If you bought a fancy new turntable with a USB output, you might also have a piece of 'special software' included that can help you record your classic sounds to your modern PC.

May 21, 2014  While some would argue that vinyl is the best audio format, in terms of sound quality, when discussing convenience an MP3 file can't be beaten.

But that's not the case for everyone. Many won't have a USB output and many more won't have any software to digitize their records with. Hopefully, that's where this guide can help.

1. Vinyl converting software. Digitize LP records and audio cassette tapes, convert to CD or to MP3 for your computer or iTunes. Download a Free trial of Golden Records vinyl recording software for PC or Mac to make digital copies of your favorite albums.
2. Jul 07, 2014  Ripping LPs with Pure Vinyl 4 Jason Victor Serinus Jul 7, 2014 So spoke Rob Robinson, PhD (above), creator of Channel D's Pure Vinyl and Pure Music Mac apps, at the start of a recent presentation members of the Bay Area Audiophile Society.
3. Compare the best free open source Mac CD Ripping Software at SourceForge. Free, secure and fast Mac CD Ripping Software downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory.
4. VinylStudio software makes it easy to transfer your records and tapes to CD and MP3. Runs on both PC and Macintosh Computers and includes a full set of sound cleaning filters.
5. CD ripper software copy CD audio content to music files at computer hard disc. Read about sound quality, ripping ways (including safe/secure and unsecure), ripping formats, settings, metadata management, how to choose the best CD ripping software for audiophile.

Thanks to a free piece of software called Audacity, anyone can transfer their vinyl records to their PC, not fancy USB-equipped turntable required.

The first thing to do is download and install Audacity. This is a completely free piece of software and is an exceptional audio editor. It's also pretty simple to pick up for beginners, so if you've never used it before don't be afraid.

The next thing you need is an interface to make your PC see your turntable. If you have a USB output, then you just need to connect the turntable to the PC this way. But if you don't, you'll need an analog to digital converter. This will take the analog signal coming from your turntable and turn it into a digital input your PC will understand.

For the purposes of this walkthrough, I'm using a Behringer Xenyx 302USB mixer, just because it's a product I already own. You don't need something this big, though, and a much smaller converter can be found. You'll potentially find the products you're looking for labeled as a USB audio interface. Just make sure you get one with a USB connector on it.

Note: Don't confuse what you need for a DAC (digital to analog converter) when buying. A DAC takes the digital signal from the PC and turns it into an analog one. What you need is the reverse of this.

So long as you have a way to connect the right and left channels from the turntable to the PC, you'll be golden. The actual device will differ from person to person.

Connecting the turntable to the PC

If you have a USB turntable, plugging it into your PC is easy: connect the USB cable to the matching ports on the turntable and your computer. But if you have a turntable with a more standard phono output, you'll need to follow these steps:

1. Connect your analog to digital converter to the PC using the supplied USB cable.
2. Connect the left and right phono leads from your turntable to your converter.
3. Power on the turntable.
4. On your PC, open manage audio devices from the control panel.
5. On the recording tab, make sure your converter is selected as the default input.
6. Then click on properties.
7. Select the advanced tab.
8. From the drop-down box make sure that 2-channel is selected at your preferred sample rate. In my case, it's set to 2-channel, 16-bit, 48000Hz.

Setting up Audacity

The first thing you need to do in Audacity is ensure that when you open it up it's going to use the right hardware to record from and that the project rate matches what you selected in the steps above.

1. Open Audacity.
2. Select MME in the interface menu. It is the first drop-down menu in the controls.

3. Select your USB analog converter in the source menu. It is the second drop-down menu in the controls and sports a microphone icon. My converter showed up as 'Microphone (USB Audio CODEC)'.

4. Set the frequency menu to match your project sample rate to the previously set hardware sample rate. In this case, 48000Hz.

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You're now set up to start recording. Before you get too far in, though, you'll want to do a little test recording on the loudest part of one of the songs you're transferring. This will ensure you get the right recording volume in Audacity and avoid any distortion.

