LPResurrectionHow to transfer LPs & tapes to CDDust off your old collection of LPs and tapes! If youhave a CD writer, you can transfer some of themto CDs and even clean up the sound in the process.It’s easy to do and doesn’t cost the earth.IF YOU’RE OVER 30, you probably have a large collection of LPrecords and cassette tapes. It’s alsoprobable that you no longer listen tothem, mainly because CDs are easierto use and have better sound quality.Few people these days can bebothered trying to maintain a recordBy GREG SWAINplayer in good nick. Nor can they bebothered with the cleaning rigmarolethat goes with vinyl LPs, to keep dustand lint from clogging the stylus anddegrading the sound quality.Inevitably though, there are lotsof “old favourites” scat­tered throughour LP collections. And despite theirinherent limitations, LPs are still capable of producing excellent soundquality – provided they’re not tooworn and the record player and pickup stylus are in good nick.For this reason, it makes a lot ofsense to transfer some of those oldfavourites to CDs. These are not onlymuch more con­venient to play but canbe used in a car CD player as well.What’s more, the sound quality is“locked in” to the CDs and your LPsare protected from further wear.What’s requiredCD writer prices have tumbledover the last two years, so burningyour own CDs is now very affordable– assuming you have the right equipment. The inventory reads like this:a turntable (or tape deck), a phonopreamplifier, the right connectingca­b les, audio recording software,and a Pentium-based (or equival­ent) PC equipped with a CD writer,a decent sound card and lots of harddisk space.The sound card is a critical elementhere because it’s used to convertthe analog signal from your LPs todigital format. This means thatthe sound quality will dependon the card’s on-board A/D(analog-to-digital) converter. Don’t expect to get goodresults from an old SoundBlaster 16 or any of thecheaper cards of that era.4 Silicon ChipFig.1: the turntable output must be fed to the line input socket of the sound cardvia a phono preamplifier, as shown here.Most recent brand-name soundcards should provide good re­sults,however. These include SoundBlaster 64 and Sound Blaster Live,plus sound cards from Diamond (eg,Diamond Monster Sound), TurtleBeach and CrystaLake.Conversely, the CD writer is notcritical and all brands should givesimilar results. It’s the quality of thedigitised audio on your hard disk thatyou have to worry about – not the CDwriter itself.By the way, if you’re buying new,go for a CD-RW drive so that you canalso use the new re-writable CDs. Thewrite speed of the drive isn’t criticalbut try to choose one with a readspeed of 24x or better. An IDE drivewill be cheaper than a SCSI drive butnote that your PC’s motherboard musthave a reasonably fast IDE interface.The record playerThe record player (or turntable)really is a vital link in the chain. Examine it carefully – the stylus shouldbe in good condition, all the controlsshould operate smoothly and thereshould be no audible “wow” and“flutter” (ie, pitch variations due toturn­table speed variations).If the turntable speed varies as a record is played, check the condition ofthe belt or idler wheel. These rubberparts deteriorate over time and mayrequire replacement. Check also thatthe tonearm operates freely and thatthe tracking weight and anti-skatingsettings are correct. The turntablespeed should be accurately set usinga stroboscope disc, if you have one.If the player hasn’t been used forsome time, it will prob­ably need agood clean up. Depending on thebrand, you may also want to applysome machine oil to the moving partsof the mechan­ism underneath theplatter, to make sure it all operatescorrect­ly.Don’t hesitate to replace the stylusif it’s worn or coated with gunk (examine it under a magnifying glass).Replacement styli and cartridges arereadily available from hifi stores andfrom Tandy Electronics.New record players are also readilyavailable and at quite reasonable prices. For example, Tandy Electronicshas a fully-automatic belt-drive turntable for less than $200.00. This uniteven includes a switchable phonopreamplifier, which means that youcan couple it directly to the auxiliaryinput of an amplifier (or even directlyto the line input of your sound card).Connecting it upAs already mentioned, the soundcard digitises the analog audio thatcomes from the turntable. However,you can’t directly connect the turntable to the sound card. Instead, theturntable’s output must first be fed toa