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RSS feedsIf Pop Idol makes you think that pop has gone idle and you find Fame Academy more of an insane academy, then perhaps your old music collection of vinyl LPs and cassette tapes can provide some solace.
But let's face it, it can be a bore having to spool cassette tapes backwards and forwards to find your favourite songs, and you may worry that your most precious and out-of-print records will be scratched if you play them too often on your record player. Besides, modern personal stereos and car stereos can play only CDs.
Wouldn't it be great if you could convert those tapes and records to CD? In fact, it's easy to do just this using a standard PC with a CD-RW drive and some cheap software.
You'll also be able to clean up the recordings you make of your old records and tapes to give them a new lease of life, free from clicks, pops, scratches and other audio glitches.
Converting your music collection to a digital format also means you'll be preserving your favourite songs against the ravages of time.
Music maestros
You may remember that we ran a feature on this two years ago but we have revisited the subject to include the latest technology. Back then, the operation was a bit tricky to perform as you needed lots of different software and had to fiddle around with different connections and volume levels before anything could be recorded.
Today, even standard CD-recording applications such as Roxio Easy CD Creator and Nero Burning Rom have special features to automate most of the process. The result is that even those new to computers can easily convert their music to CD.
Let's start by looking at how you make the connection between your music equipment, such as a record deck or a tape player, and your computer's soundcard.
First of all, if you are planning to record music from a turntable that isn't part of an all-in-one hi-fi system, then you need to be aware that although turntables generally have RCA phono outputs at the rear, these can't be plugged directly into your soundcard's inputs.
If you do try to make the connection, you'll find that the sound is hardly audible, severely lacking in bass and loaded with high frequencies. This is a result of the special way music is pressed onto vinyl. The music actually needs to be fed through a piece of electronics called a phono pre-amp to amplify it to sound normal.
If you're planning to convert lots of vinyl or tape to CD or MP3 format then you may find it more convenient to buy a dedicated pre-amp for your computer.
Pinnacle Clean Plus software comes complete with a hardware phono pre-amp that is powered by your computer's USB port and lets you easily connect a record deck to your soundcard.
However, most people won't want to shell out for a special phono pre-amp and if you're one of these folk then you can just take advantage of the pre-amp built in to the amplifier in your hi-fi. All you have to do is make a connection from your amplifier's line-out or Aux socket to your soundcard's line-in socket.
If you don't have a line-out or Aux socket on your hi-fi, you can use the headphone socket instead. However, you'll have to be careful not to turn the volume up too loud on your hi-fi as this will overload your soundcard and lead to distorted recordings. It is wise to spend a little time experimenting with low settings until you're happy with the levels.
If you are recording from a tape player then you can make the connections in pretty much the same way. The one big difference is that you won't need to worry about phono pre-amps. Instead, you can just connect line-out or Aux sockets on your tape deck to your soundcard's line-in socket.
Again, if your tape deck doesn't have these sockets on the rear, you can just use the headphone socket instead but, again, remember to keep the volume low so as not to distort your recordings.
Now that the basics are covered we're ready to get into the nitty-gritty of the conversion process.
Read carefully through the following Workshops before you get started and you should then have no problem converting all your favourite LPs and tapes into great-sounding, long-lasting audio CDs with the minimum of fuss.
WORKSHOP 1: Converting an LP directly to CD
Converting your old music collection to CD has a huge number of advantages. CDs are small and portable, they last longer than tape and are less prone to scratches than vinyl. You can keep digital copies of the music on your PC and you'll be able to create you own CD compilations.
For this example, we're going to use Windows XP and Nero Burning Rom 6 from Ahead Software. The steps are very similar in older versions and other CD-recording applications.
STEP 1
The first thing you'll need to do is make the physical connection between your turntable or cassette player and your computer's soundcard. As we've already mentioned, the process will be slightly different according to the equipment you are using but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.
When you've got everything connected, you should end up with your tape or record player feeding into your soundcard's line-in socket via a 3.5mm plug.
