Transferring Your Old LPs and Tapes to CD

Danbury Area Computer Society

November 8, 2005 General Meeting

Bruce J. Preston

Topics

Is It Legal?Background: Different Recording

TechnologiesWhat Hardware Do I Need?What Software Do I Need?What Kind of Blank CDs?The ProcessDemonstration

Is It Legal?

Simplified Answer: Yes, it is legal for personal use under the “Fair Use” of copyrighted materials umbrella. Fair Use lets the owner of copyrighted material, such as LPs, tapes, CDs, etc., make a copy (or copies) of material for personal use. These copies may be made on a different media - “Format Shifting” which is our case, or for “Time Shifting” - such as video taping a TV program that is shown at a time when you can’t conveniently watch it.

Fair Use does not permit you to make copies for distribution to others.

Recording Technologies

Analog Recording Edison’s Phonograph Monophonic Recording Stereophonic Recording Tape Recording

Digital Recording Digital Tape Recording Compact Disk Recording

Edison’s Phonograph

Cylindrical DrumsMechanical

Amplification

Monophonic Groove

At a given height up the walls, the distance between the walls is constant, e.g. when left wall moves towards center of record, right wall moves same distance.

The stylus rides the walls and moves side-to-side.

Stereophonic Groove

Walls are independent of each other.

Stylus follows contours of each wall.

Magnetic Tape (Analog)

The amount of magnetically charged iron particles bound to the tape is proportional to the strength of the audio signal.

There may be two (stereophonic) or more tracks. (Anybody here remember 8-track?)

Tape may be erased by re-aligning the magnetic charge and then re-used.

Terminology

Some Recording Terminology Dynamic Range

Distortion

The difference in sound level (loudness) between the highest and lowest parts of a sound clip.

Discernable ‘wrongness’ in the sound caused by a problem in the source or recording process. Some may be repaired.

• Clipping

• Clicks, Pops, Wow

• Background ‘Noise’

Dynamic Range

For an LP, the loudness is determined by how far the stylus must move from side-to-side.

Mechanical restrictions limit the range of motion for the stylus.

For tapes, dynamic range is limited on the high end by ‘saturation’ of the magnetic charge, and on the low end by background ‘hiss’.

Distortion

For an analog recording if the maximum dynamic range is reached, ‘clipping’ occurs, and is very noticeable.

Pops - usually caused by a scratch or dust in the groove.

Wow - usually caused by a warp in the record or worn belts in a tape deck.

Background ‘noise’ - Tape “Hiss”.

A Pure Tone

A tone may be seen on an oscilloscope - signal is vertical, time is horizontal.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

A Spoken Word

Sound contains many frequencies at various loudness levels.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

Measuring Waves

Imagine a piling in the water that has a yardstick

Every second you record the instantaneous height of the water

Now imaging being able to record the height of the water every 1/100th of a second.

Or 1/10,000th of a second.

Digital Recording - 1

Here we have a signal or “wave form” plotted over time.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

Digital Recording - 2

Here we ‘digitize’ it by assigning each signal strength at an instant of time a number, in this example, between 0 and 9.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

Digital Recording - 3

If we then use the numbers to “play back” the signal, we would get an approximation of the original signal.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

Digital Recording - 4

If the time interval for reading the signal strength is made shorter, we get a more accurate representation.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

Digital Recording - 5

The signal strength values are recorded as numbers on the CD by using a low-powered laser to ‘burn’ numeric data on a thin layer of metallic film embedded within the CD.

The signal is ‘played back’ by reading the reflections of the burned spots.

Digital Recording - 6

Instead of 10 discrete signal levels as in the previous examples, a CD can handle 65,536 different levels.

The standard ‘sampling rate’ for a CD is 44,100 samples per second.

A CD can hold about 74 minutes of sound when recorded in this way

What Hardware Do I Need?

A turntable appropriate for your records, or a tape player for your tapes.

A preamplifier or receiver to process the signal from the turntable or tape player and send them to the computer.

