Originally, this was going to be a one page article. Well into the project, it was found to be getting to be a large file. In order to reduce download time and make specific information easier to find, it was decided to break the single page into four parts. With our prolific use of graphics, shorter articles will most definitely download faster. With a section for each program and one for device configuration, it will be quicker and easier to determine whether a specific problem has been addressed in this series. After some reader feedback, two more sections were added to this series, a FAQ and the Printing File Lists article.
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When starting the LPRecorder program, this "Audio Settings" window will appear first.
The "Recording Device" selection box, arrow 1, has a tendency to become reset when
disconnecting your INport. When this screen appears make sure you are getting input
from your INport. Windows XP will show "INport" in this box, while on Vista it shows
"Line(INport)". This is the first place to look when you start a recording session
and the volume level meters are not responding.
The "Playback device" selection box should be set to your sound card/audio device
Once this setting has been set, it is usually not affected by disconnecting the INport.
With Windows Vista "Playback device" should be set to "Speakers(the name of your
sound card)". With Windows XP, the "Playback device" selection box should display
the name of your sound card/audio device.
The "Recording selection" box is not present on Vista versions. The Windows XP version recommended setting for this control is "select and restore". This combo box control deals with automating the input selection for LPRecorder. The "select and restore" option makes the input configuration for this program transparent to the user. More detailed info for each option in this combo box can be found in the program's help file.
The manual says to check the "Simultaneous playback" check box. This allows you to monitor a recording session when routing your turntable's output through a preamplifier. If, however, you have your turntable/audio source routed through a stereo/audio amplifier via a line out connection and are using the amplifier to monitor the session's progress, I suggest clearing this check box because there is a time delay between the two audio outputs. The resulting sound mixture can be disturbing at best.
The "Display when starting" check box should be checked. This causes the "Audio Settings" screen to appear on starting LPRecorder. Since this setting changes when INport has been disconnected, this feature allows you to ensure that the "Recording device" selection box is set to the INport before starting your recording session. When you finish making changes click the "OK" button at the bottom of the window.
When the "Audio Settings" selection process has been completed the settings screen
is replaced by the main program window. Arrow 1 in the graphic points to a button
that will allow you to navigate to the folder in which you want to keep the recording.
The box below the directory selection box allows you to provide a name for the future
music file. Using the default name, "record.wav", is recommended. Not to worry, you
will be able to rename the tracks latter in this process.
Make sure the selector box at arrow three is set for the proper input. Windows XP
will show "Line". Windows Vista will show "Master Volume" in this box. Although this
setting was made in the "Audio Settings window, it never hurts to double check.
While playing the music you are going to record, watch the volume level meters to the right of the slider indicated by arrow 5. Adjust the slider so that you have as much volume as possible without any of the level meter bars turning red. Yellow bars are fine but red bars are an indication of distortion. The manual suggests setting the slider so that the number under the Volume label reads 30. This turns out to be a starting point only. The final setting will depend on your equipment and on the LP you are recording. There can be a surprising difference in volume settings from one LP to another.
Arrow 4 indicates a group of check boxes that allow automation of the recording process. These can be set to your preferences. Between the manual and the LPRecorder help files, these settings are explained fairly well. After having recorded several LP albums, I have found it helpful to check the "Auto Level" box and then play the album with the volume slider all the way up before recording. This assures a maximum volume with minimum clipping distortion.
Once the volume has been adjusted you can restart your music and start the recorder by clicking the red dot indicated by arrow 2. The controls in this area are the typical "VCR" controls that have become a standard in media software. By using the "pause" button located next to the "record" button(arrow 2), you can turn your LP over and record side two. This will result in the entire album being saved in one file. The first time through you might want to record just one side or even just part of one side to shorten the waiting time while you become familiar with the process.
The items in the top line menu were not covered earlier because these are simple single function programs, which nearly make the top line menu unnecessary. The "File" selection only provides two options in its drop down menu. These are "New" and "Exit" and are self explanatory.
The "Options" menu also provides only two choices. These are "Audio" and "Preferences". Clicking "Audio" gives you the "Audio Settings" dialog seen when first opening LPRecorder and pictured at the beginning of this installment. Since coverage of this screen has already been attempted, nothing will be added here about the "Audio Settings" window.
Clicking the "Preferences" item of the "Options" menu results in a window that allows
you to change some of the programs behaviors. Pictured here is the Windows XP version
of this window. The Windows Vista version has been rearranged and another adjustment
box has been added. Other than the additional control for the Windows Vista version,
performance and function of the controls are identical.
The "Auto stop delay" control works in conjunction with the "Auto stop" function,
which can be turned off or on via a check box on the main window. If you use "Auto
stop" and this feature is ending the recording session during quiet spots in the music
you can increase the amount of silence required for "Auto stop" to execute. This
can also be helpful if a particular album has extra long silent periods between songs.
The "Menu style" combo box allows you to select the appearance of the top line menu buttons. It provides you with a choice of four styles. Your choice will also affect the behavior of items on the drop down menu as your mouse pointer passes over the selections. This is referred to as "mouse hover" among programmers. Review writers and such have a habit of calling these sort of features "eye candy".
The "Auto level limit" control is available only on the Windows Vista
version of LPRecorder. According to the help files, some sound cards are using a
"dynamic range compression" technique to avoid clipping. This technique interfered
with the "Auto level" feature of LPRecorder, hence, the control to lower the level
which will trigger the "Auto level" feature. Since our customers are using this program
with the INport Deluxe, they will not have to concern themselves with this setting
because the audio being recorded has not been processed by their computers sound
card.
FYI: Dynamic range is the amount of volume change from the quietest to the loudest
passages.
The dynamic range of LP's was/is limited by the media. The dynamic range of CDs is in theory limited only by the amplifier and speaker capabilities. If you check out the articles at these links :
I think you will begin to see that the music you salvage from your old LP's may be quite a bit better in quality than anything released on CD over the past few years.
Stepping down from the soap box and getting back to LPRecorder "Preferences", the check boxes in the lower portion of the window are self explanatory except for perhaps the "Use tracks file" check box. The tracks file is a summary of the recorded wave file which enables LPRipper to work on the file without having to analyze it. This feature becomes more important later on and will be examined much closer in the section covering LPRipper.
That brings us to the LPRecorder "Help" menu. Typical of many programs the help menu provides access to help files via a table of contents or an index. CFB Software is the name of the outfit that produces LPRecorder and LPRipper. After becoming accustomed to the three programs that came with your INport Deluxe, you might want to check out the CFB web site. They have another program available that might come in handy. It is called WavJoiner and performs a function opposite that of LPRipper, as the name suggests. Clicking the menu item "Register" results in a screen showing the information you entered during installation. The "About" menu item provides copyright and program version information.
Once you have recorded an album with this program, you will have finished the first step in the process of salvaging your LP collection. The next step is to remove the pops and clicks, referred to as surface noise, with Wave Corrector De-Click. The final step is to split the one big wave file into separate tracks with LPRipper. Links are provided to pages dedicated to the other programs.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