phono preamplifier, which amplifiesthe weak signals from the pick-upcartridge. During this process, thephono preamp equalises the signalFig.2: this is the setup foran integrated amplifierwith an inbuilt phonopreamp. The sound cardgoes in the tape loop ofthe amplifier.January 2001 5Fig.3: here’s how to setthe Play and record linelevels of the sound card.Any unused inputsshould either be mutedor not selected, toprevent unwantednoise.by boosting the bass and cutting thetreble frequencies.This is necessary because LPs arerecorded with the bass frequenciesheavily attenuated, while the treblefrequencies are boosted. The phonopreamp reverses this situation, to giveFig.4: when recording for CD,you should sample at 44.1kHzand choose 16-bit stereo sound.a level frequency response (hence theterm “equal­isation”).In most cases, it’s just a matter offeeding the turntable outputs into the“Phono” inputs of a stereo amplifier(or pream­plifier). The “Tape Out” orpreamp out signals are then fed intothe line input socket of the soundcard – see Fig.2.Alternatively, you can use a separate phono preamplifier (eg, asdescribed SILICON CHIP, April 1994).The output from this is then fed intothe sound card as shown in Fig.1. Ofcourse, if your turntable includes aphono preamplifier (eg, the Tandyunit noted above), then you can godirect to the sound card.Another option is to build the“LP Doctor” project de­scribed in thecurrent issue. This not only has thenecessary stereo phono preamplifierbut also includes circuitry to filterout clicks and pops. It can be usedfor cleaning up the sound before itgoes to your sound card, or you cansimply use it with your hifi system.An audio cable with two RCA plugsat one end and a stereo 3.5mm jackplug at the other will usually be required to make the connection fromthe preamplifier. The RCA plugs goto the left and right output socketson the preamp, while the 3.5mm pluggoes to the line input socket on thesound card.These cables are readily availablefrom electronics retail­ers for a fewdollars. Alternatively, you can buy acable with a 3.5mm plug and two RCAsockets, if that is what you require.If you don’t have “Tape Out” sockets on your amplifier, try taking theoutput from the headphone socket. Inthat case, you may need to use a cablewith 3.5mm stereo plugs on either endand possibly also a 3.5mm to 6.5mmadapter for the headphone socket.Note, however, that the signal levelfrom a headphone socket varies inresponse to the volume control setting. This means that you’ll have tocarefully adjust the line-in gain of thesound card using the volume controlpanel on the PC, to prev­ent signaloverload (Fig.3).What if you’re using a cassetterecorder? In this case, the output isalready at line level, which meansthat you can feed the output signaldirectly into the line input socket ofthe sound card.Monitoring the soundFig.5: CoolEdit 2000 comes with an array of filters for noise reduction and otherspecial effects that let you “operate” on the recorded sound.6 Silicon ChipTo complete the setup, you needsome way of monitoring the musicthat’s being recorded. If you’re usinga separate phono preamp, simplyLooking for a top-notch sound card with lots of bundled software? Creative’sSound Blaster Live Platinum provides Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and includes a microphone, a remote control unit and a device called “Live! Drive IR”.The latter functions as the IR receiver and also provides a range of front panelinputs so that external devices can be easily connected. The bundled softwareincludes Sound Forge 4.5 XP, Creative PlayCenter 2 for encoding and decodingMPS and WMA files, and Creative Media RingTalk for PC-to-PC voice calls andmessaging over the Internet.connect the sound card’s line outputto a line input on a separate amplifier(eg, to an auxiliary or tuner input),as shown in Fig.1. As before, you’llneed a cable with a 3.5mm stereoplug on one end and two RCA plugson the other.Alternatively, if the phono preampis integrated into the amplifier, you’llneed to connect the sound card’soutput to the tape monitor input ofthe amplifier – see Fig.2. In otherwords, the sound card is effectivelyconnected into the tape loop of thestereo amplifier.Stopping noise pickupComputer monitors can easilyinduce noise into sensitive audioequipment, so position your monitoras far away from the rest of the gear aspossible. This particularly applies tothe turntable – the pickup cartridgecan be rather sensitive to stray electromagnetic fields.If hum still proves to be a problem, try