Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD

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You can use Audacity and your computer to record sound from any external device which outputs an audio signal. Although cassette tapes and records (LPs) are the most popular examples, Audacity can be used just as easily to record audio from the following:
  • Open-reel tape decks
  • Minidisc (MD) players
  • Radios
  • Mixers
  • Video cassette recorders (VCRs), Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) and DVD players (recording from a dedicated line-out containing audio output only)
  • Televisions (via a SCART adapter cable connected to the computer sound card, or through a TV or VCR's audio out)
  • Personal digital voice recorders (DVRs)
  • Portable MP3 players (such as iPods)
  • Other computers
This tutorial assumes that you have read and understood the Your First Recording tutorial, and have figured out how to get sound into your computer and into Audacity. You should at least read and understand Step 1 of that tutorial in order to become familiar with the jacks, plugs and cables you may need to connect your audio device to your computer. The instructions here will apply only to the special situations of connecting a turntable, cassette deck or minidisc player to your computer.

Connecting the equipment

In general, you need to run an appropriate cable from an "out" jack on the external device (e.g. a tape deck, or an amplifier or receiver connected to a turntable) to the line-in port of the computer. You should not connect a standard turntable directly to a computer - see Special note on connecting a standalone turntable below. A typical cable you might use is a stereo mini to RCA cable.

If your device does not have RCA out, the headphone jack is a good "out" jack to choose, since it will allow you to adjust the output level of the source device. If you choose this approach, the most typical setup is to use a cable with a 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) stereo jack at one end (for connecting to the device's headphone jack), and an identical 1/8 inch stereo jack on the other end (for connecting to the line-in socket on your computer). If the device you are recording from has a 1/4 inch (6.3 mm) headphone jack, you will need to get a 1/4 to 1/8 inch adapter. Such an adapter is often included free with most new headphones, or can be purchased separately at any electronics store.

Some professionals with high-grade equipment would prefer to use the source device's "aux out", "tape out", "line-out" or "record" output (if so equipped), since that approach bypasses an unnecessary stage of (possibly low-quality) amplification, and standardizes the signal at a fixed (non-adjustable) level of approximately 1 - 1.5 volts, resulting in a higher quality recording. If you choose this approach, you will need a cable that has dual RCA red/white plugs at one end (for connecting to the "aux out", "tape out" or "record" jack of the device) and a stereophonic 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) plug at the other end (for connecting to your computer's line-in port).

Help if you don't have a line-in port

Some Macs and notebook/laptop computers do not have a line-in port. In that case check if your microphone port can be toggled to line-in with a switch, or by changing the recording source in the software. On some laptops this line-level source is called "mix" or "stereo mix", in which case you could select this source in the system sound preferences. If you see a line-in option available, always choose that as your recording source. If you have neither a line-in port nor any way to switch the microphone port to line-in, you need to add a line-in by adding a USB sound card, or other suitable audio input/output device that connects to the computer via USB. Examples of recommendable input/output devices are the Griffin iMic which has a standard 1/8 inch input, and the Behringer UCA202 which has left and right RCA inputs also the Edirol UA-1EX which has left and right RCA inputs and outputs and a digital S/PDIF input.

Special note on connecting a tape deck

If you wish to record from an audio cassette or a reel-to-reel tape deck, you can connect that deck directly to your computer without the need for any external amplifier or receiver. Simply connect the deck's "line-out" RCA jacks to your computer's "line in" jack, using a cable described above. You can also connect to the headphones out jack of an integrated cassette deck or to that of an amplifier connected to the tape deck. If you do this (or if the "line-out" volume of your deck is adjustable), it's best to set that level quite close to its maximum, and adjust the recording level using Audacity's input volume slider (see below). This helps keep the inherent tape noise to a minimum in the signal sent to Audacity. If the cassette you are playing has been encoded with Dolby ® as denoted by the Dolby Double-D symbol, then you must enable Dolby playback on your tape deck, or the recording of the tape will sound over-bright.

Before transferring your cassette, you may want to clean and align your tape heads and also clean the transport mechanism (capstan and pinch roller).

Special note on connecting a standalone turntable

If you have a standalone turntable, you must not connect it directly to your computer. Instead, you must connect it to an amplifier or receiver with a "phono" or turntable input, or to a phono pre-amplifier - and then record from the amplifier's "line out" or "tape out" jacks. This is for two reasons: (1) the audio signals produced by a phono cartridge are too weak to record directly, and (2) most records manufactured from the 1950s onwards were produced with a standard type of equalization called "RIAA", which emphasizes high frequencies and de-emphasizes (reduces) low frequencies. If left uncorrected, this will result in a recording that sounds very "tinny". All amplifiers containing a "phono" stage will both boost the signal to line-level so it's suitable for input into a tape deck or a computer, and will reverse the RIAA equalization so that the records sound "normal" again. If you have an integrated "stack system" or "entertainment center" into which you plug your speakers, your record deck is already connected to a suitable amplifier.

