Vinyl To WAV and MP3 Album & Tracks

[William Morrison]

I am converting some 450+ vinyl albums to WAV and MP3 formats. I have purchased a 360gb external hard drive and a MP3 to stereo components connector/player (so I can play the MP3's through my current stereo system).

I am trying to preserve the album name and track order into the output. Recording is going wonderful. Editing out the pops, etceteras is going wonderful. Naming the tracks is very easy. Up to this point I would have to say that this software is perfect. I am able to export in both WAV and MP3 formats - both sides of the album in one shot. When I go to play the album the only thing that comes up on the play list is the name of the album - no track names. If I use the export multiple it breaks all of the tracks up into individual pieces - I am assuming that is what is supposed to happen. When I create a new file folder (the only option that I can see at this point) and copy the tracks into that folder the tracks are organized alphabetically and not in the original order as they were on the album - so I aborted that idea. I really would eventually like to have a means of selecting a song by title from an album (sort of like I do now when I put the platter on the turntable and move my tonearm over to the selection.

I hope I am making myself clear on this problem. Any and all help would be appreciated.

William Morrison

[waxcylinder]

I am converting some 450+ vinyl albums to WAV and MP3 formats. I have purchased a 360gb external hard drive and a MP3 to stereo components connector/player (so I can play the MP3's through my current stereo system).

I would recommend buying a second external hard drive so that you can have backup copies (of the WAVs as well as the MP3s) - you will be doing a lot of work, you don't really want to lose it all in a disk crash (and believe me they do happen - one of my 1TB disks failed last year

What hardware/software combination are you using to play the music files? I ask this becaues you will get better audio if you use WAV files rather than MP3 (which is a compressed lossy format) to play through your hi-fi.

If I use the export multiple it breaks all of the tracks up into individual pieces - I am assuming that is what is supposed to happen. When I create a new file folder (the only option that I can see at this point) and copy the tracks into that folder the tracks are organized alphabetically and not in the original order as they were on the album - so I aborted that idea.
William Morrison

Yes that is what Export Multiple is designed to do.

To facilitate correct ordering later I Label the tracks 01 <track_name_1>, 02 <track_name_2>, etc.). All the files for a particular album or show are placed in a specific named folder for that album/show.

I am converting some 450+ vinyl albums to WAV and MP3 formats.

Well that'll keep you busy for a while then

I spent around two and a half years on my vinyl collection of around 250 albums (the ones for which no CDs are commercially available) - and I've just started on my wife's similarly sized collection. My work-rate did improve a lot though once I became retired ...

WC

[William Morrison]

Thank you for presenting the obvious - numbering the tracks. I am ahead of you in the purchase of a second disk drive - I have three external drives. Two are held in my safe deposit box at the bank - they are my grandfathered backup. I do a complete disk backup once a week. Rotate in the newest and reuse the oldest. Old habit from being in computers since 1969.

I guess what I was hoping for was a play list that I could launch with a double click or an autoplay from the drive itself. I may get out my programmers hat and go to work on that. I thought that with inserting a label before each song that it would generate a new track for the library but that does not seem to be the case.

I am now going to export the labeled WAV file into MP3 and see if the labels remain and then see what I might be able to do with them.

Do you have any knowledge on the nuances of burning. I know that if I burn a music CD everything seems to work the way I want. Is it possible to burn to a hard drive? Or is this one of those things, as we use to say, give it a shot and see what happens. What I want is all of my music on a hard drive.

As far as the hardware goes, I have been looking at a Zune but that seems to have many shortcomings. However, it is getting more and more storage capacity and in the very near future it might be possible to get all of these albums on a single Zune. Right now I have been going out and seeing what is available. What I would like to do is have a player that could read the hard drive and then broadcast to my stereo system. Does that sound too ambitious, unreasonable or possible?

Thanks again for the input.

William Morrison

[waxcylinder]

Thank you for presenting the obvious - numbering the tracks. I am ahead of you in the purchase of a second disk drive - I have three external drives. Two are held in my safe deposit box at the bank - they are my grandfathered backup. I do a complete disk backup once a week. Rotate in the newest and reuse the oldest. Old habit from being in computers since 1969.

Snap - 1969 for me too (second generation IBM 1134 with discrete transistors on PCB's - sigh ... )
And that's where I acquired the backup habit too

I guess what I was hoping for was a play list that I could launch with a double click or an autoplay from the drive itself. I may get out my programmers hat and go to work on that. I thought that with inserting a label before each song that it would generate a new track for the library but that does not seem to be the case.

1) For hi-fi: there are various hi-fi hardware devices out there, some wireless some with onboard hard disk that will do this task when plumbed into your hi-fi amp
2) For computer jukebox: for this I use my iTunes library/libraries. You don't need to buy an iPod - you can download iTunes for free from Apple. Makes a great jukebox and is relatively easy to use. Can be set to either import the music files into an iTune library or to reference external files.

Do you have any knowledge on the nuances of burning. I know that if I burn a music CD everything seems to work the way I want. Is it possible to burn to a hard drive? Or is this one of those things, as we use to say, give it a shot and see what happens. What I want is all of my music on a hard drive

I don't understand why you want to "burn" to a hard drive - can you explain a bit more

As far as the hardware goes, I have been looking at a Zune but that seems to have many shortcomings. However, it is getting more and more storage capacity and in the very near future it might be possible to get all of these albums on a single Zune.

