Vinyl to CD ...any tips?

[sabbathguy]

Newbie here, I've been using Cool Edit Pro 2.0 for about 3 years or so and I love it.
I've been slowly burning my vinyl to CD and learning a lot as I do it. Things I have learned over the years:

1. Record in 32 Bit float.
2. Add a 1 - 2 Db boost around 14K to add a shimmer/Breathe Of Life to the vocals.
3. Do Not save as MP3, save everything as WAV files. No loss of information, (compression).
4. Do Not sample the run-in groove and subtract it as "noise" from the recorded wave form. This takes out too much vital tonality - cymbals sound "tinny" etc.
5. Do Not Hard Limit/Normalize the waveform - you loose dynamics and end up with an "in your face", modern MP3 type mix. (Anyone who owns Oasis' Be Here Now will know what I mean).
6. Pops and Clicks are best dealt with by zooming in and highlighting the offending bit and muting it.
7. Mono vinyl can be saved by selecting the best channel and copying it to the other channel. Works great on Beatles, Stones, Herb Alpert and Dylan mono albums.
8. Crop all tracks hard against the first note played/sung, do not leave any lead in space. Your burning software, (Nero in my case), will add the obligatory 2 second gap between tracks.

So, does anyone have a solution, (EQ settings) to overcome the "smilie face" EQ on "remastered" CDs - the thumping bass and treble that slices your head off on older, poorly mastered CDs?

 

[Havoc]

Apart from points 1 and 3 I do not agree with you. (point 2 could be debatable)

 

[sabbathguy]

Apart from points 1 and 3 I do not agree with you. (point 2 could be debatable)

Thanx for the reply. Re point 4, I must admit I was a big fan of sampling the lead in and subtracting it as noise up until a month or so ago. I did notice a harshness in the upper frequencies when I did this, hence I stopped. I may have been a little too heavy handed, I'll try adjusting (lowering) the noise level before subracting it and compare the results.

 

[Budman]

Newbie here, I've been using Cool Edit Pro 2.0 for about 3 years or so and I love it.
I've been slowly burning my vinyl to CD and learning a lot as I do it. Things I have learned over the years:

1. Record in 32 Bit float.
2. Add a 1 - 2 Db boost around 14K to add a shimmer/Breathe Of Life to the vocals.
3. Do Not save as MP3, save everything as WAV files. No loss of information, (compression).
4. Do Not sample the run-in groove and subtract it as "noise" from the recorded wave form. This takes out too much vital tonality - cymbals sound "tinny" etc.
5. Do Not Hard Limit/Normalize the waveform - you loose dynamics and end up with an "in your face", modern MP3 type mix. (Anyone who owns Oasis' Be Here Now will know what I mean).
6. Pops and Clicks are best dealt with by zooming in and highlighting the offending bit and muting it.
7. Mono vinyl can be saved by selecting the best channel and copying it to the other channel. Works great on Beatles, Stones, Herb Alpert and Dylan mono albums.
8. Crop all tracks hard against the first note played/sung, do not leave any lead in space. Your burning software, (Nero in my case), will add the obligatory 2 second gap between tracks.

So, does anyone have a solution, (EQ settings) to overcome the "smilie face" EQ on "remastered" CDs - the thumping bass and treble that slices your head off on older, poorly mastered CDs?

I use CD-recorder to do albums. It has the analog interface and you can record the whole album side at once. The program will then seperate the songs into tracks. CD-Recorder has its own d-click(works very good) and will also burn the cd.

 

[sabbathguy]

I use CD-recorder to do albums. It has the analog interface and you can record the whole album side at once. The program will then seperate the songs into tracks. CD-Recorder has its own d-click(works very good) and will also burn the cd.

Budman, thank you for your reply, Cool Edit also lets you record whole album sides at once and gives you the versiltility to separate tracks into individual files but it must be done manually - I don't mind that. Does CD Recorder do this automatically? What is your opinion of the final audio quality of the end result? Should I invest in a copy of CD-recorder? I'm very happy with Cool Edit at the moment.

Cheers!