If you have a standalone turntable but no amplifier or pre-amp, you may want to consider the Behringer UFO202. This device contains a built-in phono pre-amp and connects to your computer through a USB port. It can also be used to connect line level devices such as a cassette deck.

Special note on connecting a USB turntable

A USB turntable is a relatively new kind of turntable which is designed to connect directly to your computer's USB port. The concerns noted in the 'standalone turntable' section above do not apply here, as the necessary pre-amplification and RIAA equalization are already built into the USB turntable. There are some special playback and recording device settings you need to observe when using USB turntables - see our Wiki article on recording with USB turntables

Special note on connecting a Minidisc player

Some users find that the line-level output of Minidisc players is too strong for recording on a computer and causes distortion, since its level is not adjustable. If you are encountering this problem, try connecting your cable to the player's headphone jack instead. Since the strength of the headphone signal is easily adjustable, you can then reduce the signal level sent to the PC. On most players, this means using the same shared line out/headphones out socket/jack, but choosing the headphones out option in the player's "Sound Out" Preferences menu.

Setting Up Audacity

Click on Edit > Preferences to bring up the Preferences dialog. Click on the Devices tab. Under Recording, make sure that the device you selected in your computer's sound control panel corresponds to what is displayed in the "Device" popup menu - if not, click the Device popup menu and the select the option that corresponds to the setting you made in your computer's sound control panel.

If you are using a USB device (such as the iMic, or a USB turntable), set this in the "Device" popup menu. When using one of these USB devices, the Audacity Mixer Toolbar input selector will not be in use, although you'll need to set the line/mic toggle switch on iMic to "line". Also, it is possible that the recording level control on the Mixer Toolbar will snap to zero and be non-functional - in this case you will need to set the input volume level in your computer's sound control panel.

In the "Channels" popup menu choose to record in stereo (2 channels).

If you want to listen to the music through your computer while you are recording, go to the Recording tab of the Preferences dialog and check "Software Playthrough".

Click the "OK" button to accept the settings you just made.

Set the volume level of your recording input. Click on the downward pointing arrow in the right hand (red) VU recording level meters:

Meter Toolbar

and click "Start Monitoring".

While playing a loud part of your tape or record, adjust the input level slider (the one beside the microphone symbol) on the Mixer Toolbar

image of mixer toolbar

so the recording meters are almost reaching the right-hand end of the scale. Don't let the meter bars actually reach the right edge, or the red hold lights to right of the meter will come on, indicating you'll have distortion in the recording. If the recording level meters are not visible, click View > Toolbars > Show Meter Toolbar. As noted above, if you are using a USB device the recording level control in the Mixer Toolbar may be non-functional - if this is the case go to your computer's sound control panel and adjust the volume there.

Recording, editing and exporting

Recording

Create a new Project by clicking File > Save Project As. Start your recording by pressing the red Record button, then starting the player. You can pause and restart the recording between tracks or sides with the blue Pause button, which keeps your recording on one track within Audacity. This is the easiest way to record into Audacity, because having just one track on screen allows you to split the recording up into the different songs or sections using "labels". See Splitting recordings into separate tracks below for more on this.

An alternative to using the Pause button is to Stop the recording at the end of the first side, then use Transport > Append Record (or shift-click on the Record button) to continue recording on the existing track.

If you do want to start new tracks for sides of the tape or LP on a new track in Audacity, then press the yellow Stop button to stop recording, get the LP or tape to where you want to go to, then press the red Record button in Audacity and start the player. The recording will now restart on a new track.

Editing, Noise Removal and Click Removal

When you have finished recording, press the yellow Stop button and save your recording into the Project you started (File > Save Project). Now the data is safe, you can edit it in Audacity if you want to (for example, cut redundant pieces out), or come back to it later by re-opening the saved Project file with the File > Open command. See Editing: Cut, Paste, and More for help with editing.

You may also want to remove steady noise such as tape hiss or vinyl roar using Audacity's Noise Removal, and clicks from records using its Click Removal.

