Wanted: Software to record tape audio to CD

[Isaac Grover]

Hi,

Here's what I've done in the past for recording taped audio/speech to
a CD. I've used CoolEdit to record from the audio input jack at
44,100Hz in 16-bit audio as the tape is playing on a high-quality deck
to the headphone jack, with a cable connecting the headphone jack to
the audio input jack on the computer. Once the music/speech has been
recorded, I painfully scroll through the waveform to look for quiet
spots, which is where I break up the waveform into individual songs or
speeches. Then I rename those songs/speeches into "Track # - Name"
format for burning to a CD.

The daunting part of the task is simply recording the tape into
digital format, then painfully breaking it up into smaller pieces
which will end up as tracks on the CD.

Is there software that is smart enough to do all of what I do in the
first paragraph in one or two steps? Even if I can get a program
that's smart enough to break up the waveform based on the level of
volume, that would be a great help. =)

Thanks in advance,
Isaac

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[Clive Backham]

On 7 Oct 2003 23:21:32 -0700, (Isaac Grover)
wrote:

>The daunting part of the task is simply recording the tape into
>digital format, then painfully breaking it up into smaller pieces
>which will end up as tracks on the CD.
>
>Is there software that is smart enough to do all of what I do in the
>first paragraph in one or two steps? Even if I can get a program
>that's smart enough to break up the waveform based on the level of
>volume, that would be a great help. =)

A program that will record and split the tracks into separate files as
it records is LP Ripper. That said, I personally do not believe it is
a good idea to split the tracks during recording. Any automatic track
splitting is bound to get it wrong sometimes, and then you have the
hassle of stitching tracks back together again from fragments that
were incorrectly split up. It is far better to record as one long WAVE
file, then use a track splitter which allows you to review the
suggested split points and correct them if they are wrong. The obvious
program for this purpose is CD Wave.

[Arny Krueger]

"Isaac Grover" > wrote in message
m
> Hi,
>
> Here's what I've done in the past for recording taped audio/speech to
> a CD. I've used CoolEdit to record from the audio input jack at
> 44,100Hz in 16-bit audio as the tape is playing on a high-quality deck
> to the headphone jack, with a cable connecting the headphone jack to
> the audio input jack on the computer. Once the music/speech has been
> recorded, I painfully scroll through the waveform to look for quiet
> spots, which is where I break up the waveform into individual songs or
> speeches. Then I rename those songs/speeches into "Track # - Name"
> format for burning to a CD.
>
> The daunting part of the task is simply recording the tape into
> digital format, then painfully breaking it up into smaller pieces
> which will end up as tracks on the CD.
>
> Is there software that is smart enough to do all of what I do in the
> first paragraph in one or two steps? Even if I can get a program
> that's smart enough to break up the waveform based on the level of
> volume, that would be a great help. =)

The problem is that software can't duplicate the accuracy of an intelligent
human for tasks like these.

If you're doing a quality job of breaking up tracks, then you also want to
work over the fade-ins, fade-outs, and perhaps optimize the levels.

IME, the most painful part of breaking a long track up into files is the
time it takes. CoolEdit runs operations like these a whole lot faster in a
system with two hard drives - keep the input and output .wav files on one
disk, and use the other disk for CoolEdit's work files.

[Lionel]

Isaac Grover wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Here's what I've done in the past for recording taped audio/speech to
> a CD. I've used CoolEdit to record from the audio input jack at
> 44,100Hz in 16-bit audio as the tape is playing on a high-quality deck
> to the headphone jack, with a cable connecting the headphone jack to
> the audio input jack on the computer. Once the music/speech has been
> recorded, I painfully scroll through the waveform to look for quiet
> spots, which is where I break up the waveform into individual songs or
> speeches. Then I rename those songs/speeches into "Track # - Name"
> format for burning to a CD.
>
> The daunting part of the task is simply recording the tape into
> digital format, then painfully breaking it up into smaller pieces
> which will end up as tracks on the CD.
>
> Is there software that is smart enough to do all of what I do in the
> first paragraph in one or two steps? Even if I can get a program
> that's smart enough to break up the waveform based on the level of
> volume, that would be a great help. =)
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Isaac
>

SoundForge 5.0 do that for you.
You just have to put "mark" at the end of each tracks to create
"regions". At the end of the process you can extract each "regions"
independently to your HD with or without generic name, these should be
*.wav files obviously.

[Isaac Grover]

(Clive Backham) wrote in message >...
> A program that will record and split the tracks into separate files as
> it records is LP Ripper. That said, I personally do not believe it is
> a good idea to split the tracks during recording. Any automatic track
> splitting is bound to get it wrong sometimes, and then you have the
> hassle of stitching tracks back together again from fragments that
> were incorrectly split up. It is far better to record as one long WAVE
> file, then use a track splitter which allows you to review the
> suggested split points and correct them if they are wrong. The obvious
> program for this purpose is CD Wave.

