Convert your LPs into CDs

Separating the Tracks

After removing the crackles, your songs will be ready to be recorded on CD. Just do not forget to save your work. Before recording the songs on CD we will have to separate them in many Wav files, one for each song, because, up to now, all the songs are recorded in a single file. This process can be done by means of the Sound Forge itself or by means of a very interesting shareware called LP Ripper (https://www.cfbsoftware.com.au).

The LP Ripper analyzes your Wav file and searches for the blank spaces that usually exist between songs, automatically setting where each track begins and ends. When you use this program, after the analysis, it is good to check if it marked correctly the beginning and end of each track. Use the option Trim Tracks from the menu Edit. With this function, you can make the small adjustment, indicating exactly where each track begins and ends. The LP Ripper just do not manage to analyze very well the records where the tracks are continuous, that is, there is not that well-known blank space between them. In this case, the tip is you entering manually the number of tracks and the time of each one of them (this time is written on the record labels), making the small adjustment next, using the option Trim Tracks.

Figure 14: LP Ripper.

If you are going to use the Sound Forge, so you should mark each track as being a region. For doing so, you should select the beginning and the end of each track and mark the region. The beginning of the track should be marked in such a way that you do not have any “blank space” left before the song, while the end of the track should be marked in a way that you neither cut the “fade” effect (that effect which lowers the volume of the music until it gets to zero at the end of each track) nor leave a blank space after the end of the track. That is why the ideal is that you always listen to your work while you keep on marking. With time you will get the necessary practice for this process. The regions are marked through the menu Special option Region List, by selecting Add from the menu that will appear. After marking, check if the beginning and the end have been marked in the right places. Use the zoom tool to check this out and adjust the region (by moving the region marker to the left or to the right) in case you need to make a small adjustment in the marking.

Figure 15: Using the Sound Forge to separate the tracks.

After the regions are marked, the Sound Forge itself transforms them into independent Wav files, through the option Extract Regions from the menu Tool.