Total Recorder

[xoxoxoBruce]

IIRC, it grabs the signals before the sound card messes with them.
Ran the turntable into the phono jacks on an old Sony Str AV-760 then hooked the tape out, where the signal comes out to a tape deck, to the PC's audio in jacks. Worked great.

CAUTION ~ Don't set this up in the middle of your damn desk so you can't do anything else until it's broken down.

[Elspode]

Total Recorder drops an imitation soundcard driver in place of the actual driver (this is selectable, BTW, as TR's driver can cause some audio lag in video games, I've noticed) which captures all sound sent to the soundcard, and then routes it where you want it, basically. The advantage to this over just sticking cables in your soundcard output is that you skip the analogue conversion and can record an actual digital streaming signal...or so I gather.

[glatt]

Any of you ever try Audacity? I came across it when I was reading good reviews on Total Recorder. Audacity is open source freeware and claims to be able to record WAV files, split them into tracks, and make mp3s out of them. It doesn't do the neat trick of capturing streaming audio that Total Recorder does, but $0 versus $36 is a pretty big difference. Anyone try it?

[xoxoxoBruce]

$36? You need the Pro version?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

$36? You need the Pro version?

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.

[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.

[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.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by glatt

Any of you ever try Audacity?

I tried it once, but couldn't get it to work correctly on my Mac. I went back to Audio Hijack (Rogue Amoeba, $16) for capture of streaming sources and Amadeus (Hairersoft, $36) for encoding/manipulation.
I used Amadeus to rip my grandmother's entire cassette tape collection (~50 tapes) to MP3 and cds. It was all Hindi or Telugu music that is no longer published. Most of it was older than I am...