Regarding LP to CD transfers, really, all you need to know and do is as listed below. Ive done it a ton with many of my own, and the sound is wonderful. Really, you dont need to mess with scratches etc. . .If you mess with it to much, you can remove the "life" from the recording as well as the imperfections. Just make sure your record is clean and in good condition before you rip it. It will sound like a record not a CD. This really is a good thing even though some people will try to convince you otherwise. To just do a direct transfer, which I do recomend, this is how I do it, and ANYONE can do this if they put their minds to it. Keeping in mind, Im using a turntable with a built in Pre-Amp. Set up may be slightly different if you have to hook up a pre-amp.
The following is VERY usefull information to have, and wonderful when you figure it out. You can save any and all audio recordings you want, and put them onto your computer and onto CD if you wish:
Making mp3 from LP or any outside source is quite simple really if you have the basics and take a bit of time to figure out the rest. Basicly, you run a cable ( a Y cable, and you can get at radio shack for like 6 bucks) that goes from the audio outs or speakers of the source into the audio in in your soundcard on the computer. Or if you have an amplifier, use the audio outs provided. Then, you have to mess with the volume controlls. You most likely have a speaker picture bottom right of your screen. Click it, go to "Options" then go to "preferences" then go to "recording" then you have to play with the options there till you find one that makes the sound from the source go into your comp speakers. Its usually going to be audio in. That is part of it. I use music match jukebox for the recording part. That can be found from www.musicmatch.com. Open music match. Click "Options". then "Recorder Source". Then "audio in" again, here you have to mess with it till something actually records when you press the record button. When both the master volume speaker control and the mmj settings are set, click record on mmj. Name the file. Then, press record again to start recording, and press play on the source. You will have to mess around with the volume controlls on the master volume. If its not right, the mp3 will be VERY lound. You have 5 volume controll sliders. The first should be 3 notches up, and the second four notches up. All the rest can be left alone. At this point, after you find a good volume, and you find it records right without being "tinny" or weird sounding, you can either leave the file unedited with space at the start and the end, or you can convert the mp3 into a wave file using music match under the "File" then "Convert" option. If you convert it to wave, you can edit the wave file with a freeware program called "GoldWave". Takes a bit of time to figure out goldwave, but after you figure it out, edit the file, you can convert it back again to mp3 with mmj and the convert option. The only other thing to be sure to do when recording, is to set music match to record the file in VBR instead of the default 128. For reasons I dont wish to explain here for lack of space, VBR is the best. In MMJ just go to "Options", "Settings", "Recorder". Near bottom youll see the following: MP3 VBR, MP3 CBR (this will have a 12 after it, and Windows Media. Slide the MP3 VBR slider bar over to 100 percent. You are then set.
This is the basic information for recording outside media to your comp. Given this info, if you play around with it youll figure it out. Im guessing from scratch, combining all the weeks it took for ME to gather and figure out this info, took me probably 4 hours combined. So, it isnt that difficult.
I hope this has been of some help to you.
Casey
