I'm importing a song, but the AIFF file is HUGE!

[steve]

The actual recording quality is almost entirely down to the hardware you are using, and of course the condition of the records.

The noise reduction in Audacity is not the best in the world - For Linux there is Gnome Wave Cleaner which is really good, waxcylinder regularly recommends another program for Windows (which I can't remember the name of off-hand, but a quick forum search may find it). Perhaps someone can recommend something for Mac. (Cleaning the vinyl carefully before playing makes a very big difference but care must be taken not to damage them).

[kozikowski]

And one note on iTunes. There are two primary iTunes compressors, AAC High Quality, and iTunes Plus (higher). I use iTunes Plus because the files are still small and I've never found any sound damage. I create hour-long versions of very clear, mono radio shows and they come in at about 60MB.

Koz

[GAK62]

Ha,ha..... No, I'd never buy one of those crappy USB turntables.

I bought a decent Sony turntable in the late 80's, because I knew turntables were going the way of the Doo-Doo Bird.
I have a Sony PS-LX57. It's a linear tracking turntable, meaning the arm is on a sliding bar.
It's not a very expensive turntable, but it's decent.

I hadn't used it for ten years when I finally decided to put some of my LPs onto my iTunes.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.... I think the rubber belt drive had literally rotted or cracked.
But fortunately, I found a great place in town that fixed it AND re-greased all the parts for less than $60!
Now it works great!

You won't be able to find most of my LPs on iTunes....
Most of them are out-takes, imports, rare EPs and bootlegs.

GAK62

[kozikowski]

Excellent.

You will find that the Line-In for your Mac (circle with two black arrows) is a terrific way to capture line level stereo performances, wherever they come from. Sometimes you can take the Tape-Out of your amplifier and apply it through a simple dual RCA to stereo 1/8" plug cable.

Apple > System Preferences > Hardware > Sound > Input. Select Audio Line-In Port or whatever your machine calls it. Play a loud album and adjust until the bouncing blue sound meter delivers top third levels. Do Not allow sound levels to hit the top ball. That's the overload point where permanent clipping damage occurs.

Open Audacity Preferences and set Line-In or Default Device. Click once anywhere inside the Audacity red record meters and they should wake up and meter the show without going into record.

Now the splash of cold water.

Stop using Audacity 1.2. It's a lovely editor, but it's no longer supported by Modern Macs, or Windows machines. The Systems People just issued the introduction of Audacity 1.3.10 from the download page.

http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_mac

I still use 1.3.7 from here...

Audacity 1.3.7 -- Mac
http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/au ... -1.3.7.zip

You can have 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine as long as you only one at a time. Audacity 1.3 Projects will not open in 1.2. Audacity 1.3 has Clip-Fix, Click Repair, and other nice tools. If your disks are in reasonable shape and surgically clean, many of these tools will not be needed.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Since you're doing everything correctly, you may not need the 32-bit floating setting in Audacity. That causes troubles sometimes. Set Audacity to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. That is the music CD sound standard and you can dump that directly into iTunes and on to a Music CD with no data conversion or damage.

It converts well in the compressors, too.

Koz