earthing the base of theturntable directly to the metal caseof the preampli­fier. Another tip is toplug everything into the same powerpoint (via a multiple socket strip) toreduce the possibility of hum due toearth loops.Naturally, you must use shieldedaudio cable for all con­nections between the turntable, preamplifier andsound card.Cleaning the recordsTo minimise surface noise, it’s vitalthat you thoroughly clean your LPs.A soft bristle brush and some warmCreative’s sound card includes all theusual inputs and outputs on thebackplane connector, plus onboardconnectors for CD-ROM and DVDdrives and for the Live! Drive IR unit.January 2001 7Fig.6: the Audio Cleanup Plug-In for CoolEdit includesfilters for click and pop removal, for hiss reduction andfor clip restoration. You can either use one of the presetsor tailor the filter to requirements.water can be used to remove any dirtthat may have found its way into thegrooves. Be careful not to damage theLP – brush carefully in the direction ofthe grooves and don’t scrub too hard.Don’t use a detergent, as this canleave a film residue on the surfaceof the LP.An antistatic cloth and a recordcleaning brush will also come inhandy. Once again, these are available from hifi stores and electronicsretailers.Getting readyAn audio CD accepts about 650Mbof data, so you’ll need to set asideplenty of hard disk space when making audio recordings. As a minimumyou will need about 1Gb but 1.5Gbis better.Basically, there are five steps involved in transferring the materialacross: (1) select the line input of theFig.7: CoolEdit’s dynamic noise reduction filter works byloading a noise profile – usually sampled from thebeginning or end of a track – and subtracting this from therest of the recording.sound card and set the signal level;(2) record and save the LP tracks tothe hard disk (in wav format) usingsuitable recording software; (3) process the audio to reduce noise or toapply special ef­fects; (4) assemblethe tracks in order using CD writersoftware; and (5) burn the CD.Of these, step 3 can be regarded asoptional, particularly if you’re gettinggood sound straight off your LPs. Ifthat’s the case, you’re probably betteroff not applying any filtering at allto avoid any impact on the music.Conversely, LPs that are worn orscratched will need to have somefiltering applied (and perhaps someother pro­cessing as well), dependingon the type of material and the severity of the problem.Before trying to record anything,you need to turn up the gain controlsfor the line input of the sound card.You do that by first double-clickingFig.8: CoolEdit’sgraphic equalisercomes with anumber of presetsfor changing thesound, or you canadjust the slidersyourself.8 Silicon Chipthe loudspeaker icon in the systemtray (at the end of the taskbar) tobring up the “Play Control” mixerpanel (Fig.4). Make sure that the PlayControl (master), Wave and Line-Inare not muted and that their volumesliders are turned well up so that youcan monitor the sound.Next, click Options, Properties,Recording and OK to bring up the“Record Control” dialog box. SelectLine-In and again make sure its volume slider is well up the scale. It’s agood idea to mute the other inputsand outputs (CD Audio, MIDI, etc),so that they cannot add to the noise.Recording softwareIt’s the job of the recording software to set the sampling rate for theincoming audio signal and to save therecorded file to the hard disk. Thereare lots of programs available andthese invariably include level indicators and controls to play, record,stop and (sometimes) pause the audio.What’s more, many programs include a staggering array of filters andeffects that let you tailor the sound toyour tastes. Want more bass? No problem – just load the bass-boost filter ora graphic equaliser. What about sometreble cut, or a 50Hz notch filter, orsome reverberation or flanger effects?They’re all there for you to try.Want to filter clicks and pops, reduce surface noise or cut tape hiss?There are filters to do these jobs asFig.9: if your recording needs a bit more bass, CoolEdit’sFFT filter can take care of that too.well. You can even copy, cut and pastesections of the recordings to producespecial effects if you want.A popular software choice is Adaptec’s Easy CD Creator 4 Deluxe whichfeatures a utility called “CD SpinDoctor”. CD Spin Doctor can performall the basic tasks required to transferLPs to CD, including the ability tosave audio files in the required wavformat. It can also perform fades andincludes some basic filtering softwareto