Pure Vinyl Workflow: Getting Started Tutorial

Warning! This document contains a movie which will play back some NOISY audio. You may want to reduce the volume control on your computer, or hit your "back" button now, in case it inadvertently begins playing. Click here to jump to the movie position in this document.

This overview tutorial uses a sample vinyl LP record album (alternative-psychedelic-pop-rock music from Columbus, Ohio) audio file, downloadable separately from our website:

http://www.channld.com/cfp.zip (22.5 MB)

If you have a low-bandwidth Internet connection or are unable to download the file, you might just want to follow along with the example below. You also can go through the steps with an album or music file that you have recorded.

(Note: music files containing ID3 tags, such as those in your iTunes music collection, are interpreted as being finished "singles" and cannot be edited in Pure Vinyl, only played.)

In this example, we will set track markers in the file and render the tracks to individual tracks. The example covers most of the points in the other workflow documents, but in less detail.

Contents:

 

Open the audio file:

Important: while you may work directly with the "lossy" compressed file downloaded above, it's better to first convert it to a lossless format like AIFF before proceeding, and work with the AIFF file.

1. Locate the audio file Counting Fifty Problems (PV).m4a in the expanded zip archive you downloaded separately above. Convert it to AIFF as explained below (you may skip this step, as explained above, but it's much better to convert it first).

2. Launch the Pure Vinyl application. Take a few moments to read the "welcome" message (it only is shown on the first launch).

3. Drag the audio file icon onto the Pure Vinyl application window. You also may drag the file to the Pure Vinyl application icon.

4. When the Album Information window appears, hit the Tab key to select the Artist: field and type Househearts (the name of the group). The other information can be left as-is.

5. Click Ok or press Return on the keyboard.

6. Wait a minute or so for the album editing image to be rendered.

 

Normalize the Audio Level:

1. Click the PEAK button on the turntable. The peak list panel becomes visible.

Now is a good time to become familiar with the operation of the "scratch" style editor:

2. Click and drag the mouse on the record surface (the cursor will change to a hand when you're at the correct spot) to "spin" the record. The waveform display will appear, and the waveform will scroll as the record is "spun." Hold down the Shift key to show the separate Left and Right waveforms (the aqua waveform is the mono sum).

The sensitivity of the spin increases the farther you are from the place where you initially clicked. To revert to the lowest sensitivity, release the mouse and click and "spin" again.

 

Note: there will be a disparity in the locations in the peak list and the actual peak location on the waveform. This is because track seeking with lossy packetized compressed formats (the downloaded file) is not as precise as other file formats. The offset error arises in the random track seek operation that generates the waveform, not the peak list.

For example, in the image above, the album must be rotated to an offset of 16.750 seconds to move the peak to the center of the waveform display. The offsets in the list and in the waveform editor are different because a more precise, linear seeking method is used for recording the peak positions.

If you wish to replicate the actual procedure below as closely as possible, it's highly recommended that you convert the file to a lossless format, such as AIFF. This will be necessary if you wish your track mark edits to be exactly reflected in the individually rendered tracks. (The compressed format was provided for download instead of the AIFF because of Internet bandwidth issues: the AIFF is over 10 times larger!)

 

Convert the downloaded file to AIFF:

1. Double - click the Counting Fifty Problems music file to launch iTunes.

2. Select the Counting Fifty Problems track. Pause playback. (Note - do NOT fill in the Artist or Album name of this track in the playlist!)

3. Configure iTunes to export the file as AIFF Preferences->Advanced->Importing->Import Using AIFF Encoder (note your previous settings, you will want to change this back after converting the file).

4. Close the Preferences panel.

5. Select Convert Selection to AIFF from the Advanced menu.

6. When the conversion is complete, locate the file (should be in your iTunes Music Folder in the Unknown Artist/Unknown Album folder). The file will be about 247.1 MB in size.

7. Optional: if you already opened the .m4v version of the file above, you must erase Pure Vinyl's catalog data for the album. Quit Pure Vinyl. Navigate to Users/your username/Music/Pure Vinyl/Track Lists and Vinyl Images folder. Locate the Househearts folder inside the Track Lists and Vinyl Images folder. Open the folder and then the Counting Fifty Problems folder. Move the three files listed below to the Trash (leave any other files, if present, undisturbed).

8. Begin as in Step 1 under Open the file, above, except open the file by dragging it to the Pure Vinyl application icon.

If the Make-Up Gain control on the turntable indicates a nonnumeric value (INF), it needs to be reinitialized. Just click once in the control to reinitialize it.

Return to Step 1, Open the file

 

3. Click the NORM button (the button won't be enabled unless you've clicked a peak in the list and "spun" the record a bit). The peak will be used as the maximum volume reference level.

Note that the peaks in the list have renormalized to 0.0 dB (if the level is indicated as "-0.0," the normalization level is just a tiny bit below 0.0). Keep in mind that the normalization is nondestructive: the audio information in the file isn't touched.

