# Music Recording Software?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 9, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253 "2004-03-09T04:41:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253/1 "2004-03-09T04:41:54Z")

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I’m looking for some decent (preferably cheap) music recording software. I have some records I’d like to burn to CD, and a cable to send my stereo’s output to my computer’s input (microphone jack), but no decent software to use. The “Sound Recorder” program that comes with Windows is simply inadequate (you have to press “record” every 60 seconds, for example).

Any suggestions or thoughts? I’m using Windows XP…

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**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253/2 "2004-03-09T05:03:53Z")

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Roxio’s Easy CD Recorder should do the trick. (Well, on the Mac side it would, I assume it’s the same on the PC side.) [Roxio.com](http://Roxio.com), I think.

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**Author:** ![bookbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@bookbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bookbuster)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253/3 "2004-03-09T08:30:16Z")

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I usually go to ZDnet and try all the freeware that they have when I need something.  
Here is a Windows search for “[sound recorder](http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=sound+recorder&tg=dl-2001)”

If you have the time you should try as many as you can. I like ZDnet for the descriptions/user reviews.

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**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253/4 "2004-03-09T12:44:34Z")

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Try [Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), a very good open-source audio recorder/editor.

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**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253/5 "2004-03-09T16:19:53Z")

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> [@StephenG](#):
>
> …I have some records I’d like to burn to CD, and a cable to send my stereo’s output to my computer’s input (microphone jack), but no decent software to use…

There are hundreds of programs to rip them. Once they’re ripped, I strongly recommend [Magix Audio Cleaning Lab](http://site.magix.net/index.php?6355&version=standard) for ‘polishing’ them, i.e. removing pops, scratches, hiss and other background noise. It’s user friendly and less than the cost of 2 new CDs.

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**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-recording-software/233253/6 "2004-03-09T16:54:04Z")

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I use [Pinnacle Clean](http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1359&Langue_ID=7).

Record. Clean up scratches etc. Enhance. Split into tracks. The ‘Plus’ version comes with a pre-amp.