Total Recorder

[tw]

What are the more distinctive advantages of Total Recorder? Both basic and professional versions - what are the key features that 'make' this product so unique?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

Maybe I read the description of the two wrong, but my understanding is that you need the pro version to break up the tracks. If I wanted one long 25 minute track for each album side, the regular $12 version would be just fine.

I used the basic version to break up the tracks on live band rehersal cassettes. The Pro version might make it easier, though.

TW, if you go to their site, in the upper left hand corner is a Site Map link. Click on that and the second link on the site map is for the "Total Recorder Feature Chart - This chart provides a quick reference showing the features that are available in each version." It also shows the available options.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

This chart provides a quick reference showing the features that are available in each version." It also shows the available options.

I read that reference chart. But I did not understand what this software product does better than other software. For example, is a reference to LP recordings. Why is Total Recall better? I read the features chart but did not appreciate advantages that this package offers. Sometimes those advantages are subtle. Does this software offer subtle and yet significantly superior abilities? Apparently I have overlooked something that makes this package better than free software that comes with PCs.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Mine came with Music match and Roxio. Both will record digital music that's on the PC and rip from disc but I don't see any other way to get it on the PC with either of them. Oh wait, yes, Musicmatch lets you subscribe to their online suppy service. But capturing LPs or streaming audio needs something else.

When I first wanted to do this I read a ton of different discussions at various forums/sites and mostly couldn't understand what or why they were doing the things they discussed. Like I said in the first post, I'm a dufus when it comes to this stuff, so I need something simple. Someone that knows more about how to manipulate their PC may be able to do it.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I used the basic version to break up the tracks on live band rehersal cassettes. The Pro version might make it easier, though.

TW, if you go to their site, in the upper left hand corner is a Site Map link. Click on that and the second link on the site map is for the "Total Recorder Feature Chart - This chart provides a quick reference showing the features that are available in each version." It also shows the available options.

Thanks for the info. I downloaded the trial version of the basic software. I haven't had too much time to play with it. One problem I'm having with both it and the full free version of Audacity is that I am only getting Mono sound, from the left channel. I don't understand what is going on. I need to eliminate a few variables.

Either a) my kids messed up the stylus on my turntable which was sitting within reach of their mitts for a few years, or b) my amp is messed up. The balance knob doesn't seem to work right, so this might be the real culprit. I could hook up our other amp from the living room, but that would be a MAJOR project to pull it out of the cabinet and disconnect all the cables. or c) the Dell Dimension 8400 I have uses a cheap mono line in instead of stereo. Can't find any info on this in the documentation that came with the PC.

So I need to do some testing to figure out what's going on. The good news is that I've used both the Total Recorder trial version and Audacity to capture a bunch of mono test tracks. Total Recorder is easier to use without reading the instructions.

[vsp]

Originally Posted by glatt

Maybe I read the description of the two wrong, but my understanding is that you need the pro version to break up the tracks. If I wanted one long 25 minute track for each album side, the regular $12 version would be just fine.

With Total Recorder, it is in fact very easy to record an album side at once, set Start and End points within the recording and save the selections as individual tracks.

Originally Posted by tw

Apparently I have overlooked something that makes this package better than free software that comes with PCs.

The user interface of TR is a hell of a lot more useful than that of Windows's Sound Recorder, if that's to what you are referring. In addition, TR's sales pitch is as follows:

Total Recorder is a unique solution for recording streaming audio. Most recording programs, rely on the sound card to feedback what has been played. For these solutions, your sound card must have "Stereo Mix" or "What You Hear" recording sources. Instead of relying on the sound card, Total Recorder captures the sound stream directly from Windows, before the audio goes to the sound card. This unique approach eliminates multiple conversions that occur with other types of solutions. The Total Recorder solution also eliminates the need for a "what-you-hear" type sound card.
...
Total Recorder uses a virtual sound driver to capture the sound output from other programs like Real Audio and Windows Media Player. By installing the driver, and setting it as the default, different sound reproducing programs send their output stream to Total Recorder's driver and not to the driver of a real device. Total Recorder then passes the information to the sound card driver.

This makes it _quite_ easy to rip sound clips from just about anything else that plays audio on a computer (or that can be fed into a microphone jack) and save them in the format of your choice. The program _is_ the analog hole in a nutshell with a decent interface.

Would I pay $79.95 for it? Probably not. That's why I'm glad that it's $11.95 for a standalone version with free updates; for twelve bucks, it's a worthwhile upgrade.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

One problem I'm having ... is that I am only getting Mono sound, from the left channel. ...

