Some digitization info came up in the "Where Did Your New Wave Records Go" thread, so here's a devoted topic...
[quote][i]Originally posted by Frank_Chickens[/i]
Hubcity, I would love to put the remaining vinyl onto CD. The things that are stopping me is a lack of space for the record player and more importantly the highly FUSTRATING problem of transferring it while ensuring the bass/treble/volume isn't too much or too little. That is the one thing that has REALLY put me off trying before[/quote]
Yeah, that bugged me for a while, too - it took a little time upfront to work that out. Here's how I solved it:
- Record something, using Audacity. Use it to normalize the audio, to correct DC offset (the #1 reason do-it-yourself digitizing sounds weird) and to reduce noise. (The normalization and DC offset are both part of the same process; the noise reduction is a two-parter, where you sample a part of the recording that only contains noise, then use that sample to clean out the noise wherever it appears.)
- Burn that to CD.
- Play back the CD through the amp you played your record through. It should sound the same. After noise reduction, it might even sound better. (Don't worry about levels - that's next.)
- If it doesn't sound the same, use Audacity on your sound file to change the EQ settings, and remember those.
- When you figure out what the EQ settings are, use them from that point forward. Every bit of vinyl you record from then on will sound just like the original bit of vinyl.
- Now, just start recording stuff and saving it to high-quality MP3 (I use 256Kb.)
Now here's the nice part, once you've made an MP3 out of your vinyl: there's a free tool out there called MP3Gain that will make sure that all your MP3 files have roughly the same loudness (within 1.5db.) It does this by using a feature in MP3 that lets it change the sound file's volume without uncompressing and recompressing (which affects its quality.) Note that I said "loudness" - this is the level you hear it at, rather than the level of the loudest thing in the file. It makes a big difference, and it's why everything on Altrok Radio sounds about as loud as everything else on the stream.
Anyone have other tips?
-Sean
Altrok Radio
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