Thread: Ripping From Vinyl ... The What.cd Tutorial

If something like this already exists, feel free to delete ... but peepz still ask Q's

I left out the equipment required part, as i figure y'all have decks, amps, leads etc ... aaand i appreciate that to some of you this will be grandma and suck eggs time

PC
Most any PC should work fine for this. You'll need lots of disk space (you should have a minimum of 10GB free before attempting a capture), but the performance requirements are not particularly high. USB will use the most processing power, and has the most risk of audio dropouts.

Setup
Your signal chain should be fairly obvious. You will need to connect components such that the signal goes from Turntable -> Phono Preamp -> PC. In most cases this will be simple to achieve, but I will give a few pointers. If you're using a receiver or integrated amplifier as your phono preamp, it probably has a 'tape monitor' or 'preamp' output. You should use this output to connect to your PC, but you may need to enable the tape monitor feature on the amplifier as well. On professional sound cards, the inputs are often not labeled specifically for left or right; generally you would connect the left (white/black) channel to the first input and right to the second. On consumer level cards there is often a mic input as well as a line input. Use the line input only, the mic input is not appropriate for this use.

Recording
I recommend using Audacity as your capture software. It's simple and fairly foolproof, and free open source software. If you'd prefer, there are many suitable applications such as Adobe Audition. This guide was written against Audacity 1.2.6.

Configuration
First we will configure Audacity for 24/96KHz capture with the correct audio device.

-Edit/Preferences
-Audio I/O tab
On this tab, make sure the correct capture device is selected under 'Recording', the brand and model should be listed here. You might also want to change the Playback device so you can monitor the recording, the default 'Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output' device will play back to your normal windows sound device. Choose 'Software Playthrough' if you'd like to monitor the output while recording.
-Quality tab
On this tab, follow the settings in the screenshot below. If your sound card is capable of it, you may select 'Other' for the Default Sample Rate, and type 192000 in the box for 192KHz capture.



-File Formats tab
On this tab, you must select 'Other' for the 'Uncompressed Export Format' option; this will give you a box to choose the encoding. Select WAV and 'Singed 24bit PCM' for the encoding. The other options don't matter for this guide.



-Directories tab
If you need Audacity to use a different hard drive during capture, you can change it here.

Restart Audacity after making these changes.

You will also need to configure your sound card itself for the desired sample rate. Usually this is accomplished through a driver control panel for your sound card. It should match the setting you set in Audacity. If you have an option for 'Internal' or 'External' clock (Master/Slave is a term also used, you want Master), you want to choose Internal here.

Record Preparation
It is a good idea to purchase a quality record cleaner and clean your records just before capturing them, and to use the dust cover on your turntable. Even the smallest speck of dust will be audible in a recording; the less dust the better. I don't have any specific recommendations here, but I highly recommend you do some research and purchase a good cleaner.

Also, if at all possible, use records that haven't been played much and that have no visible scratches. Wear is a problem as the vinyl is only good for a certain number of plays before it starts to wear down affecting the quality. Obvious scratches will cause lots of loud pops that are difficult to remove nicely and obviously ruin quality. If you don't have a record in good condition, it's not worth the trouble of recording it.

Capture Preparation
We will first be making a test recording to set levels and make sure everything is working properly, so get everything set up, turned on, and put your record on the turntable. Get it fired up and playing.

To start recording, press the record button in Audacity (red circle), and you should see the waveform being recorded as well as the VU meters at the top jumping around. Now we need to set the levels to ensure there isn't any clipping. The screenshot below shows what the VU meter looks like during recording, with a properly adjusted level (though a bit low).



You should aim for peaks reaching about 75% of the maximum level (the peaks are represented on the VU meter with an extra line showing the highest the signal's been in recent time). Try to play the loudest part of the record while you adjust to make sure it's not going to start clipping halfway through and force you to rerecord.

How you actually adjust the levels depends on the sound card you have. Most external cards will have a knob attached to each input that adjusts the level (as well as an LED-based VU meter) - the best setting for these is at their maximum, minimum or at any spot where there's a detent, as long as this puts the signal at a proper level. It's difficult to match them otherwise between the left and right channels, and the balance of the recording might be off if you adjust them.

If you've got an internal card, the driver control panel should provide a level adjustment slider for the inputs. Make you're not just adjusting the output or one of the S/PDIF channels as they can sometimes be confusing. You want to make sure the 'stereo link' is enabled to adjust the channels at the same time. Most drivers will show a VU meter on this panel as well which you can use in addition to the Audacity VU meter.

The level itself is not critical, but it should be at least 50% of the maximum and should never approach 100% at any time.