Either a) my kids messed up the stylus on my turntable which was sitting within reach of their mitts for a few years, or b) my amp is messed up. The balance knob doesn't seem to work right, so this might be the real culprit. I could hook up our other amp from the living room, but that would be a MAJOR project to pull it out of the cabinet and disconnect all the cables. or c) the Dell Dimension 8400 I have uses a cheap mono line in instead of stereo. Can't find any info on this in the documentation that came with the PC.

OK, in case anyone cares, I figured out how to get my system to work. There was some crazy submenu somewhere that I had to find and select "Stereo" instead of "mono." I was poking around so many places, I'm still not sure how I did it, but at least I know that it exists, and I could probably find it again, given enough time.

I just finished converting my first vinyl album to a CD. I'm VERY pleased with the results. I chose to use Audacity instead of Total Recorder because Audacity is free. FREE! Open source too. I like that. With Audacity, I was able to record the vinyl from the stereo line-in jack on my PC. I was also able to easily find the breaks between songs, select each entire song, and save each selection (song) as a WAV file to be burned onto a CD. There may be an easier way to split the tracks up with Audacity, but this works well enough. My first test album was recorded a little too quietly, so I did waste one CD blank during the learning process. The second audio CD I burned was perfect.

In fact, it was better than the source vinyl. There was one spot on the album with a bad scratch. No skipping, but a very loud pop repeated for about 10-15 seconds. I used Audacity's "silence selection" feature to delete each pop. It was pretty freaking cool. I'd never used any sound editing software before, but I was able to zoom in on the music "wave" until I was only looking at a hundreth of a second or so. Then I selected the portion of the music where the pop signal was shooting off the chart, and I replaced it with a hundredth of a second or so of silence. During playback, you can't hear the silence, because it goes by too fast, but the pop is gone. Very cool.

I've only used Audacity for a few hours so far, but I love it. Total Recorder may be better than Audacity. I honestly don't know. I don't know, because it costs money, so I never bothered to find out.

xoxoxoBruce, I'd like to thank you for answering all my questions and for starting this thread. I found Audacity when I was reading reviews for Total Recorder, and I never heard of Total Recorder until you started this thread. It couldn't have come at a better time, since I'd just begun to think seriously about converting all my vinyl.

[xoxoxoBruce]

This has happened before.
Every time we discuss converting LPs to disc someone gets inspired. After all, probably 3/4 of the adult population has some LPs they'd like to convert but never get around to it because they are intimidated or don't want to spend the time to learn how. .
I wonder how many lurkers have been motivated by one of these threads?

When I decided to try it, I picked out some very old, very obscure albums that I really liked. Things that would "never" be found on disc. Well, it got me Googling for more info on the groups and what do I discover but some of these albums are available, usually from Germany or Japan.
Of course they are just a mouse & creditcard away but they usually cost twice what Total Recorder does....each. Then again, that scratch was removed by a pro.

I guess I'm a dyed in the wool, do-it-youselfer.

[wolf]

Who still owns a turntable. That's the important factor.

I haven't had a turntable since sometime in the mid-1980s, but I won't get rid of the vinyl. Just in case.

[Crimson Ghost]

I downloaded Audacity.
Freakin' coolness!
I was able to transfer some old vinyl to my HD.
And I emailed a track to a buddy of mine.
He damn near shit.
It's a track that was never released on CD or tape.
Thanks, glatt.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But capturing LPs or streaming audio needs something else.

Capturing streaming audio is a function I had assumed would be standard and available. And yet either I have not found it or capturing streaming audio must be in those better software products. What products capture streaming audio?

[vsp]

Depends on the stream.

Total Recorder will capture whatever is playing, streaming or not. Breaking it up into logically-named segments is left as an exercise for the reader for the Standard ($11.95) edition, and may be more intuitive in the Professional edition.

I use StationRipper when capturing music from ShoutCast streams; it breaks streams up into their components, saves them where you specify, and has a free edition with reasonable features.

Audacity is very nice, but I haven't really dug into it yet to explore all that it can do.

[Beestie]

I use SoundForge for all my audio needs but it is an investment ($80 when I bought it several years ago). The only problem is that there are a limited # of WAV-to-MP3 conversions allowed before you have to register the MP3 encoder. I was not aware of that when I bought it. Grrrrrrrrrr.

But I found a bunch of free encoders on the web to fill that gap.

I bought SF so long ago I can't remember when it was but its as useful today as it ever was. If there's anything it can't do (other than the MP3 encoding), I haven't found it yet.

[Elspode]

Total Recorder captures streaming audio, and that is why I bought it. It also lets you schedule recording sessions on an unattended machine, so if you know of a streaming program that is running on a schedule, you can set it, forget it and still get it.

Those are the two primary features that inspired me to spend the $12.00 it.

[Undertoad]

Audacity is SoundForge's penalty for being too expensive for too long.