If you're using a USB mixer like I am here, then you'll have hardware controls that can alter this without needing to do anything in Audacity. Essentially do a test recording and see where the highest point on the waveform is. Then alter the recording volume (the microphone slider) to a little more than this level to give yourself some headroom.

Recording your vinyl records

Once you're happy with the setup and the levels it's time to get recording.

1. Hit the record button in Audacity and then drop the needle on your record.
2. If you're recording a multi-record album it's a good idea to keep Audacity recording while you change them over. Reasons for this will become clear later on.
3. When finished you'll have one very long waveform and your entire album recorded into a single Audacity track.
4. Click on the file menu.
5. Select save project.

Ignore the warning, you do want to save this as an Audacity project for the time being.

Now we can move onto turning that one long recording into individual tracks, while also cutting out any silences and even fixing any clicks you may have had transferred. It is vinyl, after all, so there's always a chance of imperfections.

Editing the recording

The first thing you want to do is get rid of any silences. You'll find these at the start, probably the end, and any places in the middle where you had to change the records over.

Removing them is easy, though.

1. Use the selection tool to go to the beginning point of the silence.
2. Click and drag the portion you want to remove. You'll see something like the image above.
3. Press the delete key on your keyboard and it'll vanish.

Repeat these steps for any other areas of silence you need to get rid of, even between tracks if you wish. Don't take out too much between the individual tracks, though, as having a short gap will help you when it comes to splitting the recording into tracks.

Silences gone, the next thing you might want to do is sort out any clicks that came through on the recording. You'll be able to see them on the waveform fairly clearly as a spike. As I used a brand new record for this guide, I'm fortunate I don't have any, but if you're using older records then the chances are increased.

The first thing to try is Audacity's built in click removal tool.

1. Select the affected area by dragging the selection tool over it.
2. Select the effect menu.
3. Now choose click removal.

You may have to experiment with different values for the threshold and spike width, but a good place to start is between 120-130 for the former and 30-40 for the latter. Keep trying different values until you're happy.

Alternatively, if the click removal tool doesn't do a good enough job, you can use the repair tool, also under the effect menu to deal with individual spikes.

The final thing you might want to do with your recording is to make it louder. Amplifying it a little will mean you don't have to turn the volume up so high when you listen to the digital tracks later on. If you're already happy with the levels, you can skip this part.

If you want to amplify the recording:

1. Click anywhere inside the waveform.
2. Select the effect menu.
3. Click on amplify.

Audacity will tell you how much you can apply before hitting 0db. You don't want to go over 0db, for one, and some might argue you should keep it below this. But go with your own preference. Just don't go over 0, because you may start to encounter clipping and distortion and no-one wants that.

Save the project when you're happy and on to the next step.

Labelling tracks and exporting

Nearly there! Now you're happy with the quality of the audio, the next thing to do is to chop up that one long recording into individual tracks. The good news is you don't have to any actual chopping.

The first thing to do is add the album metadata.

1. Click on file.
2. Select edit metadata tags. You'll see the box shown in the image above.
3. For now, only enter album information. So add the album name, artist, genre and year. Leave the track number and track name alone.
4. Click OK to confirm.

Now we sort out the tracks.

1. Go to the very beginning of the recording with the selection tool.
2. Click tracks from the menu bar.
3. Select add label at selection.
4. A new bar will appear below your recording with a little empty text box.
5. Type in the name of the first track and hit enter.

Repeat this process now at the start of every other track on the album. Earlier I recommended leaving some of the in-between track silences, and this is why. It'll make it easier for you to locate the start of subsequent tracks.

Once you've done this for every track on the album, it's a good idea to save the project again to make sure you don't lose any progress. What you now have is a complete album, edited and amplified with all its metadata inserted. The final step is to export the album as individual tracks.

