A Dial-a-Cab driver has enquired about copying his old vinyl records onto
CD. Well, my recently retired dad found an excellent pastime to keep him
busy now that he's got lots of free time; downloading music and ripping his
CDs and old vinyl's.
Considering my dad hadn't touched a PC in his life, I was
expecting a load of calls for help, but those calls never came! I'd set him
up with a PC, modem, the usual components and installed an MP3 peer-to-peer
download app. In this instance, I thought the best choice would be Kazaa at
http://www.kazaa.com as I considered it
to be one of the easiest to use.
I then installed MusicMatch at http://www.musicmatch.com
as the jukebox to play the tunes and to rip his CD's to MP3 format and
vice-versa. MusicMatch has a Basic version that provides all you need for
personal use, although if you want to rip your CDs to a higher quality than
160 Kbps, you'll have to pay for the Plus version ($19.99 but still cheap).
This all progressed extremely well, with my dad spending hours
online downloading and ripping his CDs, but he then asked about his old 45s
and 78s? I tried ripping my vinyls to MP3 format about 2 years ago and found
the end quality not to my satisfaction, with too much hissing and clicking.
To record good quality required expensive software that I was not willing to
buy, so I just forgot about it. But technology improves and prices come
down, so I started my investigations again.
How To Copy Vinyl Records onto CD
My first stumbling block was finding a turntable that could
accommodate speeds of 33, 45, and 78 RPM. Don't even think about Comet or
Dixons etc, they had no idea what 78 RPM was, so I used the Internet and
contacted a local specialist music store and after two days I found a
turntable that plays 78s, but at a price - £262. You can view it HERE
This was already turning into an expensive hobby - having to
purchase a DJ quality turntable had created a huge whole in my pocket - but
if you don't need 78 RPM then you could use your existing turntable. Also,
if you've not purchased a professional turntable before, be prepared to
construct the needle unit yourself and what a finicky task that was!
As with any type of copying process, the quality of the
original and of the copying technology involved determines the quality of
the outcome. I quickly checked that I still had the cables required for
connecting my stereo's amplifier to my PC's SoundBlaster card. The cables
were purchased from an electrical store, although at the time I had no idea
what I wanted but just told the assistant what I was trying to do and he
gave me the cables - just make sure the cables are long enough. So long as
your stereo is pretty new and has an output connection on the amp, you
should be fine.
So that's the stereo and turntable sorted, now I had to ensure
that my PC was adequate.
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My PC is one that I purchased off the Compaq auction site at http://auctions.compaq.co.uk
although I had to upgrade the sound card as the internal sound did not have
a "Line In" connection. It's to this connection that your stereo
amplifier's output connects. The upgraded sound card was a Creative Labs
SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum card, although a cheaper version exists HERE
(the Dabs.com site) is available for £88.12. The reason I chose this
particular range of sound cards is because of the good quality and the
software bundled with it: Audio Clean-Up (noise reduction and click
removal), Wave Studio (manual editing of the tracks) and the excellent suite
of apps in the Audigy group such as Creative Recorder (providing the ability
to record up to 320Kbps). Just excellent!
Testing...
To test if your system is working correctly with the stereo connected, turn
your stereo volume down and your PC's volume up. You should hear the music
coming through your PC as well as your stereo. So now you have the
equipment, it's time to start ripping to mp3. This is how:
- Connect the stereo amp's Output to the PC sound card's Line In
- Start the SoundBlaster Audigy Creative Recorder
- Put a record on the turntable or a tape in the cassette, or even a CD
in the stereo's CD drive
- Click the "Rec" button on the Creative Recorder - ensure you
do it before the record starts playing (this will record the track with
all the noise and clicks included)
- Stop the recording when the track finishes and save the track to file
in the Creative Recorder
- Start the Creative PlayCenter and click the "EAX" button,
select the "Audio Clean Up" tab and set the Noise Reduction
and Click Removal as required. This will take some playing about with,
depending on the track.
- Start the SoundBlaster Audigy Creative Recorder
- In the Creative PlayCenter click the "Open" button and
select the track you saved to file.
- When you click the play in the Creative PlayCenter, quickly click the
"Rec" button in the Creative Recorder. The recording now
commences with the Creative PlayCenter playing the track and at the same
time removing the noise and clicks, whilst the Creative Recorder records
what the Creative PlayCenter is playing.
I know it probably sounds confusing,, but it does work. Naturally, if the
original has a lot of
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noise and bad clicks, then it may not be able to remove all of them. In my
dad's case, some of his 78s were 50 years old and cracked, but he managed to
record these adequately whilst the better quality tracks recorded well
without hissing or clicks.
This solution is how I record vinyl to mp3 format, but was
quite expensive due to the requirement for 78 RPM. All you'd probably need
is the quality sound card and cable, which is much cheaper.
If anyone else has done something similar I'd be interested in hearing about
it. Just send an email to chinvb@taxicab.co.uk
or to the Editor who will pass it along...
Be Lucky and have a wonderful New Year...
Vince Chin
LTI FOR SALE?
Shock waves were felt within the licensed taxi trade
recently when Manganese Bronze, the holding company of taxi makers
London Taxis International, admitted that it had received a tentative
offer for Manganese - one that could lead to a formal bid.
The offer was only discovered when a sharp rise of over
10% in the share price meant that an announcement had to be released
to the Stock Exchange. In fact, at one point MBH shares rose by over
30% in just two days. During that period, three DaC drivers phoned
Call Sign to say that as MBH shareholders, they had received
notification of a possible offer.
The bid has come during a difficult trading period for
LTI - in fact one of its slowest periods since the original formation
in 1948. Dial-a-Cab drivers have seen how hard we have been hit by
City job losses and a fall-off in corporate activity. This has caused
some drivers to defer buying a new cab.
According to Ian Pickering, Manganese Bronze' chief
executive: "There are simply fewer journeys being made, which has
had a knock-on effect for us. New vehicle sales are slowing and we
have had to cut our production back."
Mr Pickering went on to add that the approach was
"very preliminary" and it was uncertain whether it would
lead to a formal proposal. He declined to identify the potential buyer
or say whether it was a British or foreign company.
Call Sign also asked MBH Chairman Jamie Borwick, if he
could identify the prospective purchaser for us, but although very
friendly, his response was similar to Ian Pickering's.
If the sale goes ahead, we can only wonder whom the
purchaser could be? Perhaps the news has broken since Call Sign went
to print? Hopefully we will know soon... |
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