Have you thought about an iPod (unless you have a “religious” aversion to Apple). Plenty of disk space with the 160gb “Classic” models. You should easily get 450 albums on there in high bitrate AAC. AAC is a more modern compressor than MP3 and by all accounts gives better audio bitrate-for-bitrate than MP3. Using 256 or 320 VBR AAC you should be well satisfied with the audio quality from a portable player – you may even find it dood enough when plugged into your hi-fi. I make my AAC’s by importing the WAVs into iTunes and using iTunes to do the AAC conversion - see this sticky thread.: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 28&t=18759

Right now I have been going out and seeing what is available. What I would like to do is have a player that could read the hard drive and then broadcast to my stereo system. Does that sound too ambitious, unreasonable or possible?

Yes there are such hi-fi devices available – you will need to look for the wireless devices. For me, the disadvantage is that you will need to keep the PC or server on that serves the hard disk with your music. My preference would be to look at one of the devices that has a hard disk onboard – some of these are now offering 1TB or 1.5Tb disks (big enough to hold WAV files of your 450 albums)

WC

[ricardotheeagle]

Hi William,
You are far ahead of me, so I hope you don't mind me asking a dumb question!
I have hundreds of cassettes and vinyl lp's and have successfully copied a few into my computer and then onto cd's.
(I don't have an ipod yet but it is on my Christmas list!) They play fine but the problem is that the albums show as one track when I play them on my cd player or via windows media player. Therefore, I cannot skip to the next track, or select one, if I want to. I tried naming the tracks via "project" - add label, etc, on audacity but this hasn't worked for me. I have spent many hours trying to sort this and I assumed that there must be a way. Your messages also indicate that there is. Would you mind helping me? Thanks, Richard

[steve]

the problem is that the albums show as one track when I play them on my cd player or via windows media player.

See here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Split ... ate_tracks

[waxcylinder]

And also you might like a read of this set of tutorials from the 1.3 manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... iscs_to_CD

I would also recommend that you upgrade to 1.3.12 the latest Beta. Don't worry about the "Beta-ness" 1.3 is now a very mature Beta and it's only a couple of troublesome bugs that you are very unlikely to fall foul of ythat prevent it becoming a major release. It has many new features that you will find useful for the what you are undertaking (e.g. much improved label handling).

You can get 1.3 from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

WC

[harrybroom]

I am converting some 450+ vinyl albums to WAV and MP3 formats. I have purchased a 360gb external hard drive and a MP3 to stereo components connector/player (so I can play the MP3's through my current stereo system).

I am trying to preserve the album name and track order into the output. Recording is going wonderful. Editing out the pops, etceteras is going wonderful. Naming the tracks is very easy. Up to this point I would have to say that this software is perfect. I am able to export in both WAV and MP3 formats - both sides of the album in one shot. When I go to play the album the only thing that comes up on the play list is the name of the album - no track names. If I use the export multiple it breaks all of the tracks up into individual pieces - I am assuming that is what is supposed to happen. When I create a new file folder (the only option that I can see at this point) and copy the tracks into that folder the tracks are organized alphabetically and not in the original order as they were on the album - so I aborted that idea. I really would eventually like to have a means of selecting a song by title from an album (sort of like I do now when I put the platter on the turntable and move my tonearm over to the selection.

I hope I am making myself clear on this problem. Any and all help would be appreciated.

William Morrison

Hi William
I noticed this mainly because of waxcylinders reply today & the fact that I'm in the middle of a similar exercise, albeit coming from a different angle. It also happens that I'm a recently retired ex IT pro too! Regarding the tagging of the track sequence of individual files, I think I'm right in saying that both Windows media Player & Real Player will allow you to add this info to the file under properties. If you'd like more info on the tag methodology follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3
Personally I'm going for a JB7 (brennan) juke box at the moment it happens to fit my needs. Good Luck.

[waxcylinder]

Personally I'm going for a JB7 (brennan) juke box at the moment it happens to fit my needs.

harry,

I'd be very interested in hearing your feedback on this device when you get it.
1) Are you planning to use compressed MP3s on the JBy7 or uncompressed WAV files?
2) Are you going to use it connected as an input to a hi-fi - or are you going to use the Brennan speakers?

WC

[harrybroom]

Personally I'm going for a JB7 (brennan) juke box at the moment it happens to fit my needs.

harry,

I'd be very interested in hearing your feedback on this device when you get it.
1) Are you planning to use compressed MP3s on the JBy7 or uncompressed WAV files?
2) Are you going to use it connected as an input to a hi-fi - or are you going to use the Brennan speakers?

WC

I'm creating MP3's 128kb for most of the popular stuff & 320kb for classical - my advancing years you don't notice the full range - but the results so far have been really good & when the vinyl is cleaned up in some cases better than the current LP condition!
I intend using the JB speakers or similar - all of this is in preparation over the next two years in downsizing to a smaller place, so we won't have as much room as we have now for storing junk!
Will make a note to post when I get the unit or see something better - but there doesn't seem much out there apart maybe from the Sony Giga Juke, cheaper but tidgy disk - 80Gb compared with the JB 160Gb starter machine.
Regards