Basic Steps

Here are 6 basic steps to successfully converting an LP to CD-R. These are generic steps that apply to any computing platform.

1. Digitize each side of an LP. Digitizing is the process of converting an analog signal to a digital one. For CD-R playback, we will eventually be using 44.1 KHz, 16 bit, stereo data. Storing this quantity of uncompressed data onto a hard disk requires 176,400 bytes per second, or 10,584,000 bytes per minute of audio. The typical LP has roughly 20 minutes of music per side or over 423 Mb of data for both sides. Make sure you have adequate disk space before you start digitizing. In the examples that follow, I will be using a Windows platform to do the conversion. I name my digitized files "side1.wav" and "side2.wav" for each LP.
   
   
2. Seperate each recorded LP side ("side1.wav") into individual tracks ("1.wav", "2.wav", etc.). A typical LPs has 4 to 6 tracks per side. I keep both the individual tracks and the original digitized sides on disk until everything has been verified. This means that my storage needs are doubled, or over 846 Mb of data per LP for a 40 minute LP. It's a good thing disk drives are cheap today !
   
   
3. With the tracks seperated into individual files, I burn a CD-R. Track ordering is numerical and follows the original ordering on the LP. "1.wav" goes first, followed by "2.wav", etc; this is after all an exact backup of the LP.
   
   
4. Take some time and listen to the entire CD-R carefully. By now you're probably wondering how much time all this takes. You've already played the entire LP once during the digitizing session, and you've heard bits and pieces of it while seperating the tracks. Now you have to sit through it all over again. Let me reassure you that it's very important to listen one last time. Many things can go wrong - the burn may have gone bad, you may have missed a skip, tracks may have been improperly seperated, etc. This is why I keep the digital data on disk until everything has been verified. Until everything checks out, you can still go back and re-create the tracks from the original digitized LP side; or even redigitize an LP side before putting it away.
   
   
5. With everything verified, it's now time to delete all of the digital files and reclaim some disk space.
   
   
6. If you store your resulting CD-R along with your regular CD collection, you'll probably want some cover artwork based on the original LP cover. Most common jewel cases come in standard and slim styles. You can also buy cases that hold 2 or more CDs for those multi-LP albums. You'll also need a color printer and possibly a scanner.