I’m pretty frustrated at this point. We have a lot of old jazz and classical LPs that we’d like to get rid of, but not before digitizing them. I’ve done this before using the EZ Tape Converter program, but that was on an old PC. The iMac doesn’t like this program and refuses to download the Mac-friendly version.
I have an Ion turntable that has both a USB connecting cable and an RCA jack connecting cable hard-wired into the turntable. I’m using the USB cable right now because I don’t have an RCA-USB adapter. After looking online, it appeared that the onboard program, Garage Band, would work for uploading the music, but I am really having problems with it. I finally got the Mac to see the signal, but I can’t get any sound, either through the on-board speakers or through the headphone jack.
I’m not wedded to Garage Band, but it would be nice to be able to use it, since it’s an Apple product and we all know how fussy Apple can be. I’m waiting for an RCA adapter just in case there is an issue with the other cable. Anybody have any experience using this? Any helpful hints as to how to make it work properly? A suggestion for a better program?
I used Audacity to digitize a ton of LPs and transfer them to an Itunes library. It worked well, though there’s a sweet spot when minimizing hiss and scratches before you get to the point of significantly degrading sound quality.
I have an Ion turntable. I used the software it came with to convert everything to a digital format (WAV) and then just used ITunes to create mp3s and to burn the WAVs to a CD.
For some reason, Apple won’t allow me to download the most recent software.
I downloaded Audacity, but just didn’t have the energy to read the rather lengthy manual yesterday after fighting with Garage Band for several hours. I’ll give it another try, but if anyone has helpful hints for it, I’m all ears.
Does your computer recognize the USB audio interface? Are you able to select it in Audacity?
The link I posted gives more or less step-by-step instructions (clean the LP, make sure it’s not warped, make a test recording to adjust the levels, etc.)
Yes. Embarrassed to say that I didn’t realize there was a selector switch on the back of the turntable. As I mentioned, I can see that the computer is getting signal from the turntable, but I can’t hear anything. That doesn’t mean it isn’t recording, but it makes it difficult to tell when the LP is finished. I’ll check out the link.
There is “Click to Start Monitoring” on the recording levels; it’s not automatic. Also, if you want to hear stuff you can turn on Software Playthrough; see here: Meter Toolbars - Audacity Manual
I seem to recall that there were several tracks that had lengthy pre- or post- song silence/hiss that I edited out with Logic or GarageBand. Something rough about the way that the software decided something was a “track”, IIRC. But the actual encoding was fine.
I did an initial read-through on your link, which was very helpful. I don’t understand all the tech-speak, but that’s okay since I don’t plan to get down in the weeds with editing.
Herein lies a sad tale. The software is exactly what you describe: Magical. I use it to clean up my vast collection of Seeburg 1000 background music.
Some months back I wanted to look at the manual for some in depth understanding of a few settings so I went to the website and found a rather lame “coming soon” page that looks almost like a parked domain,
I sent an email to the creator of ClickRepair asking about the future of his site and he replied that his health has declined to the point where he can no longer maintain the software. He mentioned the possibility of someone else taking up the baton after his passing, but the site remains dead. It is likely the poor guy has already passed on. He really knew his stuff and made a wonderful tool for common hobbyists to use to clean up audio.
What this means to us: Keep a backup! If you don’t have the installer anymore, you can still back up the Java jar files and your license key.
Downloaded fine for me. Would it literally “refuse to download” the zipped .pkg file or did it actually download but then you just couldn’t open the .pkg file? If you do have the .pkg file, control click on the file, click “open” and then click “open” in the dialog box that appears.
So which part is “that?” Did it literally refuse to download the file or did it actually download the file but you couldn’t open it once it downloaded?
