View source for Recording an LP with Audio Evolution 4

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== Tutorial for Audio Evolution 4 - Transferring an LP to digital ==


If your like me you have a nice collection of vinyl LPs that you like to listen to but sometimes the portability of having mp3 files is also a
good thing. The answer is to digitize your vinyl collection and put the songs on your computer. So here is an explanation of my method for
doing so using Audio Evolution 4.0.23.


== Things You Will Need ==


# A turntable<br />
# A stand alone phono preamp or amplifier/receiver with phono inputs<br />
# A stereo RCA to 3.5mm mini jack adaptor<br />
# An RCA extension audio cable long enough to reach your computer<br />
# MorphOS and a copy of AudioEvolution 4<br />


== Getting Started ==


First thing is to make sure your turntable is connected to your phono stage/amplifier correctly.
Also ensure it is setup correctly with a good stylus and some clean records to play.

If you are using a receiver or integrated amp then you need an RCA audio extension cable plugged
into the TAPE REC OUT jacks on the back of the unit. (this may vary by model) If you have a stand
alone phono preamp then plug your audio cord directly into the output jacks.

In either case the audio output cable should then be connected to the 3.5mm mini jack adaptor.

On the back of your computer you need to find the line-in jack. This is usually colored blue.
Plug the 3.5mm mini plug into this port.

OK. Everything is now connected to start recording audio into your computer.


== Launching the Software ==

[[File:SelectAudioMode.png|alt=Select Audio Mode|right|frame|Select an audio mode]]

[[File:ae_soundio.png|alt=Soundio window|right|frame|Make sure you are recording from line in]]

=== Select a screenmode ===
Start Audio Evolution 4 software and select an approprate screenmode. When it asks what audio mode
you want to use select the appropriate option for your machine. If you have an external soundblaster card
for instance then "EMU10kx HiFi 16 bit stereo++" would be correct. A Pegasos using internal audio would
need "Pegasos: HiFi 16 bit stereo++". I would suggest 44100 as the sampling rate as this matches CD audio
quality and will translate well to the MP3 format.

=== Start a new project ===
Now select Start a new project and give your project a name in the filerequestor. Keep in mind that your
project location is where all recorded audio samples will reside so make sure you have at least a couple GB
of free space.

=== Set audio card input source ===
Under (menu item: Options->Soundcard in/out) make sure input is set to line in.
Now is also a good time to save your preferences. (menu item: File->Save preferences)

[[File:ae4_welcome.png|alt=Welcome window]]


== Preparing to Record ==

=== Find the control window ===
Next step is to find the Control window. This is often hidden beneath the Time Line Display window
when you first start the application so use the depth gadgets to reveal it.

[[File:ae4_control.png|alt=Control window]]

=== Testing the input ===
Now press the red record icon to open the recording panel. Click the check gadget next to the Left and Right
input levels. Now put an LP on your turntable and start playing the record. You should be able to see how
much input you are getting into the Left and Right channels. If you see the colored meters moving then
you are recieving audio from your turntable and are nearly ready to record.

[[File:ae4_record.png|alt=Record window]]

=== Setting correct gain ===
If the L/R levels appear too low you may have to increase the gain setting. I found a gain setting around
15 to be good for most of my recordings. The correct value will vary a little depending on your equipment
and the record you are playing. You want to keep the level meters in the upper green area with only the very
loudest parts of the recording just peaking into the red area. This will give you a good balance of volume and
preserve the dynamic range of the recording. Do not record with the signal constantly going into the red as
you will be effectively clipping off and losing a lot of audio data that you want to preserve.


== Recording the Audio ==

=== Time to record ===
If everything checks out up to this point then get your tonearm cued up at the beginning of the A side of the
record and press the red 'rec' gadget. Now you will notice your hard drive LED flashing as well as the virtual
HD LED in the recording window. This means that audio is being saved onto to your hard drive. You can now
lower the tonearm down at the lead in groove and start sending audio data to the software. Once you reach the
end of the LP side you can press the stop gadget to stop recording and save your sample. When the requestor
asks if you want to keep the sample select 'okay' and give it a filename.

== Editing the audio waveform ==

=== Getting ready to edit ===
At this point we will begin to break up the large audio stream into the individual music tracks that make up
the album side. You need to close the recording panel to continue. The rest of the work will mostly be done
in the Time Line Display.

=== Viewing and playing back the audio waveform ===
After recording you will see a visual representation of the audio you
just recorded in the timeline display. First its a good idea to expand
the track display until you can see the track we are working on better.
Also adjust the zoom level so that you can see the silent gaps between the
songs better. Generally a zoom level of 8 or so is ideal. The scroll bar at the
bottom of the window is used to scroll left/right through the audio data
currently displayed.

You can listen to any part of the waveform by first clicking the time ruler
at the top of the track listing to set a starting position. Give it a listen by
pressing the play key on the control window or pressing the space bar.

You can also click and drag the green time marker around for fine
adjustment of your current playing position.

=== Trimming lead in and lead out===

First thing we need to do is trim off the empty junk at the beginning and
end of our LP side. So we need to find out where the first song starts
visually and by listening. We then want to seperate this lead-in area from
the actual start of the first song. We will use the split tool to achieve this

Put the editor into split mode by selecting the gadget first. Now as
you hover the mouse pointer over the waveform you will see a dotted
line that demonstrates where a split can be made. Line up the dotted
line just before the start of audio and click once. Now change the
edit mode back to grab/move before continuing. Now you may notice
that we have two seperate pieces of audio data sitting next to each
other at the split point. Lets remove the junk data at the beginning.
Simply click the junk data to select it and then press the delete key
or right click to bring up the Actions menu and select Remove. Presto
it's gone and we are left with only the part we want to keep.

Scroll to the end of the LP side and using a similar process remove
the junk data at the end of the LP. So to recap listen for when the
audio data ends. Select split tool and click once where you want to
split the data. Then switch back to grab/move mode and remove the
left over part.

=== Seperating the audio tracks ===
At this point we are have the complete audio that we want to keep
with the lead in and lead out trimmed off. Next we want to split
the one large waveform into seperate song tracks. This is easily
achieved by finding the silent parts between each song track
visually and listening and then making a split just a little
before the start of each song.


=== Saving the audio tracks ===

Now you can proceed to select each song by clicking on the sample
data once and then right clicking and selecting the 'Save To Disk'
option for each track. Give the tracks meaningful names like this.

Congratulations you have now recorded, trimmed and saved out all
of the songs from one side of an LP. Now you can repeat this prodedure
for Side B.


== Converting to MP3 files ==

So next thing you are asking is how am I going to make these into
MP3 files. I suggest the freeware program TheMpegEncGUI. You can
specify a list of input files where you can select the AIFF audio
files that you previously saved to disk and then you can batch
encode the lot of them in one fell step. I suggest using joint
stereo 256Kbps encoding for good quality MP3 playback.