Removing clicks and pops is recommended when recording vinyl, as any loud click will interfere with maximizing the volume of the recording - the Amplify effect can't tell the difference between music and clicks. Select the entire track by clicking on the track panel or choosing Edit > Select > All then choose Effect > Click Removal. The default parameters in the Click Removal dialog will detect and remove most clicks, so try this first. If you find that it did not remove certain clicks or pops, select those regions in turn and apply the Click Removal effect, adjusting the parameters until it is successful. See this page on the wiki for more details on using the Click Removal effect.

Linux users may be interested in trying Gnome Wave Cleaner which is free and open source.

Mac and Windows users may be interested in trying Brian Davies' Click Repair software. It is not free, but has a 21-day free trial period so you can try it out and see if it is worth it to you.

Noise Removal is tricky to get right. You need to be prepared to experiment with the effect so that it removes as much noise as possible without damaging the sound you want to keep. It is more effective at removing cassette hiss than "vinyl roar". See this page on the wiki for more details on using the Noise Removal effect.

Exporting

When you are happy with your editing, you need to export the recording as an audio file such as WAV or MP3 that you can either play on your computer media player (e.g. on iTunes or Windows Media Player), or which you can burn to an audio or MP3 CD. See the About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio CDs and MP3 CDs below about the difference between audio and MP3 CDs. To export a single audio file, use the File > Export ... command. If your recording contains multiple tracks or songs, you may want to export these from your Project as separate audio files. This would be necessary if you wanted to burn a CD with separate CD tracks corresponding to each track in your recording. To prepare your recording for export as separate audio files, see Splitting recordings into separate tracks below.

About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio CDs and MP3 CDs

WAV, AIFF and MP3 are the most common formats for exporting. WAV and AIFF files are of identical quality to the original recording, but take up 10 MB or more of disc space per minute. If you want to burn an "audio CD" that will play on any standalone CD player (note these only give you 74 - 80 minutes' playing time), export your recording as a 44100 Hz, 16 bit stereo WAV or AIFF file. See: Audio CDs.

If you want your exported audio file to be smaller (you'd want to do this for example if you wanted to make it available on the internet), you can export as MP3, at the expense of losing some of the audio quality of the original. You can also burn the MP3s to a "data CD" or "MP3 CD" which will give you (at Audacity's default MP3 export settings) over 11 hours' playing time on the CD. Note you can only play these kind of CDs in computers, MP3 CD players (including some newer automotive players), or some DVD players. Generally, you will see an MP3 logo printed somewhere on the device if it is MP3-capable. Note that most players manufactured prior to 2005 will not be able to play MP3 CDs. To export as an MP3, you first need to add the LAME encoder to your system and show Audacity where it is.

If you are exporting your file to a media program which has its own "Library" such as Windows Media Player, iTunes or Real Player, you would generally drag your exported file into the program's Library, or use the media program's built-in commands to add the exported file to its Library. For more help on importing your audio file into iTunes (e.g. for burning to CD or for putting on an iPod), see Exporting to iTunes and iPod.





Tutorial: Splitting recordings into separate tracks

The following tutorial demonstrates one method for dividing a recording into separate songs for export in preparation for burning those tracks to an audio CD. Others may recommend slightly different methods. It is worth going through this tutorial as it introduces the basic concepts of identifying and marking the boundaries between songs, and using labels to identify songs and support the Export Multiple command.

The method presented here uses the Edit > Split command to create a separate clip for each song. This guarantees that if you do any editing after marking all the songs that the boundaries between the songs will be maintained. Labelling the songs is the very last step before exporting the songs as individual files.

A note about CDs and CDDA frames

The audio recorded on a CD is broken into "frames" of 2352 bytes each, read at 75 frames per second. Some CD burners and/or CD burning software may pad the last frame of a track with silence to fill the 2352 bytes, and this may result in a tiny but audible click between tracks. For this reason it is safest to edit your recording so that all track boundaries fall exactly on CDDA frame boundaries. Audacity makes it easy to do this by selecting "CDDA Frames" from one of the drop-down menus in the Selection Toolbar.

Live recordings versus studio recordings

Sometimes songs on live recordings flow together. If you want to split a live recording into songs but want to maintain an uninterrupted flow from song to song on the CD you need to have burning software that is capable of burning a CD in "disk-at-once" (DAO) mode, and is capable of setting the "gap" or "pause" between tracks to 0 seconds.

Step 1 - Remove unwanted audio from the recording

  • Set Snap To: Off in the Selection Toolbar.
  • Click the Skip to Start button image of skip to start button.
  • Zoom in until you can see from the start of the track to the start of the music.
  • Click and drag from the start of the music to the start of the track.
  • Click on Edit > Delete.

