What software do you use for recording your needle drops?

I've been reconstructing my media machine lately after having a motherboard failure on my old media PC several years ago. I used to run a program called Wavelab for recording on this PC from my Myteck 24/96 ADC. I loved it. It worked great for me, was versatile, robust, and I never had any problems with it.

However, when rebuilding my media PC I decided to go with a modern version of Windows, and loaded Windows 10 x64 on it. So far this OS has worked adequately, with one exception: It will not run my 15 year old Wavelab software no matter what I do. Unfortunately a new copy of Wavelab is $600, so this has made me want to investigate less expensive alternatives to see if it is possible to get something which will work for me which does not involve forking-out the big bucks.

So I tried Audacity, since it is free and because it seems to get decent reviews. But so far I hate it. It's buggy and I can't find any way to get it to successfully recognize a source with a resolution beyond 16/44.1 no matter how I set it. Yes I've changed its settings, but when I set it to 24/94, and I send-it a 24/96 source, and then I begin recording, it records, but it still thinks that it is recording at 16/44.1, or perhaps 16/48. So as a result, when I play the file I get everything playing at half-speed as audacity reads this 24/96 file as if it were a 16/44.1 file.

I've messed with the settings, but no matter what I try I get this result unless I just feed it with 16/44.1, and then it does OK. But this is not acceptable.

Anyways, I'm not impressed at all with Audacity so far, and so I wanted to learn what other software packages people are using out there to digitize with. And I'm curious to know if anyone else is using a professional quality ADC (rather than just a sound-card) to record their LPs with.

 

I've never had an issue with Audacity recording, editing, and exporting both 44 and 96, but there are other options:
The best free audio editor 2019 | TechRadar

You might like NCH WavePad; it's not free, but currently on sale. VinylStudio is another paid program many people like. I've tried free Wavosaur and it's plenty capable (built-in ASIO support); can't open/save FLAC though and hasn't been developed in over five years.

 

I am planning on using Magix Audio Lab and Music Premium to digitize vinyl. I haven't tried it yet though. The software looks really solid to me but I've only used it to burn CDs so far. Works well though, stable and intuitive, not too complicated but it can also do quite a lot when I glance at the features and tools they included.

I don't think this exact program is available anymore. They have SOUND FORGE Audio Cleaning Lab, which seems to do the same things.

Might be worth a free trial. It's about $75 in USD.

 

I've never liked Audacity, either. I still rely on Cool Edit 96 for my machines running Windows before 10. For Windows 10, under which Cool Edit 96 is a bit iffy, Ocenaudio is reasonably similar. Note: Cool Edit 96 doesn't handle 24/96. Ocenaudio, however, does, as far as I know.

 

VinylStudio
Record LPs and Tapes to CD and MP3 on your PC or Macintosh

 

Try this fix:

"Go to the Advanced System Settings, then the Advanced menu, Performance - parameters DEP below and add to the exceptions wavelab Data Execution DEP."​

You can also right-click the program's shortcut, click properties, choose compatibility, and try running as XP SP3 compatible or below.

If it is super old, and is 16 bit, you'd only be able to run it through a virtual machine with a 32 bit OS ("windows xp mode" on Windows 7).

The Mytek doesn't have a computer output, so you must be using some kind of computer interface already, perhaps one with optical in? Get the latest manufacturer 64-bit driver for that card, hopefully a driver that fully supports ASIO.

If not using ASIO but the Windows sound system, you set the minumum recording bitrate at: Control panel -> Sound. Select recording tab. Select an analog input for the card ("aux", "line in"), and set the default format to 24/96kHz (and the same on your ADC).

You can check out a 7 day free trial of Adobe Audition to see if after all else if the hardware will work correctly in (terrible) Windows 10, and in 64 bit.

 

I've been happy with a combo of:
Vinylstudio for recording, adding tracks, metadata and saving the files.
Soundforge for any volume adjustments or noise reduction.
Clickrepair for removing any clicks and pops.

 

How about the lite version of Wave Lab? Or you could use a solid state recorder. I use Wave Lab Pro at work but a Tascam SD-20M at home.