1. Click on file.
2. Next select export multiple.
3. Select the location your PC you want the files to go to.

Exporting multiple is important because if you just do a regular export you'll end up with a single audio file containing the entire album. Only by exporting as multiple will you get one file per track.

The next thing to do is choose the file type you want. If you want to compress the audio and have smaller file sizes, you can select MP3. But you'll also need to download and install the LAME plugin to do that. Personally, I want the lossless audio so I'm selecting FLAC.

The last tip here is to add numbers to your tracks. If you don't want numbers, skip ahead.

1. Check the box labeled numbering before label/track name. This will add a track number to the files as it exports them to go with the names you added when labeling earlier.
2. When you're happy, click export and we're done!

You will now have a complete album transferred from vinyl to your PC in individual files for each track. From here you can listen to them on your PC or your phone just as you would any other digital music file.

It's a bit of a process, but in some cases, it might be the only way you can listen to some of the tracks you have on record. Not everything made it to digital.

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Features Ahoy

Microsoft Edge gets big update with better full-screen controls, more

The Microsoft Edge Stable channel is getting another big update today. This latest release brings a bunch of collections improvements, better full-screen navigation, and more.

LXi vinyl cutting software 12 works w/ Windows 8.1 and 10.

What software features do you need? How do you decide which level to buy to keep from limiting the growth of your sign shop? In this article, A basic guide to Vinyl Express® LXi 12 Vinyl Cutting Software, we give you answers.

When you buy a sign equipment package, you’ll probably spend most of your time looking at the hardware features and specifications to make sure you get the right Vinyl Cutter or Printer for the job. The more capable your equipment, the more productive your sign business is.

What about software? Many aspiring sign makers spend lots of time selecting the right cutter, then buy the least expensive software available. Only after they’ve setup the equipment do they realize that they don’t have the design tools they need to meet the demands of their waiting customers. How can you avoid this common pitfall?

Why Vinyl Express® LXi Vinyl Cutting Software?

FIG 1: LXI includes tools for optimizing the performance of your vinyl cutter

The first question we should answer is the most obvious; why buy LXi? Lots of people use other applications for vector graphics like CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator. Some prefer photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint or even PaintShop Pro. Why not just use one of those? Using Photoshop for vinyl graphics is like trying to change a flat tire with a hammer & chisel. They’re not the right tools for the job. You might get the tire changed, but not without serious aggravation and possible injury.

These software applications are not designed for making vinyl signs, so a lot of their output can’t be used by vinyl cutters. More importantly, they don’t have plotter drivers so they can’t communicate directly to your device in its native language. You could use a generic printer driver, but then you’ll still lack the unique features included in LXi that have been developed over 35 years of sign making to make your life easier. These features include enhanced weeding tools, automatic tiling, and the cutting speed and force controls that are essential for driving some entry-level cutters (Fig 1). We understand the resistance to buying and learning graphic design software if you’re already proficient in another application.

Since LXi is cloud-based software, you also have a ‘Cloud pane’ that enables archiving your files online and provides instant access to SAI’s extensive library of clip art images, logos, and templates. You need not be online all the time to use it. You need an internet connection for installation and occasional server contact to keep up the license.

Few people want to expend the time and effort to learn new software. But it’s time well spent and the effort will pay off in increased efficiency and productivity. Speaking of learning, we’ve made it easier by posting some LXI Training Video Tutorials on our support site. Click here to shorten the learning curve. So what does LXi software offer and why is it worth your hard-earned shekels?

Vinyl Express® LXi vinyl cutting software overview – Five levels – with OS updates

The most important question for Windows users relates to compatibility with Windows 10 OS. The current version of LXi software, LXI 12, is fully compatible with Windows 7, 8, and 10. Free video editor download for pc. Windows XP is no longer supported. Unfortunately, LXI 12 is a Window’s only application. MAC users can still make professional quality signs, but with a more limited range of compatible hardware. Please Click here for more information about our MAC sign making solutions.

