My parents have a lot of old records (from the early 50’s) that I want to transfer to CD. They often talk about the old records with longing, so I’d like to surprise them… Any recommendations as to which audio restoration software to use would be highly appreciated.
Audacity is free, and works great. It’s a difficult combination to beat.
The thing you want to know is that you’ll need a preamp to boost the signal off the stylus (ie, turntable) on it’s way to your soundcard. Not knowing that this signal was different from all the others (ie, from a tapedeck or CD player, etc) on my stereo system was the cause of much frustration for me.
However, it’s not an expensive fix–I got one for $35 at an audio store. The turntable I already (well, still) had.
This recent thread has the rest of the advice I’m able to offer about burning vinyl to CD.
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But I envy you, if those are old topic or gael-linn Lps or EPs from the fifties. If I were anywhere near you, I’d offer to do it for you to have the chance of running myself off a set.
I’ve been using CD Spin Doctor, which comes with Roxio Toast (this is the Mac version, I’m not sure what the PC version is called). It’s more expensive than Audacity, about $80, but I find it easier to use and it has some features specific to ripping records.
If the amplifier you’re using has a phono input, you won’t need to get a phono preamp.
My father recently threw out all his old records without checking with me or my siblings, which really bummed me out. Specifically, a bunch of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller stuff.
I’d prefer to bypass the receiver/amp and send the signal straight into the soundcard unprocessed.
I’m plugged into the tape monitor – all it’s going through is the phono preamp.
Unfortunately, PC sound cards are geared for line level signals, not mic or phono level. That’s what the phono pre-amp is for, as others have noted above.
I tried to do what you are suggesting, put lots of old LPs onto CD, cleaning up the sound as I went along. This takes countless hours per LP. Trust me - there is a better way. Its called Amazon.com.
Just about all the old recordings you can think of, if they were in any way popular, have been re-issued on CD. That means that professionals started with the master recordings, or as best as could be found, used professional recording equipment in a pro lab, staffed by people who know what they’re doing, and turning out a product that you can’t hope to come close to using consumer grade equipment off a battered old LP from the basement.
I have come to this conclusion after spending hundreds of hours trying to restore old recordings, when I could have bought the things for a pittance (if you count your own time as having any value).
djm
One of the most time-consuming parts of the job is splitting the recorded sound into tracks (even if Audacity has a feature that sounds very useful for this).
I find RIPVinyl, a £7 program, invaluable. It splits the music into separate wav files for each track as you record.
I then clean up the resulting files all at once using Goldwave’s batch processing feature. The default pop/click filter is as far as I usually go. More aggressive noise reduction generally gives unsatisfactory results.
RIPVinyl works well for LPs, although if they have a lot of surface noise you need to set the “silence level” carefully for the program to do a good job. Not so useful for live recordings, which often don’t have silence between the tracks, although you can create a track separation manually at any point. And beware of fadeouts and fadeins…
For cassette albums RIPVinyl works even better. I don’t need to do any cleaning up, just burn the wav files to CD immediately.
Yes it all does take time - but most of the stuff I’m transferring has not been reissued on CD.
Thanks for the feedback!
djm suggested Amazon.com, but unfortunaly that is not an option. The records (old and scratched 78’s) I want to transfer are of some old long forgotten cumbia and merengue and other bands from Ecuador and Columbia. My parents spent some years there all those years back and they often talk with nostalgia about the music on these records…
So,as mukade suggested I have bought a USB turntable. I tried Audacity, but the quality of the records are so bad that I needed stronger medicine. I’ve therefore bought some software called Diamond Cut DC6. It’s a bit expensive (200 bucks), but I know that these recordings wil make my parents dance…
Anyhow, armed with these products I’ve managed to clean up a couple of tracks. The results might perhaps be better considering the fact that I’m a complete beginner at this, but I’m actually quite satified with what I’ve done so far, and I can’t wait to hand over the CD’s to the old people. 
If its worth it to you then price is no object.
djm