Recording Vinyl (Mac OS)

Audio file formats

Lossless

This section is incomplete, especially information regarding all the settings that impact AAC quality.

Lossy

Lossless format. It's not necessary to export in this format for the purposes of playing back the music. As long as the original Audacity project is saved it will be possible to export the audio in different formats and quality.

AAC

Preferred lossy file format. Developed after mp3. Native format for iTunes. Better compression than mp3. Widely supported.

Lowest bitrate for music should be 256Kps. < Actually sources state that 190 kps is indistinguishable from lossless audio, and that considering compression, audio quality, and file size that nothing above 160 kps makes much sense.

There are many extensions for this format as it can be contained within a wrapper. I have exported .aac files from Adobe Audition that could not be imported into iTunes (Apple Music now). I have successfully exported .m4a files from Audition which could then be imported into Apple Music and recognized by Synology Audio Station.

Listed as M4A (AAC) Fiels (FFmpeg) in Audacity.

See the Adobe Audition section regarding AAC properties specific to that app.

MP3

AAC is more the standard now. Lowest bitrate for music is 192Kps.

OGG

Open source format that is not as widely adopted as AAC.

Software

Adobe Audition

Input/Output

Preferences > Audio Hardware...

• Device Class: CoreAudio
• Default Input: USB Audio CODEC
• Default Output: Bose QuietComfort 35 (i.e. USB headphones)

Playback through USB headphone while recording

This may only work with multitrack sessions, which isn't the currently documented method for recording audio in Audacity (see below).

• Create a multitrack session.
• Pick a track and arm the recording by clicking the R button.
• Playback through headphones by clicking the I button.

Isolating tracks

• Record into a new audio file (as opposed to recording into a multitrack session track.
• The audio file will be open in a waveform editor.
• Select a track by dragging from its rough start to end and hit M to mark the region. A new marker will appear in the Markers panel.
• After rough markers have been placed around all the tracks, zoom in and navigate from marker to marker with ⌥ + ◀ and ⌥ + ▶. Fine tune the marker in and out points.
• When ready to export, select the markers in the Markers panel, right click and select Export Audio of Selected Range Markers.

Renaming tracks

• Rename the markers to the name to use when saving the exported audio file.

Export settings

Click Change by Format Settings.

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

• File Type: Apple MPEG-4 Audio
• Format: AAC
• Bitrate: 192.00 Bps

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Metadata

If the album, album artist, and "is part of a compilation" metadata properties are set, the tracks will be collected under a single album after being imported into the Apple Music app. Otherwise, the tracks are listed separate from each other in the app.

Metadata can be saved for audio files, but not for individual tracks defined by markers within the audio files. Album title, artist, genre can be set, but not individual track names if the tracks are subclips of the audio file.

Window > Metadata will open the Metadata panel. Metadata will be set for the audio currently loaded in the Editor panel.

Make sure that the "track number" value doesn't contain a value. When the "title" and "track number" properties are blank, the name of the clip as displayed in the Editor and Markers panels is used for the song/track title after the song is imported into the Apple Music app. If a value is entered for "track number", the song title will be blank in the Music app.

Exporting tracks

Multitrack Editor

Use the Files method instead.

• Stack up tracks to export in the Multitrack Editor
• File > Export > Multitrack Mixdown > Entire Session

Files panel

Alternatively, double click a file in the Files panel to open that file in the Editor panel. With focus on the Editor panel, all the regions as defined by markers in the source audio file will be displayed in the Markers panel.

• In the Markers panel, select all the tracks to export.
• Right click > Export audio of selected range markers

Export Settings

See this Stackoverflow thread for some information on the difference.

Apple Audio Toolbox

• Export Range Markers dialog
  • Prefix: probably leave blank
  • Postfix starting #: probably leave blank
  • Location: [select location to save files]
  • Format: Apple Audio Toolbox
  • Sample Type: Same as Source
  • Format Settings: change...
  • Include markers and other metadata: unchecked
    • Apple Audio Toolbox settings
      • File Type: Apple MPEG-4 Audio
      • Format: MPEG-4 AAC
        • MPEG-4 HE AAC and MPEG-4 HE AAC V2 are for low bit rates.
      • Mode: Constant Bitrate
      • Bitrate: 192 kps or 160 kps
      • Supposedly there is no point to going over 160 kps, but I usually do 192 anyway.

AAC

.aac files do not import into the Apple Music app (iTunes).

• Export Range Markers dialog
  • Format: AAC Audio
  • Sample Type: Same as Source
  • Format Settings: change...
• Apple Audio Toolbox settings
  • File Type: MPEG-4 AAC
    • MPEG-4 HE AAC and MPEG-4 HE AAC V2 are for low bit rates.
  • Format: AAC
  • Channel Layout: Stereo (L-R)
  • Mode: Constant Bitrate
  • Bitrate: 160.00 kps or 192 kps

Audacity

After installing Mac OS Catalina, I was having difficulty hearing any audio in Audacity. See Troubleshooting. I did not locate a specific issue with Catalina. That was just the major difference in the environment since the last successful recording. I ended up switching to Adobe Audition, which successfully recorded from the USB turntable.

