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Recording Software for LP to MacBook Pro


CraigN

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I plan to record some of my LP collection from Simaudio phono preamp to Benchmark ADC to MacBook Pro using Apple Lossless. Does anyone have suggestions for the best software to use for recording and for minimizing LP surface noise on digital copies? Thanks.

 

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Hi Craig - Sonic Studio is working on some really neat stuff in this area. I'm not sure if it's totally ready yet, but I know they were automating the process as much as possible.

 

I know of a few others but I have no direct experience with them so I can't really recommend them. I don't want to lead you down the wrong path. I'm sure others will jump in here with some good stuff.

 

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Hello,

I tried a number of alternatives, Bias LE (down samples files from 24/96 to 16/44 when you import to iTunes), plus it has bugs when recording LP's, which may or may not be resolved with the full version (good money after bad?).

I settled on Sound Studio, it's simple to use, isn't flakey and it's inexpensive. Plus it offers a fully working trial version unlike the others.

 

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I started out recording using Peak LE, and went on to buy the full version largely because of its excellent performance on sample rate conversion (I record at 24/192 for archive, and produce down-sampled versions at 24/96 and 16/44.1).

I looked at various pieces of software that have scratch removal / repair capability (including Pure Vinyl) but found there were many occasions when my clicks defeated the software, so now I use the waveform edit facility in Peak Pro which can cope with anything. OK it is time consuming but the results are worth the effort.

 

David

 

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  • 7 months later...

I've been using Peak LE without complaint for a number of LPs. I record 96/24 AIFF and import it into iTunes without conversion (storage is so cheap now).

 

If you bounce songs individually (instead of as a playlist) you can do it at 96/24 instead of being forced to use 96/16 when you do it as an iTunes playlist. A bit more work but I use it as the time to put the titles on each song so it isn't too much extra effort. I talked to Peak and they acknowledged it was a bug but not sure when they will address it.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/waveeditor/

 

they also use the best downsampling mechanism iZotope. see detailed software comparison here:

http://src.infinitewave.ca/

 

I must say I never heard such a transparent and natural sound, so much close to LP original, even being down-sampled to CD from original hi-res...

 

read manual carefully, it required some time. make sure to do MBIT dither first, then re-sample with the best quality.

 

they offer full working free trial for 2 weeks.

 

enjoy!

 

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As a registered owner of both, bought for somewhat different purposes, I can recommend either, with the caveat that if you want to do RIAA in the digital domain then Pure Vinyl is your tool; if not, based on price and the included iZotrope SRC and dithering, I'd recommend Wave Editor. ESPECIALLY if you want to make CD sample rate compatible output, go with WE. In both cases I'd recommend staying with 24/176.4 though.

 

WE is a very useful program, use it for capture of high sample rate digital from a modified SACD player, and I'm frankly looking forward to the eventual release this year (hopefully) of Twilight (also from Audiofile Engineering).

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I really like wave editor and to record and edit it is the better of the programs I have used. Bias LE was not as clean sounding but did seem to add a nice presence on rock LP transfers. In the end, after you establish a workflow, WE is the best sonic to dollars program out there.

 

Just a tip to those that use WE if you are recording whole LPs in a single record session. You can use the threshold feature in processor to divide tracks.

 

I wanted so much to like the Pure Vinyl program but could not get past the unforgivably bad interface.

 

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you can produce pretty stunning results and create something that almost sounds like it was not created from an LP but with the awesome mastering some of these LPs have.

 

I record into WE then edit out all space leading up to the first note of each song, then insert 3 seconds of silence then fade the end of each track into the silence (I really like the cubic slow fade for this). I then use the analyze tool to see how much headroom I have and add gain to about .5db of the highest peak (providing it was not a tick or pop). After everything is done I then SRC to 96 or 44 from 192 then dither if I am burning a cd.

 

Peak LE also does a good job of slicing tracks but was more expensive and did not sound as good to me.

 

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yes SRC first then dither this is called out in the WE workflow in the manual under mastering.

 

Rather than export I copy and paste because export appears to make you use flac, alac ogg.. and did not offer an AIFF option. So I create regions then highlight>copy>command n (creates new fie}> paste> save as to a folder named for the LP. Then I import to the itunes library using the add feature in itunes.

 

I then have to highlight all songs in the folder in itunes and add artist, lp name, gear used for the drop in comments, then go back and number the tracks.

 

Sounds like a pita but I've got the process to about 45 minutes to record then maybe an hour to edit and get them into itunes. The results are very nice.

 

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