Audacity Alternatives?

greggreg
in General
Some recent dicussions have prompted me to buy a turntable, mainly to listen to my LP collection again. I will buy one that has a USB lead so that I can also convert LPs to digital as well. Some turntables come packaged with Audacity as part of the cost. How good is it? Are there any better alternatives? I haven't yet decided yet on a specific turntable, with several on my shortlist. My budget is around £200-300 ($230-$330). Ideally the turntable should be able to connect to my Bose set up by bluetooth, although i can use an auxillary lead instead. If I find I am using it quite a lot I wil then upgrade to some speakers. Any advice, suggestions welcome

Comments

  • GermanprofGermanprof
    edited December 2022
    Audacity is a free download, so it’s not part of the cost and they are hoodwinking you if you feel like it’s added value - you can use it whatever unit you buy. I have not used it for that specific purpose but have found it just fine for other audio editing tasks. From the Audacity page:
    Audacity is free of charge.  No registration or hardware purchase required.
  • dhaundhaun
    There has been some controversy after Audacity changed ownership last year, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity_(audio_editor)#Reception (last paragraph). Looks like all has been resolved for now, but maybe not get too involved with it just yet.
  • eythianeythian
    There is a fork of Audacity called Tenacity that was created due to those controversies: https://tenacityaudio.org/ I'm not sure of the state of it, just that it exists.

  • peterfredericspeterfrederics
    Does this mean that I'm lucky to just have my turntable bought in 1970 which is so easy to operate with no need to worry about Audacity et al!!??
  • GermanprofGermanprof
    peterfrederics said:
    Does this mean that I'm lucky to just have my turntable bought in 1970 which is so easy to operate with no need to worry about Audacity et al!!??
    Audacity is for the step of recording from the turntable to digital, which might have been tricky in 1970.
  • peterfredericspeterfrederics
    Germanprof said:
    peterfrederics said:
    Does this mean that I'm lucky to just have my turntable bought in 1970 which is so easy to operate with no need to worry about Audacity et al!!??
    Audacity is for the step of recording from the turntable to digital, which might have been tricky in 1970.
    Yes, understood but I am such a big fan of the retro approach!
  • confusedconfused
    Well, I'm definitely no expert (not even close) and the program I use is Garageband which came with this Mac Mini. It took one of those 12 year olds on Youtube to teach me how to convert albums to MP3s. I did try Audacity (2013) and found that Garageband was easier to use at that time. Like @peterfrederics I have 3 old turntables as standbys in case one breaks down. I imagine the MP3 quality would be better if it didn't have to go through the old receiver and out through the headphone output via RCA plugs. It still takes me about an hour to break the soundwave into tracks and send it to iTunes for inputting the track info, not counting the recording time of the actual album. I've found lately that if I can find my old albums or cassettes at archive.org or Youtube I'll get it there as the sound quality can't be much worse than my digitized versions. I'll be interested to find out how you make out as I'd love to find a faster way to digitize my collection with a better sound quality (without spending a ton of money).
  • PaulRPaulR
    edited December 2022
    An alternative, that I've used is VinylStudio (  https://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/  ), which came with a NAD Phono/USB Preamp. Remember it having good track splitting and click removal, but has been some years since I last used it.

  • ScissorManScissorMan
    edited December 2022
    I use VinylStudio too. There's a moderate learning curve, but once you get past that it's pretty good at automatically removing clicks, removing rumble and hiss, EQ'ing, and track splitting — it also reads track splits from Discogs entries too, which is handy. And it has tools for manual click removal and also dealing with clipping.
    Audacity is good at dealing with clipping, but other than that I wouldn't use it for vinyl conversion unless you like listening to clicks and scratches. (Personally I can't stand 'em!)
  • rostasirostasi
    That controversy about "Audacity" is new to me. I've used "Amadeus" for so long (20 years?), that I just haven't gone anywhere else. I haven't updated in years 'cause I'm still in OS 10.11.6, so I'm surprised to see that it costs as much as it does. That along with "Click Repair" has become so natural to me that I can whip out stuff from LP to a folder of files in very little time. I will say that "Vinyl Studio" looks enticing, so I may check that out. (Problems with the link comes from the last parenthesis being highlighted too, so keep that in mind). 
  • kargatronkargatron
    I use Audacity all the time to edit long FLACS as needed to "track out" long pieces or recordings that meld from one to the other. Tyshawn Sorey's latest live recording does that, had to merge 19 tracks into 10 because of that. Prince's recently released 1985 Syracuse concert needed lots of love there too, took me an hour and a half to do that one, with custom fades etc, yeesh.

    For Windows I used ExactAudioCopy, but both suffice.
  • rostasirostasi
    Yesterday, I used "VinylStudio" for the first time and I'm impressed.
    Yes, it's not an audio editor, but I really like that it communicates with Discogs
    and as long as you're just dividing up tracks, it works really well!
    I used the noise repair too and was pleasantly surprised by its ease of use.
    So, thanks a bunch for the mentions and recommendations from @PaulR and @ScissorMan.
    I used it to transfer my vinyl of this album:


  • djhdjh
    ^^^ @rostasi ^^^ now that looks interesting. Totally unknown to me. Were you digitising for a future Random Radio appearance?
  • rostasirostasi
    edited January 2023
    Oh, I’m often digitizing LPs (it’s like a bottomless pit around here),
    but I’m usually using an audio editor - like “Amadeus” - to do it,
    so this was a good experience with “VinylStudio.”

    This album could make an appearance on a future show.
    It’s one of those that I may be able to sneak in during
    a segment featuring contemporary classical piano music.

    https://www.discogs.com/release/2200808-Frederic-Rzewski-Anthony-Braxton-Hanns-Eisler-No-Place-To-Go-But-Around-P-JOK-S-D--4-4-Third-Sonata
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