Once you've got the levels set, stop the Audacity recording and listen to the few minutes of audio you should've recorded. Make sure it sounds good (don't worry if it sounds a bit quiet) and listen for any audio dropouts (there shouldn't be any).

Capture
Finally! Everything is set up and it's time to capture a side. This part is easy.

Create a new project in Audacity and discard your old test one. Stop your turntable.

Now we're ready to start, so press record (red circle) in Audacity and then start the turntable and place the needle in the lead-in area. You shouldn't listen while recording, as the vibrations from speakers can be a contributor to distortion, though if you'd like to monitor on headphones I recommend this.

Once the side is complete, stop Audacity and the turntable. We'll do a side at a time in the guide, once you're done one side, go back and repeat from the Capture step.

Track Splitting

The first thing we're going to do after capturing the audio is to split it into tracks and proof it for quality. Just start playing the audio from the very beginning. When you reach the start of the first track, stop playback and move the playhead (just click in the waveform window) to just before this point. You'll have to use your judgement where to place the track break. Press Ctrl-B (or Project->Add Label At Selection) to create a new label. Your cursor will be in the 'title' for the label at this point, so just start typing the name of the song. Once you've got the label made, press play again and make sure you've got the label in the correct spot and also listen to the track for any problems. Continue for all the other tracks on the side.

Once you've got labels created and properly positioned for all the tracks, we will amplify the signal to a normal level. Select the entire waveform (Ctrl-A or Edit->Select->All) and then choose Effect->Amplify. This will automatically set itself for 0dB maximum output, which is close to what we want. If you see the Amplification (dB) box shows 0.0, you have clipped the input during recording and you'll need to do it over with a lower level. Otherwise, type -0.1 into the 'New Peak Amplitude' box and press OK. It may take a moment, and you should see the waveform become larger.

Now we'll export to WAV files for encoding. Choose File->Export Multiple... and the following dialog appears. Note that unless you check the box and type a name in the box, audio before the first label will be lost - so make sure you labeled the first track.



Post Processing
Okay, the title says 'Complete', but this is one thing I'm not going to go into here. It involves removing clicks and pops, and possibly noise. The problem is that if you've followed the steps up until now, you should have a good quality recording with little noise and rumble that would be easily removed by an automated script. You will need to go through the recording by hand and remove each individual random click or pop. This can be done in Audacity by selecting the problem area and choosing Effect->Click Removal... You can find more detail on this technique at the Audacity wiki.

I do not recommend using the noise removal plugin as many other guides recommend. If you've followed the equipment guidelines and have a reasonable quality setup, the constant noise should be very low. This plugin is not appropriate for removing small vinyl noise which is almost impossible to get rid of. If you've cleaned the record well and the recording is still noisy and fully of pops, chances are that the record itself is just in poor condition and not worth capturing. Please just remove problem clicks and pops as necessary, and try to apply as little processing as possible to your recording.

If you choose to apply post processing, do it before the 'Amplify' step in the previous section.

Encoding
The easiest way is probably using this FLAC frontend and the FLAC binary

Download FLAC frontend 1.7 (30 kb, freeware)

(The FLAC codec is not included. Download from the FLAC website.)

If you get an error when you try to run the frontend, you need one of the following files (the error message indicates which one):

* Visual Basic 6 Runtime files
* mscomctl.ocx

props to error404 for the original tut

For converting FLAC to MP3, there are loads of apps that do it well, but my personal fav is dbpoweramp

get a full version of dbpoweramp here

whilst most of you appear to prefer 320 rips for MP3's, i personally believe that V0 VBR is the best quality MP3 to rip from your FLACS ... but each to their own

I hope this helps

surprised this hasn't had any replies, in fact i only saw it before writing my own in a similar vain.

some wise words here, but in case it's overly long winded for those with questions here's a brief version....

Check the levels of the tune you want to rip using your mixers meter.
Make sure you never go past 0db. ie. nothing but green lights, especially at peaks in the track.
Adjust your mixer record out (or main out if that's what you're using to send to your recording device) so that it too is only giving out 0db max, nothing but green lights.
I find "Red Light Sounds Shite" is the best possible rule of thumb here
If you're recording software allows you to adjust the input/record volume then adjust that so you peak at around 80-90% volume, never any more as you will clip samples and end up with a distorted recording.
Now record your tune and save it as a wav (or whatever format you want). You should have a nice clean recording.
If you hit red or orange on the levels at any time during the recording process stop and start again after adjusting your gains etc.

in addition to the above I do the following for all my rips.

