Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD

ToDo - editorial decisions. I've integrated the 'splitting tracks' tutorial and generally cleaned up a bilt - Bill

You can use Audacity and your computer to record sound from any external device which outputs an audio signal. Although cassette tapes and records (LPs) are the most popular examples, Audacity can be used just as easily to record audio from the following:

• Open-reel tape decks
• Minidisc (MD) players
• Radios
• Mixers
• Video cassette recorders (VCRs) and DVD players (recording from a dedicated line-out containing audio output only)
• Televisions (via a SCART adaptor cable connected to the computer sound card, or through a TV or VCR's audio out)
• Personal digital voice recorders (DVRs)
• Portable MP3 players (such as iPods)
• Other computers

Connecting the equipment

You need to run an appropriate cable from an "out" jack on the external device (e.g. a tape deck, or an amplifier or receiver connected to a turntable) to the line-in port of the computer. You should not connect a standard turntable directly to a computer - see the next section below. A typical cable you might use is a stereo mini to RCA cable:

The RCA end might connect to the jacks in the back of your cassette player:

The stereo-mini end should be connected to your computer's line-in jack, usually found in the back. The line-in is normally coloured blue, but check your computer manual. You should not generally connect to the microphone port of the computer, as this port, besides typically being monophonic, will excessively amplify the stronger signals produced by a tape deck or receiver/amplifier. The only exception to this might be the outputs of some personal recorders supplied with a minijack intended for connection to the microphone input of a recorder. To record in stereo, plug the audio cable into the blue port.

The terms "jack", "socket", and "port" can be used interchangeably. Until the advent of the Walkman in the 1980s, audio sockets were frequently 1/4 inch in diameter. Although professional audio equipment and guitar amplifiers continue to use this 1/4 inch standard, most contemporary consumer audio equipment has standardised on sockets that are half that size. Often called a 'minijack' or a 'miniplug', these sockets will appear as 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) diameter holes. On computers, minijacks are used for the headphone, microphone (if present), and line-in (line-input) sockets. Most portable music players - including cassette players, CD players, and MP3 players - use minijacks exclusively for the headphones. However, some smartphone devices that can also play music use a 2.5 mm jack to maintain compatibility with hands-free telephony devices. Adapters to allow use of 2.5 mm equipment with 3.5 mm jacks are readily available at electronics stores and online. Another significant exception to this rule involves the headphone jacks used in better quality non-portable (home) audio equipment, such as home theater receivers and cassette decks, where the larger 1/4 inch jack is normally used. Also note that audio plugs (which fit into these sockets) can be either monophonic or stereophonic. A stereophonic plug can be identified by its use of three metallic rings separated by an insulator, while monophonic plugs will have only two rings. Note that the very tip of the plug and the shaft itself are both considered 'rings'. Some electronic stores sell cables that are monophonic, so it would be wise to inspect the plug to make sure it is what you want prior to making a purchase. In general, and especially if you are a novice, you will always want to purchase cables that are stereophonic.

If your device does not have RCA out, the headphone jack is a good "out" jack to choose, since it will allow you to adjust the output level of the source device. If you choose this approach, the most typical setup is to use a cable with a 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) stereo jack at one end (for connecting to the device's headphone jack), and an identical 1/8 inch stereo jack on the other end (for connecting to the line-in socket on your computer). If the device you are recording from has a 1/4 inch (6.3 mm) headphone jack, you will need to get a 1/4 to 1/8 inch adaptor. Such an adapter is often included free with most new headphones, or can be purchased separately at any electronics store.

Some professionals with high-grade equipment would prefer to use the source device's "aux out", "tape out", "line-out" or "record" output (if so equipped), since that approach bypasses an unnecessary stage of (possibly low-quality) amplification, and standardises the signal at a fixed (non-adjustable) level of approximately 1 - 1.5 volts, resulting in a higher quality recording. If you choose this approach, you will need a cable that has dual RCA red/white plugs at one end (for connecting to the "aux out", "tape out" or "record" jack of the device) and a stereophonic 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) plug at the other end (for connecting to your computer's line-in port).