reduce pops, clicks and hiss.If you want something a bit fancier,consider programs like Syntrillium’sCool Edit 2000 and Sonic Foundry’sSound Forge 4.5 XP. Trial copies ofthese programs (and other programsmentioned in this article) can bedownloaded from their respectivewebsites (see panel).One program that’s easy to driveand doesn’t cost the earth is Diamond Cut’s Audio Restoration Tools– either DC-Art or the better-featuredDC-Art32. The latter features a comprehensive array of filters and specialeffects and is certainly very effec­tivewhen it comes to getting rid of clicks.An alternative package is Dart PRO32 from Digital Audio RestorationTechnologyHowever, if you’re into seriousaudio restoration and want the verybest results, you’ll need to step upto the “Diamond Cut Millennium”package which can simultaneouslyrun multiple filters for fast audioprocessing. Another package in thesame league is Dart PRO 98 but you’llFig.10: the FFT filter is also handy for filtering out 50Hzand 100Hz hum. And there are lots of other filters to try.need to be serious – these packagesretail for around $450.00 and $500.00respectively.Making the recordingWhichever program you use, theact of recording LP tracks and savingthem to disk is a straightforward exercise. Usually, the first thing that youhave to do is set the sampling rate. Torecord CD stereo sound, you’ll needto choose 16-bit stereo and sample at44.1kHz – see Fig.4.The next job is to set the recordinglevel. All decent audio-recording programs come with sound level metersand you have to adjust the line levelcontrol (Fig.3) while a record is playing but with the recording paused.Basically, the level is set so that theleft and right channel signal peaks justfall short of activating the overloadindicators. Anything more than thatand you run the risk of introducingdistortion due to clipping. On theother hand, don’t set the level toolow as this will give a poor signalto-noise ratio.Don’t let any nasty clicks and popsfool you into turning the gain downtoo far. It’s OK for these to trigger theoverload indicators as they can befiltered out later.Once the level has been set, it’sjust a matter of clicking the recordbutton to start the recording. Beforedoing that though, make sure thatyou’ve turned off your screen saver. Ifa screen saver activates in the middleof a recording, it can leave a gap inthe music.Generally, it’s best to record eachtrack in turn and save it as a separatefile. This not only cuts down on individual file sizes but makes it far easierto edit the tracks later on.The way in which you go aboutthis is up to you. However, the easiestmethod is to simply lower the stylusonto the lead-in grooves of the trackWhat About Copyright?Many LPs and tapes are still protected by copyright and, as far as we can determine,you are not entitled to copy these to other media – not even for your own use. That evenapplies to LPs and tapes that you have paid for and which are your personal property.Of course, you are at perfect liberty to copy material if there is no copyright, or if thecopyright has expired, or if permission has been obtained from the copyright holder.In addition, there can be exceptions under the Copyright Act for educational and professional bodies.By contrast, consumers in the United States have had the right to copy music theyhave purchased to other media for personal use, ever since the Home Recording Act of1992. It seems that Australian copyright law is behind the times in this regard.January 2001 9P.C.B. Makers !••••••••If you need:P.C.B. High Speed Drill3M Scotchmark Laser LabelsP.C.B. Material – Negative orPositive actingLight Box – Single or DoubleSided – Large or SmallEtch Tank – BubbleElectronic Components andEquipment forTAFEs, Colleges and SchoolsPrompt and Economical DeliveryFREE ADVICE ON ANY OFOUR PRODUCTS FROM DEDICATEDPEOPLE WITH HANDS-ONEXPERIENCEWe now stock Hawera Carbide Tool BitsKALEX40 Wallis Ave E. Ivanhoe 3079Ph (03) 9497 3422FAX (03) 9499 2381ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTEDSilicon ChipBindersREALVALUEAT$12.95PLUSP&P Heavy board covers with 2-tonegreen vinyl covering Each binder holds up to 14 issues SILICON CHIP logo printed on spine& coverPrice: $A12.95 plus $A5 p&p each(Australia only)Just fill in & mail the handy order formin this issue; or fax (02) 9979 6503;or ring (02) 9979 5644 & quote yourcredit card number.10 Silicon ChipTypical of the CD rewriters that are now available, Creative’s CD-RW Blaster121032 can burn CD-R disks at 12x speed and CD-RW disks at 