I do all the above but I also top and tail the waveform so there is no silence at the start and end.
I then split the stereo waveform into individual tracks and use the analyze function of my editor to find out the max peak output for the track.
I then amplify the specific track by the minus amount from the analyze result to bring that track peak up to 0dB. (This is not the same as normalising a track which drags the average peak up to where you want it.)
I then repeat for the other track. Doing this to the tracks individually compensates for the slight balance offset that cartridges put over the sound. I shant bore you with the physics of centrifugal forces and the effect they have on sound transfer to the needle.
Next I rejoin the 2 seperate tracks to 1 stereo track and save it as a wav (or whatever format you want).
My editor (Amadeus) allows me to add the ID3 tags to the wav so I do that pre-save as it saves me having to do it later in Serato/iTunes.

The real important thing to keep in mind is that a vinyl rip is never going to be as loud as your original vinyl or a cd rip - They have been mastered prior to pressing and you will never get the same result from a rip. But what you're after is the cleanest possible recording with the smallest signal/noise ratio you can achieve. A clean rip can be played loud without distorting, one that has been normalised or boosted so that samples are clipping all over the shop may sound nice and loud and look HUGE in the wave editor, but once you play em at any volume they will sound utter poo.

Anyhoo, hope that helps if anyone is looking to improve the quality of their rips

Some very good pointers there Haze

also, if your rip contains any vinyl pops use the pencil tool to re-draw the waveform

Good stuff I already knew but I did learn some other things. I also have a question. My set up is as follows

Turntable>AMP>PC.

Now I have it set set up correct and its fine but you said about "Tape Monitor" When I rip vinyl I have to select "Phono" on the amp but there is also another button next to it that says "Tape Monitor" Its not a small button you can turn on and off If I press it, it switchs from "phono" to "tape monitor" so what should I do? Use Phono or Tape Monitor?

i'm assuming that's a regular hi-fi amp?

i also assume you've got your turntable connected to the phono in of the amp and the pc connected to the tape out, right?

if memory serves the tape monitor allows you to hear what's being recorded, whilst not changing the recording source. so if you were to be recording from a phono source you could hit "tape monitor" to hear the exact recording volume without stopping the recording. to do that though you'd have to have an audio connection from your pc back to the tape in of your amp.

the whole tape monitoring thing is a thing from the past and as your pc software will also have a monitoring function i'd use that instead of adding more cables and potential problems by hitting tape monitoring...

Thanks Haze

My amp is an old thing, Yamaha DSP A592 Not sure what year but I'd love to find out. I still have the manual and remote for it. Actually Haze whats the button next to the tape monitor for, It says 2ch/6ch?

746_1.jpg
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746_2.jpg
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When the TV/DBS or DVD/LD input source is selected, pressing this button switches the input signals between 2 channel stereo signals and 6 channel discrete signals. When switched to "6CH", discrete signals from the unit connected to the 6CH DISCRETE INPUT DVD/LD TV/DBS terminals of this unit are selected as the input signals....apparently

Cheers for this guide/info, someone else was asking about this stuff so ive posted it there elsewere

this is really helpfull thankyou, I will try this out soon

Thanks for this guide Oothe

I'm getting some tips for ripping tapes using Audacity

I think this guide should be a sticky personally

The word "clipping". How can you tell it's clipping during a record?

I'm using Audacity and does it mean clipping if the waveform goes over the grey bits?

clip1.jpg
If the meters at the top are full it is clipping, also if the waveform on either channel is touching the side it is also clipping.


when you are ripping it should look something like this
clip2.jpg


after ripping if it has not clipped you should be able to amplify the sound. Select all & amplify.
clip3.jpg
If it says 0.0 in the box where it says 'amplification (dB):' it has clipped so you need to turn the volume down & re-start.

Where it says 'New 'Peak Amplitude (db):' type in -0.1 & click OK. You will probably also have to split the 2 stereo channels & amplify them seperately as one side is usually louder than the other.

Cheers Phizz!

That's simplicity at it's best...I now understand!

Originally Posted by Curly

The word "clipping". How can you tell it's clipping during a record?

I'm using Audacity and does it mean clipping if the waveform goes over the grey bits?

If you click on the 'View' control tab there is a tool which says 'Show Clipping' which you can activate with a tick. Once activated it will highlight any clipping in the recording as a red vertical line in the Waveform. This has proven essential in my recordings as it lets you know right away when you need to abandon the recording to bump the volume down a bit. It can also be handy for indicating where a 'pop' is as they tend to come up louder than the original recording. And if that happens all you need to do is finish recording, magnify the pop, which should show up as a spike, and copy & paste a section from a clean part of the Waveform (i.e. if pop is in a quiet bit, copy a section of the same level. If the pop's in a louder section it can be a bit trickier, but once you've been recording for a while you can recognize areas which will match and disguise pops and crackles - the trick is to copy, paste the play back the offending area until it's copletely fixed).