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How to Clean and Convert LPs to MP3's
Record Clean Compress Store
Have you lots of albums that you never get to listen to, because they are
awkward and delicate, or uncomfortable to listen to, because of pops, jumps or
scratches. Me too!
After some searching and experimentation, I find this solution the simplest,
and the quality these shareware programs combined produce at the end is
impressive.
You will need:
I hi-fi with turntable.
1 Huge stack of old vinyls(!)
1 PC with a wavetable sound card and a reasonable processor. (I have a Celeron
500)
1
Copy Of Cool Edit 2000.(free to try, $39- $69 registration)
1 Copy of
Pop-Fix.(free to try, $25 registration)
1 Copy of WavClean.(free to try, $20
registration)
1 Copy Of Audio
Catalyst. (free to try, $29.95 registration)
1 Copy of
Winamp.(Free!)
20-40 megabytes space per album (depending on MP3 bit rate)
Lots of time. (unlike CD-Ripping, LP Conversion has to happen in real time)
1. Set up your hi-fi so that it feeds into the line-in socket on the back of
your PC. Do not feed directly from the turntable, as the results will be tinny
and very distorted. Do not feed into the microphone socket, as this has an
entirely different watt setting, and you could blow your sound card or
motherboard. At the very least, it will not sound nice.
2. Clean chosen album with an alcohol record/CD cleaner. Put album on deck.
3. Open Cool
Edit.
4. Press record on Cool Edit. (Not the LP, the button!)
5. Cue in track on deck.
6. Press O.K on Cool Edit.
7. Record for about 15 seconds, then stop and check graph. If the graph
appears truncated, or if the sound is distorted, then turn volume down a
corresponding amount on the hi-fi. (this should need doing just once per album)
Do not turn it down too much either, as this will result in hiss that will take
a lot of time to shift.
8. Record track.
9. Clip beginning and end of track to desired amount, and edit any jumps.
10. Filter track through Pop-Fix. If the
initial pops are high then feed through again until the pops found are in low
tens or single figures. (Sometimes pops and crackles hide below each other), and
then, if necessary, WavClean. Be VERY careful with
Wavclean settings, as the track can end up sounding muffled. Both Pop-fix
Wavclean and Cooledit can have several windows open at once, but it's best not
to have too many open at once, as this can compromise the quality of your work.
11. Use Audio
Catalyst to convert track to MP3 format. ( personally, I cannot detect any
difference between 22hz 56kbs and higher bit rate settings. Using 22hz can
greatly reduce amount of disk space required. if you feel this setting is
satisfactory, it appears to be the thinking person's choice.)
12. Open Winamp.
13. Play new MP3 track!
14. Repeat with all further tracks required.
I take a track at a time, because the processing of a whole album side in
cool edit really takes a while, and is not as accurate in Pop-fix as smaller
sections.
Clearly, this process is also applicable to any cassettes, cartridges,
radios, or wax cylinders you have about.
Other programs that may be useful include:
Cool
Decode, To convert to MP3, and back to wav.
Dart
32, a complete clean up and conversion suite.
DePopper, a complete clean up
and optimise utility.
BACK TO Optimise 98SE to ME
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Comments or queries to Andrew here. If you have
any problems specific to a program, please direct it to the writers of that
software.