[zacster]

What do I need, and how do I record using my Intel iMac for 24/96 from my LPs? 

I have the phono preamp, and I can rig it for either line out or pre-amp out.  I also have an M-audio Firewire Solo box that my son uses to record with on the Mac.  I can't figure out how to get the m-audio to do 24/96 or if it is even capable of doing so.

I thought I read once that if I use the direct input through the mini-jack from the pre amp into the Mac that I can set it there.  Is that true?  I haven't actually tried it as it involves moving equipment, but if it is possible I'd give it a try.  If I were on my Mac at the moment I'd poke around, but I'm at work on a PC.

And once in the Mac at 24/96 for posterity, what can I use to down-res it to 16/44.1 for my iPod?  will Itunes do it?

[Crimson]

Hi,

I'm not familiar with your particular M-Audio device, but it should come with a driver. If you don't have it, you can more than likely download it from their website. Firewire is capable of dealing with 24/96 audio data. On the mac side of things, you'll have to go to AudioMidi in Utilities and set it to accept 24/96 (click on the drop down menu for 'Properties For' and chose the appropriate input device). From that point on, you may want to try Audacity for recording (again, if the M-Audio ADC didn't come packaged with any recording software).

[zacster]

Hey, that was it!  I set it to 24/96 in the audio/midi utility and now the M-Audio accepts 24/96 input.  I'll have to try it.

[zacster]

I finally brought all my equipment together by the iMac and gave vinyl recording a try.

First try I used PureVinyl demo software.  This will only allow about 5 minutes of recording for demo purposes at a time.  I could get it to capture, but the editor software was giving me problems, so I gave up.  However, it captured both a 24/96 copy  and a 16/44.1 copy.  On playback in iTunes, the 24/96 was definitely superior to the CD rate (recent controversial testing says otherwise, but don't believe it.)

Next I tried Audacity.  This allowed me to record straight through, which I did of one side of 'Court and Spark'.  I then figured out how to add labels to portions of the track, which then get used on export to aiff to split into songs with filenames.  I also used 24/96 for this.  I imported these into iTunes, labeled them within iTunes with artist and album, got the artwork, and everything looks and sounds good, and gapless too.  The songs all go from one into the other, and the split isn't necessarily where the song precisely ends, but it doesn't matter.

My question is this.  Is there an easier way to put all of the label information in Audacity and have it export it to iTunes in one step?  I had to type the header info onto each song, but once done it kept it as a complete album.

The next step is to clean the clicks, pops and rumble, then burn to a DVD.  24/96 doesn't fit on a CD of course, and my iPod can't play them either. Will iDVD do that and allow me to create menus etc...

[simon wagstaff]

I don't know about iDVD but I have used Toast Titanium, I think you need version 7 to burn 24/96 audio onto a DVD for playback in a DVD player.

[zacster]

I suppose I should also describe my hardware and settings. 

Hardware was a Rega Planar 3 TT into an Aikido tube pre-amp with a Creek phono pre-amp built into it.  It went out from the Aikido into the line-in of the iMac using a pair of rca cables with an RCA to mini-plug adapter.  I didn't use the M-Audio firewire Solo that I have since it needs 1/4" plugs and I don't have any adapters.

I set the input to the line-in in the system preferences, and set all inputs to 24/96 in the audio-midi setup utility, per the PureVinyl instructions.  When I switched to Audacity these settings seemed to work as well.  I monitored the output using both the built-in speakers and my Sennheiser PX100 headphones.  I haven't tried outputting into my system yet.  The files would not copy to my iPod either so until I get them burned onto a DVD I'll probably be limited to playing them on the computer.  I don't have a Squeezebox or anything to stream over my wifi.  If I really wanted to I could just move the computer, the iMac isn't all that difficult to move, but I've got kids that are on the thing all day long and I didn't feel like arguing with them over the computer.

[Crimson]

I didn't use the M-Audio firewire Solo that I have since it needs 1/4" plugs and I don't have any adapters.

