I certainly can't compete with cliveb's excellent help page, but here's how I work (with a Mac).
The output from my Michell Gyro SE/Tecnoarm/G1042/Graham Slee Era V Gold phono stage goes into a Sugden Headmaster (for headphone listening) and then out to the amp. The pre-out from the Headmaster connects to an M-Audio Transit USB device that I connect to a MacBook running Audacity. I've taken to recording at 48Khz/24bit (so am only partially loony!). Once an LP has been captured - usually as one large wave file, I transfer this to a Mac Mini desktop running Apple's Soundtrack Pro. Being somewhat masochistic I do all the click removal manually by redrawing the samples - identifying visually the worst offenders. I'm not obsessive about surface noise - though in the past I have used DCart on a PC, with moderate success at times. Once the waveform is cleaned up, it's a simple - though time consuming process to cut and paste tracks to a new wave file, top and tail them (adding a fade in/out so surface noise ramps in and out) and save them before converting to Flac, tagging, and adding to Squeezecenter. I know there are tools that can automate some (or maybe all) of this, but I don't feel the need to use these . . Two things strike me as being really important: use the best quality source components you can afford, and when making the initial recording set the levels so the signal peaks just under 0db. If it's consistently over you'll get a "loudness wars" type result, and if too far under there'll be a need to "normalise" the waveform upwards; only do this on waves containing the complete LP or else you'll destroy the levels between tracks. I try not to normalise at all. As a very rough guide, the processing takes about twice as long as actually recording it - if there's only moderate click removal needed. Each LP-rip is a labour of love, and visitors hearing Flac playback of the files often don't believe they're from old-fashioned vinyl . . . -- morris_minor Living Room: Transporter Study: Receiver Kitchen: Boom Son's Bedroom: Classic iPeng on an iPhone, 2 x Controllers Server: TranquilPC T2-WHS-A3i SC 7.2.1 - 23630 - - - - http://www.last.fm/user/morris_minor_1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ morris_minor's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13950 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=65876 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
