Software for recording from Vinyl

[spinoza]

Hi good people

I have recently bought a riaa ampfilter for my recordplayer with both analog and digital output. Unfortunately only software for Windows came along with it, to be able to record the vinyl to a computer via USB. I,ve searched synaptic for software for Linux, but have no luck.

Anyone who are familiar with some software that would have a chance to be compatible with PCLinuxos? (I use MiniMe)

The software for windows that came with the riaa ampfilter is called VinylStudio. It would be very great if something like that is available for PCLOS cos' it's way of recording and ec,  looking up and editing tracklists is brilliant.

[T6]

how does pclinux detect it? how is reported in pcc?

in konsole write lsusb and post results with device connected and enabled

many tools like this depends on the app but if the usb port is detected by pulseaudio maybe audacity can see it

another way could be install xp on a virtual machine using virtualbox with usb support(getvirtualbox form synaptic)

[spinoza]

Thanks T6 for a very fast answer.

My computer dual boots with XP and I am using a shared folder for the music, but I,m a bit tired of having to use windows at all, not that I,m religious about it, but it just feels wrong :-)

Well, PCLOS recon the thing for sure, plugging on and off ads and removes the line with the Texas Instrument. The case is though that it's not a Texas but a NAD ampfilter, but I suppose that is not necessarily an issue.

I have now installed everything  named pulseaudio and audacity, and will try again after a reboot. I,ll be back after some testing.

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 08bb:2906 Texas Instruments Japan
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

[j-retired]

I'm assuming that the unit you bought has RIAA correction built in, else you will have to have software to equalise the output from the phono pickup, and this would NOT be a good way to go. (Noise levels tend to be very high.)
In windows, as far as I am concerned, nothing can touch 'CoolEditPro', but in Linux the nearest thing is Audacity, which is quite good, but not as user friendly.  Good luck!

j

[Crow]

Maybe CoolEdit works in Wine...  it seems I used it in another life    but is a great piece of software



Edit.  Good news, CoolEdit Pro do works in Wine, at least that is what has been reported  "Everything works perfectly!"  although it says you need to delete a plug in   http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=22256

[spinoza]

Thanks for participating, I agree 100 % that Cool Edit is a great software, I use it with my work where we are stuck with Windows. But in private I prefer using only Linux software where possible, and in this case it luckily was. After some configuration problems I got Audacity to work with the Riaa ampfilter, and without the pulse audio system, somehow it would not install the plugin that I was supposed to choose the inputdevice with and kept coming up with errors. This is a rather new MiniMe install, so I still might need some packets for my hardware on this laptop.

But Audacity does it after changing some default settings, it appears that theres some compatibility problems with listening to the recording on the fly making the program freeze half of the times and only record a splitsecond the other times. Also Audacity "forgets" the input device every time it's been unplugged, but just you know it it's no problem.

It works and now I just to find a setting able to recon when the needle is touching the vinyl to start recording and a import possibility for the tracks to spare me from the work writing them myself.

I,m not sure about the riaa ampfilters capabilities, but the recorded sound seems to be fine and it has both the MM and MC and Aux input (for tapes), so it seems cool for the purpose

Thanks for your help and interest guys!!

[ccs]

How to record records with Audacity.

Transferring tapes and records to computer or CD
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Transferring_tapes_and_records_to_computer_or_CD

[tedlane]

Yep, gotta recommend Audacity.  I transcribed 1200 LPs last year (from Abba to Zevon).  Did most of them at high speed and then downed the speed using Audacity.
The quality of the vinyl varied from ex-pizza tray to pristine.
If I can fault Audacity on anything is that it is too accurate and without some tweaking of the final edits it is too easy to loose the "warmth" of the original recording and end up with tracks that are too crisp.
Noise and pop reduction is as good/bad as any other piece of software.  Having said that, I did get Alice Cooper's "School's Out" back into a reasonably listenable condition and it (the LP) has been through about 200 too many parties.
I also did my singles collection (or at least .. the ones that I can bear to listen too now  ) These dont have "great" results mainly due to the dynamic range used on them.  For example "Good Golly Miss Molly" is almost "unlistenable"  as the original dynamic range was produced to enable those toothbrush pickups and six inch speakers to (ahem) blast it out.  The transcribed version defies even the most radical of filter settings to get it back to a reasonable balance without clipping and dropouts.  More "recent" singles from the 1970's and 1980's don't present problems.
Another problem you might encounter if you are using very old vinyl LPs (1960's and earlier) is that if you are using these newfangled i-something speakers etc, you may have to reboost the bottom end considerably, I mean, we of advanced age had no problems, we all had 2x15" bass enclosures (some of us ..6x etc). So, if you've got early Jefferson Airplane, Dead etc then you are really going to have to do some work to hear them properly on little speakers.

Oh, and finally, you will need to experiment a bit ( a lot ) to get the right capture settings. It's worth the effort.  Take a particularly compressed lp and record it flat, at various input levels, until you get the right levels that allows you to edit and expand and etc and prevent clipping.

enjoy!

I found audacity a lot better in the end than the others.
ted

[spinoza]

Thank you for editional information. I have read the manual and still miss one option that VinylStudio gave me, and that is the auto naming feature. Maby you have some advise here tedlane?

The way VinylStudio worked was to look up different databases for artist and Lp name of the vinyl. Then the user can import the list of tracks to the split track funktion and VinylStudio automatically names the tracks with the right names. have you seen anything like that in Audacity or any plugin for it? It really saves a lot of work.