Vinyl Record Recording Software

Written by admin on May 15th, 2009

A vital component of converting your vinyl records to cds is the software that you choose for the project. There are a lot of software packages out there, some FREE and some expensive. A higher price tag does not necessarily mean that it will be better for your application. Let’s discuss the FEATURES that we need versus the ones that are ‘nice to have’.

Required Features

  1. Variable Bit Rate Selection: The software should allow you to select from a variety of bit rates. The higher the bit rate, the better the quality (and th larger the file that is created on your computer). At an minimum, the high end bit rate selection should allow for 44,100 and 48,000. These are your current market CD standards that can be played on most commercial CD players. Ideally, a superior software package will be able to AUTO-DETECT the capabilities of the sound card you have installed in your PC and allow you to select a higher bit rate up to and including the high end threshold of the sound card. The value of this is that you can think ahead in your project and plan for the future. As technology advances and new devices like Blu-Ray and others become available which can play higher bit rate recordings, you will have these available an ready to go.
  2. Line Level Sensor/Adjustment: Since output levels vary between difference systems and different records, you will need to be able to monitor the signal that is being sent to the sound card. This should be done through the recording software since it directly impacts whether or not you pickup all of the low end (bass) and high end (treble) signal, or if anything is being dropped. The software should have separate sensors for both the left and right stereo channels. We do not recommend EQUALIZING the input signal. You will want to keep that as pure as possible and do the equalizing when playing the recording.
  3. Save File Formats: The software must be able to save the recording in.WAV format. This is the purest of the digital formats with no compression applied. Other formats are ‘nice-to-have’ features, but let’s remember that the primary goal of the recording software is to capture you vinyl records. We can leave the other functions to other software packages that specialize in those matters.

Keep these things in mind when shopping for vinyl record recording software. The sole purpose of the software should be to :

  • Insure that you have a good single coming into your sound card on both the left and right channels;
  • Capture that signal at the highest bit rate that your sound card is capable of, and;
  • Store that signal to a WAV file on your hard drive.

Don’t worry about splitting tracks, adding tags, equalizing, removing pops, clicks, and other noise. These things can all be done AFTER the original recording is captured by software that is specially designed to do these things. If you are looking for an “all-in-one” package, you will most likely be disappointed in the long run.

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