There are now five levels offering different tools and features. In order from basic to best, these are Apprentice, Expert, Master, Master Plus, and LXI RIP. Time and space fails to allow a full exploration of all the features in all the levels of LXi. Instead, we’ll look at the most important features by level so you can see what gets added to your digital toolbox as you move up the LXi ladder.

Vinyl Express® LXi Apprentice 12

LXi Apprentice 12 is an entry-level solution and is offered for those who are already proficient in another graphic design software product like CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator, and wish to continue designing in that space. You can even use the Workspace Profiles option to change the Graphic User Interface to look like your favorite graphic design software. The tool set is fairly simple and supports unadorned text and shapes. But it comes powerful sign production tools and essential interactive design features that make LXi easy to learn. Because of the simple tool set, it’s not recommended as a standalone design platform. Here are some of the main features.

• FIG 2: Auto tracing is essential for turning jpeg files into cuttable decals

  Design Central is an interactive, context sensitive tool window that displays various tools according the objects you have selected on your workspace. This feature makes it easy to work quickly because it eliminates the need to search for the right tool as you move from one task to another. Poe writing software for mac download. Design Central greatly reduces the learning curve and speeds productivity. Click here for an example.

• Production Manager is a separate application launched by the File/Cut-Plot command. It includes a plotter driver library supporting hundreds of vinyl cutter models from Vinyl EXPRESS, Graphtec, Roland, Summa, Mutoh, Mimaki, and more. Production Manager helps manage the entire cutting process, from selecting devices, editing image attributes to fine tuning the cutter’s performance. The Production Manager consists of two modules, the Device Manager, and the Cut/Plot window. As its name implies, the Device Manager is where you’ll find tools for managing your cutting devices. From here you can add, remove, activate or deactivate plotters, test connectivity, change ports, send test cuts and more.

The Cut/Plot window divides into four tabs that house tools for managing the image and the cutter performance. The first two tabs support image editing including rotating, resizing, repositioning, inverting, or duplicating images, cutting by color, and tiling, and more. The Options and Advanced tabs house tools for fine tuning the cutter’s performance. Here you can manage speed, force, and offset settings, add cut paths to speed and facilitate weeding the cut graphic, add registration marks, manage overcut, trapping, and welding, and more. Even if you’re designing in a third-party application, you should learn and use Production Manager to output your jobs. Decades of experience in sign businesses all over the world result in a staggering array of tools in the LXI Production Manager.

New Features for Apprentice 12 include the ability to view and change the cut order, and animated cut viewer and of course, fully supported Windows 7/8/10 compatibility.

Vinyl Express® LXi EXPERT 12

LXi Expert 12 is the first step up from Apprentice and is a standalone program for production of basic to intermediate vinyl graphics. To the considerable production features of Apprentice, LXI Expert adds important design features such as inlines & outlines, auto tracing, and the Contour Cut Mark feature for desktop print and cut workflow.

• The Inline/Outline/Contour feature is one of the most commonly used tools in the effects menu. You use Inlines and outlines to build two color graphics with an outline in a different color from main text element. This time-honored design feature is commonly found in brand logos and is a great way to distinguish the primary element in a design by giving it more visual weight.
• Scanning & Auto tracing is another pair of essential sign making tools. Scanning and auto tracing are the first and second steps in conversion of a printed bitmap image to a cuttable vector graphic (Fig 2). You’ll need this the first time a client contracts you to cut a design using images they only have in printed form. This happens a lot. You’ll need to scan the image, then use the auto trace tool to convert the scanned image to a cuttable vector object. You will also need to use the auto trace tool anytime you receive a digital image file that’s in a raster format. The most common of these is the ubiquitous jpeg. Web images like gifs, jpegs cannot be cut until they’re converted to vector form with the auto trace or vectorization tool. Click here to learn more about vectorization.
• The Contour Cut Mark feature supports print and cut workflow with desktop printers. This process requires a vinyl cutter with a registration mark sensor (i.e. EnduraCut , Qe60+, Qe6000, or Q Series with ARMS option, Graphtec CE5000-60, CE6000-60, Roland GX24, GS24 et al) and a printer with drivers installed in Windows printer folder. If you want to print and cut small scale decals with your desktop inkjet printer, this feature is for you. It’s ideal for creating full color, heat applied t-shirt graphics for colored and dark garments. Click here for a PDF tutorial on how to use this feature with a Vinyl EXPRESS Qe6000 cutting plotter.

