As a club DJ who selects and plays in a digital format now, I like to leave clicks and pops in when digitizing my "white-labels" or vinyl-exclusive releases (some of the best or most coveted tunes are released on vinyl first in very small runs, months before they are available as downloads). I like to normalize then run the recording through Izotope's Ozone 7 on the "warm and transparent" preset to get it closer in loudness to digital releases I am mixing them with. There is a small community of us who share rips of this type of release from around the world, online, as the best place to pick a lot of this kind of record up is in smaller local genre-specific shops. Black Market soho in London was a Mecca of mine or Rooted Records in Bristol but I live in Cali now and have a hard time keeping up my share ratio but still get a rush when I get a great vinyl rip of a tune earlier than most. It is silly and matters very little to my livelihood but an old tradition in dj'ing that I am glad still survives (having tracks the next Dj doesn't, that is).
I didn't see it mentioned, but I wonder if Audacity inverts the RIAA equalization curve.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization</a>
While I have no need of ripping vinyl, just wanted to say that Audacity is one of the best examples of indispensable FOSS (when it comes to working with sound) that I have ever come across in my life.<p>I remember I was using it well over 7 years ago, and was in awe of how much power it gave me for free, and how capable of a tool it was. Couldn't donate then, but definitely can now. While I know my time/PRs might be more valuable, regular money will have to do.
Of course, the real way to do this is to optically scan the record and simulate a stylus tracking it. The Library of Congress does this.[1] They've even recovered records broken into pieces, by scanning the pieces and reassembling the 3D model.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/how-a-machine-in-the-basement-of-the-library-of-congress-is-saving-the-history-of-recorded-sound/372723/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/how-a-...</a>
A less technical, step-by-step way (also using Audacity) <a href="http://transfermymusic.com/vinyl-to-cd-or-mp3/" rel="nofollow">http://transfermymusic.com/vinyl-to-cd-or-mp3/</a>
When I rip vinyl I want as little processing as possible, so no messing around with high pass and pop removal. If it's new or decent condition vinyl the pops and hiss will be barely audible anyway.<p>Far more important to have a decent MC cartridge, and make sure it goes through a decent phono (RIAA) stage, which generally means an older hifi amp, or not-cheap hifi component.<p>Any phono stage of the last 20 years, or the "rip your old records" turntables generally use lowest quality crap going.
Years ago my dad wanted me to listen to 'the classics'. So he handed me a stack of LPs and asked if I was able to convert them into CDs for him. Of course I had to listen to each one to do a good job.<p>I'm happy to see that the process has improved in Audacity over the years. When I used to do this there was not a good provision for adding labels to become tracks.
I'm sad that there's no scene standard for ripping vinyls (apart from a few mentions <a href="http://scenenotice.org/details.php?id=2006" rel="nofollow">http://scenenotice.org/details.php?id=2006</a>). I'd like to think they'd use this guide.
one needs to sample the original at at least double the final finished frequency, or the finished product will have a metallic tinge to it.<p>eg if 44,100hz rate is what you want to end up with, the sample rate needs to be at least 88,200hz.