dacs.doc electric

Would you like to record your favorite old LP's and analog tapes to your computer for use in Digital Music Library? Once recorded and added to hard drives music library you can also make audio CDs for playback in your car stereo as well as data CD's to back up and archive your original analog recordings. This involves recording the LP or tape to the computer's hard drive using a stand alone software wave editing program such as Voyetra's AudioSurgeon™, Sonic Foundry 's SoundForge™ Studio 6.0, or Cool Edit 2000 and your soundcard's line input. Several Media Player software packages also offer the ability to record analog sources as part of their built-in programs. MusicMatch JukeBox and Cakewalk Pyro are two packages that offer this capability. If you want to try your hand at Noise Reduction, Cool Edit and SoundForge professional packages offer the greatest assortment of tools, albeit at a higher cost.

Before you dive right into this, be aware it takes time and effort. For that reason I suggest you confine yourself to:

• Personal recordings on tape - old bands, your kids first laugh, etc.
• Tape recordings of special events from the radio / TV - that 1966 live concert you taped on your old Dokorder Reel to Reel etc.
• Vinyl Records no longer in print - You looked but there is just no CD available.
  I'd work through your collection in that order as well, as tape is the most fragile of all the mediums.
  The free version of AudioSurgeon can be found by browsing to:
  http://www.voyetra.com -> Support -> FTP File download -> AudioSurgeon 5, or by going directly to ftp://ftp.voyetra.com/pub/voy/asurgeon/asurgeon.exe

To record an analog tape (or other analog source) to your hard drive you'll need:

• Analog source material and a device capable of playing the material. Use the best equipment you have for playback. For example, if you can choose between a Sony Walkman portable player and a Sony component cassette deck, use the component cassette deck.
• A cable to connect the cassette deck to the computer soundcard. The two most often used are 1/8" stereo phone plug to 1/8" stereo phone plug and 1/8" stereo phone plug to dual RCA plugs. Examples from the Radio Shack catalog (Figure 1):

• A software audio recording program such as AudioSurgeon.
• Sufficient hard disk space to record the selection. A ballpark calculation is multiply each minute of stereo CD quality by 10mbs. So a 3 minute song will take 30 mbs and a 30 minute tape will use 300mbs of hard disk space. Make sure that you have at least double the required space available on your hard drive so that you have sufficient room to perform edits.

What quality should I expect?

The first goal of transcribing an analog medium to digital format is to preserve the best possible copy of the analog source. If your audio tape has hiss, you will be recording the hiss in the digital file. Likewise, on a vinyl record, you will be recording all the pops and crackles that exist on the original record. While all the programs I suggest below do have tools to remove pops and crackles as well as tape hiss, 60 cycle hum, etc. you should always save a pure unfiltered recording of the original. This becomes your MASTER recording and you should cut this to CD and label the CD as a MASTER. Later, you can bring the pure file back into your computer and try the various tools for removing unwanted noise. If you find, as I do, that removing the noise also removes too much of the original high frequencies (such as cymbals), you still have the original digital recording to return to and you can try again, or like me, decide to live with the noise. If your goal is to produce a better sounding copy of the original, be prepared for a lot of experimentation with the filters and transforms available.

What preparations should I take before recording the original source material?

Remember the old adage - "Garbage In - Garbage Out". That being said, there are some simple common sense techniques you can use to achieve the highest possible fidelity on your old analog mediums. Below are some of my tips for getting the most out of your analog recordings.

Vinyl Records:

• Get them clean! A diluted solution of soupy water and a soft chamois cloth can be used to gently wash away the years of accumulated dirt and grime from a vinyl records surface. Remember, less is better. Don't rub too hard and don't use too much soap. Allow the record to air dry completely, and DO NOT let it dry in the sun! Another technique is to use the record cleaning solutions and soft brushes still available in audio stores and Radio Shack.
• Clean or replace your phono cartridge stylus! There are soft brushes available, but you can also use a camels hair brush such as the ones women use to apply makeup. Remove the cartridge from the tone-arm and turn it over so that the needle is pointing up. Gently stroke the brush towards the front of the cartridge only. This is very important. NEVER stroke the needle in the direction of its stem. You WILL bend the needle stem if you do!
• Clean your turntable mat with an anti-static solution safe for rubber and / or vinyl.
• Insure that your turntables belts are in good condition and if your turntable has an adjustment for fine tuning the speed, make sure that it is adjusted properly for the speed of the records you wish to record.
• Adjust and balance your tone arm to the recommended weight specified by the cartridge manufacturer. Adjust the anti-skating mechanism on your tone-arm to the manufacturers specs.
• If your records have known skips, you can temporarily overcome the skipping by increasing the tone-arm weight. You can do this by adding weight a ½ gram at a time to the counterweight setting of the tone-arm or by placing a penny on top of the cartridge head if your tone arm cannot be adjusted.