I have been using CD Wave for about a week now, and it's saved me so
much time over using my original CoolEdit cut-n-paste method. =)

My only problem is, as you mentioned above, stitching tracks back
together when the program incorrectly split them up. With CD Wave, I
don't see any way to remove a split point. Can CD Wave do this, or do
I get to experiment with another program now? =)

Isaac

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income.
Plan B: Work 10 hours a week for 5 years and retire with 100%+ of your
income.
For more info on Plan B, visit http://nonstop-income.v3.net

[Isaac Grover]

Lionel > wrote in message >...
> SoundForge 5.0 do that for you.
> You just have to put "mark" at the end of each tracks to create
> "regions". At the end of the process you can extract each "regions"
> independently to your HD with or without generic name, these should be
> *.wav files obviously.

I've been working with CD Wave for about a week, which does an
excellent job of automatically splitting tracks. My only problem is
joining two segments after they were incorrectly split. Does
SoundForge allow the end user to remove split points?

Isaac

---
Plan A: Work 40 hours a week for 40 years and retire with 40% of your
income.
Plan B: Work 10 hours a week for 5 years and retire with 100%+ of your
income.
For more info on Plan B, visit http://nonstop-income.v3.net

[Lionel]

Isaac Grover wrote:

> Lionel > wrote in message >...
>
>>SoundForge 5.0 do that for you.
>>You just have to put "mark" at the end of each tracks to create
>>"regions". At the end of the process you can extract each "regions"
>>independently to your HD with or without generic name, these should be
>>*.wav files obviously.
>
>
> I've been working with CD Wave for about a week, which does an
> excellent job of automatically splitting tracks. My only problem is
> joining two segments after they were incorrectly split. Does
> SoundForge allow the end user to remove split points?
>
Yes because they are like "tabulation mark" in a word processor...
You can move them, remove...
You can also finely tune where they will be automatically placed
according to your tape recording specificity.
Nothing is definitive since you decide to extract the created regions.
SoundForge has a lot of features which can handle this particular problem.

Note that I don't know CD Wave.

I hope it's enough clear, ;-)

Lionel

[Clive Backham]

On 22 Oct 2003 09:56:25 -0700, (Isaac Grover)
wrote:

>I have been using CD Wave for about a week now, and it's saved me so
>much time over using my original CoolEdit cut-n-paste method. =)
>
>My only problem is, as you mentioned above, stitching tracks back
>together when the program incorrectly split them up. With CD Wave, I
>don't see any way to remove a split point. Can CD Wave do this, or do
>I get to experiment with another program now? =)

Yes, CD Wave can remove an incorrect split point. In the list of found
tracks at the bottom of the screen, right-click on the split to be
removed, and choose the "Delete track split" option from the pop-up
menu. To add a split point manually, click the mouse at the desired
point on the displayed waveform and invoke "Split" from the "Split"
menu.

(In another posting, you ask whether you can use Sound Forge to do
this, and I'm sure you can, but SF is a remarkably expensive program
to achieve this simple task).

[RonB]

I use a wave recorder (like Creative Recorder) to create one wave file for
the side of an LP, then use LP Ripper to split that file into tracks (i.e.
after recording, not during). With LP Ripper, you can preview (audibly and
visually) the splits and change the split points before the individual
tracks are created, thereby avoiding the need to stitch tracks back
together. Also, "needle noise" at the beginning and end of each side (of the
LP) can be easily cut off before the tracks are created.

Ron B
(to respond directly, delete the prot)


"Clive Backham" > wrote in message
...
> On 22 Oct 2003 09:56:25 -0700, (Isaac Grover)
> wrote:
>
> >I have been using CD Wave for about a week now, and it's saved me so
> >much time over using my original CoolEdit cut-n-paste method. =)
> >
> >My only problem is, as you mentioned above, stitching tracks back
> >together when the program incorrectly split them up. With CD Wave, I
> >don't see any way to remove a split point. Can CD Wave do this, or do
> >I get to experiment with another program now? =)
>
> Yes, CD Wave can remove an incorrect split point. In the list of found
> tracks at the bottom of the screen, right-click on the split to be
> removed, and choose the "Delete track split" option from the pop-up
> menu. To add a split point manually, click the mouse at the desired
> point on the displayed waveform and invoke "Split" from the "Split"
> menu.
>
> (In another posting, you ask whether you can use Sound Forge to do
> this, and I'm sure you can, but SF is a remarkably expensive program
> to achieve this simple task).