i want to rip my vinyl collection to mp3 but am having a few probs.
i have ripped some without any probs its just knowing where to go after the initial rip and what format to rip to really.
what settings should i be using eg. uncompressed export format?
most rips have some crackling which id expect but i would like to try and clean this up but am unsure what format to export with to do this.
i only want mp3’s to store on my pc, so can i clean up my rips in mp3 format? or would it need to be something else like 16bit wav?
default sample format? 16 or 24? any higher and i get a strange muffled like recording like the treble has been cut or highly compressed
default sample rate? currently using 44100hz is this ok?
sorry bout all the questions, just need a little bit of advice to get me going
It is better to do you editing in audacity befor exporting your projects. Exporting as WAV or MP3 should be the last thing you do. I use Audacity to manually repair the clicks & pops from my LPs - in 1.3.x the team have added and excellent “Repair” effect. I have never had much joy with Audacity’s Click Removal tool.
44.1kHz / 16 bit is the CD standard and is a good setting for Audacity - especially if you want to create CDs from the files exported from your projects.
CORRECTION: record at 44.1kHz 32-bit sampling and then export your recordings at 44.1kHz 16-bit.
You may want to consider exporting to WAV as well as MP3 when you export your projects. I do this and use my MP3s on my iPod and PC - the WAV’s I carefully store on my external USB discs (2 copies) as backup: they can later be re-imported into Adacity for further editing if required - and I also keep the WAVs against the time in the future when discs (or whatever other new storage media) are so large that all my WAVS will fit on an iPOD. Don’t forget that onec you’ve expoted to WAV files you can then delete the Audacity projects to free up space on your disc.
Is the .au file really the best file format for editing?
Before i became an Audacity user i did all my general and painstaking editing with Cool Edit Pro. I’d save a file in .wav format and edit it in .wav, then (like you) archive the uncompressed file. That done, i’d save file as mp3.
It could take me some time to figure out which editor and file is best for editing? Do you have any input?
Also: I put together two MS ME PCs and am using it for my audio ripping. I got and Audigy 2 sound card, upgraded the processor and the RAM. I turn down volume on all input to the sound card other than the Audacity (record) line in. So far so good.
Thing is, just clicking record in Audacity and i am recording a bit of persistent static and clicking and popping.
I upped the gain about 6db while recording and the noise gets crowded out, but (like you) i’d prefer to not have to use the filters unless absolutely necessary - and then, only sparingly!
What’s your take on the noise, best way to troubleshoot it or record around it? I suppose i could keep increasing the gain until just below the clipping threshold…
It’s not whether .au/.aup is the best fir editing - they are the application specific file format that Audacity uses - so what your’e asking is Audacity the best sound editor. IMHO Audacity is the best “free” audio editor that is currently available. There are many other audio editors oot there and some you can pay $$$ for - so " you pay’s your money and you takes your choice" as we say in England. I have no experience of paid for editors - but I guess that some or all of them will have features that Audacity does not have.
Sorry I can’t comment on the clicking poppoing there are others on this forum with more experience - but common advice seems to be to make sure that your sound card drivers are updated to the latest version - and to reduce all other activity (including background tasks like virus checkes) while you are using Audacity.
BTW is the Audigy sound card inserted in your PC? If so then you would almost certainly get better results with an external soundcard - I myself use an Edirol UA-1EX with good results and the cheaper Behringer also gets good mentions on this forum.
The Creative Audigy cards have pretty high quality outputs, but their inputs are of mediocre quality. This is probably the source of the noise. I used to use one and it was pretty bad, then I upgraded to a Turtle Beach card for a few years and it was better. But now I use an M-Audio card and the noise is almost completely gone.
Contrary to what Waxcylinder said, I don’t think there is a fundamental problem with using an internal PCI card, as opposed to an external FireWire/USB card. I think the average external device is likely to be a newer design and that explains why they are often of higher quality than the average PCI card.
the other advantage of an external soundcard is that it is removed from the notoriously elecrically noisy interior of a PC (especially laptops) - though it’s still worth being a bit careful where you place it.
You also get easy portability between machines - which can be a good advantage for some folks.
While you’re right about the interior of a PC case being electrically noisy, the good news is that the noise inside of a PC case is of much higher frequency than the Audio spectrum. So noise is basically a non-issue.
There are fantastic PCI cards and there are fantastic FireWire/USB cards. There are also mediocre cards from all formats.
Keep in mind though, that USB does have a lower bandwidth than FireWire, so if you need more than a few inputs, you’ll almost certainly have to go with FireWire.
The real advantage to using FireWire/USB is exactly what waxcylinder said, portability. The advantage of PCI cards is lower price for the same audio performance and proven technology.
As long as you don’t have a laptop, the questions you need to ask before choosing between the two formats go in this order: How many I/O do I need? Am I going to be using this with other computers? And how much am I going to spend?
In the case of you owning a laptop, it seems stupid to me to go with a PCMCIA card over FireWire/USB. The superiority of FireWire/USB is much more clear cut in this case.
If you want advice on specific cards, just ask (and provide a link, please).
