Q for Grant, others... what's the best way to transfer an LP - CD?

Hi!

I just got a semi-decent audio card for my laptop (an Audigy 2ZS), after watching how horrible my USB cards were (noisy, not enough separation, etc.). Anyway, this card seems to be good enough to make vinyl transfers.

I'll be recording at either 96 or 192 KHz (I think 96 or 88.2 should do fine), and then downsampling the signal to CD, and recording another version as a DVD-V with audio.

But my question is...

Should I use a bit of noise reduction / click removal? I'm not sure... I suppose not...

 

I do quite a fair few transfers from LP with my Audigy 2ZS. Best to use 96khz not 88.2khz as that is what the card natively supports. Worth recording in 24 bit too. What software do you intend to use?

As for noise reduction/click removal, it is up to you. Anything you do will compromise quality in some way or other, just a question of how noticable it is. Personally I just carefully apply click removal (worth finding decent software to do this), as for noise reduction, I hate it so never use it. If something had really bad high frequency noise i'd probably just make careful use of an EQ, never had to do this yet though.

 

I've made a few DVD Video (audio only) discs @ 24/96 and then downsampled the same wav files to 16/44 with no ill effects. I don't use noise reduction but I do use click removal. Time consuming but I think its work it.

 

I use an M-Audio Audiophile USB to get audio into the computer, then I edit the files in SoundForge using Waves plug-ins. If I'm going to make only CDs, I sometimes consider sampling at 88.2kHz, 24 bit. I have a couple other editors too (WaveLab, Adobe Audition)--it's mostly personal preference. I use only CD Architect for making the CDs--the level of control over the final CD layout is something I've grown used to.

 

Just curious--which program are you using for this? I've wanted to try this out but haven't picked up any software yet to try it with.

 

I'm using this:

http://www.eximius.nl/

DVD2one Audio Remaster

It has a clunky interface. But it works and the tracks will play back gapless. There was another package I was considering at the time:

http://www.audio-dvd-creator.com

But they had problems with gapless playback. Probably fixed by now. Of course both of these create DVD-Video discs, not to be confused with DVD-Audio.

Oh, and I'm using M-Audio Audiophile Firewire. Great little unit that I use with my laptop.

 

Javier, I don't have much time but I just wanted to say that noise reduction and click elimination should be viewed as different animals. If you are careful, you can completely remove most clicks without damaging any audio whatsoever. That's because a click is only a few milliseconds wide and the removal process only affects those few milliseconds give or take a little. I use a click/pop eliminator all the time but rarely, if ever, use NR.

 

Hey,

I do not recommend using 192k. I feel it's a waste of harddrive space and takes too long to process. I also don't hear any sonic benifit and feel it is gross overkill, especially for vinyl transfers. If fact, some pros believe that 192k sounds worse. I stop at 96k. It sounds very warm and smooth.

If your final destination is redbook, use 88.2k or 44.1k If you want to do DVD, use 96k. If you want to do both, consider recording at 96k, and test to see if you can agree with the degredation the sound will undergo if it has to undergo the sampling rate reduction from 96k to 44.1. The change in sound as a result of 96k > 44.1 is somewhat like compression to these ears, but it also depends on the software you use for the task. I have found that the sound of the SRC will vary with the software you use. Some of you are thinking that it's all math, and it is, but I can still hear differences.

My use of sampling rate depends on the project at hand. Sometimes i'll use 32/48, 32/44.1, 32/96, even 16/44.1 on occasion.

I probably don't have to tell you about dither and all that for your bit reduction. Just remember that every software package and plugin has it's own sound and possibilities for configurating the dither and noise shaping. Some are better than others.

Now, For vinyl transfers, I DO use light NR where needed. I do it in a way that does not noticably disturb the music. At best, I take away a smidgen of bottom, but I only scrape off up to 18Kz. You could still hear some surface noise the way I do it.

I definately declick! How I do it depends on the music, the sound of the recording, and what kind of clicks are present. I have no hard and fast rule about this either.

BTW, I use a prosumer card (E-mu 0404, and it sound every bit as good as the popular Audiophile 2496.24192 cards). They spec out about the same. Sound is not an issue with this card. Only thing is that it doesn't do 88.2, but I do not loose sleep over it.

I use Adobe Audition 1.5. The sample rate is adjustable on my soundcard and is not fixed.

 

I wouldn't downsample. The "downsampling" will only introduce an extra layer into the chain and a heightened chance for errors to creep in. Bit-depth reduction from 24- to 16-bit could also introduce errors--there's a lot of heavy-duty math going on there! Instead, I'd rip it directly to a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV or AIFF file, split into seperate tracks, and burn to CD.

If you are going to make a DAD (ie, DVD-v with audio), then I suggest 24-bit 96 kHz, because that is a "native" format for DVD playback.

I suggest any click removal be done manually, and that you not run a de-click filter. It may take a while longer to do it manually, but it will be worth it.