STEP 2
Before we attempt any recording, we first need to test the connection we've just made. Click on Start and then select All Programs, Accessories, Entertainment and choose Volume Control to open the mixer control for your soundcard. Click on the Options menu and click in the box for Recording so a tick appears inside.
Make sure there is a tick in the box marked Line-In (or Line-In 1 on some soundcards). The mixer controls for recording will now appear. Place a tick in the box marked Select at the bottom of the mixer control for Line-In and position the slider at around the halfway mark.
STEP 3:
Start Nero SoundTrax by clicking on Start, All Programs, Nero, Nero 6 and then select SoundTrax. Once the program opens, go to the Tools menu, select Wizards and then choose the LP to CD Wizard. Now you need to choose the correct input on your soundcard by clicking on the box marked 'Audio input line:' and selecting Line In.
Next, adjust the recording volume slider until the level meters are showing that the incoming audio peaks mostly in the yellow area. This will allow you to make the best quality recordings because you won't be overloading your soundcard's inputs. When you're happy with the recording level you have set, click on the red record button to start recording.
When you're finished recording your tracks, press the Stop button to cancel recording and then press the Next button to move on to the next stage of the conversion process.
STEP 4
Nero can automatically split up the recording into individual tracks by detecting pauses between tracks. However, you first need to set the maximum noise level for the pauses between tracks by adjusting the Silence Threshold to the required number of decibels - we tried 0.52dB.
Sometimes music stops in the middle of a song for dramatic effect. To make sure that the program doesn't recognise short pauses like these as a break between tracks, you can set a minimum duration for pauses and then, as a secondary precaution, a minimum track length.
Once you've set these values, all you have to do is click on the Detect button to divide the recording into different tracks. Click on Next when you've finished.
STEP 5
If your vinyl or tapes aren't in the best condition then you'll probably want to clean up your recordings a bit to get rid of clicks, hisses and pops. SoundTrax includes audio clean-up tools for just this purpose.
You can use the sliders to specify the level of the noise suppression filter (Denoiser), the scratch removal filter (Declicker) and the crackle removal filter (Decrackler).
You can play about with the settings and click on the Preview button to play back the recording and hear the effect. When you feel you've got a good balance between removing noise and suppressing too much sound, you can click on Next to move on to the next step.
STEP 6
We've almost completed all the stages now as we've recorded our LP as computer files, split it into individual tracks and then cleaned up those tracks using the audio cleaning tools.
Now all that's left to do is record them on a recordable CD - you probably have a CD-R (we've covered CD formats in our feature CD recording: Burning difficulties).
Tick the box marked Burn Project Immediately and then click on the Finish button. And that's it. Another screen will open and you simply need to press the Burn button to write your tracks on CD.
WORKSHOP 2: Converting an LP or tape to MP3
We've seen how you can convert your tapes or LPs to CD using your computer but you can also just convert your old music into a compressed digital format for storage, playback and sorting on your PC, or for transferring to a portable music player such as an Apple iPod or Creative Zen.
Naturally, you'll need to connect your hi-fi equipment to your computer's soundcard as we did in Workshop 1. It's best to use the MP3 file format when converting your music because this is compatible with the broadest range of software and hardware music players (see Rip it up: Creating the ultimate jukebox for more details on digital music formats). For this Workshop, we're going to be using Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6.
STEP 1
Click on Start and then select All Programs, Roxio Easy CD Creator, Audio Central and then Audio Central again. Now click on the File menu and select Record from Analogue Source. Next, click on Tools, Recording Source and select the input you are using on your soundcard. This is usually shown as Line In.
STEP 2
To monitor the incoming audio, you need to click on the Microphone button in the main program window. You should see the input meters at the right of the main window light up in time to your music. You're now ready to start recording so set your record or cassette player to the start of the track you want to record, press the record button in Audio Central and start your music playing.
STEP 3
Press the Stop button to finish recording. To delete any silence at the start of the recording you need to click on Edit and choose Select Leading Silence from the menu and then press the delete key on your keyboard.