Analog Tapes:

• Clean the tape heads with a Cue tip and head cleaning solution available at Radio Shack. Rubbing alcohol can be used in a pinch, but it does leave a slight film on the head.
• Clean the rubber rollers and capstan with a special cleaning solution for rubber surfaces. Alcohol will dry out rubber, so only use alcohol to clean rubber parts in an extreme emergency!
• De-magnetize the tape recorder heads using a specialized tape demagnetization tool. Keep the tool FAR away from any tapes!
• Fast forward and then rewind the tape before beginning the recording. Tapes stored for a long time can stick and this insures that the tape is freely moving inside the tape holder. As a side note - always store tapes vertically. Never store any tape, cassette, reel to reel or VHS on its side.

Special consideration for Reel to Reel Tapes:

• If you have reel to reel tapes you may want to purchase a new "take-up" reel to insure that you don't get the squealing noise produced when the tape rubs against the take-up reel.
• Reel to reel recorders also can have their heads adjusted up/down to insure that the stereo channels are properly tracked. To do this you need a specialized tape that produces the tones needed for adjustment. Ideally you would use an oscilloscope, but I have used my ears to make this adjustment. Tapes made on different machines may not track properly on the recorder you currently have. You can try to compensate for this by adjusting the heads for the tape. This begins to get very complex, and if the tape is something really special, you may want to consider having it transcribed for you by someone with the proper equipment.

How do I record analog tapes to my computer?

• Connect the Line Out of your Cassette Deck or Tape Monitor outputs of your stereo receiver or integrated amplifier to the stereo Line In on your soundcard using a 1/8th stereo phone plug to dual RCA jack audio cable (Figure 2). These cables are readily available at local audio or Radio Shack stores.

• Place your cassette tape in your tape players compartment and set your stereo's input selector to TAPE (the setting on your stereo may vary and could be labeled TAPE MONITOR or AUXILLARY).
• On the computer, open AudioSurgeon.
• Select the File menu and open a new file. Set the Sound selection to CD Quality —PCM 44.1kHz—16 bit stereo and press OK (figure 4).

• Press the Red Record button in AudioSurgeon. It will now flash indicating that you are in Record Standby mode.
• Open your sound card's mixer controls and select Line In as the recording source. If you are using the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz the mixer application should be set up as indicated in the screen-print (Figure 4).

Windows Mixer

NOTE: to use the Windows mixer click on Start ' Programs ' Accessories ' Entertainment ' Volume Control. When the Windows mixer opens click on Options - Properties ' Recording (figures 5-6).

• Leaving AudioSurgeon in Record Standby, begin playback of the LP or tape and adjust the mixer control until the mixer's (or AudioSurgeon's) LED's periodically activate the first red LED. You should play several minutes of audio from the analog source in order to assure that you have adjusted your level to accommodate both the loudest and softest passages of the material.
• Once you are satisfied with your recording levels, start the recording in AudioSurgeon by pressing the Red Record button again.
• Now start your source playback. You can edit out the blank space at the beginning of the track after the recording has completed.
• If you have sufficient hard disk space, you can record the whole side of the tape as one long continuous file. Alternately, you can also record one track at a time.
• The full version of AudioSurgeon includes the ability to place markers in the file to indicate the various tracks. If you record the whole side of a cassette tape or LP, you can search for the "silence" between tracks, and place markers to indicate where a new track begins. The full version will also allow you to burn a CD directly from the program and if you have inserted markers, the program will automatically burn the CD with a new track at each marker you have inserted. Be sure to select Disk at Once and check the box marked New Track at Markers (Figures 7-8).

Cakewalk Pyro

Cakewalk offers a combination media organizer and audio editor. Its recording features make it convenient to record vinyl or tapes, split long recordings into individual tracks, and perform basic noise reduction. Its use of the windows explore makes navigation easy to learn and it can ripp CD's and create data and audio CD's. If you don't expect to have a lot of material and like the idea of using Explorer rather than a distinct music library, it is a choice worth considering.
Figure 9 shows what recording analog looks like in this Pyro.

• Note how to find files from different artists I would have to navigate to multiple folders (figure 10-11).

