totally lost

[txruffian]

I have a Mac OS X 10.6.4

I have successfully added ALL my CDs to my itunes and set off to do the same with my 300+vinyl 33s. Accordingly, after much research, ordered and received the Victoria USB turntable. The "software" disc it came with was essentially blank, instead, telling me to go online to download the proper drivers, which I was able to do with little difficulty.

With great anticipation, I attached the proper cables to my Mac, opened the Audacity Application, placed the first record album on the turntable, and with much excitement, watched the pretty, colorful bars and graphs gyrating away. An entire album later, I began to wonder where, exactly all this music was going, because it wasn't working like my CDs. I didn't even have itunes opened.

Reading a few FAQs, it was explained that in order to place the music on itunes, I needed to convert it to mpg3 format, requiring a software download of
aptly named 'Lame 3.9" and FFMPEG. This was duly downloaded and installed. Three times, as I could never find them again.

I would be greatly appreciative if I could get proper instructions!

[bgravato]

Take a look at these tutorials:

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Expor ... s_and_iPod
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Split ... ate_tracks
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Trans ... uter_or_CD

Did it answer your question?

[billw58]

You have posted in the 1.3.x forum, so I hope you are using the latest beta, which is 1.3.12. It is recommended (by me, at least) for Macs running 10.6.x.

LAME and ffMPEG are installed in a "hidden" location on your Mac's hard drive. Audacity knows where to find them. They are in /usr/local/lib/audacity/ . To see if they have been installed properly, in the Finder click on Go > Go to folder..." then type "/usr/local/lib/audacity/" into the dialog box.

Go to Audacity > Preferences, then click the "Libraries" section. For each of LAME and ffMPEG, click the "Locate" button. Audacity should automatically go to the correct location, or else display a message that it has already found them.

You don't need FFmpeg to create MP3 files - LAME will do that for you. FFmpeg is nice to have if you want to deal with more exotic formats.

As bgravato pointed out, once you have recorded each LP, you need to edit it, adjust the volume, divide it into tracks, then export each track, which can then be imported into iTunes. I, personally, find Audacity to be slow at making MP3s. I export the individual tracks as AIF files, import those into iTunes, then let iTunes convert them to MP3.

You might also want to check out this manual page: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... iscs_to_CD

-- Bill

[txruffian]

<< once you have recorded each LP, you need to edit it, adjust the volume, divide it into tracks, then export each track, which can then be imported into iTunes. I, personally, find Audacity to be slow at making MP3s. I export the individual tracks as AIF files, import those into iTunes, then let iTunes convert them to MP3.>>

I don't think I like going through all that.

I remember reading that there are a few other formats available, albiet, not freeware. Would they work any better for the money?


Drew

[kozikowski]

I suspect even if you throw money, you're not going to do much better.

Transferring vinyl doesn't lend itself to automation. There are no reliable ways to find the silent stretches between songs. If you have a favorite album, the wear on the grooves puts noise between the songs and kills the Silent Sense tools. Audacity and other programs see the disk as one long song.

Neither vinyl nor Music CDs carry song titles on the disk other than in print form. So, sooner or later you either need to photograph the vinyl label or type the song titles by hand.

There are major discussion threads concerning the best way to do noise reduction on vinyl. Managing ratty vinyl pops and clicks is a college level course.

Most people pop for the on-line or the Music CD version of the music if possible and then only transfer the albums out of print.

How much was the turntable? Around $100 USD? There are no shortages of complaints about the quality of playback on those machines. They were designed as throw-away and their quality pretty much guarantees that you are going to want to throw them away -- sometimes before you're finished transferring the music.

Just the cartridge on my top quality turntable was much more than that.

Don't you have a turntable already? If you're on a Mac, it's trivial to do music transfers using your old, good turntable.

Koz

[txruffian]

Hi Koz,

thank you for the prompt, informative info!

<< There are no shortages of complaints about the quality of playback on those machines. They were designed as throw-away and their quality pretty much guarantees that you are going to want to throw them away --Just the cartridge on my top quality turntable was much more than that. sometimes before you're finished transferring the music.>>

well, all my 45s are not even stereo, like much of my LPs. a lot of them are in fair shape. I think I can get my with the quality issue. Once I get all my music onto my itunes, I'm going to spring for an ipod. Right now, I'd like to find how to at least get just one album downloaded and recognized by my itunes for mp3 conversion. I guess I can manually name the albums a live with it playing one long track<sigh> That's how I play it, anyway, right?


<<Don't you have a turntable already? If you're on a Mac, it's trivial to do music transfers using your old, good turntable.>>

My turn table (and the cartridge) is not any better that the one I just bought, but I also needed the USB outlet and the tape player.

Regards,

Drew

[billw58]

Right now, I'd like to find how to at least get just one album downloaded and recognized by my itunes for mp3 conversion. I guess I can manually name the albums a live with it playing one long track<sigh> That's how I play it, anyway, right?

Drew:
Have a look at the manual page I linked to. There is no automated process that I am familiar with for recording an LP and splitting it into tracks. You have to record it in real time (obviously). That is the major time consuming step. Splitting and naming the tracks, then exporting them can be fairly quick depending on how picky you are. The first few times through might be slow but once you get the hang of it you can work pretty quickly.

As Koz has pointed out, even the automated "silence finder" tools can be fooled by ticks and pops in the so-called "silent" time between songs. I've tried them, and find I spend as much time correcting what they've done as I would have spent just doing it manually.

How many LPs can you do in an evening? You can do other stuff on the computer while Audacity is recording, so you get to listen to them while you do other work (or play). In some ways you're in a better situation than many others here on the forum - you have "only" 300 or so LPs.

So my advice is to read the tutorial, relax, and get on with the project. Accept that it's going to take a while.

-- Bill

[kozikowski]

<<<My turn table (and the cartridge) is not any better that the one I just bought, but I also needed the USB outlet and the tape player.>>>

No you don't.

You can plug the tape player Line-Out directly to the stereo Line-In of your Mac. The headphone out of the Mac will plug directly into the Line-In of any music system. If the music system has a Tape-Out, sometimes you can plug that directly into the Mac as well.

This is one of the big splits between Windows machines and Macs. Many Windows laptops can't do this stereo trick.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

Reading a few FAQs, it was explained that in order to place the music on itunes, I needed to convert it to mpg3 format ...

Actually you don't need MP3 since you are working in iTunes/iPod-land.

Since you are using iTunes on a MAC I would recommend that you consider using Apple's AAC compressed format rather than MP3. Bitrate for bitrate (and size for size AAC is generally reckoned to give better audio quality than MP3.

You may find this workflow from the manual useful (it's one of the set that Bill pointed you to): http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... _to_iTunes

WC

[txruffian]

Hello, WC,

I clicked on your link: " ): http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... _to_iTunes

and got this: Not Found
The requested URL /index.ph was not found on this server.

Apache/2.2.12 (Ubuntu) Server at manual.audacityteam.org Port 80

however, I was able to access the others. "TA"!

Manchester, eh? My wife is from there. Taught at Manchester Univ.

Drew