To delete silence from the end of the track, you need to click on the Edit menu again but this time choose Select Trailing Silence and then press the delete key on your keyboard.
Click on the Edit menu and choose Select All, then click on the Tools menu and select Auto Locate Tracks to set the beginning and end points for the track you have just recorded.
STEP 4
To save your track, click on the File menu and select Save As. In the window that opens, click in the 'Save As Type' box and select the MP3 option from the list in the drop-down menu.
Leave the other settings at their default values and then enter a name for your track in the File name box. Now when you click save, the file will be saved in the MP3 compressed audio file format.
WORKSHOP 3: Converting MP3 files to CD
It's great having all your old music sitting on your PC in MP3 format after converting it from vinyl or tape, where you can play it through your PC's speakers.
The next option is to create a CD or compilation album that you can play on any CD player. We're going to use Nero 6 for these Workshops but Easy CD & DVD Creator is very similar.
STEP 1
As soon as you start Nero Burning Rom the program will display a number of different options. One of these is marked Music CD. Select this option and click on New and you will be taken to a window.
If you look carefully, you'll see that the Memory bar at the bottom of the screen displays the space available on the CD in minutes. According to the type of CD you are using, there will either be a maximum of 74 or 80 minutes available for your music.
STEP 2
In the file browser window, use the left-hand pane to find the folder where your MP3 tracks are stored and then use the right-hand pane to select the ones you want to add to your audio CD. You can either drag the files onto the CD one by one or you can hold down the Ctrl key and click on files to select lots of tracks in one go.
The Memory bar at the bottom of the screen will show you if you've gone past the maximum space available by turning red. If this happens, you can right-click on the file you want to remove from your CD and select Delete from the pop-up menu.
STEP 3
Your tracks will be automatically placed on the CD in the order in which you dragged and dropped them into the CD window. You can easily change this running order. Simply left-click on the track you want to move and then drag and drop it elsewhere on the list.
STEP 4
Now you have your running order sorted out, you are ready to record your CD. Left-click on the Recorder menu and select Burn Compilation. On the window that appears, click on Burn.
Your computer will now start writing the disc and when it has finished, Nero will notify you via a message and automatically eject the disc. All that's left is to try out your new CD; it should work on any CD player.
WORKSHOP 4: Creating a digital jukebox
Modern hard disks are so large that they can easily store your entire music collection in MP3 format and still leave plenty of space for your applications and everyday documents.
If you record your music in MP3 format then you'll have all your tracks stored in one place, be able to easily search through your music by artist or genre and quickly create playlists to suit your mood.
We've already seen how you can convert your vinyl and tape collection to MP3 so let's look at how you can copy your CDs onto your computer in MP3 format.
Doing this will allow you to mix these tracks from CD with the tracks you have converted from your old music collection to create a giant digital jukebox on your PC. We're going to use Musicmatch, which you can download here free of charge.
STEP 1
Start Musicmatch and insert an audio CD that you want to convert to MP3 format. Now Click on the Record button next to the Play button in the main Musicmatch window.
All the songs on your CD will be selected by default and if you are connected to the internet then Musicmatch will have automatically filled in the artist's name and the song title for each track.
If you don't want to convert a song, just click to take the tick out of the box next to the song title. Musicmatch is set to record files from CDs in MP3 format by default, so you can just click on the red record button in the Recorder window to start the conversion process.
Musicmatch will now tell you that it wants to configure your CD drive. Just click on OK to continue and Musicmatch will start creating the MP3 copies of your CD tracks.
STEP 2
As Musicmatch converts each file, it will place it in your Musicmatch library that is shown in the middle of the screen. You can use the library to find different songs. For example, to list songs by artist, click on the My Library button under the Manage heading on the left-hand side of the screen and then click on Artist.
STEP 1
Click on the cross next to My Library to close the list of sorting options for the library. We now want to add our existing MP3 files to the Library so click on the Add Files button.
