Monday, 6 August 2007

What to do with those old vinyl LPs

Besides having a top HD telly - our friends that we stayed with also had a nice bit of hardware which was basically a record player linked to the PC via a USB.

Using this kit and appropriate software it's possible to convert old vinyl to audio CDs.

I'd brought along a few albums to try out. I choose a few which I'd been struggling to get on CD. The software was a little tricky to use and I probably needed longer to get things perfect to take out various bits of noise and make sure the gaps in between songs were short etc.

After recording the album (in real time - how frustrating!) I learnt how to separate each track and label it after doing a bit of editing. I then exported the files to the hard disc before using Roxio to create a music CD.

I then had to rip the CD back onto the hard disc for Windows Media Player to work as it didn't recognise the exported files. It was a bit of a lengthy process but ultimately worthwhile. The sound quality is good too.

I've only completed one CD so far, "The Pack" by Alaska but I've got the exported files for "Land of the Gun" by Legs Diamond and "Blue Murder" by Blue Murder. All obscure albums which Amazon and like don't sell.

Speaking of which, my latest CD purchase arrived on Friday "Humanity Hour 1" by the Scorpions. I've listened to it a couple of times now and its quite good. I suspect it will grow on me as well.

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