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I have used LP Recorder for years slowly transferring my vinyl and cassettes to CD. Early versions required a lot of input and a fair amount of knowledge to get the results you wanted. I remember reviewing version 5 a fair time ago and this had made big strides enabling the results to improve and the required knowledge to reduce. I still used that up until a couple of weeks ago. For some unknown reason I never saw or reviewed version 6, I was sent an email about version 7 and this along with the companion package LP Ripper is what I now use.

LP Ripper

A lot of what this package does can be done manually in LP Recorder and no doubt other packages. When recording an LP you need to be there all the while to stop recording at the end of each track, next you need to correctly title and restart recording with the next track etc. It is even harder with cassettes as you normally have no prior knowledge as to when a track will end. Your only previous hope was to have an idea of how long the track was and a watch with a second hand.

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With LP Ripper just start recording and let it go for an LP or cassette side. Now navigate to where the file is stored and tell it how many tracks. I have done a dozen LP’s and only two tracks were calculated wrongly. Just work out the one that’s wrong and tell it to join and then to resplit. On both occasions it worked for me. The package can then be used to name the tracks, save them as single tracks for burning to CD or even for encoding as MP3 or WMA with a third party package.

LP Recorder 

This package has come on in leaps and bounds and providing you can plug a lead in from your cassette or LP player to the correct socket on the PC, then once the software is installed you really should be able to make acceptable tracks.

When I reviewed version 5 I caused a lot of debate by saying I plugged bare wires into the speaker socket on the back of my old music system and the plug end of the lead into my Line In on the PC. Several people said this could/should never be done as the levels would be far to high. It works for me and my system, and I still use this method today. Yes I am careful that the volume is not to high and as for the bare wires I am currently looking at a very new 5CD system that also grips bare wires going to it’s speakers.

Before version 7 I used to copy single tracks as described in the LP Ripper item above now it’s whole LP or cassette sides. I still tend to note track times by playing the LP or cassette first if only to make checking of the breakup easier. Early versions of LP Recorder suffered from being able to easily get distortion from overloud input, much more tolerant in recent versions. The interface is a lot better –less cluttered- and if you use the two packages in tandem a joy to use.

Why not find out more at http://www.cfbsoftware.com you can even download a trial. Full copies can be downloaded at $29.95 or $59.90 should you order both. If you have any questions drop them an email to [email protected] I find them very helpful.