Update: Appropriate tools are finally available for you to rip your vinyl without these kludgy methods. I'm currently using my turntables through Numark's DMX01 USB Mixer.

Last week I documented my experience ripping MP3s from vinyl using the free tools that came with Roxio Toast and iTunes. This week I looked further at inexpensive commercial audio digitizing applications to find out what the advantages are over using CD Disk Doctor and iTunes. To skip to my summary, head down to the end of this page.

Note that this is a summary of software and not a tutorial on connecting your turntable to your computer. There are some good web sites with detailed information about how to connect your gear, such as this one. The rundown in this: 1) you need to connect your turtable to a preamp or mixer, 2) can connect yor RCA jacks to your Mac's audio input if you have one using an RCA to stereo 1/8" mini plug (alternatively use an audio interface such as Griffin Technology's iMic or Powerwave or Gigaport AG).

Giving up on free for better quality MP3

After ripping a few singles I found the Poor Man's Process to be serviceable, but lacking with respect to editing and encoding and file compression. CD Disk Doctor does not let you manually edit your recordingss. So if there are gaps at the beginning and end of your recording, you have to find an audio editor or be very careful to cue your tracks on the turntable and hit record on the Mac simultaneously. Additionally, iTunes doesn't seem to compress the AIFF files when converting MP3s, resulting in large files that are unaccepatable for MP3s. I also found that having to convert my AIFFs in iTunes then removing the original AIFF files from iTunes seems an unnecessary hassle. So I set out to look for tools that will let me 1) record/digitize audio, 2) edit and normalize, and 3) convert/export to MP3. The tools had to do all of this without using multiple applications. Someone suggested that I try the Linux application Gramofile, which supposedly works on OS X, but I didn't find much documentation about getting it to work on OS X and am skeptical about fine editting audio with a text interface. I was lucky to find that the July edition of Mac Addict magazine had an article on turning vinyl into MP3s, so I started demoing the apps they suggested first.

The software

I demoed some audio recording tools, and discovered that they do recording, but not MP3 conversion. Here's the tools I demoed that didn't help me meet my goals.

• Black Cat Systems Audiocorder 3.7.1 (Suggested pricing, pay as little as a $1)
• Kumulipo Jasmine 1.5.7 ($29.95)

Here are the tools that I seriously evaluated because they offer recording, editing and encoding. (I included Sound Studio below even though it doesn't offer encoding because there doesn't seem to be a reason why it shouldn't.)

• Audacity 1.1.3 beta (free)
• Felt Tip Sound Studio 2.1 ($49.99)
• Bias Peak LE 3.2 ($109 for disk shipped from Bias; If you own Toast Titanium, Jam with Peak LE can be purchased for $89.95.)

Reviews

Audacity

Audacity 1.1.3 beta is a promising open source audio recorder and editor that offers MP3 exporting using the LAME encoder. I demoed the beta because earlier versions on OS X don't offer MP3 exporting. Some drawbacks to using Audacity include a UI that needs a lot of work toward being more usable. There is no play-through option (so you can hear what you are recording), editting is difficult because there is no visible eyebeam/insertion point icon when using the selection tool. I also encountered a few show-stopping bugs which I hope would be fixed when the application is out of beta such as poor quality sound on MP3s and pitch insonsistencies (MP3s sounded faster than recorded tracks) and had a few unexpected quits while exporting. For a free application, Audacity looks like it will be a worthwhile app., but it needs a bit of work before I use it on OS X. Windows and Linux users might have better luck with it.

Sound Studio

I demoed Felt Tip Sound Studio 2.1 because it reminded me of SoundEdit, which I remember being a very easy to use audio editing tool. SoundEdit is a well designed audio recording and editing application that makes recording and editing a simple task. It offers play-through, input level sliders, simple playback and record buttons, a timeline for getting an overview of your entire track, editing timelines for Left and Right channels, simple click and drag selection to edit areas of your track, and a good selection of filters to normalize, apply EQ and fades to your track. Sadly, Sound Studio doesn't offer an option to export to MP3. The company indicates that this is a conscious decision not to license the technology in order to keep the price low. I'm a little confused on that point, however, because Audacity and Peak use the open source LAME encoder, which is offered under the GPL. It seems more likely that they don't have the resources or time to include this functionality, which means you'll be doing your encoding in iTunes or some other app.

Peak LE

Bias Peak LE 3.2 is the most costly of the applications I looked at and has the most features. The UI is a bit cluttered and not as cleanly designed as Sound Studio, resembling an OS 9 app that needs a bit of an OS X face lift. The biggest gripe I have is that I have to organize the windows a bit manually. The application would help users by allowing window docking and perhaps allowing us to organize our multiple windows into a single window with tabs perhaps. I have this same gripe about the UI on tools like BBEdit, which I want to look more organized like PhotoShop. UI minutae aside, Peak offers the best functionalities of the inexpensive tools I've looked at, including play-through while recording, MP3 encoding with LAME (be sure to download the LameLib_Bundle.sit and drop the expanded file in your Peak folder), simple cursor positioning and selection of track areaas for editing, a good selection of filters, simple ID3 tag entry, and creates small MP3 files. Peak also offers the ability to select a skin to alter the colors of your editing window so you can view your waveform more easily.

Summary

All-in-all, Peak seems to be the application that works best for my needs at the moment. It makes the process of ripping and encoding vinyl much smoother for me than the cheap/free tools I evaluated a week ago and ensures that I can get my vinyl to my Mac quickly and with little effort. Sound Studio would replace Peak as the better tool if they could get LAME encoding included in their app (no idea why they can't). Audacity looks like it's on its way to being a good app once the bugs are worked out. Apparently Gramofile is supposed to be all that, but for the life of me, I still can't see editing a wavefile with a text-based UI. Someone can prove me wrong if they document the process on OS X, but I have yet to see that. So I've ordered my Jam/Peak upgrade from Roxio and am going this route for the time being. I welcome any feedback from anyone sharing my experience or with suggestions or tips for better vinyl ripping.