(Approx. 826 words)
Review of Spin It Again
Written by Rod Rakes, APCUG
Advisor;
President & Editor, Gwinnett SeniorNet PC Users Group, Georgia; Editor
& Webmaster, Huntsville PC User Group, Alabama
Convert
vinyl records and cassette tapes to MP3’s and CD’s
http://www.Acoustica.com
What is it?
Spin It Again by Acoustica is a software program that will make it easy to
convert your collection of cassettes, 33’s ,45’s and even 78’s to MP3/WMA/WAV
files or directly to CDs. Some folks have even used the program to rip
8-Tracks. Remember those?
Cost? $34.95 retail, but
$27.96 for User Group members. This 20% discount is available online
from the link above. You must use the code “CLUB2007.” You will receive a
registration code via email. But, you can try it free for three times. (3
albums).
Where do I get it and/or
read more? http://www.Acoustica.com The program is an 8+ MB download.
System Requirements: If you have a Windows computer with a soundcard
you're ready to use the software!
Recommended? YES!
How good is it? REALLY
GOOD! First off, I was impressed by the voice instructions when
the program starts. There is a Hookup Wizard with photos of how to connect to
your amplifier, cassette player or turntable. Songs are automatically
divided into files based on the lull between songs. A Level Wizard sets the
volume level automatically based on playing a portion of your loudest
song in an album.
You can save the files as
MP3, OGG, WMA or WAV files. A variety of choices are available to clean up the
recordings, e.g., Damaged Record, Damaged Tape, Tape clean with Equalizer, Tape
Noise Begone, Warped record, even a No-preamp blues setting, etc. Someone referred to this as a Mikey
cereal eater that eats Snap, Crackle and Pop. Accept the defaults and it’s very
easy work.
I recorded three record albums
and two cassette tapes of music using a stereo amplifier, cassette player
and turntable. The result was free of any clicks, pops and hiss of the original
recordings, at least to my ears. The only “problem” I had was a song by
Judy Collins that had long silent passages which fooled the software into
thinking there were several songs. But, it was easily fixed with
the Merge options. (Be sure to read the tutorial.) I chose to save
the songs in MP3 format and gave each a name in the chart before actually hitting
the Save/Convert button. You can embed in the files the Artist, Title, Genre,
Year and add comments. On the last test I chose to record an album directly to
CD using the Spin It Again software. It worked like a charm with no need to
make a later recording from the MP3's using Nero, Roxio, etc.
I had a priceless cassette
tape of family nonsense that had been re-recorded from reel to reel tapes from
long ago when my children were small. The volume varied greatly. I placed the
cassette tape in a small inexpensive hand held player (Walkman type) and
connected a cable between the speaker jack and the Line In jack in the
back of my computer. This meant I could adjust the sound during the low and
high volume sections of the tape by using the player’s volume control. That
worked satisfactorily since the tape was not perfection in the first place. The
recording was even better than the original with little or no hiss and a more
consistent volume level! There is an option for auto-leveling the volume for a
given song to eliminate distortion on high peaks.
An MP3 file of LaPaloma had
a loud click at the 51-second mark that could not be cleaned properly even with
the special peak click filtering after manually isolating the click. I was
finally able to eliminate the click but each side of the original click had a
warble that was worse than the click. The Help file said if this happens, try
to make a better recording somehow. Since it was only one click, I would guess
there was a spot of something on the vinyl surface or a pin point gouge. You
can’t make a purse out of a sow’s ear, huh?
One of the fun and useful
features is the ability to adjust the speed of a recording. I recorded several
old 78 RPM records using the 45 RPM speed of my turntable and increased the
speed accordingly using the drop-down menu until it sounded normal. I’m trying
to find my 78 RPM copy of Roy Acuff’s “Sixteen Chickens in a Frying Pan.”
Everybody needs to hear that.
For the tinkering types out
there, many tweaks are available including a change in sampling rates,
sensitivity of track detection, recording levels, etc.
Highly recommended. Rod Rakes
This article may be
published only by APCUG member user groups. All other uses are prohibited. When
used, APCUG must be acknowledged as the source and the author credited. The
Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups
(APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings
this article to you.