itunes

There’s one loong loong project ahead. Taking each of my vinyls on the turntable set next to my laptop, playing and recording them, normalizing the recording and tagging and archiving the mp3-files. Even if I would just record the most important records, this would take months. I was thinking to make the process a bit shorter, but I ended up having a software question in front of me.

I took the first step today and bought the cartridge which has been told to be the best one available for DJing purposes. No matter to which DJ-needle you compare Grado DJ200, the difference is huge. Check it yourself:

DJ Caro2 tested seven different DJ cartridges and recorded the test. Take a moment and listen the test. The last two loops are recorded with Grado DJ200 – the quality difference is mad. Here are the cartridges used in the test – you can hear each for about 10 sec.

Stanton 500al 1.8g (low weight)
Stanton 500al 3g
Stanton 680Hp 3g
Shure M35X 2g
Shure M44G 1.5g
Ortofon DJ E 3g
Ortofon Elektro 3g
Grado Dj200 3.4g (Technics SL-1200Mk5)
Grado Dj200 3.4g (Stanton STR8-80)

Now as I have the best possible cartridge, I would still need some good software to do as much work for me as possible. Basically the easiest and fastest way to digitalize the vinyls would be to record them to one file without breaks.

So – I need a program which will split this long audio file into separate tracks. Then I need a program which would normalize all these files as a batch.

After this is done, iTunes will take care of the wav-to-mp3 conversion and tagging.

I know there are several DJs and music lovers out there having the same project in their hands. Any software tips, hifi knowledge, experiences or opinions would be very welcome.

edit: Read further notes about the project.