Simple LP to CD Program

Hi
Can anyone recommend an extremely simple LP to CD program including a button for 'clean everything'?
I have Clean Plus, Wavelab Lite and Wave Repair but I do not want to learn all the myriad options. I just want to record to hard drive, clean everything and put it onto Cd. Each CD should be like the LP. No playlists etc
One button stuff would be wonderful!

 

Sorry, bro, its more complicated that that. Even if you were to find that, you would most likely be unhappy with how much or how little the NR circuits did. It takes a lot of effort to do it right.

 

I don't know how how those programs work, but I use Cool Edit and if I chose, I could get a decent setting and run the whole file at once. It might not necessarily be the best for the end result, but it might be acceptable. I tested out some other thing called Click Fix (I think thats was it) and it works a lot quicker than the Cool Edit one and seems to do an OK job. If you do Inverted pasting with the original file, it seems to be fixing a bit too many non-clicks if the settings are too high. But, if you don't go nuts with it, it will probably do what you need it to do.

It works with Cool Edit, not sure about your stuff though.

 

Sorry. It ain't gonna happen! No one gets a free lunch! There is no such thing as a "one button operation" giving you that kind of result. If you want your CD-Rs to sound just like the LPs without the noise, you are going to have to WORK at it and LEARN!

Good luck, bro!

 

Right on, grant!

 

Most of the members here are very fussy about their music, and that includes CD-Rs of vinyl. If, as you say, you want the CD-R to sound like the LP, there's no need to "clean it up" with any declicking program. Use your Wave Repair to record [I personally like the big recording level indicators] to your hard drive. I believe new versions of of Wave Repair will provide you with track splitting [if not, the other software you've got will]. Then burn your CD-R.

Now should you want your CD-R to sound *better* than the LP you're using as a source, then, as has been mentioned by other members, you're in for a lot of work manually declicking each file. Even the guy who built Wave Repair doesn't recommend using the auto declicking feature on his software.

Welcome to these forums, BTW.

 

Between work and being married, I manage to crank out an LP-to-CD-R restoration in about two and a half days, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. But I take great pains to make sure all of the clicks and other noises are out or greatly reduced. I believe in "mastering", which means that if something needs level adjustments, i'll do it. I may do some sort of EQ. I fade the ends and space the gaps between songs. I even agonize over which noise shaping and dither to use.

 

Grant, so do I. It's an agonizing, albeit satisfying "labor of love." Truth be known, for dozens and dozens of LP transfers, I no longer listen to the LPs themselves as the CD-Rs I've made comprise the songs I want from those LPs and in most cases the CD-Rs sound superior [to my ears at least] than the original LPs [no pops, no clicks]. But ellis seems to want only a basic LP transfer. That being the case, my post reflected the minimum he'd be required to do to achieve that goal. Hey, different strokes. . . .

 

What dither settings are you using?

 

Thanks for the interesting replies. My worst fears have been realised.
The choice is between listening to the music and listening to the quality of the recording , as it always was at the upper end of vynil playing equipment.

My LP collection has been thinned down to around 500 discs which I now want to put onto CD. If each one takes 2 hours then it is 6 months work if I work a 40 hour week. I suspect that it would be considerably longer.

I have no real interest or enjoyment in the process of recording, it is like mowing the lawn - a necessary chore.

rontokyo assessed the situation accurately.

So what to do? I think straight recording with Wave Repair(I like the meters). Maybe occasional auto declicking only, and then record to CD, with all the imperfections of the originals. At least they will sound like old friends. I might otherwise miss that click in the second movement!

And bin the worst LPs.

The sound card is Turtle Beach Santa Cruz; Shure V15 cartridge;SME arm;Thorens turntable;Steinberg pre amp;Athlon XP2000+;160GB HDD;1GB DDR RAM.

Comments appreciated.

 

I am in similar situation because I have been picking up some cheap vinyl that I don't have on CD and need to dub them. But, the fact that I have te ability to take out any clicks is appealing to me, but probably takes MUCH TOO MUCH time for something I will listen to infrequently. I have been doing a good job with some Beatles transfers, but I think they are worth it in the end.

I tried Click Fix which seems to work much, much faster than the stock declicker in Cool Edit, so for general listening, I may use it more often.