 

+ 1 using my MBP (2010 model) as the ADC

 

i use Audacity

 

I have the Mytek Stereo 96 ADC as well, plugged into an older XP machine via the SPDIF port on an ESI Juli@ sound card. For recording I use VSTHost because it's free, supports ASIO and has a no-fuss recording interface. Setup is a bit tricky, however. I like the fact that clicking the record button writes the file in real time in your chosen directory. Others will write a temp file in the program directory and write the output file only when you save it, which is harder on the drive and a huge waste of time, IMO.

For cleanup I use either Izotope Rx2 or Wave Corrector Pro or sometimes both. Izotope has by far the best automatic declicker I've used and has a few other decent tools. Track splitting, dithering and exporting to FLAC are done in WCP. Although it looks a bit dated, I like the GUI and the editing transparency it offers, and even though it has a decent recorder, it doesn't support ASIO....any 24bit recording made with it will contain only 16bits of data.

Finally, file naming, tagging and artwork searches are done in bulk using MP3Tag, which is also free.

 

Adobe Audition CC2018 with Izotope plugins.

 

That might be just the ticket...IF it will work. But that is the $64,000 question for me. Unfortunately the only reviews which I have been able to find about Wavelab Essentials seemed to indicate that it is somehow crippled in terms of which inputs it can select to record from. And so I'm not certain if it will even be able see the WASAPI driver for the SP/DIF input which I have my Mytek 24/94 connected to.

And since there is no way to try-out Essentials before you buy it, I'm just not willing to risk $100 when I don't know if it will even be able to receive input from my Mytek 2496 ADC. I just wish that I knew how to find a user of Wavelab Essentials who could definitively answer questions regarding its ability to record from different inputs for me...

 

None. Straight from the turntable through a good pre-amp to a cd recorder. They sound great.

 

Those are some really interesting suggestions. I agree that I dislike-it when software buffers rather than writing directly to the drive.

I'm already using MP3Tag, for my CD rips. I love that tool.

 

Is that an annual subscription for that program? It seems like Adobe only rents their software anymore.

 

This is another really interesting suggestion. Does Vinyl studio record straight to FLAC? If not, then how does it handle your meta-data? And can you record at high resolutions with it?

And does Soundforge edit FLAC files directly, or must the files be converted to Waves first?

 

Weird you haven't been able to get your Wavelab to work. I use an ancient LE 7 with Win10 with no issues (I've gone through quite a few versions of Windows with it) Think I had to install as Administrator.

 

I've seriously considered the idea of using a Tascam DSD recorder to perform my needle-drops. But I dislike the fact that I would be unable to click-filter my DSD recordings as DSD. And I also dislike the added step of needing to copy the files to my PC when I'm done to edit them and to add meta-data.

So some variation on this idea is not out of the question. But its not my first choice at the moment...

 

My copy is version 3.5. So it's several generations earlier than 7. And it will install. But it wont run on Window 10; not even in compatibility mode.

 

Shoot. Sorry.
I'd be lost without 7. I tried evaluating some of their newer versions but was never happy with them so I just stuck with the oldie.

 

I've read that they totally changed the UI in the more recent versions. So I understand why you would want to stick with Version 7. And I'd probably do the same thing in your shoes.

But I'd be willing to suffer-through learning to use the new UI, if it was just more affordable. Wavelab is an awesome piece of software.

 

I’ve always used audacity, but that being said I record stuff for putting it on my phone to listen to in the car so I don’t mess with any of the settings besides recording level so it doesn’t peak. Never had any problems the way I use it but I’m sure I’m not getting the best quality recording even though it sounds fine to my ears.

 

Another paid option (60) I've used with good results is Reaper. Not sure if they fixed it, but you could use the trial over and over
I'ts a bit overkill for just recording as it's a full DAW however.

 

I use Audacity, too. Be sure the project is set to 48/24 or 96/24 and when exporting you have to choose 'uncompressed audio file' and the result will be WAV with the same resolution as in the project.