No break between tracks when recording vinyl to CD

Terryallan wrote:
Wow. I just went in, and recorded thru the Mic In. on the computer

You DO realize the Mic In is only MONO?

While the Mic In connector contains three wires, one is ground, one is Mono Mic and one is low voltage power to run the condenser mic which is why the connector has three wires...

Mic Input was designed to supply power to a condenser mic.

You do realize that connecting a turn table cartridge directly to the Mic In does not provide the proper RIAA equalization curves also?

I can't imagine how terrible that sounded...

Proper way would be to use a good quality turntable with a good magnetic cartridge AND a magnetic cartridge preamp (which uses low noise amps PLUS has proper RIAA equalization. Then the output of the preamp connects to the LINE LEVEL INPUT of the PC sound card.

Alternately is like the OP, who bought a turntable which has the preamp built in AND a A/D (Analog to Digital) converter which outputs to a USB connection. The A/D WILL be of BETTER QUALITY than the built in PC sound card. In this case the turntable is treated as a second sound card...

I have sent you a PM that should help you get started with CD burning or saving to a digital format with SF.

Wow. I just went in, and recorded thru the Mic In. on the computer

Here you go! I have used the DAK system, and it really works well. If you already have the hardware, I think you can buy the software separately.

Since you have Sound Forge, look in the help section under CD Layout. It will show you how to put a 2 second gap between selections and mark each song/track. From there you can burn an entire CD or render individual tracks to MP3, WAV or other format.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you have done it once, it is very easy.

I use Sony Vegas video software that began as a spin off of Sound Forge (when it was owned by another company, Sonic Foundry, I think). Sound Forge and Vegas Video both have a lot of audio tools.
Sony Forums

pausing the 'recorder/PC' is Not the problem

there is No pause the turn table playing the record

he's transferring vinyl aka LP record, to the PC

he needs to stop the 'recording software on the PC
the file closes
then he starts a new file for the NEXT song

but the record is still playing !!

so he has to start that next song all over

IF he plays straight thru and records straight thru
its ONE long recording of all the songs together and he has to cut it into pieces

Can't you just hit pause on the recorder between songs. that's how I do it. Just hit pause than play. Instant track break.

strollin wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:
... The one I do not recommend is to physically stop the turntable between tracks for three to five seconds. ...

You should never stop a turntable with the stylus still in contact with the record. Due to friction, the stylus tip gets very hot, as long as the record is turning the hot stylus is not a problem but if stopped while still in contact with the record, it can actually melt a small indentation in the vinyl.

As others have said, Audacity works to break the tracks up. I also use a little utility called Tunatic that will "listen" to the song then identify the artist and song title which I can then cut & paste in order to name the track - cuts down on how much typing is needed. Bummer, I just tried Tunatic on my computer running Win 8.1 and it doesn't work there. First program I've encountered that worked in Win 7 but not Win 8.

Most record players have a tone arm UP/DOWN lever, so there is no reason to ever "turn off" or stop the record.

I looked up Sony USB turn tables and the one I looked at HAS a UP/DOWN button.

The OP simply needs to STOP the RECORDING SESSION at the end of the track.

Then press the stylus UP button.

Then when software is ready press the Down button to start playing (some stylus lifts will drift the stylus back a groove or two).

Once the stylus contacts the record you simply start the software recording.

That is it, no editing, no cutting, no other exotic hardware or software.

Auto detection of the "silent" grooves in between songs is a hit or miss thing.

Why?

Simply put, there is no "silence" between the grooves.

There is turntable rumble, scratches, pops and clicks.

The software is often fooled by the lack of silence in between tracks and therefore will not create a new file.

I myself have several very nice turntables which back when they were new were extremely and insanely expensive (I got them used so I ended up with good deals on them). I can actually HEAR the rumble that was RECORDED INTO the vinyl.

It would take a very expensive and high quality turntable which does not transfer additional rumble to the platter and a record that virtually has no wear and no dust or dirt in order for auto detect to work perfectly each time...

obgraham wrote:
I've transferred a whole lot of my LP's to digital CD's, but have not found any way to avoid marking the tracks manually. I actually use a dedicated CD recorder, start the LP, and place the track breaks manually as the LP plays in real time. I've also done a few using Audacity, with the procedure previously described.

X2!

THIS is by far THE BEST way to transfer from vinyl to digital.

Standalone CD recorders have by far much better A/D converters and are much quieter than a computer sound card.

The nice thing about a standalone recorder though is the fact that I can start the recording and never have to stop it for the entire side. Simply just press the track advance button during each track change.

It will be a pain but as others have said, whether you record each track individually to a file and then put them together on a CD or record all at once and split edit the file and split it into files for each track, you are going to need software like Audicity - and Audicity is free and the best to do almost anything audio. In addition to the main Audicity software file, you will also need to download the plug ins for output to various formats of files.

The process from vinyl to CD or mp3 takes time - recording, listening through, and editing as you go to get files to burn as separate tracks to CD and then make sure the CD burner is set to create pauses between tracks. The same whole process applies when going from CD to mp3.