Recording Vinyl (Mac OS)

Software

Audacity

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.

Audio file formats

FLAC (lossless)

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 (lossy)

Listed as M4A (AAC) Fiels (FFmpeg)

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

Lowest bitrate for music should be 256Kps.

MP3 (lossy)

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

OGG (lossy)

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

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.

See also

• Recording Vinyl With SoundForge