New to Audacity - digitizing vinyl

[tomdash]

Hey folks,

New to audacity here and I'm having some glitches I'd like to resolve. I am using a USB cable from my phono stage preamp. Plugging into my MacBook Pro and opening audacity. I was able to digitize one record, but it was all peaking, so I turned down the preamp output volume. Then the final recording was much lower in volume than any other official downloads on my iTunes.

So then I tried again to record a new LP and just let it peak out and see if that volume at full preamp volume will be the same as official downloads without clipping. Opened Audacity today and it keeps crashing. Won't let me hit pause and then record to set up before I want to release the pause button. It just starts recording. Then when I try to hit pause it crashes.

Anything troubleshooting I am missing just to pause before I am ready to record? Restarted computer and get same issue.

Thanks, from a newly

[kozikowski]

Please give us the info from the pink band on top of this thread. Which Audacity, etc.

Koz

[tomdash]

Hi -

I am using Audacity 2.1.1 - just downloaded from the .dmg installer. i'm running OS X Yosemite - Version 10.10.5

It worked once and I am still learning how to split tracks. But this pause button either not working with record button or causing it to crash is new to me.
Thanks

[Gale Andrews]

I am using Audacity 2.1.1 - just downloaded from the .dmg installer. i'm running OS X Yosemite - Version 10.10.5

It worked once and I am still learning how to split tracks. But this pause button either not working with record button or causing it to crash is new to me.

I think there could be a crash problem in 2.1.1 if you enable Transport > Sound Activated Recording. I am getting crashes in 2.1.1 (recording Soundflower) but not in 2.1.2-alpha (at the moment).

So try turning Sound Activated Recording off. In any case you cannot use Pause in conjunction with Sound Activated Recording - Pause is automatically engaged when the input sound falls below the Sound Activation Level required to trigger recording, and Pause is automatically released when the level is high enough to record.

If you still get crashes after turning Sound Activated Recording off, make sure Audacity is closed in Activity Monitor, open Finder, then use Go > Go to Folder and type:

Code: Select all

~/Library/Application Support/audacity/

In that "audacity" folder, delete the "audacity.cfg" file and restart Audacity. This gives you new factory settings (with Sound Activated Recording off).

Was there a Mac crash report that appeared? In case the crash is something I'm not seeing, you can find the reports at /Applications/Utilities/Console.app. If there are any crash reports, could you please post the latest report? Please see How to attach files to forum posts.

By the way, if you want the songs to sound as loud as Apple downloads you will probably have to use the Audacity Compressor.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

I am using Audacity 2.1.1 - just downloaded from the .dmg installer. i'm running OS X Yosemite - Version 10.10.5

It worked once and I am still learning how to split tracks. But this pause button either not working with record button or causing it to crash is new to me.

I think there could be a crash problem in 2.1.1 if you enable Transport > Sound Activated Recording. I am getting crashes in 2.1.1 (recording Soundflower) but not in 2.1.2-alpha (at the moment).

To confirm, yes there was a crash problem with Sound Activated Recording in 2.1.1 (though hitherto I had not been able to reproduce it on Mac). See: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 47&t=87317.

The crash should already be fixed in our source code, so it will be fixed in the next 2.1.2 release of Audacity in a few weeks' time.

Let us know if crashes persist with Sound Activated Recording turned off.


Gale

[chrzaszcz]

You should know that a lot of digital music is artificially increased in volume as part of the loudness war, which didn't start until relatively recently. The vast majority of music on vinyl is softer than the same music in digital form – it wasn't artificially increased in volume during the mastering process.

[waxcylinder]

The vast majority of music on vinyl is softer than the same music in digital form – it wasn't artificially increased in volume during the mastering process.

The upside is that it offers increased dynamic range - particularly important for classical and indeed jazz recordings.

do the new modern LPs that are currently fashionably being issued also suffer from loudness wars compression ??

WC

[Gale Andrews]

do the new modern LPs that are currently fashionably being issued also suffer from loudness wars compression ??

I can mainly only speak for classical, but the 180 gram analogue LP reissues are often slightly compressed compared to the original LP (soft made louder).

Those reissues sound a little cleaner at the top and don't have the ambience of the original LP. They are usually much better than a bargain label reissue from late 70's / early 80s but in their different way I don't think they sound any more like the original LP than the CD does.

Where I've heard 1990's or later digital classical recordings originally on CD then reissued on LP, I don't think the LP's sound as good as the CD (or MP3 download where available) does. The LP's seem to be cut at a low level, slightly compressed compared to the CD and don't "project" like the CD or MP3 does.

Where I have heard pop "LP resurgence" analogue reissue pressings, they were not compressed compared to the LP.

For all the "virgin vinyl 180 gram" claims, the vinyl in the "LP resurgence" pressings is often quite flawed, and not as quiet as the end of LP era DMM pressings were. I have not however heard any of the ultra-specialised classical LP reissues made for the Japanese market that are about £300 (sic) per LP.


Gale

[cyrano]

All new vinyl is "virgin" these days. There's hardly any old vinyl left to recycle. Old vinyl is worth a lot more if you sell it in 50 or 100 LP batches on the bay. It's not that vinyl is that expensive anyhow.

I used to work with the largest vinyl pressing operation in Europe. It's all in the care. Fast jobs just didn't get any attention. Presses weren't cleaned often enough, compression was a hasty job and not real fine tuning, incl. a test master. It's the masters and the following positives that are expensive. You can replace those after a 100 presses, or after 10.000 presses. If you get that last one...

[waxcylinder]

Interesting ...

I'm betting that a lot of those "bargain label reissue from late 70's / early 80s" were from masters that had passed the 100,000th pressing mark that Cyrano refers to.

WC