help for an old guy with a new H2n

O

old boot

New member
Im wanting to record my old vinal LP's and 45's. Edit the songs I want and burn them to CD's for the truck. I down loaded the Cubase le, that's way over my pay grade. I managed to get a wav file into a pool, the pool's gone.
I did look for free editing apps, don't see anything that will let me drag n drop, cut the ends, splice another song. I'm on a Mac but garage band, what I've read is for making music. Isn't there some drag n drop/chop/addto app?
Wave pad sounds close to that.
Thanks Pat
 
If you have anything resembling a stereo system from bygone days, there should be a spare "tape out" or similar set of LR (red/white) RCA jacks. Get a stereo RCA to 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo cable (male RCAs - male 1/8"). Go from your stereo to the Zoom H2n LINE IN jack. Set the Zoom to record WAV, 44.1kHz/24-bit, and set the recording level so the audio from the stereo does not clip, i.e., the peak levels you can see are at least 3dB below 0dB and the clipping indicator NEVER lights up.

Load up a good sized SD card, maybe have a couple around. Record your 45s and LPs. You can stop/start between songs on the LPs, but I found it easier to just do a full side. Make sure your phono cartridge and turntable are in good shape, running at the right speed, etc.

This is very time consuming because it happens at "real time" and not like ripping a CD. You might want to be very particular about what you convert. I quickly decided that the only thing worth doing this for were a few LPs that have never been released on CD that meant something to me. Anything else, I scoured eBay, et al, to find good CDs. (My ears really cannot tell the difference at this point, and the good stereo system went to the daughter years ago.)

For starters, you can use Audacity (freeware/open-source audio editing app). Pop the SD out of the H2n and into your computer, or connect the H2n via USB cable and drag the recorded audio files to your computer. Label the originals and save them (something I did not do, and kicks myself for probably once a year).

Now, you can do the following steps in Audacity or GarageBand, but basically you'll want to open the original file up, and then export individual songs that have been normalized, possibly EQ'd and had noise reduction done, as necessary. If you export individual songs in any format other than the original, e.g.., MP3/AAC or CD format (44.1kHz/16-bit), you should probably dither, and I assume GB does that semi-automatically, but in Audacity you'll want to set it to "Shaped" in the Quality (Preferences) setting.
 
Just to let you guys know, I didn't fall off the limb.
I did try out my GE Party Mate solid state mono record player. WOW, even with my poor hearing, I'd forgot how bad mono players were.
There's a warning label on it, don't open case-transistors inside!
I've been reading reviews for entry level turn tables, cheapest first.
Decided on a direct drive...Reloop RP-2000 USB MK2 USB Direct-Drive Turntable.
This project turned into a chore, but I'm retired so my time is my own.
I'll get that Audacity, it's mentioned quit a bit.
Thanks for the help Pat:thumbs up:
 
Audacity has a noise reduction plugin that can be used to remove some of the clicks and pops found on most records.

By all means get it for editing your recordings.
 
You have two functions. Click Removal can be used to get rid of some surface clicks. If you still find the noise floor too high, you can use the Noise Reduction function, but you might need to use it lightly to avoid drastically effecting the sound quality. There is a section in the instructions in the Audacity manual especially for recording records and tapes.
 
TalismanRich said:
You have two functions. Click Removal can be used to get rid of some surface clicks. If you still find the noise floor too high, you can use the Noise Reduction function, but you might need to use it lightly to avoid drastically effecting the sound quality. There is a section in the instructions in the Audacity manual especially for recording records and tapes.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the clarity!
 
Just curious, are these albums that are not in print? I've converted a few over the years, but they were things that were never released on CD, such as the Nautilus release of Tim Weisberg's Tip of the Weisberg, and some old Sheffield Direct to Disc albums.

If possible, I track down CD releases of albums. I've had a few from years ago which were clearly done from an vinyl disc and then edited to CD. One was Steppenwolf's first album which had an obvious problem with speed stability when they first mastered it. Iron Butterfly's Metamorphosis had a hum issue in the middle of Butterfly Bleu. Somebody apparently hit a ground wire or something.

It should be a lot easier these days than when I did them on my old 486 with a Soundblaster card! I spend a fair amount of time manually removing a lot of clicks!
 
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