The quick way to add all the MP3 files on your system without having to search in individual folders for tracks is to click on My Computer under the Folder list, and then in the drop down box under the File list choose MP3 Files.
Now just click the Add button. Musicmatch will scan all the drives on your PC and add any MP3 files it finds to your Library. You'll then be able to use the library functions to quickly search through all your tracks. Click on Exit when Musicmatch has finished finding your files.
STEP 1
Now all your MP3 music has been added to the Library, you can create a Playlist. First, click on the clear button in the Playlist window on the top right of the screen. Next, look through your Library and double-click on each track you want to add to your Playlist.
When you've selected all the tracks you want to use, you can save the Playlist by clicking on the Save button and giving the Playlist a name. You'll then be able to recall that Playlist at any time by clicking on the Load button.
Professional options
If money is no object and you want to get the very best sound from your old records then you will need to use an audio restoration system from companies such as Sonic Solutions and Cedar.
These are the systems used by professionals and they cost many thousands of pounds so they are out of the reach of even the richest consumers, but there's no doubting the restoration quality they offer. In fact, the British Library National Sound Archive funded Cedar's early development.
However, there are many companies that you can find on the internet who will offer to convert your LPs and tapes to CD. Generally, these services are expensive so you're much better trying the process yourself to see whether you're happy with the results before you decide to get professional help.
Many of these companies use noise reduction systems such as DART and Diamond Cut Pro, which are much less expensive than the high-end professional systems but still offer serious tools for cleaning up battered vinyl.
Don't forget that there are software packages, such as Clean, that make very complex noise-reduction technology available to consumers at a sensible price. Unless your records are in very bad condition you really shouldn't have much need for complex audio restoration anyway.
Copyright or wrong?
Is it legal to copy your LPs and tapes that you already own to CD? After all, you've already paid for the music so it's not like you're trying to cheat the system.
To check out the legal situation, we decided to talk to the British Phonographic Institute (BPI), the body that represents the interests of UK record labels.
Unfortunately, the news was not good. "Technically speaking, the legal position is that you can't do it," says Matt Philips, a BPI representative.
"When you buy an LP, you buy the right to listen to that music but not to copy it. So in that sense, it's the same as home copying. If you look at the small print on the LP it will say that unauthorised copying is prohibited, which means exactly that."
Essentially, when you buy music in LP form you are only paying to listen to it on an LP. Strictly speaking, the letter of the law says that if you want to listen to it on CD then you have to pay the rights holder again, which means buying the album again on CD.
"The reasoning behind it is that you've got to protect the rights of the rights holder, which in this case is the record company, to commercially exploit those recordings in the way that they see fit," says Mr Philips. "Home copying is outside of that so you're not allowed to do it."
However, the BPI is aware that the practice is common and the practicalities of the situation mean that it's highly unlikely that you would actually be prosecuted for such actions. After all, converting CDs to MP3 or recording LPs on cassette fall foul of the law in exactly the same way but it's not exactly frowned upon.
Nevertheless, although we know of nobody who has been in trouble for doing it - apart from those making many copies to sell - bear in mind that you will technically be breaking the law when you convert a copyrighted LP into CD format.
DETAILS:
Roxio
Easy CD & DVD Creator 6
Price: £50
www.roxio.com
Ahead Software
Nero 6
Price: £50 boxed, £37 download
www.nero.com
Pinnacle Systems
Clean Plus
Price: £60
www.pinnaclesys.com
See also:
Tape and film degrade each time you play them, but there is a way to convert your analogue memories into digital format. We show you how 24 Sep 2004
Tape and film degrade each time you play them, but there is a way to convert your analogue memories into digital format. We show you how 24 Sep 2004
Buying branded recordable CDs and DVDs could hit your pocket hard. We ask whether it's worth paying for a name 14 Jul 2004
The music industry has finally worked out how to make money out of internet music downloads. But will legal online music services be as popular as P2P sites? 18 Jun 2004All Software Applications
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