Similarly, remove unwanted audio from the end of the recording and from the middle (between sides 1 and 2 of the LP or cassette).

Save your work!

Step 2 - Mark tracks and optionally edit out the silent sections between tracks

  • In the Selection Toolbar, change selection units to CDDA frames by clicking on one of the downward pointing arrows in any of the three boxes to the right of Snap To
  • Set Snap To: On

For studio recordings (recordings with silences between the tracks)

Our goal is to fade out each song so that the vinyl surface noise (or cassette hiss) doesn't suddenly cut off at the end of each song. We'll do this fade out after the music actually ends. The amount of time to leave after the music ends is a judgement call on your part - whatever sounds good to you. For the purpose of this tutorial we will leave about one-half second after the music fades out.

Keep in mind that this is a tutorial meant to show you one method for doing this task. If you don't care about cutting out the vinyl surface noise between songs and don't care about fading out the ends of the songs, just treat every case as if it were a live recording (see next section) which is much simpler.
  • Zoom in on the silent area between the first and second songs.
  • Using the selection tool click as close as possible to the beginning of the second song.
  • Click on Edit > Split
  • Find the point where you want the first song to end - about one half second after the sound fades out.
  • Click and drag from that point to the split line marking the start of the second song .
When the right selection edge reaches the split line it will snap to the split line, "lighting up" in yellow to let you know you've hit it.
  • Click on Edit > Delete or press the delete key to remove the selection.
You have now deleted the excess silence between the first and second songs.
  • Click at the point where you want the fade out to begin, then drag the selection up to the split line.
Do not drag past the split line, or the two clips will be joined together when you do the next step.
  • Click on Effect > Fade Out to make the fade.
  • At this point your track should consist of two clips. The first, shorter clip defines the first song on the LP or cassette. The second clip defines the rest of the LP or cassette.

Continue in this manner removing the silence between songs and adding the fades.

For live recordings (recordings with no silences between tracks)

  • Click as close as possible to the start of the second song
  • Click on Edit > Split.

Continue in this manner setting the split points between songs.

Note that you may want to do a fade out on the last song of side 1.

Save your work!

Step 3 - Maximize the volume of the recording

If you did the original recording properly and avoided clipping, the recording is probably not at the maximum possible volume. In order for the CD you burn to be at maximum volume and thus match other CDs in your collection we need to fix this.

  • Click on Edit > Select > All
  • Click on Effect > Amplify
  • Accept (for now) the default choices in this dialog and click the "OK" button
  • The volume of your recording is maximized.
Note that Amplify retains any volume differences between channels of a stereo track. In practice however, consumer-level turntables, tape decks and/or amplifiers may well record stereo channels with a stronger signal in one channel than the other, which you will probably want to correct. In that case, use Effect > Normalize instead.

One problem when copying records is that a loud click in one channel can cause Normalize to create an unwanted change in the stereo balance. In that case you should consider removing the click before the Normalize step, using Click Removal. For more information about the difference between the Amplify and Normalize effects see this page on the wiki. Save your work!

Step 4 - Naming the songs

  • Double-click on the first clip
  • Click on Tracks > Add Label at Selection
  • Type the name of the song into the label then press the enter key.

Continue in this manner naming all the songs. You should now have something that looks similar to this:

image of audio and label tracks with songs labelled

Save your work!

Step 5 - Export

Congratulations, you are now ready to export the tracks.

  • Click on File > Export Multiple
    • Choose the Export Format from the pop-up menu: for CD burning choose AIFF if you're using a Mac, or WAV if your using Windows or Linux.
    • Click the Choose... button and pick the place where your exported tracks will be saved.
    • Under Split Files Based On:
      • Labels should be checked.
      • Include audio before first label should be unchecked, as there is no audio before the first label.
    • Under Name Files, Using Label/Track Name should be checked
    • Click the Export button.
    • The Metadata Editor dialog will open.
      • If you want to, enter common information in the Metatdata Editor dialog (e.g. Artist Name and Album Title)
      • Click the "OK" button in the Metatdata Editor dialog, not the "Save" button

Metadata in this context refers to information stored in the audio file such as Artist, Album and Song Title. While this is widely used with MP3 files, it is less useful for AIFF and WAV files. To avoid having the Metadata Editor pop up for each track you are about to export, click on Preferences, click on the Import / Export tab, and uncheck Show Metatdata Editor prior to export step.

A progress dialog might appear if the process takes more than a second or two. When the process is finished a confirmation dialog will appear listing the files that were created.

The tracks are now ready to import into the CD burning software of your choice.

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