Opening Audio Files

The next step in the Pure Vinyl workflow involves opening the file in the Pure Vinyl editor (just called "Pure Vinyl") to generate the vinyl platter images and edit the file. (The Recorder can be configured to automatically pass the file along to the editor, if desired.)

Note that "editing" is a bit of a misnomer, because all edits performed by Pure Vinyl are nondestructive - nothing is changed in the original recorded files. The editing operations are recorded in separate files located in Users/your username/Music/Pure Vinyl/Pure Vinyl Music. Because of this, it's important that you regularly back up the files on your computer, because these files are where the track locations, track names, pop and click edit instructions, etc. are stored.

Pure Vinyl also relies on special identifiers in the file name, placed there by Pure Vinyl Recorder, which will affect the behavior of the editor. The special identifiers are (Raw), (CD), (PV), and (PVD) and are explained below.

To open an audio file in Pure Vinyl Editor: drag the audio file icon to the Pure Vinyl application icon or window.

 

The behavior of the Pure Vinyl editor when opening an audio file will depend somewhat on the file type, and in some cases may require further intervention from the user before any operations are performed by the editor.

 

 

The cases where files are opened automatically, without needing further intervention:

1. The file comes from a track in your iTunes collection, converted from a CD.

When Pure Vinyl detects the ID3 track tag information (artist, album name, etc.) in the file, it interprets the file as being a "single" track. A "7 inch" format "45 RPM" vinyl image is created.

Only playback is possible (because audio files thus obtained should already be fully "edited" and ready to play.) No volume normalization adjustment is presumed for the specific file (but overall playback monitoring volume is adjustable).

 

2. The file was recorded by Pure Vinyl Recorder on the same computer that was used for editing.

- The file has a sample rate of 96 kHz or less (or has "(CD)" or "(PV)" in the file name).

Pure Vinyl will automatically generate a "12 inch" format "33 1/3 RPM" platter image, to be used for subsequent editing. A tentative normalization volume level will be established. Track hints and album side splits are obtained from the file created by Pure Vinyl Recorder at Users/your username/Music/Pure Vinyl/Track Lists and Vinyl Images/Artist/Album/Album.plist, where Artist and Album were the names entered when originally recording the file.

Note: If you wish to use different computers for recording and editing, you should create the directory structure mentioned above on the editing computer and copy the Album.plist file from the recording computer to the editing computer. Otherwise, the information will need to be re-entered.

 

The cases where intervention will be required:

3. The file apparently was not recorded by Pure Vinyl Recorder, or was recorded on a different computer.

- The file has a sample rate of 44.1 kHz.

- The file does not have embedded ID3 tag information.

Pure Vinyl will presume that the album title is the same as the file name (less the file extension, if applicable). You will be asked to provide additional information in the dialog box, shown below.

Here, the Title field was automatically filled in with the name of the file, Counting Fifty Problems. This also happens to be the name of the album. You should (carefully, watch those typos) press the tab key (to select the text) and supply an Artist name. Otherwise, the Pure Vinyl editor will think the Artist is "Unknown Artist" and create its editing information files in Users/your username/Music/Pure Vinyl/Pure Vinyl Music /Track Lists and Vinyl Images/Unknown Artist/Counting Fifty Problems/; not what you want.

Enter the other information as appropriate. The other fields may be changed later, if desired. Don't be concerned about the Calibrated control; that's an advanced - user topic and the subject of another tutorial.

 

4. The file apparently was not recorded by Pure Vinyl Recorder, or was recorded on a different computer.

- The file has a sample rate greater than 44.1 kHz.

The Pure Vinyl track editor uses a native format of 44.1 kHz for editing operations. If a file with a different sample rate is opened, Pure Vinyl will present the Decimation Options panel.

This behavior can be configured in the Audio Files tab of the Pure Vinyl Preferences panel, so that 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz files are treated the same as 44.1 kHz files, and it's presumed that you want to directly edit, not decimate, the file. Disabling the 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz check boxes will enable native-format editing of these sample rates. The other sample rate check boxes currently will remain selected.

The "PV Files" checkbox will also cause files recorded by Pure Vinyl to invoke the Decimation panel.

At this point, you can choose to decimate the file, using the selected options.

- If you just want to decimate the input file, click Decimate.

- If Pure Vinyl has no record of the file in its catalog file, the Add File to Catalog... button will be visible. If you want to create a 44.1 kHz file for editing (and the sample rate of your file is 176.4 or 192 kHz), you should now create a catalog entry by clicking Add File to Catalog... Here, you will be presented with the Album Information dialog box. (Please see Item 3 above for more information regarding this dialog box.)

If you previously have opened a 44.1 kHz editing file (from Pure Vinyl Recorder, for instance), that was used for track or vinyl image rendering, after clicking Ok, the high sample rate file will be opened and can be used for playback. This can be determined by noting the sample rate reported below the sound level meters.

 

Pure Vinyl file types

(CD) automatically resampled with Faster, Better or Best decimator (44.1 kHz), or Exact decimator (96 kHz), in Pure Vinyl Recorder

(PV) file manually resampled with Faster, Better or Best decimator in the Pure Vinyl editor

(BD) resampled with Better (34/37) decimator (Recorder or editor)

(D) 44.1 kHz or 96 kHz file either produced with Exact decimator, or not resampled (Recorder or editor)

(Raw) Recorder file sourced from a vinyl recording, without hardware inverse RIAA EQ (requires using software inverse RIAA EQ)

 

 

This concludes the opening audio files part of the workflow tutorial.

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