Special note on connecting a tape deck

If you wish to record from an audio cassette or a reel-to-reel tape deck, you can connect that deck directly to your computer without the need for any external amplifier or receiver. Simply connect the deck's "line-out" RCA jacks to your computer's "line in" jack, using a cable described above. You can also connect to the headphones out jack of an integrated cassette deck or to that of an amplifier connected to the tape deck. If you do this (or if the "line-out" volume of your deck is adjustable), it's best to set that level quite close to its maximum, and adjust the recording level using Audacity's input volume slider (see below). This helps keep the inherent tape noise to a minimum in the signal sent to Audacity. If the cassette you are playing has been encoded with Dolby ® as denoted by the Dolby Double-D symbol, then you must enable Dolby playback on your tape deck, or the recording of the tape will sound over-bright.

Before transferring your cassette, you may want to clean and align your tape heads.

Special note on connecting a standalone turntable

If you have a standalone turntable, you must not connect it directly to your computer. Instead, you must connect it to an amplifier or receiver with a "phono" or turntable input, or to a phono pre-amplifier - and then record from the amplifier's "line out" or "tape out" jacks. This is for two reasons: (1) the audio signals produced by a phono cartridge are too weak to record directly, and (2) most records manufactured from the 1950s onwards were produced with a standard type of equalization called "RIAA", which emphasizes high frequencies and de-emphasizes (reduces) low frequencies. If left uncorrected, this will result in a recording that sounds very "tinny". All amplifiers containing a "phono" stage will both boost the signal to line-level so it's suitable for input into a tape deck or a computer, and will reverse the RIAA equalization so that the records sound "normal" again. If you have an integrated "stack system" or "entertainment center" into which you plug your speakers, your record deck is already connected to a suitable amplifier.

Special note on connecting a USB turntable

A USB turntable is a relatively new kind of turntable which is designed to connect directly to your computer's USB port. The concerns noted in the 'standalone turntable' section above do not apply here, as the necessary pre-amplification and RIAA equalization are already built into the USB turntable. There are some special playback and recording device settings you need to observe when using USB turntables - see our help page on USB turntables.

Once these settings are adjusted, the remaining instructions for recording, editing and exporting your recording remain the same as for all other equipment, and can be read by jumping down to Recording, editing and exporting, Step 6), below.

Special note on connecting a Minidisc player

Some users find that the line-level output of Minidisc players is too strong for recording on a computer and causes distortion, since its level is not adjustable. If you are encountering this problem, try connecting your cable to the player's headphone jack instead. Since the strength of the headphone signal is easily adjustable, you can then reduce the signal level sent to the PC. On most players, this means using the same shared line out/headphones out socket/jack, but choosing the headphones out option in the player's "Sound Out" Preferences menu.

Setting up Audacity

1. Click Edit > Preferences (or Audacity > Preferences on a Mac) and click on the "Devices" tab. Set both the playback and recording devices explicitly to your inbuilt sound or to the computer sound device your cable is plugged into. Do not select "Microsoft SoundMapper" on Windows machines. If you are on Windows Vista, set the input source here to "Line-In". On a Mac, you can also often set the input source here. Otherwise, choose the source as in Step 3 below.
2. If you want to record in stereo, change the recording channels on the same "Devices" tab to "2 (stereo)".
3. Select "Line-in" or "Line" in Audacity's Mixer Toolbar dropdown input selector (unless you already selected this in step 1):
   
   
   
   
   If you are on a Mac and could not choose the input source in the "Devices" tab, do so in Apple Audio-MIDI Setup.
4. Decide if you want to "monitor" your recording, that is, hear it played back as you make it. If you do, and you are on Windows or Linux, you can use what's known as "hardware playthrough". To do this, open the system sound mixer e.g. the Sounds and Audio Devices in the Control Panel of Windows XP or earlier, unmute line-in as a playback device, and turn the volume up. If you are on OS X, simply go to the Preferences "Recording" tab and enable "hardware playthrough". If this does not work, or if the playback and recording devices on the "Devices" tab are different, choose "software playthrough" on the "Recording" tab, which works on all operating systems. Note the sound with software playthrough will be heard after a slight delay, and causes some extra load on the computer.
5. Set the volume level of your recording input. Click on the downward pointing arrow in the right hand (red) VU recording level meters:
   
   
   
   
   and click "Start Monitoring". While playing a loud part of your tape or record, adjust the input level slider on the Mixer Toolbar so the recording meters are almost reaching the right-hand end of the scale. Don't let the meter bars actually reach the right edge, or the red hold lights to right of the meter will come on, indicating you'll have distortion in the recording. If the recording level meters are not visible, click View > Toolbars > Show Meter Toolbar.

