Going Digital

Getting Everything Right

The Sound Recorder applet included with Windows won't cut it for recording high-quality stereo music. For our examples in this story, we used MusicMatch Jukebox. MusicMatch Jukebox can record sound to disk in the uncompressed Microsoft .wav format, as well as in the compressed Windows Media Audio and 160-kbps .mp3 formats. We also liked MusicMatch Jukebox's database, which you can use to organize your digital music collection.

If you don't like MusicMatch Jukebox, you can also use any of a wide variety of free or shareware applications (available in our Audio Downloads library) to record and rip music. The latest versions of Roxio's $90 Easy CD Creator software can also record digital music and make discs, and it includes CD Spin Doctor, an application that cleans up digital recordings by taking the dust pops out of LP recordings and cutting the hiss from older audio tapes.

Prerecording Setup

Before you begin, to avoid any interruption in the sound-recording process (and resulting errors), close any open windows on your desktop as well as all open applications, except for your audio-recording software. Disable any screen savers and antivirus utilities, making sure to turn off any auto-update features as well.

First, set MusicMatch Jukebox to capture sound from your playback device. Launch MusicMatch Jukebox and choose Options, Recorder, Source, Line In. (If you're not connected to the Internet, you may need to wait a couple of seconds after MusicMatch Jukebox opens, until the program recognizes that you're not online.)

Open the Recording window (select Options, View, Show Recorder) and click the Edit track name here... caption in the Recorder window to enter a new title for your song selection.

Next you'll need to specify a recording format. Here are a few criteria you'll want to consider:

• If you intend to polish the track with a precision sound editor such as AcidWav or Enhanced Audio's Diamond Cut Audio, choose the WAV Format option (MusicMatch Jukebox can compress the file to .mp3 format later on.)
  
  
• If you want to create a high-quality compressed recording for your music library (or your MP3 player), choose the MP3--160KBps option.
  
  

To make your recording quality selection, choose Options, Recorder, Quality, and then pick your option.

Dust? What's That?

If you haven't used a turntable in a while, don't forget the basics for a clean, pop-free playback: Always give the LP a quick brushing with a lint remover just before you begin recording, play the LP in a dry run to remove packed-in dirt from the vinyl grooves, and then clean the disk again (check the stylus for accumulated lint as well). And if you have a direct-drive turntable, calibrate your turntable's rotation speed.

If you plan to capture music from a tape player, clean and demagnetize the tape heads. You can pick up a tape head demagnetizer at any good stereo store or at a Radio Shack. Check the Dolby NR and tape material settings on your player against the cassette. To determine the optimal settings, listen to the output before recording.