Sample workflow for LP digitization

This tutorial outlines a set of steps that can be used to digitize LPs with Audacity, ready for CD creation or loading into a digital jukebox or portable music player.

Basic workflow: Cleaning; recording level tests; artefact removal; trimming and labelling; volume adjustment; export.

It is not the only way of working, there are many alternatives. Like any recipe it can be adapted to suit your personal needs. Most of the clean-up steps are optional and need only be applied if your particular recording requires them.

You can work in AIFF rather than WAV if required.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Please note that this page is currently under construction - please bear with me for a few days while I work on it.

Overview

All of the processing in this tutorial is carried out with Audacity, however some users may prefer to use alternative software for specific sub-tasks like noise removal and the removal of clicks and pops (current Audacity Click Removal may not give as good results as other software).

Work with Audacity set with Project Rate 44.1kHz sample format 32-bit floating (the Audacity default). You can use 16-bit if you prefer, it will give smaller working file-sizes but you may lose a little quality in some of the processes. Export WAV files at 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM stereo as that is the standard required for making CDs and it will produce WAVs that are accepted for import by iTunes (and other music player software).

Note that this workflow does not at any stage necessitate the saving of an Audacity project (though you may wish to do that if you need to interrupt your work) rather it relies on the export of WAV files.

Workflow

Clean the LP

Cleaning the LP carefully and thoroughly before recording it will reduce the number of clicks and pops that you get and will improve the quality of your recording.

Placeholder: mention of cleaning methods (manual/automatic/dry/wet) and possibly links to a few generally recommendable cleaning machines.

Recording levels

Check the levels: play portions of the LP, or even the whole side of the LP, to check the recording levels that you set so that you avoid any clipping during the recording. Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6dB (0r 0.5 if you have your meters et to linear rather than dB. Tip: enlarging the meter toolbars by clicking and dragging on the toolbar helps with this task.

Capture

Record both sides into the project prior to doing the processing. You may find it helpful to work at a zoom level which will show the whole side of the LP in the Audacity window. You can if you wish Work with single sides of an LP as it gives a smaller working set.

Place-holders for song labels

Mark the approximate label points while recording: place your cursor at the approximate point required and click CTRL+B – alternatively you can mark the current recording point, while recording, between tracks by using CTRL+M.

Raw master

Export a single WAV for this side of the LP at 32-bit float. You should keep this WAV file as a raw-capture file that you can return to later for any future re-editing, or to strt over with the editing if you damage the project while editing.

Remove DC-offset

Placeholder: Use Audacity's Normalization effect - with no Normalization

Remove subsonic Rumble & LF noise

Placeholder: use Audacity to filter out frequenciesbelow 20Hz - or use the recipe that;s in the tutorial on 78s?

Whether you need to or not will depend on the quality of your turntable/arm/cartridge and its placement.

Remove clicks and pops

Process this file through the ClickRepair software: I change the ClickRepair defaults to: De-click 30, Crackle off ,Pitch Protection on, Method wavelet - select Reverse for particularly precussive recordings. ClickRepair will returns a 32-bit float WAV file with “-cr” appended to its file name for example: side<n> -cr.WAV

Remove hiss & HF noise

Placeholder: use Audacity's Noise Removal effect

Whether you need to or not will depend on the quality of your LPs and your stylus/cartridge.

Clean the inter-track gaps

These are rarely truly silent so replace them with silence by selecting the gap and using CTRL+L: Shorten the inter-track gap to around a maximum of 2 seconds.

Adjust label positions

Leave a tail of say 1.5 seconds and a run-in of 0.5 seconds.

Fade-ins/outs

You may wish to more cleanly fade out the track ends and fade in the track beginnings (normally fadeouts should be longer and fade-ins, if required, quite short).

Alternative

You may find it easier to do: fade-out, silence gap, fade-in, shorten gap, adjust label position – in that order, one track at a time.

Track names

Edit the labels for song-names: we suggest using 01 <song-name_1>, 02 <song-name_2>, etc. as this helps keep them in the right order for CD production or loading into iTunes etc. You may find that changing the zoom level will help you with this task - or you can tab to the next label by ensuring that the focus is on the current lable and then clicking the Tab key.

Amplitude adjustment

Adjust the amplitude of the recording. Use Effect > Amplify as the last editing step to bring the amplitude up to around -1dB. Use Amplify rather than Normalize as Audacity’s Normalize effect operates on each stereo channel independently and can thus affect/damage the stereo balance. If your equipment is not balanced you may prefer to use the Normalize effect.

Compression

Placeholder: Use Audacity's compressor

Export a set of WAVs

Use Export Multiple to produce a set of WAVs at 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM stereo files (this the Red Book standard for CDs). Audacity will down-sample on export from 32-bit to 16-bit and you may wish to ensure that dithering is applied. Use triangular dithering – you set the dithering in Preferences . See this article in the Audacity Wiki for an explanation of dithering.

Backup

Backup your WAV files: you don't want to lose all that valuable work and do it all over again, do you? Use two separate external 1TB USB disks to hold the WAVs - each LP can be stored in its own named folder by artist (or composer for classical) to make retrieval easier.

Alternative software you may wish to consider using

Placeholder

Links

|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD

Placeholder: link to GoldWave

Brian Davies's ClickRepair software can be accessed from here: http://www.clickrepair.net/

Link to: Chris's Dynamic Compressor