The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has the experience of burning CD's from LP's while keeping the fidelity high.

I have some Curly Chalker LP's that I wish I could just buy on CD, however they are not available. I need some assistance in the LP to CD dept. Thanks in advance.

Sam


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www.samminnitti.com

I use a Miracord w/ ElectroVoice Cart (vintage stuff) thru a Behringer mixer into the computer via MOTU 2408 and the CD I burn is as flawless as the LP. If the LP is scratched up I can do some fixing but not much. It can be done.

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Louis Schubert
ShoBud Pro III D-10 / Nashville 400 -
Getting better

I don't have anything fancier than a basic sound card in my computer, and some recording software. I am pleased with the results. I really think the limiting factor is the quality of the LP, rather than a standard soundcard.
So, I use Polderbits to record and split the recording into 'tracks'. Then I use a nice program called DePopper to filter out the scratches. http://www.polderbits.com http://www.droidinfo.com.br/software/depopper/index.html

I like the DePopper prospect. Is this expensive or a download?

Sam:
I've had a fair bit of experience with that as you probably know if you have ever visited the Rebel™,Ricky and Jeff site. Most all of that material is recorded from either records or cassettes.
I use a program called Cooledit Pro but you can but a regular version of Cooledit online for I believe around $69. U.S. + another $49. for the noise reduction add-on. Works extremely well.

I have a full receiver, cassette player, record player, cd hooked up to my computer for recording.

I have put a couple of mono sample mp3's on this page you can have a listen to. They are "before clean-up" and "after". Not the whole song but should give you an idea. Clip was normalized, then clicks and pops removed and then hiss removed.
The song is "Money To Burn" by George Jones, recorded from an old (1965) Mercury album.

http://users.interlinks.net/rebel/download/download.html

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Depopper is $18, Polderbits has gotten more expensive lately and is now $29.95
Even though I also have CoolEditPro, for LP to CD, I still use Polderbits/Depopper for one reason: it is easier. CEP is a super program, but it (IMHO) has a steep learning curve. It just does so durn much!
I tried a lot of scratch removers, and most were dissapointments. To my ear, Depopper is the equal of CoolEditPro in noise reduction.
I'm not knocking CoolEditPro.....(now called Adobe Audition) in fact if you are going to do multi-tracking and home recording, I would recommend it. If you just have a couple of LPs to copy, heck, work fast, and use the full function free trials on Depopper (30 day) and Polderbits (14 day).

When I click on the link I get:

ÿòHÀ›¦ etc, for many pages. No sound. It might be a heck of a song, but I sure can't read the words.

Hi Everyone,

I want to thank you all for your posts, which are very helpful. I have come to realize that I am missing a few pieces, one big one being a pre-amp of some kind to get the signal up.

Graham, thanks for posting the examples. I am very familiar with your site and have used it many times, and am also friends with Jeff Lampert. I'm glad you decided to keep the site going for us all to enjoy and learn from.



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www.samminnitti.com

Ken:
You can right click on the song names and download them. They will automatically load and play, as a rule, in Internet Explorer but not in earlier versions of Netscape, which I use.

Tommy:
You are so right about Cooledit Pro!! Very steep learning curve but it is the best sound editing program I have ever used and I've had most all of them at one time or another.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Sam, I've been using Steinberg's "Clean Plus" software that comes WITH a preamp for the last 6 months. Seems to work quite well. Declicks, de-pops, EQ's and masters well. About $130 Canadian.

Ok, ( with a nod to Graham) I'd like to make a slight retraction. I've just been recording an old Lovin Spoonful LP that I abused pretty badly as a teen. Depopper got a lot of the pops, but I ran it through CoolEdit, and the improvement was spectacular. So I did a side by side test of an 8 sec clip, using each program. If anybody wants to here the results, they are here: http://www.angelfire.com/vt2/tommymc3/DepopTest.zip
Sam: You can't go straight from your turntable to the computer. As you have noticed, you need a preamp to boost the gain. I have had good luck using the "Tape Out" on my stereo reciever. So the turntable is plugged into the reciever as usual, then use the reciever as a preamp. Run a line from there to your "Line-in" on your computer> If you don't have a line-out on your reciever, you can use the headphone out...BUT BE VERY CAREFUL!!! Start with the volume off, and work up. This should be last resort only, and results are iffy.
If you have the means, something like John suggested would be better, but I have been doing it the way I described with decent results.

