converting: Vinyls to mp3
what is the best way to convert tracks from my vinyl records to mp3s so i can play them in cdj’s and are in club standard format ?
thank you in advance.
Cheap/free and works surprisingly well: Audacity
More expensive if you are aiming for perfection: Izotope RX
Just learn the Audacity settings to remove clicks and pops.
Here’s how I do it: -
- Clean the record and stylus
- Engage quartz lock on the deck and set the EQs to flat on the mixer
- Set the gain on the mixer so that the level is peaking close to 0dB, but without clipping
- Record the song
- Chop out the dead space at the beginning and end
- Remove the worst clicks/pops (see below)
- If you need to adjust the level a touch, you can do it now
- Export to whatever format you want (I use FLAC personally)
For clicks/pops I zoom in and run the click/pop eliminator on just the affected part of the track. If you run it over the whole track it can affect the sound, when sometimes you might just want to remove a couple of loud clicks, or maybe the noticeable clicks at the end as the song is fading out.
I use Adobe Audition, but Audacity will work too, as ksandvik said.
The reason I do it like this is cos I want the digital file to sound just like the track on vinyl (minus any bad clicks/pops), so I don’t use EQs, normalise, or any of that stuff.
Does using the thick rubber mat really help the sound quality?
Doubt it. Even hi-fi nuts will replace the rubber with felt or cork, so if anything the rubber is supposedly worse. But I doubt you could hear any difference.