Hi Steve:
Here's my theory on this, one man's opinion, etc.
In transferring your personal collection, the paycheck clock might not be ticking but your time still has value. Thus, I can't see why you'd not want to do it in as high quality as possible, so there is never a hint of a reason to do it again. As such:
1. you should never transfer and save as MP3 or other lossy file formats. Transfers should be in WAV, at least 44.1/16-bit. Yes even for cassettes of OTR. You'd actually be surprised how much some software can improve the sound quality, especially if you use a decent cassette deck. So I'd also forget about the boombox.
2. cassettes and reels should be played back on as good equipment as you can find. Your computer soundcard should be at least half decent grade (ie not the crap that Intel builds into their motherboards), and your chain should be hum-free. You should transfer at a reasonable level, especially if you're only using 16 bits. You can be conservative with levels and then normalize if using 24 bits.
3. grooved disks should be cleaned and played back on a good turntable, good cartridge with good stylus and through a good preamp. Anything else is doomed to produce crapola results. Bad sound is bad sound, no matter what the format.
Take a few steps to build up a decent transfer chain, be patient and work with as good source material as you can find and your time will be very well spent and your digital library will be a point of pride instead of something groaned about. If your time is worth anything, I can't see why you wouldn't go the highest quality route possible. As for that software, $50 buys you the "lite" version of Sony Soundforge, which I think is much better and less kludgey looking.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Ramm" <Stevramm@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 9:31 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Anyone familiar with "Spin It Again" Software to convert Lps and Casettes?
I know we have the experts here so I'll hope for replies.
I saw this software advertised in Goldmine and went to their site. Though I
am not really interested in transferring all my vinyl or 78s to Mp3s or CD -
my stereo equipment is in a separate room from my PC - I do have a large group
of cassettes - mostly radio shows which I;d like to record as separate
indexed tracks (and even some Reel to Reels). The cassettes should be easiest as I
can use a boom box to play them into the PC. (I haven't figured out yet
where the INPUT jack goes into my PC. I'm A PC nerd when it comes to the physical
technologies).
Anyway, the testimonials seem good. I'm wondering if anyone has used this.
It also cleans up the sound but probably not up to the standards of ARSC
members. I'm not worried about super sound. I'd just like to be able to find
tracks.
Anyway, there is a free trial - and the Goldmine ad says that if you use word GOLDMINE in order you get 10% discount.
Here is the URL: _http://www.spin-it-again.com-about.com/_ (http://www.spin-it-again.com-about.com/)
I'll await comments but this could be a big help to me.
I use Total Recorder from High Criteria to record streaming-only podcasts
and love that. This could be another inexpensive software I can't do without.
Thanks for help.
Steve RAmm
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