Don't new turntables come with the preamp (and RIAA equalization) built in?

Do a Google searceh on the term VINYL TO CD and you will get 560 links.

I use Ripvinyl, for about $8, downloaded from ripvinyl.com., and a little Berringer mixer to set the level. It recognizes the silence between the tracks and starts a new sound file.

Yes, the new turntables have a pre-amp and most can be switched on or off.

My old direct-drive got zapped by lightening and I bought a cheaper belt-drive unit that has the pre-amp. I'll probably stick with my $30 Radio Shack pre-amp since I've gotten good results with it thus far.

I used Roxio's Easy CD Creator Platinum Edition, which allows some editing and depoping but automates it to a high degree. I can't clean things too much and retain the fidelity. It's not a big deal to me because I'm after the convenience of CD's and the LP's sound good to me just as they are.

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HagFan

I've been toying with the idea of starting a transcription service. How much would people be willing to pay for a CD-R made from one of their old LPs or cassettes?

b0b:
Don't think it is so much a question of how much would people pay but rather what is your time worth to do it and do it properly.
I had a woman come to me with 2 old kids records she wanted done up. Had a listen to them and told her to do them so I would be happy with the results, no clicks, pops or hiss, it would cost her $50.00. She very willingly paid that amount and was most happy with the results.
Guess I'm old fashioned enough to still believe if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing it right.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

I have the Sony EZ Audio Transfer and Restoration Kit and it works well. It has built in noise reduction functions, too. I remember seeing it in WalMart awhile back for around 40 bucks I think. The only problem is that it only support burning to internal CD-writers. If you have an external writer, you have to export your projects into WAV files and burn the CD with the software your external burner came with.

Has anyone tried or had any luck with DART32?
(Digital Audio Restoration Technology).
It's about a $200 program and I'd like to know how it compares to the $18 and $40 flavors spoken of here.

I've found the cryin' highs of Jimmy Day to be tough to denoise (from a 40 year old well played LP) without losing the crispness in the process. Any recommendations?

I tried doing a CD from songs on a cassette, using the Nero Wave Editor that comes with my CD burner--you can cut out noise at the beginning and the end of a song, and actually do internal edits if you keep track of the time code--however, I am getting glitches, i.e. skips in the audio where there are little bits missing. I'm running Windows 98 Second edition, and am wondering:
1. Do I need a beefier computer with more memory etc.
2. Would a better editing program such as CoolEdit solve the problem.

Hi, Keith, long time!!
Don't think your computer would be the problem unless it is totally archaic. I prefer using Cooledit because I can do all my editing, fixing etc.on one screen before I take it to cd or whatever. Can also highlight and edit just a small portion of the file. Found this very useful when dumping some Tony Booth albums over to make a cd. Steel in his old albums was very much back in the mix. I used Cooledit and brought the steel right out front where it should have been to begin with!

As for Cooledit, I believe they were bought out by Syntrillium or somebody like that and I can't find where it is available today. Shame because it certainly is a fantastic music editing program although it does take some catching on to. Cooledit pro was around $300.00 when I got it a couple years ago. I started out with the basic version which I used for a couple of years before upgrading to pro. Used to be you could buy either the program or upgrade right on their web site.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Keith: Sometimes older computers (like mine) don't have enough resources to record while other programs are running. Even if you aren't using any other program, there can be things running in the background, like screensavers. This may or may not be the source of your glitches, but it is worth a try to shut off any background programs that aren't necessary.
Graham: CoolEdit (by Syntrillium) has been bought out by Adobe and is now called "Audition". They make it sound like there are a few additions, and upgrades from CoolEdit to Audition are available. Here is a link to the main page: http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/main.html

Thanks, Tommy. My bookmark for them was just cooledit.com. Can't get on that Adobe page you posted. Maybe having trouble with their server. I'll have to try again later and see if there are any upgrades.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Thanks guys, the first thiing I'll try is doing a disc cleanup, i.e. scan and defrag, then I'll try closing out other programs and see if that helps. olan B will be to get something like Cooledit or the new version of it. The Nero Wave Editor is quite user friendly , if it will do the job properly.
By the way, Graham, I was out west, our daughter had a new baby girl in September, first grandchild, and while I was out there I got a chance to jam with George Keoki Lake, had a great time. Hope you get a chance to give that Fulawka a good workout now, I'll be waiting to hear some clips .
Take care.