Audacity Forum

Hi! I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this topic has already been covered or not, but here's my issue...

I've been recording my vinyl albums into Audacity using the Gemini USB Turntable. Recording with NO issues whatsoever. My issue has to do with the sound quality and editing...

Most of my vinyl records are in great quality, but I want the recordings to sound like they came from a CD, not vinyl... I've tried using the "Noise Reduction" tool, with little success. My recordings always get ugly after using it. Also, using the "Click Removal" tool doesn't seem to do anything either. Also, it seems like I always have to crank the Gain up to like + 9 DB.

Anyone have suggestions on how to get my vinyl recordings sounding tip top? Please help!!!

I hate to suggest a non-Audacity solution, but I'm a big fan of ClickRepair http://www.clickrepair.net/

As for Audacity's Noise Removal tool, you need to be gentle and experiment. Find a representative sample of the surface noise / hiss you want to remove and click "Get Noise Profile" in the Noise Removal dialog. Then select a minute or so spanning the area where you took the noise sample and bring up the Noise Removal dialog again. Accept the default settings, except try a "Noise Reduction (dB)" setting of 12 dB. That won't eliminate the noise but it will push it down far enough that you'd have to turn it up to the point where the loud passages would blow you out of the room. Listen and evaluate the result. 12 dB may be too much. If it's enough, leave it. Confusingly, the worse the noise is, the less you can reduce it without affecting the music. You may only be able to get away with 6 dB in some situations. At that point it's up to you to decide if it's worth the effort. After evaluating the noise reduction, Undo and either try again with a different noise reduction setting if you don't like the result, or select the entire LP side and apply the Noise Removal effect. Again, listen carefully to the result.

Cranking the gain 9 dB should not affect quality - the noise floor in Audacity is well below the noise floor of the LPs.

What cartridge did the Gemini turntable come with? How good are the pre-amps? Can you connect it to your stereo and listen to a well-recorded and well-pressed LP to evaluate the turntable and cartridge? You'll never get good results from Audacity if the source is not up to par.

There's a tutorial here http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... iscs_to_CD that gives some tips.

-- Bill