Best software to transfer tapes and vinyl to CD's.

[Jazzbro]

Hi - What is the best software to start out to transfer my old tapes and vinyl to CD's? It need not be expensive yet I want it to sound at least as good as the sources themselves. I want to be able to remove noise etc. I was using Dart Pro but got a high pitched squeal when transferring old cassettes to my PC and then to a CDR. I'm real sick of the squeal and need a nice clean program. Any suggestions for a newbie! Thanks folks - Jazzbro

 

[Stealthtech]

Sound Forge or perhaps Cool Edit would be my choice (a demo might have the features your looking for)
but what is the definition of expensive

 

[mawtangent]

Cakewalk makes Pyro 2004 for the purpose you stated.

 

[bennychico11]

get the Waves Restoration plugins. those are pretty damn cool. you can remove nosie, click, hum and crackle which seem to accompany older analog formats. and it does it really well too. although, be willing to spend about $800 or more.

 

[manning1]

some others to try other than the ones mentioned. very low cost/free.
cool edit 96 (lots of editing/noise reduction features)
goldwave(ditto)
audacity(ditto - free)
acoustica - a lot of folks dont know about this one but its golt a lot of cool features in it.
sound forge(very good NR built in) but quite a few bucks.
hitsquad.com has a slew of cheap editors/demos listed in the software section.

 

[johnnymegabyte]

I use the Creative Recorder, that came on the Soundblaster CD
Pretty simple to use, like using cassette recorder buttons.
It has auto-levels feature. Works great every time.

 

[nharrold]

SoundBlaster Recorder

For Johnnymegabyte: I've been seeking some software that will allow me to transfer selected cassette tracks from my Sony WM-SR10 cassette player/recorder to my computer, from which I'd like to make CDs that I can play on any CD player. I'd like to ask you about the Creative Recorder that you mentioned. Is that available on the SoundBlaster Audigy LS sound card? The SoundBlaster website doesn't make that clear, and doesn't mention any such uses of the Recorder.

If the Creative Recorder is available on the Audigy LS sound card, will it allow me to make such a transfer? If so, to what file types can I assign the music coming in to the sound card? Would the recorder be preferable to any of the more-sophisticated software out there, such as Cool Edit? I don't need nor want anything with a lot of features as I am not going to be editing the music, just transferring it from cassette tape to CD.

Edited to add: I just learned that I need to use a card with 16-bit format, such as the SoundBlaster "Live" card. (The Audigy LS is a 24-bit card.) Does the "Live" card software have that Creative Recorder?

(I tried asking SoundBlaster's help desk for advice on this matter, but didn't receive any coherent replies.)

(If possible, please send a copy of your reply to nharrold@frontiernet.net. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance.)

 

[johnnymegabyte]

I currently have SB PCI-128, and want to get Audigy 2.
The Creative Recorder program was on the install CD.

I recorded each song from cassette, one at a time, into individual WAV files.
I also have EZ CD Creator 5, which does have a recorder, but I use the "sound editor" to trim of the extra blanks at beginning, and over-runs at the end.

Once complete, I used EZ CD to burn to regular CD format. This will play on any CD player.

Also, I must stress the brand of blank CD's. I was using Memorex, and too many problems. I am having no problems with Sony CDR's with yellow cover.
Stay away from the cheap brands, you will regret it, when 6 months later the discs give you all sorts of problems.

 

[Rock Star 87]

personally, i use some things that work great and cost me very little (like under 200)

First off, i record with sound editor off of roxio easy cd 5 plat, and then trim the ends with that. i play the whole side of the lp or tape and digitally seperate each track with sound recorder. THEN i trim the ends. i use roxio plat to compile the tracks and then i burn with memorex ( personally i never had any problems). then i use magix audio cleaning lab, which has some pretty professional settings and controls for denoising, hissing, humming and buzzing. also a volume adjuster for low key recordings. but that's just my methods

 

[Davenhurst]

I know it's not cheap, but Wavelab does exactly what you're after, takes a line-in direct from the soundcard and records straight to wav. Comes with all the tools you'll need for mormalising, eq, editing........ never given me a problem.

 

[ahicktiger]

I have had excellent results with Adobe Audition 1.0. You can download a demo at the Adobe website. It's noise reduction is very good, removing all kinds of pops and clicks, and the demo version is a complete working version, nothing is turned off.
The trick to removing pops and clicks is to do a little at a time, if you do a big reduction, you remove to much of the actual music.