10x, whileplayback speed is 32x. The unit comes bundled with blank CD-R and CD-RWdisks, a CD carry case and four software applications for recording, drag-anddrop file copying, creating digital photo albums and MP3 playback.to be recorded and click the Recordbutton. Then, at the end of the track,you click the Stop button to stop therecording.Don’t worry if you accidentallyrecord part of the follow­ing trackbefore hitting the Stop button. Thisunwanted material can easily bediscarded later on. The same goes forany unwanted material at the start ofthe track and for any noise betweenthe tracks.Once the recording has been made,it can be saved to a file on the harddisk. It can then be played back (justload the file and click the Play button) so that the sound quality can bechecked. Alternatively, some programs record to a temporary file onthe hard disk so that it can be checkedbefore actually being saved.A worthwhile feature of the betterprograms is that they let you previewthe waveform of the recorded audio –see Figs.5 & 11. The important thinghere is that there be no flattening ofthe signal peaks, as this indicatesclipping. If this occurs, the trackshould be discarded and re-recordedat a reduced level.By the way, be sure to save your filesin the “wav” format if you intend toburn a conventional audio CD. Someprograms also give you the ability tosave your files in MP3 format, whichis fine if you have an MP3 player. Alternatively, you can run the wav filesthrough a dedicated MP3 ripper/encoder (eg, Music­Match or easy MP3).Cleaning up the soundAs stated previously, if you’re getting clean sound straight off an LP,you won’t need to do much signalprocessing. However, one thing you’llwant to do is completely silence (ormute) the sound between tracks.In Cool Edit, you do that by zooming in on the track “lead-in” portion ofthe waveform, highlighting it with themouse and then clicking Transform(on the Toolbar) and selecting Silencefrom the drop-down menu. The sameis then done for the “lead-out” sectionat the end of the track.DC-Art32 uses a slightly differentmethod. In this case, the highlightedsegment is silenced by clicking Editand select­ing Mute from the dropdown list.While you’re at, you might like toalso shorten the lead-in and lead-outtimes by deleting certain sections.If there’s a lot of noise in the recording, then you’ll want to clean up thesound using various filters. There’susually a strict procedure for goingabout this, however.Clicks and pops are usually dealtwith first. In DC-Art32, you run theImpulse Noise Filter with the “Vinyl LP” option checked. This filterdoesn’t just chop out the clicks,though. As it eliminates each click, italso fills in the “hole” by mathematically calculating what the waveformshould be at that position and inserting this instead.In other words, it effectively interpolates the waveform across the briefgap that’s left by eliminating the click,to eliminate any audible effects.Equally effective “de-clickers” areincluded in other pack­ages, althoughsometimes these are available only asextra-cost plug-ins. Cool Edit 2000,for example, requires the AudioClean­up Plug-In for click removal andthis plug-in also does hiss remov­al.Sometimes, particularly nastyclicks and pops will require manualediting. Typically, you do that byzooming in on the waveform at theclick location (confirmed by playingback that section of the waveform),then selecting the click and interpo­lating the waveform across the selected area.Many programs also include adynamic noise reduction filter andthis is run after click filtering. Theprocedure usually involves samplingthe noise from the track lead-in orlead-out grooves to build up a noiseprofile which is then subtracted fromthe rest of the recording. The idea hereis to reduce the noise as much as possible while leaving the music intact.Fairly obviously, you have toperform this type of noise reductionbefore muting the beginning andend of the track. If you perform themuting first, there will be no noiseleft to sample and the dynamic noisereduction filter won’t work!On the other hand, dynamic noisereduction should be carried out afterclick removal, so that no large clicksare present in the noise profile.Problems like rumble can often beeliminated by running a high-passfilter, while notch filters can be employed against 50Hz and 100Hz humin the recording. Similarly, a low-passfilter may prove effective in reducingDC Audio Restoration Tools – Making It EasyFig.11: the trial version of DC-Art32 lets you recordonly the first 90 seconds