I did here. Added a 20 gig hard drive only to hold music files.
One thing to keep in mind is that at 44100 hz, 16-bit stereo (CD quality music) each minute of a song will use approx. 10 mb. of hard drive space.
Also what I do when recording off a record is when finished recording the song in Cooledit, I then highlight the pause leading up to the beginning of the song and then click on "Generate" and add a 2 second silence. That keeps the spacing between songs consistant when I burn them to a CD. I also "Normalize" the song which boosts the db up to where the level is highest without clipping at a point you select. I use 0db as my marker.
Any more questions, email me.

P.S.- put your two songs from your CD up on my Broadcast. (Tara's Theme and Java)

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585
http://users.interlinks.net/rebel/steel/steel.html

Steve Feldman · From: Central MA USA

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

HEY! I'M the one asking stupid questions around here. Take a seat, buddy.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Jim,

I decided to go with a "stand alone" dual CD recorder... Harman Kardon CDR 20
It records onto blank Audio CDRs or CDRWs from ANY source, turntable, cassette deck, mixer, or any analog source. It also has a DIGITAL input. It also copies CDs internally from one deck to the other (like a dual cassette deck) at 4X speed. price: $474

It makes a nice "poor man's" mastering machine because you can mix directly to CDRW from a master recording, doing several mixes, and later choose your favorite ones, set up a playlist and record them in whatever sequence you choose onto CDR on the other side of the machine.

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www.dougbsteel.com

Graham · From: Marmora, Ontario, Canada

Steve:
I went to my friendly neibourhood second hand store and bought a Marantz receiver. Plugged my record player into that and went from line out on the reciever to line in on my sound card. All there is to it. Also have a cassette player hooked up so I can record from that too. Oh, and a 5 disc CD player.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585
http://users.interlinks.net/rebel/steel/steel.html

Steve Feldman · From: Central MA USA

Thanks Graham - I didn't even realize that sound cards HAD inputs/outputs. That explains it. Just goes to show you that you certainly don't have a monopoly on stupid questions there, Jim.

Steve

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

One drawback on all the standalone CD writers that I've seen. You have to use "music" CD blanks, which cost more than the standard CD blanks.

The standalone music CD copiers are also relatively slow. A 12X internal PC burner is now down to less than $300 and probably will drop more in the near future, as all PC hardware seems to do.

James Bissaillon · From: Omaha, NE, USA

Jim, I've had great luck (and a lot of fun) using CoolEdit Pro to edit .wavs and EZCD Creator 4 to burn them onto cd. Both are easy to use. I haven't tried vinyl yet, but have been transferring irreplaceable stuff from cassette to cd. I also bought a Sound Blaster Live Drive II which gives me front panel connections on my pc for optical, analog, and digital inputs so that I don't have to fiddle with the small jacks (that are too close together anyway) on the back of the sound card. It is just a consumer level sound card, but I have no complaints about the recordings I've made.

Graham · From: Marmora, Ontario, Canada

James:
IMHO, the Live Drive from Soundblaster is the ONLY way to go. Everything right up front and easy to get to. An added bonus is the ability to use standard 1/4" plugs. If desired, you can plug your steel directly into the drive and record. Another nice feature of the Live Platinum card is the "What You Hear" recording option. Select that option and you can record any music that you can play and/or hear on your computer. As an example, tune in the Grand Ole Opry on internet radio and you could record the whole program, if you so wished. A great feature to have, for sure.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585
http://users.interlinks.net/rebel/steel/steel.html

Dave Van Allen · From: Doylestown, PA , US , Earth

JIm- call me, I can talk you thru the procedures.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Audio CDRs are $1.00 each at Circuit City (a spool of 30 is 29.95). I'm sure they can be found cheaper by shopping around and buying larger quantities.

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www.dougbsteel.com

Bill Ford · From: Graniteville SC Aiken

Stay away from the no lable CD stacks,they are no good,just got a 50 stack from Office Depot $19.99 with a $19.99 rebate,don't know yet how they work but stay away from
Compusa no lable they skip/don't burn good

It makes a nice "poor man's" mastering machine because you can mix directly to CDRW from
a master recording, doing several mixes, and later choose your favorite ones, set up a playlist
and record them in whatever sequence you choose onto CDR on the other side of the
machine.
(what Doug said)
Bill Ford

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Steve Stallings · From: Houston/Cypress, Texas

I recently purchased an alesis masterlink. This is a stand alone HDR and CD burner with very powerfull mastering software built in. It is impressive to say the least. It uses any disk for recording. I also bought 100 blank micro-boards CD's made by Taiyo Yuden with jewel case for $69 or .69 ea. I got these at the Mars music website. The masterlink lists for $1699 but is being sold for $1399 after rebate just about everywhere.

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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas
Carter D10/Evans

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I've been using the "generic" Verbatim CD-R's that Sam's Club sells. Except for one bad batch, which Sam's (reluctantly) replaced I haven't had any problems with them. I like them as they have a smooth label surface and labels will adhere to them well. Some, such as Maxell and Office Depot generics have raised printing on the label side and self adhesive labels will not stick very good to those types.

I tend to be the type that usually buys the "best grade" or I will only buy the manufacturers printer ink cartridges, but the generic CD blanks seem to work as good as any.

Steve Feldman · From: Central MA USA

I actually bought a box of name brand (Sony, I think) CD-Rs that were all bad! Couldn't believe it, but true.

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

For recording phonograph records I achieved decent results by taking the headphone line out of my preamp to the line in on my sound card and used Easy CD Creator. There were a few glitches but it did the job- then changed the .wavs to .mp3s and freed the space back up. Hope to get an MP3 player for the car soon- Aiwa makes one that plays all formats for under $300- imagine playing 180 songs w/o ever changing the disk- ghesh~ where's all this gonna end? Let's see- 180 songs x 3.5min/ea= 630 minutes/60 min= 10 1/2 hours of music with no commercials, changes, or repeats -WOWOW!

Dave Alfstad · From: Indianola, IA USA

Hi guys,
What is the deal with CompUSA no-label CD's? I have heard other people talk bad about them but I have burned about 150 of them and I have had no trouble what-so-ever. What are the reasons for people not liking them? And, do you think that maybe some burners burn these particular cd's better than others? Just wondering,

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Dave Alfstad
Indianola, Iowa

Jim Baron · From: Madera, Ca.

If your using the newer HP 9300 series burner and TDK blanks and getting glitches, HP has a new download fix that takes care of the problem. I was having to slow my burner down to 6~8x all the time to get it to work, now it hums right along at 10x.

Marco Schouten · From: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

MHi Jim,

I record with the program Sound Forge,
and than clean up the recordings with 3 plug-ins: Sonc Foundry Noise Reduction, Sonic Foundry Click Removal and Sonic Foundry Vinyl Restoration. Especially the Noise Reduction gives good results: during a quiet passage it measures the unwanted background noises and subtract these from the sound file.

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Steelin' Greetings
Marco Schouten
Sho-Bud Pro III Custom

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