Mp3 faq - software to make MP3 from tapes and LPs

What software can I use to make MP3 files from tapes and LPs?

Well there are many ways you *could* do it. But simply, what I'd recommend is:

1) Download Goldwave from www.goldwave.com it's an excellent shareware program which allows for the recording and editing (with a comprehensive range of functions) of WAV files. You can try it free, and the registration fee is reasonable. Connect your tape player into the line-in of your sound card and record to 44.1 Khz 16 bit signed stereo WAV files. Note that you have to be a bit more tricky for LPs - you'll need to take a signal after pre-amplification and correction, since the output from your phono deck itself is not suitable. If your stereo has an "aux out" you should be able to use that. Another possibility is to record your LP tracks to cassette and then play the tape into your sound card (but obviously it's better to avoid this if you can, since it's likely to introduce some additional quality loss).

2) Edit the WAV files to get them sounding the best you can. There are programs such as "popfix" designed specifically the remove from WAV files the pops created by scratches on vinyl Lps... you might want to try such a program if you have this problem. Once the WAV files is as good as you can get it, encode it to MP3 using encoder software. I recommend BladeEnc - it's free and it does a pretty good job. Popfix and BladeEnc can both be downloaded from the ZDNet software library at www.hotfiles.com

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