Help if you don't have a line-in port

Some Macs and notebook/laptop computers do not have a line-in port. In that case check if your microphone port can be toggled to line-in with a switch, or by changing the recording source in the software. On some laptops this line-level source is called "mix" or "stereo mix", in which case you could select this source in the system sound preferences (or on Windows and Linux, in Audacity as described above). If you see a line-in option available, always choose that as your recording source. If you have neither a line-in port nor any way to switch the microphone port to line-in, you need to add a line-in by adding a USB sound card, or other suitable audio input/output device that connects to the computer via USB. Examples of recommendable input/output devices are the Griffin iMic which has a standard 1/8 inch input, and the Behringer UCA202 which has left and right RCA inputs.

If recording into a USB device, set this as the "Recording Device" in the Devices tab of Audacity Preferences. Where you use a simple I/O device like iMic or Behringer, the Audacity Mixer Toolbar input selector will not be in use, although you'll need to set the line/mic toggle switch on iMic to "line". In the case of a full USB sound card you will need to select line-in as the input source in the same way as you choose input sources for your inbuilt audio device.

Recording, editing and exporting

Create a new Project by clicking File > Save Project As. Start your recording by pressing the red Record button, then starting the player. You can pause and restart the recording between tracks or sides with the blue Pause button, which keeps your recording on one track within Audacity. This is the easiest way to record into Audacity, because having just one track on screen allows you to split the recording up into the different songs or sections using "labels". See Splitting recordings into separate tracks below for more on this.

If you do want to start new tracks for sides of the tape or LP on a new track in Audacity, then press the yellow Stop button to stop recording, get the LP or tape to where you want to go to, then press the red Record button in Audacity and start the player. The recording will now restart on a new track.

When you have finished recording, press the yellow Stop button and save your recording into the Project you started (File > Save Project). Now the data is safe, you can edit it in Audacity if you want to (for example, cut redundant pieces out), or come back to it later by re-opening the saved Project file with the File > Open command. See Editing: Cut, Paste, and More for help with editing.

You may also want to remove steady noise such as tape hiss or vinyl roar using Audacity's Noise Removal, and clicks from records using its Click Removal

When you are happy with your editing, you need to export the recording as an audio file such as WAV or MP3 that you can either play on your computer media player (e.g. on iTunes or Windows Media Player), or which you can burn to an audio or MP3 CD. See the About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio CDs and MP3 CDs below about the difference between audio and MP3 CDs. To export a single audio file, use the File > Export ... command. If your recording contains multiple tracks or songs, you may want to export these from your Project as separate audio files. This would be necessary if you wanted to burn a CD with separate CD tracks corresponding to each track in your recording. To prepare your recording for export as separate audio files, see Splitting recordings into separate tracks below.

About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio CDs and MP3 CDs

WAV, AIFF and MP3 are the most common formats for exporting. WAV and AIFF files are of identical quality to the original recording, but take up 10 MB or more of disc space per minute. If you want to burn an "audio CD" that will play on any standalone CD player (note these only give you 74 - 80 minutes' playing time), export your recording as a 44100 Hz, 16 bit stereo WAV or AIFF file. See: Audio CDs.

If you want your exported audio file to be smaller (you'd want to do this for example if you wanted to make it available on the internet), you can export as MP3, at the expense of losing some of the audio quality of the original. You can also burn the MP3s to a "data CD" or "MP3 CD" which will give you (at Audacity's default MP3 export settings) over 11 hours' playing time on the CD. Note you can only play these kind of CDs in computers, MP3 CD players (including some newer automotive players), or some DVD players. Generally, you will see an MP3 logo printed somewhere on the device if it is MP3-capable. Note that most players manufactured prior to 2005 will not be able to play MP3 CDs. To export as an MP3, you first need to add the LAME encoder to your system and show Audacity where it is.

If you are exporting your file to a media program which has its own "Library" such as Windows Media Player, iTunes or Real Player, you would generally drag your exported file into the program's Library, or use the media program's built-in commands to add the exported file to its Library. For more help on importing your audio file into iTunes (e.g. for burning to CD or for putting on an iPod), see Exporting to iTunes and iPod.

Splitting recordings into separate tracks

The following tutorial demonstrates one way to divide a recording into separate tracks for export in preparation for burning those tracks to an audio CD. Others may recommend slightly different procedures. It is worth going through this tutorial as it introduces the basic concepts of identifying and marking the boundaries between tracks, and using labels to identify tracks and support the Export Multiple command.

