MP3 Decoding Failed

[steve]

My dilemma is I'm a cheap SOB and don't want to spend an arm and leg to convert 40 year old slightly warped records to MP3 to play in my car when I go pick up lunch during Covid lockdown.

Perhaps worth checking if those recordings are available to buy in digital format (for example from iTunes / Amazon / other).

Alternatively, if you have an old analog turntable, it can be cost effective to purchase a USB "phono" pre-amp. If you are in Europe, the "Behringer UFO202" is a little under 25 Euro (Unfortunately Behringer products are usually cost much more in the US). As waxcylinder wrote, there is also a relatively inexpensive model by ART which generally gets good reviews.

[jademan]

split a project into songs with the label feature and output as MP3. My one hiccup was taking the time to label side 2, copying the side to the clipboard and pasting it to the end of Side 1 and all the labels were gone so I had to do it again.

So when you try to copy & paste multiple tracks, make sure that both tracks are selected in your target by using the down arrow.

I hope this helps.

[DVDdoug]

Perhaps worth checking if those recordings are available to buy in digital format (for example from iTunes / Amazon / other).

Good point! I ALWAYS suggest that but somehow this time I ASSUMED the music wasn't available digitally.

Or, you might want to just buy digital copies of your favorites, or songs that have extremely poor quality.

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If you're concerned about quality at all...
The Click Removal Effect is automatic.
The Repair Effect is manual (you have to select the defective audio) if Click Removal doesn't remove all clicks.
Some regular Noise Reduction may help with the low-level background noise.

Wave Corrector is a FREE special-purpose automatic vinyl clean-up application.
Wave Repair ($30 USD) is a manual vinyl clean-up application. it's VERY time consuming but it only "touches" the audio where you identify a defect, and there are several different repair methods available.

Also, many older records are a little "dull" sounding. Sometimes it helps to boost the higher frequencies with the Graphic EQ effect.

And, it's usually a good idea to normalize (AKA "maximize") with the Amplify or Normalize effect before exporting. That serves two purposes - If the peaks are below 0dB it will boost the volume. If the peaks are above 0dB (which can happen with effect like EQ) they can be clipped (distorted) when you export. In that case, normalizing will bring the peaks down to 0dB to prevent clipping.

You can normalize one song at a time, or if you want to retain the relative volume between the loud & quiet songs on the album you can make one big WAV file and normalize the whole thing at once.

[george-77459]

Waxcylinder: Back in the 1960's we lived next door to a family that had an old hand cranked phonograph that played wax cylinders and your handle brought back memories.

DVDdoug and others: I don't listen to audio at all except in the car (2019 MB E450 Coupe with standard Burmeister system) when I go pick up lunch or dinner, so the click removal works fine for my listening environment. When we go back to work, my commute is about 15 minutes to the bus stop. I generally listen to old classic rock music that I have gathered CD's ripped to MP3's over the years. If I remember a song I like, I usually use Clipgrab to get the MP3 off YouTube. I got a couple of albums that way and used Audacity to split the album into songs. I also use Audacity to make short ringtones for my cellphone. When we moved from our previous house, I sold my 40 year old audio system in a garage sale (Marantz tuner and a Teac turntable, IIRC). I was moving stuff around last month and found a box with my old vinyl and thought I would buy a turntable and save them to MP3's. They are a little warped looking at them spin on this Digitnow turntable and I may head to Lowes and get a couple of pieces of glass to try to flatten them out.

I'm in Texas, near Houston and I'll probably pack this Digitnow unit up and send it back to Amazon and look for a better unit. Maybe I'll use part of my Covid Relief check for an upgrade. Their Tech Support said it would handle a 32Gb FAT32 stick but some of mine are not recognized.

Sorry for the long post but I'm an Engineer and can't help myself, plus I'm old and my ears don't work like they used to.