Recording

If playing through USB headphones, first power on the headphones and make sure they are connected to the Mac before opening the Audacity app.

• Connect the turntable to the Mac via USB.
• Launch Audacity after the turntable is connected in order to have USB available as an input.
  • In the Device Toolbar or Preferences > Devices
    • Audio Host: Core Audio
    • Recording Device (Input): USB Audio CODEC
    • Recording Channels: 2 (stereo) Recording Channels
    • Playback Device: Built-In Output or the name of the USB device if playing through USB, e.g. Bose QuietComfort
  • Main Menu > Transport > Transport Options > Software Playthrough > checked
• Clean the record.
• Cue and play the record.
• To record in Audacity simply click the Record button in the Transom toolbar.
  • To create a new audio recording in Audacity, Main Menu > File > New ( ⌘+N )

It looks like maybe Audacity handles the levels in software. If so, there's no need to check the levels prior to recording, but this would need to be confirmed.

Appending to a track

By default Audacity assumes that you're recording voice tracks, and recording after a pause in recording, it will start recording on a new track.

This comes into play if recording is paused while flipping a record over.

In order to resume recording on the same track Main Menu > Transport > Append Record ( ⇧+R ).

Isolating songs

• Zoom out ⌘ + 3 far enough to see entire songs.
• Roughly select the region defining a song.
• ⌘+B (Main Menu > Tracks > Add Label at Selection) to create a label that corresponds to the selected region.
• Enter a name to identify the song. (This will ultimately be used as the name of the mp3 files, so something like track # + track title.)
• Repeat for all the songs on the album.
• Place the playhead at the start of the first song.
• ⌘ + 2 to zoom in for fine control.
• Put the playhead there the song should start.
• The label in-point should be visible. It will be a ball with a skinny line wrapped around its right side. Grab the skinny line (it will turn white when selected) and pull it over to the playhead position.
• Select the track by clicking on the track name in the labeled region.
• Now skip to the selection end (the rough end of the song) with ⌘ + ] (View > Skip To > Selection End)
• Repeat fine tuning the in and out points of all the songs on the album.

Exporting/saving audio tracks

Maximize volume

• Select all: ⌘+A
• Effect > Normalize...

Set album metadata

• Edit > Metadata...
• Enter Artist, Album, Album Artist, Year, Genre, etc.

Export audio tracks

Exporting multiple tracks will export separate audio files for each label in the timeline.

• Main Menu > File > Export Multiple...
• Set save location, format see below and bitrate options in the following dialog (AAC and MP3 formats requires the FFMpeg library to be installed.)
  • Split files based on: Labels
  • Name files: Using Label/Track Name
• After clicking Export another dialog will prompt for artist, track name, track number, and album details.

Troubleshooting

FFMpeg library not found

• Audacity main menu > Preferences
• Libraries > FFMpeg Library: Download button
• Sends you to a link with instructions for downloading and installing the library.
• Restart Audacity.

GarageBand (Mac only)

Cons

• No audio scrubbing.
• Can't enter metadata for songs in GB.
• Can only export one song at a time.
• Can't jump around in the timeline using keyboard shortcuts.
• MP3 quality limited to 256 kbps

Recording

• Create a new project
• Choose "Record using a microphone or line input"
• I want to hear my instrument as I play and record: checked
• Click the arrow to the right of My instrument is connected with:
  • Output Device: Built-in Output
  • Input Device: USB Audio CODEC
  • (These settings can also be accessed from the GB preferences.)
• Make sure the metronome is turned off by clicking the metronome button to the right of the transom in the Tracks window.
• Under Track tab > Recording Settings > Feedback Protection: unchecked
• Clean the record
• Start playing the record
• Hit the Record button in the transom in the Tracks window.

Editing Tracks

GarageBand doesn't implement audio scrubbing.

Double click the audio track that was recorded to access the Region Editor.

Zoom in to place the playhead; zoom out to find the ends of songs. Playback of selected regions loops by default. Play/Stop with the spacebar.

Exporting Tracks

Make sure that Cycle is turned off. Either hit the C key, or click the yellow Cycle button to the right of the Record button in the transom.

With a region selected (make sure there is no yellow area selected above the tracks), Share > Export Song To Disk.

• Select format (mp3) and quality in the dialog. The region title is ignored when GB prefills the track title.
• Export cycle area, or length of selected regions (If Cycle is turned off): checked

Position the playhead at the track beginning and end and with the region selected, ⌘ + T to split the track at the playhead. Simply delete anything left between the tracks that will be exported.

Rename the track to whatever makes sense. GarageBand doesn't implement adding metadata to tracks.

Editing Metadata

The tracks will need to be imported into iTunes, and metadata added there.

Cleaning up recordings

See Cleaning up vinyl recordings.

See also

• Converting FLAC audio files
• Recording Vinyl With SoundForge