What is the best way to create tracks recording from an LP?

[Kadsura]

Hi,

Newbie here: Windows 10, Audacity 2.1.2 (downloaded yesterday).

For the past 15 years or so, I have been digitizing my LP collection using a stand-alone Pioneer CD-recorder. (Other gear includes: Oracle Delphi Mk. III table, SME V tonearm, Sumiko Blue Point No. 2 Cartridge, Audible Illusions Modulus IIB preamp with phono stage). After creating a new CD by this method, I rip it to FLAC and listen on various devices.

I have made around 200+ CDs from my LP collection using this method over the years, however, now that the CD recorder has died, I decided to buy an ART Phono Plus ADC and download Audacity. My high-end audio dealer advised me that there is an Ayre ADC for $4000, but I am not going to pay even a quarter of that at this point. Mr preliminary listening to the ART indicates that it will work just fine.

Anyway, creating tracks on the Pioneer was pretty simple--just press the record button, and a new track was created instantly. On Audacity, it seems that the preferred method is to do this after the recording has been created. I did a test recording and tried the CTRL-M method (during playback), but it does not seem to have worked. It did create a new track, and I did name it, but it did not show the waveform in the box corresponding to this new track. It still seems to think there is a single track.

Is there a way to create new tracks while the audio is being captured? If so, how? Alternatively, if it is better to do it in editing, what is the easiest and/or best way to do this? Why is the CTRL-M method not working?

Thanks very much for any help!

[kozikowski]

Most of the work is being done by the physical parts. All you need is a competent preamp (with a volume control) and digitizer and you should be good to go. Did you go down the tutorials for vinyl transfer?

http://manual.audacityteam.org/

Scroll down to TUTORIALS. Most of the right-hand side of that panel has to do with transferring vinyl and tape.

Koz

[DVDdoug]

Is there a way to create new tracks while the audio is being captured? If so, how? Alternatively, if it is better to do it in editing, what is the easiest and/or best way to do this?

I don't know if there's a "best" way, but I just select/highlight a song and File -> Export Selected Audio to create a separate file for each song. (And, I might select a little extra audio and trim the beginning & end later.)

My high-end audio dealer advised me that there is an Ayre ADC for $4000,

Considering the limitations of analog vinyl, that seems obscene to me... Unless the money means nothing to you.

I haven't tried the ART, but I agree that it should be fine and it does have an analog gain adjustment so you can prevent clipping of the ADC. If you've got $4000 to blow, you could get some really nice speakers.

And depending on what you're doing now, you might want to spend $50 or so on some vinyl-noise reduction software. (I have Wave Repair, which does an audibly perfect job on most clicks & pops and in the manual mode it only touches the audio where you identify a defect. But, it can take me a full weekend or more to clean-up an LP. I also have Wave Corrector, which works automatically.)

[Kadsura]

Thanks for your advice. I actually dug a little deeper into the instructions and found what I needed here:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spli ... racks.html

Adding labels at track breaks in the entire LP recording and doing File, Export Multiple does exactly what I want--separate FLAC files for each track.

I am perfectly happy with the ART for now. And I have Vandersteen 2Ces, so no need to shell out money on speakers. Extra cash gets saved in my retirement acct. so I can retire and enjoy my records one day!