MusicMatch Jukebox

MusicMatch does not have a audio editor or noise reduction transforms. You can record and set levels using your soundcard mixer.

Cool Feature - Delayed Recording works much like a VCR. When used in conjunction with Line In recording you can record, as an example, an interesting radio program scheduled for a time when you will not be near a radio.

Figure 12-13 show what it looks like in MMJB.

Recording a Vinyl Record

The output of a typical vinyl record turntable is extremely low and lacks the R.I.A.A. equalization compensation needed to restore bass frequencies to the vinyl recordings' output. When turntables were in use, a phono preamp was built into the preamplifier section of the receiver. With the advent of CD technology, many modern receivers lack a phono input. In such cases the soundcard's Line In will not "see" a hot enough signal to make a good recording and you will get a very "thin" sounding recording. A solution for this is to connect your turntable to a standalone phonograph preamplifier, available from many Internet audio accessory vendors (figure 14). Radio Shack stores are good local, although you may have to order it as many stores don't keep these in stock. You can order directly on-line from www.radioshack.com.

• If you use a phono preamp you will need to connect the IN to your turntable's output jacks and the OUT to your soundcard's Line In or you could connect the phono preamp to the Auxiliary IN of your stereo receiver and then connect the receivers Tape Out to your soundcard's Line In.
• Once you have the preamp connected, follow the steps for recording an analog tape.

Tip: If you record the whole side of a tape with SoundForge or Cool Edit, you can break it into individual tracks more efficiently by starting at the end of the file and working back until you see the first point of silence. Select / highlight the audio from the end until the first point of silence and use the cut command to remove it from the original. Now open a new 44.1 kHz - 16 bit file and paste the audio you cut into the new file. Name this file and save it. Now when you go back to the original, the file will end on the next to the last song. Continue the process until all the individual tracks have been cut and saved.

Archiving and adding your recordings to your Digital Library

I am going to assume that you are not going to try and de-hiss or de-pop your recordings, although I will give some tips on doing that in the next section. For now, lets assume that you are satisfied with having recorded the analog source to your hard drive and have cut it into tracks and created an audio CD of the tape or vinyl record.

After I make the audio CD in AudioSurgeon, I immediately place the CD back in the drive and let it open AudioStation and then go out to the GraceNote where typically it will not find any information on the CD you created. AudioStation, Pyro, and / or MusicMatch will list the tracks and time but leave the Artist, Album Title, and track titles blank. I enter the information and then submit it to the online service, so that any time I place that audio CD back in the drive, the online service returns the Artist, Album, and track titles I have entered. When I enter the Album name I also use the catalog number that is found on the vinyl records cover. Figures 15 and 16 provide an example:

In addition, now that I have cataloged the new CD with them, the information is ready to be placed in my ID3 tags when I ripp the CD in compressed format to my hard drive. I now print a CD cover listing the CD title, Artist, and track names and place the CD in a CD binder for safe keeping. I have the MP3 tracks on my hard drive to listen to or to compile another audio CD from. If you own a digital camera, you can also take a picture of the front and back cover of the album. With a little photo manipulation you can then add the photo to the ID3 tag of your MP3 files. I resize the photo down to 200 * 200 pixels for this.

Now my digital library also includes a photo of the original cover art as well as the recordings themselves.

So I now have an audio CD, and the tracks on the audio CD have been ripped in MP3 format with all the needed information to my digital library. But I still have the huge wave file on my hard drive. Unless you have unlimited hard drive storage you are going to want to remove this big file from your hard drive so you can repeat the process with another record or tape. Use Roxio Easy CD Creator, Nero, AudioStation or MusicMatch's DATA CD mode and create a data CD of the original wave file. If you did take the extra step of shooting a picture of the album cover, add the original photo to the data CD as well. Print a label and store it right next to the audio CD you created. This data CD can be used later if you want to try your hand at cleaning up the audio, but you'll never have to go through the tedious proves of recording the analog medium again.

Noise Reduction

We've covered a lot of ground in this article, and I have purposefully left out Noise Reduction as it is a very broad topic. AudioSurgeon and the other programs mentioned all have tools to try and eliminate pops and clicks as well as tape hiss. After you have saved the original file, go ahead and try them out on a copy of the saved file. Just remember never to change the original file, work with a copy so you don't inadvertently save the altered version and lose all your hard work!

Note: Be sure to attend the digital audio demo at January 7th General Meeting! I'll be showing the techniques covered in these articles at the January 7th DACS General Meeting, so give the techniques here a try and be sure to bring your questions.