Vinyl Express® LXI Master 12

LXI Master adds more popular commercial sign design essentials including drop shadows, distortions, and weld tools.

• FIG 3: Graphic Styles make your design time more efficient.

  Drop shadows are another staple of graphic design. LXi Master has four versions of shadow effects including drop, block, cast, and perspective; think of the Superman logo. The new soft shadows option supports a more contemporary look ideal for printed graphics.

• Distortions and are great for adding contrast to your layouts. This effect allows you to warp a shape or word to imitate the effect of a three-dimensional substrate. Give your text the look of a waving flag, banner, cylinder, foreshortened wall, or almost any other shape. There are 23 presets and each can be edited using the node and path tools. The only limit is your imagination.
• Weld tools make creating unique shapes more quickly by combining, intersecting, overlapping multiple objects. The Weld tool bar has eight options including weld, fuse, common, exclude common, and more. This is a great way to create reverse weeded text that adds contrast and makes weeding faster.
• Graphic Styles allows you to quickly copy attributes from one object to another or to setup default values for all graphic elements. It’s a powerful tool that enhances efficiency and supports consistent design (FIG 3). For more about how to use Graphic Styles in LXI software, please click here.
• Gradient Fills are one of the most commonly used graphic design elements of our time. They’re found in everything from top tier brand logos to T-shirt decal designs. Gradient fills are a great way to add energy, depth and engaging color to your signs and graphics. The gradient fill option includes popular presets like rainbow fills and chrome effects and allows you to customize any gradient fill by adding or removing hues and precisely editing the angle of the gradation. In addition to gradients, LXI Master supports transparent overlays with 17 blending modes. You can layer solid and gradient fills and use the transparent fill function to create an whole new range of visual effects . Since gradients can’t be output in vinyl, this feature is more applicable when designing printed designs like T-shirt transfers.

Vinyl Express® LXi Master Plus 12. The professional’s choice.

LXi Master Plus has all these nifty features and more. Among the unique features in the top-level of LXi cutting software, you’ll find expanded shape tools, pattern fills, color bitmap editing tools, the Rhinestone Wizard and job info and statistics.

• FIG 4: The Rhinestone Wizard is now standard in Master Plus.

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  Having expanded shape tools seems unimportant until you have to create a perfectly symmetrical arrowhead. To save time finessing the path edit tools to achieve symmetry, the Master Plus shape toolbox adds fans, arrows, and parametric shapes to the standard rectangles and ellipses. These shape tools can save you design time, and as we all know, time is money.

• Speaking of time and money, the Job info/Job Statistics feature is one of the most practical elements in Master Plus. Job Statistics keeps track of exactly how much time you’ve spent working on a specific job. This supports billing for design time and helps manage efficiency. Job Info adds fields for recording Purchase order numbers, customer contact information, internal sales date, order and delivery dates and more. Together, Job Info and Job Statistics are good basic business management tools.
• Color Bitmap editing is a great tool set for desktop print and cut workflow. Suppose someone wants to you print a decal of their grandbaby on a shirt, but they want only the child’s face without the surrounding background? How do you delete the background from the supplied image? You use the bitmap editing tools. The crop tool allows you to select only a rectangular portion of an imported bitmap. The magic wand and associated make background transparent function make those unwanted pixels go poof. Then you can create the contour cut path around Junior’s adorable face and create a high quality, high profit, custom decorated garment. In addition to the gradient fills in LXi Master, Master Plus adds pattern fills to give you another layer of design options. There are eight preset pattern fills including brick, diamond plate, and polka dot.
• The Rhinestone Wizard feature, which was an option in LXI Cloud, is now standard with Master Plus (Fig 4). Rhinestone Wizard is a plug-in which allows you to convert vector graphics into rhinestone patterns for garment decoration. Rhinestone garment decoration is so popular and profitable that some people buy the entire equipment package just for this application. Since it comes in the Master Plus level, you’ll also have all the design tools you need to create compelling rhinestone designs. Click here for more information about the Rhinestone Wizard process.