I'd bet the quality of the A-D converters are better in the M-Audio device than using the iMac for conversion. As far as tagging is concerned, unfortunately it is a manual process.

iDVD supports 'music' dvd's by simply dragging a playlist over from iTunes. I don't know if it specifically supports 24/96, but it should be easy enough to find out.

[zacster]

Well, yes, I tried dragging a folder over from iTunes into a slideshow and it put the music on, but it doesn't create a menu for it.  I just want a menu for the music.  I also tried putting multiple slides, but it doesn't associate the music with a single slide, just the full show.  Multiple shows with a single track associated with it doesn't work either as the music won't play continuously.  Arrrggghhh.

I just want to create a music DVD with a menu item for each song, that will also play continuously through.  This doesn't sound like it should be this hard.  Is there a setting in iDVD that tells it to go to the next menu item on completion?  I'm not on my mac right now otherwise I'd just look.

[zacster]

OK, I figured this out. 

Using iMovie, I imported the playlist from iTunes, created chapters at each song (it would be nice if it did this automatically, but whatever), and named them. Then I sent it over to iDVD where it uses the chapters for a scene selection menu.  Once I had that it was just a matter of formatting it to look good. 

So the steps are:

1.  Record using Audacity (Garage band should also work) at 24/96
2.  Add song breaks in Audacity and name them
3.  Export, using option to create files for each break
4.  Import into iTunes
5.  Add tag info in iTunes
6.  Create playlist
7.  Drag playlist into a blank iMovie
8.  Add chapters at the song breaks.  (easy enough as they are already marked.)
9.  Export to iDVD
10.  Format in iDVD, titles, menus, background, set to play on insert so you don't need a tv to play it.
11.  Burn to DVD in iDVD
12.  Pop it into a DVD player with a 24/96 internal or external DAC (most have one internally)
13.  Enjoy

The quality is outstanding, better than CD, although you hear all the shortcomings of your LP playback system.  You could add a step to clean up the sound with soundsoap or some such program, but then you're messing with it.

[K.C.]

I'd bet the quality of the A-D converters are better in the M-Audio device than using the iMac for conversion.

Without question they are much better than the iMacs. The Apple converters aren't bad but you'll definitely hear the difference with MA.

[zacster]

Maybe the M-Audio converters are better, but I have to say that it all sound sooooo much better than anything I've heard, turntable noise and all, doing it the way I did.  I downsampled in Audacity to 44.1 and put it onto my iPod and now I don't want to listen to anything else.  I've always used AAC lossless in the past, so I'm not comparing to mp3, and even that doesn't sound as good.

I'll try the M-Audio on my next one.  The biggest problem is that it takes time, you can't just pop in a disk and walk away.  20 minutes a side, real time, plus manual processing to get tracks and labels.  If you want to cut DVDs like I did it takes time to create that as well.  In other words, it's work, people have careers doing similar things as sound engineers.  The results are still pretty incredible.

[cpreal]

Here is what I just started with an Intel Mac Mini, to archive the Blue Note 45's:

Recording Hardware: VPI Aries/JMW/Benz Ref 2/McIntosh c2300/M-Audio Firewire Audiophile

Software: Amadeus Pro/iTunes

I record the entire side at 24/96. I keep the needle drop, runout groove, etc. I also don't separate the tracks on each side or apply any noise reduction. Save original in Amadeus format to archive on DVD. At first I wanted to separate and name tracks, remove noise and so on, but I discovered it was not worth the effort, especially if I want to transfer 100+ lps. When I listen to the original albums on the turntable, I usually listen to the whole side anyway, so why bother?

Splitting the tracks and removing clicks and pops seems to defeat the whole point of the project. If I wanted to replicate the CD experience, I would have just bought the music on CD in the first place.

Recording at 24/96 retains 98% of the vinyl sound without the hassle of cleaning, flipping sides, or damaging a valuable record or stylus on playback. The pause button on the Front Row remote replaces the cueing arm on the turntable.

I save the album side as an Apple Lossless file in Amadeus Pro. It retains the full 96/24 quality on playback in iTunes! I download the artwork from Amazon and name the album/artist/side.