Other than playing music through your home stereo speaker system, the other reason you might want to connect your computer to a hi-fi is to “rip” analogue sound sources – vinyl, cassettes, even a radio program – into a digital file format. You can’t record directly into the iPod this way, but anything you record onto your computer can then be transferred onto your Pod.
Getting analogue sound into your iTunes Library is more time consuming than ripping from CD – and more difficult to get right in terms of sound quality. You will have to set the levels right, record the album or track in “real time” into some audio recording software and then mess around with filters and effects to clean up the sound. So if you can find a CD reissue or a MP3 version of the track online, that’s probably the best option. But for those tracks that can’t easily be found in digital formats, here’s what to do…
Stage 1: Hooking Up
First of all, you’ll need to make the right connection. With any luck, your computer will have a line-in or mic port, probably in the form of a minijack socket (if it doesn’t you can add one with the right USB device). On the hi-fi, a headphone socket will suffice, but you’ll get a much better “level” from a dedicated line-out – check on the back of the system for a pair of RCA sockets labelled “Line Out”, “Tape Out” or something similar. That way, also, you’ll only need a standard RCA-to-minijack cable – which you might even already have.
Stage 2: Check you have enough disk space
During the actual recording process, you’ll need plenty of hard drive space: as much as a gigabyte for an album, or 15MB per minute. (Once you’ve finished recording, you can convert the music that you’ve imported into a space-efficient format such as MP3 or AAC, and delete the giant original.)
Stage 3: Choose some software
Recording from analogue sources requires an audio recoding application. You may already have something suitable on your computer, but there are scores of excellent programs available to download off the Net.
Stage 4: Recording…
Connect your computer and hi-fi as described previously, and switch your hi-fi’s amplifier to “Phono”, “Tape” or whatever channel you’re recording from. Launch your audio recorder and open a new file. The details from here on in vary according to which program you’re running and the analogue source you are recording from, but roughly speaking the procedure is the same.
You’ll be asked to specify a few parameters for the new recording. The defaults (usually 44.1KHz, 16-bit stereo) should be fine. Play the loudest section of the record to get an idea of the maximum level. A visual meter should display the sound coming in – you want as much level as possible without hitting the red.
If you seem to be getting little or no level, make sure your line-in is specified as your recording channel and the input volume is up: on a Mac, look under Sound in System Preferences; on a PC, check the line-in in Sound and Multimedia in the Control Panel, and the level by opening Volume Controls (Start Menu/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment), clicking Properties in the Options menu selecting Recording and Pressing OK.
When you’re ready, press “Record” and start your vinyl, cassette or whatever, playing. When the song or album is finished, press “Stop”. A graphic wave form will appear on the screen. Use the “cut” tool to tidy up any extraneous noise or blank space from the beginning and end of the file; fade in and out to hide the “cuts”.
Stage 5: Tidying up the sound
It won’t always be necessary, but it’s often a good idea – especially if you’re recording from vinyl – to try and clean up the sound a bit. Your audio editor may offer hiss, pop and crackle filters, or for serious projects you could try a dedicated noise reduction program, such as SoundSoap. However, don’t go clean-up mad and don’t overwrite your original file until you get just the right sound: removing hiss and crackle is good, but if you end up with a recording that lacks warmth or presence of the shellac version, you’ll be disappointed.
If there’s a “normalize” function you could also use this to maximize the level without distorting it. This will ensure that, if you rip a number of tracks, they will all end up at the same volume level.
Stage 6: Convert the file
When you are happy with what you’ve got, save the file in WAV or AIFF format, and perhaps back it up to CD. Then import the file into iTunes (choose Import… from the File menu), convert it to a compressed format of your choice and delete the bulky original from both your iTunes folder and its original location. Your remaster is now ready to be played back on iTunes or uploaded to your Pod.
Simon has been writing articles for nearly 2 years. Come visit his latest website at memoryfoamcushion.org which helps people find the best memory foam cushion and information they are looking for.
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