Best software to record vinyl to digital?

[PH_Graphics]

I just finished Ripping my 700+ CD collection to hard drive (FLAC) using dpPoweramp's CD Ripper. I'm now ready to begin tackling my 600 or so LP collection. I purchased an Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB turntable and am planning to replace the standard ATP-2 cartridge with the Stanton D83S cartridge from my old turntable, but I'm open to comments/suggestions re: the cartridge. I've been away from the vinyl / turntable world for at least 12 - 15 years, so I don't know what I don't know about what's happened during that span.

I'm also looking for input on the best (reasonable priced) recording software. Many of my LP's are likely in fairly bad shape, as I did not step up to a really good turntable / cartridge / stylus combination until about 20 - 25 years ago. I REALLY LIKE good music reproduced well (my guitar is a 50-year-old Guild F-412), but neither my budget nor my ears allow me to call myself a true audiophile.

FWIW, my amp is a Yamaha Aventage RX-A1030. The Zone 1 speakers (the family room) are a pair of Polk Monitor 75T's and the Zone 2 speakers (our living room) are a pair of Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L's. As you can tell, we are pure stereo, not surround sound, except in our home theater room. That room is wired for 7.1 surround, but it's a totally separate room dedicated solely to TV.

Would love advice from people who've already traveled the path I'm about to tackle.

[drjenkins]

Re: Best software to record vinyl to digital?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity_(audio_editor)

Audacity is a free open source digital audio editor and recording computer software application, available for Windows, macOS/OS X, Linux and other operating systems.

Audacity includes noise reduction capability, and you can add additional plugins for signal processing.

[GaryG45]

Re: Best software to record vinyl to digital?

I've used VinylStudio to digitize about 680 albums. I've found it's click repair to be very good, and really liked that it will fill in the track information and obtain cover art for the album. It costs $29.95. They still offer a trial to test the features and get used to recording. The only limit on the trial is you can only perform 5 saves, but you can do any other testing as much as you want and then do your saves to check that feature out. The developer is very responsive to the forum.

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/home.aspx

Because your LPs are in bad shape you might want to look at a product called Click Repair, although I've heard Audacity does a great job of repairing clicks. http://www.clickrepair.net/

Vinyl Engine website has a forum that discusses vinyl and ripping vinyl which might be another place for further questions.

Best of luck to you!

Gary

[PH_Graphics]

Re: Best software to record vinyl to digital?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity_(audio_editor)


Audacity includes noise reduction capability, and you can add additional plugins for signal processing.

Thank you. I'll try it out tomorrow.

[PH_Graphics]

Re: Best software to record vinyl to digital?

Gary,

Thank you for the recommendation. I will download and try both VinylStudio and Audacity (recommended above) tomorrow. I'm excited (if daunted) about getting started.

[GaryG45]

Re: Best software to record vinyl to digital?

I forgot to mention that the Vinyl Engine forum would be a great place to get cartridge recommendations and assistance if you encounter any problems. With many of your albums being in bad shape some people on the forum would recommend getting a record cleaning machine. I did some basic cleaning of each album. It depends on how much you want to spend on this project as it can get expensive.

When I trialed Audacity some years ago, you had to type in the track titles, which I felt would lead to numerous errors. Vinyl Studio is similar to CD Ripper in that it uses databases(Discogs and others) to obtain album information.

Gary