LXi RIP 12. The Print and Contour-Cut Solution

Ripping Vinyl To Pc

LXI RIP 12 takes your sign shop to the next level by enabling you to use all of the design tools of Master Plus to create large format prints with the PrismJET VJ24, VJ24X and VJ48. The LXI RIP 12 RIP and Print engine supports professional quality color management, job control. It includes ICC Profiles and supports the creation of custom profiles for your media. Here’s a brief feature summary.

• FIG 5: LXI RIP 12 supports designing with white and metallic spot color libraries.

  Master Plus Design Tools. The LXI RIP 12 comes with two powerful components; the LXI Design Editor and the RIP 12 Production Manager. The Design Editor includes all of the powerful design tools found in LXI Master Plus. So you can create vibrant, colorful graphics in the Design interface and output them through the RIP engine, or import them into Production Manager.

• Color Management: LXI RIP 12 includes all the essential color management tools found in FlexiSign & Print 12. You can import presets, load ICC Profiles and even create your own using the Color Profiler. You’ll find full support for fine tuning the amazing wave print modes for your PrismJET printers. All of these tools mean you can produce top quality prints for less.
• Spot Color Support: In order to fully support the new 8 color PrismJET VJ24X, LXI RIP 12 includes spot color mapping and Color Adjustment tools. These allow you to create designs in the LXI RIP 12 Design Editor using the MUTOH Metallic Spot Color Library and add them to your prints (FIG 5).
• Print and Contour-Cut Job Control: Like FlexiPRINT 12, LXI RIP 12 is designed for large format printing and contour-cutting. The Production Manager supports seamless print and contour-cut workflow so that jobs can be printed on your PrismJET printer and contour-cut on any capable vinyl cutter. The smart print and cut job control supports excellent path alignment and simultaneous printing and contour-cutting for maximum productivity. LXI RIP Design has no file-cut-plot function. So, for full printing, contour-cutting, and vinyl cutting, you’ll need to pair RIP 12 with Master Plus.

• FIG 6: Contour Cut Marks support print and cut decals with spot colors.

  True-Shape Contour-Cut Nesting: SAI’s new True-Shape Contour-Cut Nesting tool is included. This intelligent feature allows you to arrange copies of a contour-cut decal in the Design Editor to minimize media usage and therefore, maximize profit.

• Contour Cut Mark: The Contour Cut Mark feature is also essential for print and cut workflow with the PrismJET VJ24X using white and metallic spot colors. Using the Contour Cut Marks allows users to export a print job to the Production Manager with spot colors mapped for white, metallic, or Fluorescent inks. Then the job can be sent to a capable vinyl cutter for contour-cutting of the printed decals. The Contour Cut Mark feature preserves the productivity advantage of simultaneous use of the PrismJET printer and your vinyl cutter.

As noted above, time and space here doesn’t allow a full exploration of all the intelligent design and production features baked into LXI 12. For a complete list of the features by level, Please Click Here to download the comprehensive LXI 12 Feature List in PDF format.

You certainly won’t need all of these tools for every job. But when you need them, it’s better to have them readily at hand than to resort to delivering bland, uninspiring work to your customers. So don’t spend all your time shopping for a great cutter and then scrimp on software. A vinyl cutter’s output is only as good as the designs sent from the software. Your design work will be more effective and more efficient if you invest as much time and thought choosing software as you do choosing hardware.

Vinyl Ripping Software