A note about CDs and CDDA frames

The audio recorded on a CD is broken into "frames" of 2352 bytes each, read at 75 frames per second. Some CD burners and/or CD burning software may pad the last frame of a track with silence to fill the 2352 bytes, and this may result in a tiny but audible click between tracks. For this reason it is safest to edit your recording so that all track boundaries fall exactly on CDDA frame boundaries. Audacity makes it easy to do this by selecting "CDDA Frames" from one of the drop-down menus in the Selection Bar.

Live recordings versus studio recordings

Sometimes tracks on live recordings flow together. If you want to split a live recording into tracks but want to maintain an uninterrupted flow from track to track on the CD you need to have burning software that is capable of burning a CD in "disk-at-once" (DAO) mode, and is capable of setting the "gap" or "pause" between tracks to 0 seconds.

Step 1 - Remove unwanted audio from the recording

• Set Snap to: Off in the Selection Bar
• Click the Skip to Start button
• Zoom in until you can see from the start of the recording to the start of the music
• Click and drag from the start of the music to the start of the recording
• Click on Edit > Delete

Similarly, remove unwanted audio from the end of the recording and from the middle (between sides 1 and 2 of the LP or cassette).

Step 2 - Mark tracks and optionally edit out the silent sections between tracks

• In the Selection Bar, change selection units to CDDA frames by clicking on one of the downward pointing arrows in any of the three boxes to the right of Snap To
• Set Snap To: On

For studio recordings (recordings with silences between the tracks)

Our goal is to fade out each track so that the vinyl surface noise (or cassette hiss) doesn't suddenly cut off at the end of each track. We'll do this fade out after the music actually ends. The amount of time to leave after the music ends is a judgement call on your part - whatever sounds good to you. For the purpose of this tutorial we will leave about one-half second after the music fades out.

• Zoom in on the silent area between tracks 1 and 2. Listen for where the sound actually fades out.
• Using the selection tool click at the point where you want the track to end - about one half second after the sound fades out - then click on Edit > Split.
• Click as close as possible to the start of the next track, then click on Edit > Split.
• Double-click the resulting clip.
• Click on Edit > Delete or press the delete key to remove the selected clip.
• Click at the point where you want the fade out to begin, then drag the selection up to the split line.

When the right selection edge reaches the split line it will snap to the split line, "lighting up" in yellow to let you know you've hit it.

• Click on Effect > Fade Out to make the fade.

Continue in this manner removing the silence between tracks and adding the fades.

For live recordings (recordings with no silences between tracks)

• Click as close as possible to the start of track 2
• Click on Edit > Split.

Continue in this manner setting the split points between tracks.

Note that you may want to do a fade out on the last track of side 1.

Save your work!

Step 4 - Maximize the volume of the recording

If you did the original recording properly and avoided clipping, the recording is probably not at the maximum possible volume. In order for the CD you burn to be at maximum volume and thus match other CDs in your collection we need to fix this.

• Click on Edit > Select > All
• Click on Effect > Amplify

The Amplify effect will automatically fill in the values needed to maximize the volume of the recording

• Click the OK button to apply the Amplify Effect

Step 5 - Naming the tracks

• Double-click on the first clip
• Click on Tracks > Add Label at Selection
• Type the name of the track into the label then press the enter key.

Continue in this manner naming all the tracks. You should now have something that looks similar to this:

Save your work!

Step 6 - Export

Congratulations, you are now ready to export the tracks.

About the Metadata Editor

Metadata in this context refers to information stored in the audio file such as Artist, Album and Song Title. While this is widely used with MP3 files, it is less useful for AIFF and WAV files. To avoid having the Metadata Editor pop up for each track you are about to export, click on Preferences, click on the Import / Export tab, and uncheck Show Metatdata editor prior to Export step.

• Click on File > Export Multiple
  • Choose the Export Format from the pop-up menu: for CD burning choose AIFF if you're using a Mac, or WAV if your using Windows or Linux.
  • Click the Choose... button and pick the place where your exported tracks will be saved.
  • Under Split Files Based On:
    • Labels should be selected.
    • Include audio before first label should be unchecked, as there is no audio before the first label.
  • Under Name Files, Using Label/Track Name should be selected
  • Click the Export button. A progress dialog will appear. When the process is finished a confirmation dialog will appear listing the files that were created.

The tracks are now ready to import into the CD burning software of your choice.