You have the Audacity?

You may be confused by the heading as to what this entry is about, suffice it to say I'm not discussing an emotion or attitude.

In fact this entry is about a great little FREE software called, wait for it, "AUDACITY".

If you are like me and have decided to convert all those Vinyl Records and worn out Tapes into MP3s rather than try and purchase CDs or visit the i-Tunes store, then you will find Audacity an invaluable tool to clean up those scratchy, old tracks.

I thought I might just mention a couple of pointers that work for me in the clean up though. Hence the purpose of this entry. Initially I record the tracks using a great little record and tape 'record to mp3' unit made by Fission and bought for under $50 at Aldi. When playing it sounds rather ordinary, but that is due mainly to the speakers, which appear to be El Cheapos! The recordings through the logitech speakers attached to my G5 is more than acceptable.

I then switch to Audacity! Open the software, select new file and drag and drop your mp3 recording. The first thing I do, with recordings off vinyl anyway, is run the Click and Pop removal effect through the whole track. It's amazing!

I then identify if there is any unwanted buzzing from the needle contact to the vinyl. If you check at the beginning before the song starts you may notice tiny little vertical lines. Select a portion of this, then in the effects drop menu, select 'Noise Removal' then select the button "GET NOISE PROFILE". After you've done that, select the whole track "Apple A", go back to the effects drop menu and Noise Removal effect and click the OK button. Magically the noise is gone!

The next step, with the whole track still selected I go back to the effects drop menu and select Normalize leaving the default setting at -1.0dB.

The next and last effect I run is BASS BOOST. Really only needed for vinyl records which seem to come across a little tinny.

And your done! Export as an mp3, I use the option of Insane at 320, but this makes for a bigger mp3 file. No real need to save the .aud (Audacity) file unless you want to play with it some more.

At i-Imagination, we can do all your conversions for you as well as many other things. Drop over to our Website and check us out.

Cheers