of a track. This programis easy to drive and comes with lots of filters forcleaning up the sound.BEFOREFig.12: the waveforms at right show the effectof running DC-Art32’s impulse filter on a trackwith lots of audible clicks. Note that the clicksare missing from the bottom two waveforms(on the yellow background). The remaining“spikes” are musical transients (they look likespikes due to the compressed horizontal scaleof the waveforms).AFTERFig.13: if youyearn for avalve sound,you’ll love thisVirtual ValveAmplifier filter.You even get tochoose betweendifferent typesof valves andamplifier outputconfigurations.January 2001 11Burning the CDFig.14: Adaptec’s Easy CD Creator really is easy – you just drag the tracks to berecorded into the workspace window. You can then drag the tracks around torearrange their order and even play individual tracks back prior to burning.high-frequency noise.At each stage in the process, youshould play back the filtered trackto make sure you’re happy with theresult before saving it to file. If thefilter doesn’t have the desired effect,reset the parameters and run the filteragain.Once you’ve cleaned up the noise,you might want to run a graphicequaliser or a preset filter to enhancethe bass or treble, to liven up thesound. This can help revitalise thesound if an LP is worn, for example.Many programs also have filters forfade in and fade out and for addingcompression and expan­sion.Another thing that you’ll probablywant to do is run the “normalise” or“normalise gain” filter over each file.This filter searches for the highestpeak in a file and adjusts the gainso that it just reaches the maximumrecordable level. Just remember thatthe recording should be fairly closeto this level in the first place, to getthe best signal-to-noise ratio.It’s important to save your files toa separate folder, to make it easy toassemble the tracks when you run theburner software later on. Dependingon the track length, you can expectfiles sizes in the 25-60Mb range andthey should add up to no more thanabout 630Mb to allow sufficientoverhead for the burner to write thecontents.12 Silicon ChipFig.15: the “Disc-At-Once” optioncloses the recording session andprevents further data from beingadded to the disk later on. A sessionmust be closed before the disk canbe played back but you must leavethe disk open if you plan on addingfurther sessions.It might take some work to get yourtracks sounding just right but burningthem to a CD requires little effort.Programs like Easy CD Creator are ano-brainer to use, no matter whetheryou’re creating audio or data CDs.The main thing to remember is thatyou are recording audio, not data, soselect the audio CD layout option.You must also “close” the recordingsession if you want to play the CDback afterwards. You can either selectthis option before burning the disk oryou can close the session afterwards.If you have a full complement oftracks, select the Disk-at-Once modeif this option is present. This modeburns and closes the disk in one operation. Alternatively, you can electto close the session but leave the diskopen so that you can to add trackslater on.Assuming that you have Easy CDCreator, you assemble the tracks tobe recorded by dragging them fromthe file list to the workspace window.This done, the track order can be rearranged (just click and drag) and youcan even play back individual tracksby right-clicking them and selecting“Play” from the drop-down list. Thislaunches a bare-bones CD player withPlay, Stop and Pause buttons (Fig.14).Finally, click the Record button tostart the burn. Most programs give youthe option of doing a test run first butif you’re the impatient type, you canbypass this step. Provided you have areasonably fast hard disk, you shouldbe able to burn at speeds of 4x orhigher. Don’t interrupt the computerduring this process, otherwise you’llend up with a drink coaster.If that all sounds too hard, just runEasy CD Creator’s wizard. It really isa matter of following the proverbialbouncing ball – right up to burningthe CD.SCCheck Out These Online SitesDiamond Cut Productions (for DC-Art32 and Diamond Cut Millennium http://www.diamondcut.comSyntrillium Software (for Cool Edit 2000) - http://www.syntrilli­um.comDARTECH Inc (for DartPro) - http://www.dartpro.comSonic Foundry (for Sound Forge XP 4.5) www.sonicfoundry.comMultimedia’n’Music - http://www.multimedia-music.com.au (for retailcopies of Diamond Cut and Dart Pro software (all version). They also havean excellent tutorial site at http://www.enhance­daudio.com.au