 

You might find keeping a simple analog front end (turntable, pre) might be more convenient to listen to these LPs. Grant and Mikey are correct in communicating, if you cannot do it right, you might not find it's worth it at all. It takes a bit of practice and skill, gobs of time.

It cannot and should not be simple, unfortunately.

 

This is how I do it:

1. Record an LP with Feurio.
2. Insert track markers.
3. Adjust volume level, if necessary. (Do not clip!) Feurio does this on the fly while burning.
4. Burn it onto CDR.

Quite simple. Other way is to use a standalone CD recorder. Life is too short for declicking and re-EQing, but it can be very educational. I tried with some ABBA LPs but "fixing" the EQ on those was just impossible (for me, that is).

 

If In recall, he did say he wanted to use a "one button" procedure, and didn't want to learn how to use the features of the program. That tells me he wants to clean up the vinyl.

 

I use anywhere fron .5 to .7 bits, with the C2 noise shaping.

 

Different strokes...

I enjoy the restoration process. I also work 40+ hours a week.

 

I usually record directly from my preamp into a Panasonic SV-3800 DAT recorder and then digitally transfer the DAT through a Digidesign 888/24 interface to my computer for editing and such. This is basically the same idea as the "stand alone burner." I use Digidesign Pro Tools 5 (if I need plug-ins), Sound Designer II (which is the best basic stereo editing program I've ever seen) or TC Works Spark XL 2.5, which is another great stereo editing program with plug-ins, but not as user friendly as the Digidesign stuff. I don't tend to denoise or EQ any of my vinyl unless it really needs it, but I will get rid of stray clicks because it can make a huge difference in the end result without affecting the music at all. Most of the vinyl that I've transferred lately has needed no EQ at all - it was very fat and bright right from the record.

 

I seriously think Click Fix will do what he wants it to do in one quick shot.

 

What kind of difference is there with the fractional bit setting and C2 noise shaping to using 1 bit dither and Triangular/No Noise shaping?

Thanks,

BOB

 

Try it. Try them all!

 

the thing is that I don't know what they all do. I seem to have good results with what I am using. I will try yours and see what happens.

 

That's why you have to experiment. Since the top end is very important to me, I use the C2 noise shaping curve, with the Triangular p.d.f.. Something else may work for you and the music in question.

As far as the dither bits are concerned, the fewer bits you use, the more distortion you may get, but you can use noise shaping to compensate a bit, if the music calls for it.

More bits means you will introduce more dither noise into the music, but if you use noise shaping, you must very carefully consider which curve to use. Well, you have to do that anyway, but all that noise must go somewhere...you can't get rid of it...

 

With my SoundForge setup, I take a "typical" track from an LP and apply all of my "fixes" to it. Since I can save all the filter settings as presets, I then use a batch converter to do all of the cleanup. Before that, though, I go through and get rid of inter-track noise, and carefully fade out so I don't lose much, if any, of the original sound.

I will use a heavier de-click on a less-percussive track, and sometimes will do a second pass on these with the declicker after having done a lighter pass for all the tracks. I do use EQ, but not heavily. The declicker has a rumble filter in it. Works nice, doesn't kill the bass signal in the recording, but does get rid of some of that vinyl noise.

Just about any WAV editor will let you record.

We just need to realize that some of us just want to put their vinyl on CD as is for preservation, or for convenience to play it anywhere else. I don't have patience for LPs some times, especially when I'm working. But to load up a few CD changer slots with my own vinyl transfers is the way I usually do it. If they're cleaned up, they're all that much better. I'm waiting to see how the DVD-A thing plays out. I would gladly redo a few if I could at least get them on disk as 24/96 PCM, which would let me downsample to CD for other uses. At least I would have a higher-res copy as a master.

 

Rudy,

I have found through my own listening tests that the SF de-rumble filter in the NR plug-in takes out way too much bass that I can hear. It cuts off the sound at 30Hz. For this, I use the Cool Edit Pro scientific filter and cut out everything below 15Hz with a low spectral decay.

 

True. Not everyone has the time to do it properly or even cares that much about the results--just get the damn thing on CD! For many people it's a chore, like mowing the lawn [as the original poster said]. I'm wondering if software like Easy CD Creator wouldn't provide the easiest flat transfer. Download to hard drive, auto track split and record.