A personal computer (PC or Mac) with a high-quality sound card that has a ‘mic’ or ‘line in’ jack and a ‘16-bit’ sound card and a 16x or faster CD-R (or CD-RW) drive.

What Hardware Do I Need?

Turntable Receiver or Pre-Amplifier

PC with•Sound Card

•Hard Disk

•CD burner

What Hardware Do I Need?

Typical requirements for a PC are Pentium II class, 233MHz processor (400

MHz for Windows 2000 or XP) Windows 98/Me - 64MB RAM, Windows

2000/XP - 128MB RAM at least 1GB of available hard disk space

Cables (next slides)

What Hardware Do I Need?

The ‘output’ signal on the preamplifier or receiver is usually provided via a pair of “RCA phono-plug” jacks.

Turntable or tape deck is usually connected via “RCA phono-plug patch cables”

What Hardware Do I Need?

To get from your preamplifier or receiver to your computer you need a cable with a pair of RCA phono-plugs on one end of the cable, and a 3-conductor stereo ‘mini-plug’ on the other.

You can get this cable at RadioShack, or many other electronics stores.

What Software Do I Need?

CD Burning Software EZ Creator Nero Burning ROM RecordNow

Audio Editing Software Cakewalk Pyro * Voyetra Audio Surgeon *

* Newer versions than mine include burning software

One from each category:

What Kind of Blank CDs?

You typically want blank “CD-R” CDs.You may purchase ‘spindle packs’ of

25, 50 or 100. At larger quantities, they may be as little as $0.10 each. They are often sold with rebates available as part of the Sunday newspaper flyer promotions from Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, etc.

The Process

Select the correct format for the saved audio file - based upon how you intend to play it back. ( CDA, WAV, MP3 )

Adjust the ‘recording level’ - CRITICAL!“Play” the sound source into the

computer, recording as you go. This is known as ‘ripping’.

The Process

“Check” the audio cut - make sure that you haven’t exceeded the maximum recording level which would cause clipping. Clipping can not be repaired.

“Edit” the audio cut - remove excess lead-in, excess trailer, remove pop, hiss, etc.

“Save” the audio cut.

The Process

Assemble your target CD from cuts and place them in the selection window of your CD burner software.

“Burn” the CD.Test play the CD.

Demonstration

How to Connect the Equipment Turntable to Preamplifier or Receiver Tape Player to Preamplifier or Receiver Preamplifier or Receiver to Computer

Demonstration

Adjusting the Recording LevelDemonstration of what ‘Clipping’ sounds

like (and looks like on the PC screen) if you used too high a recording level.

Editing lead-in and trailer.Removing pops and otherwise

improving audio quality.Burning a CD.

Demonstration

iTunes Freeware from Apple for Mac or PC

Organizes by multiple categoriesDownloads from Apple StoreInterfaces to iPodsBurns CDS

Demonstration

iPod•MP3 player•Photos•Playlists•Games•Calendar

•Audio Books•Notes•Stopwatch•Contacts

What I used for the demo.

Recording Software: Audio SurgeonBurning Software: RecordNow!

The method would be much the same for other products, these happen to be the ones that I use. RecordNow!is the full-feature ‘upgrade’ of the burning software that came bundled with my notebook computer. I tried the free demonstration versions (downloaded from publisher web-sites) of both Voyetra’s Audio Surgeon and Cakewalk Pyro, and just happened to prefer the ‘feel’ of Audio Surgeon.

Sources

Voyetra Audio Surgeon Available by download at $29.95

www.voyetra.com

Sources

Cakewalk Pyro Package - $39.95 Download - $29.95 www.cakewalk.com

Sources

Stomp RecordNow! by Veritas Now www.sonic.com

Download $29.99 to $69.99Various versions, capabilities, packaging

Sonic also markets and continues the EZ Creator brand previously by Roxio (which started out as Adaptec!)

Sources

Nero Nero Burning ROM www.nero.com $79.99 to $99.99 often bundled with a new CD-R or CD-

RW drive

Questions?

Thank You, and Good Luck with Your Recordings!