For this album, the correct setting for the normalization gain happens to be 0.0 dB, because the file already has been normalized. Usually, it will be greater than 0.0 dB. The normalization gain applied is indicated by and may be adjusted with the Make-Up gain control. The control auto-scales and recenters itself in a "spring-loaded" fashion after being adjusted, and so always has a range of 10 dB, to provide 0.1 dB precision in adjustment.

 

Fix Pops and Clicks:

We'll cover this procedure here, because the Signal Peak window is already open from the Normalize step above. However, pops and clicks can be edited at any time.

Also note that the pop editing operation is nondestructive: nothing in the original audio file is altered. Pure Vinyl only records instructions that are applied to the individual split tracks when they are rendered, or during playback of the rendered "album" (as a continuous, uninterrupted album) in the PLAY mode. In PLAY mode, the pop and click corrections are made in real time as the audio is played; the original audio file isn't touched.

Pure Vinyl allows pop editing via interpolation or sample cloning. It's intended for well-preserved vinyl records having a minimum of noise problems. For more comprehensive transient and noise removal, the album file can be first cleaned (using third party noise removal solutions) and then used for the editing operations here.

You may want to verify that the cleaning software doesn't alter the duration of the file, by comparing the original and cleaned files. If you are using Pure Vinyl to play back high-sample rate album archives, the track markers from an altered - duration edit file may be unsynchronized with the high resolution file.

The use of interpolation and sample cloning pop correction methods are illustrated below.

1. First, set up the pop editor: Click Quad.

2. Click the top item in the list.

3. Click POP EDIT (if the button is invisible, open the Editor tab of the Preferences panel and click Enable Pop / Click Filtering Options).

4. Click NEW.

5. Select the item in the Pop Filter list.

 

A. Correct the pop with sample interpolation:

1A. Click Intrp.

When you have performed the above steps, you should see something similar to the image below:

 

2A. "Spin" the disc until the onset of the transient is aligned with the center marker, as shown below.

 

3A. Drag the Width slider to the end of the waveform transient. This defines the part of the transient that will be corrected. Release the mouse.

4A. Click NEW again.

5A. Select the second item in the list. You should have something similar to what's shown in the image below.

6A. You can click DRY to show the unfiltered transient.

 

B. Alternatively, correct the pop with sample cloning:

1B. Select the second item in the list (this will save the trouble of having to readjust the transient position as in Step 2).

2B. Click Clone.

3B. Drag the Clone Source slider (bottom slider) to find a part of the waveform that "fills in" the transient. Here, it was dragged slightly to the left.

(Note that not all pops are correctable with this method; however, some quite wide transients can be corrected very effectively and musically if the waveform is periodic and a suitable "clone" snippet can be located.)

 

4B. Click NEW. This finalizes the adjustment.

5B. Click DRY to view the uncorrected waveform.

 

6. When finished, and you have decided which cleaning technique was best, select and REMOVE the extra Pop Filter list items (there should only be one Pop Filter per pop in the Signal Peak list), leaving behind one pop edit marker, as shown in the image below:

 

Preview the pop edit (note: the vinyl example above is fairly "clean," so we'll fix another pop that's a bit more prominent, to illustrate the preview operation):

1. Click the third item in the Signal Peak list.

2. Click and spin the record until the center mark is aligned with the onset of the transient.

3. Click NEW.

4. Select the new item in the Pop Filter list.

5. Click Intrp.

6. Click and drag the Width slider to the zero-crossing on the aqua curve, as shown below. This defines the part of the transient that will be corrected.

When you've performed the six steps above, you should have something similar to the below:

 

7. Click NEW.

8. Select the new item in the Pop Filter list. Notice that the pop has been interpolated, as shown in the image below.

9. Click DRY. The uncorrected pop should now be visible.

10. Click the tonearm cueing button.

11. You may need to adjust the Monitor Level to a louder volume.

Notice two "pops," one loud and one somewhat softer. We're listening to more than one revolution of the "disc," so there are two pops, because the pop cuts across more than one record groove. The louder pop is the one we've just corrected.

Now listen carefully, and click DRY. The loud pop is gone!

12. Click the tonearm cueing button again to stop playback.

13. We don't care about the pop at 24:22.xxxxx because it's not within any of the tracks we will define below (as you can see from the stylus position, it's in the lead-out groove of the record). So select each of the 24:22.xxxxx items in the Pop Filter list and click REMOVE, one at a time.

14. You may edit other pops in the Signal Peak list, as above.

15. When finished, click POP EDIT and then CLOSE (or just CLOSE).

 

Edit Track Markers:

1. Click IN on the turntable.

2. Select Add / Edit Tracks... from the Album menu.

Note: Pure Vinyl automatically initializes a track list with markers that split the album according to the number of album sides. Here, the automatic split just happened to be located at the actual album split, because the two album sides were roughly the same length.

3. Click OUT on the turntable. Notice how the stylus moves to the Side 1 first (here the only) track mark-out position.

4. Click the record label to "flip" to Side 2. Notice how the stylus moves to the Side 2 first track mark-out position.

5. Click IN. Notice how the stylus moves to the Side 2 first track mark-in position.

6. Click the record label to "flip" back to to Side 1. Notice how the stylus moves to the Side 1 first track mark-in position.

7. Click the Track Name 1 row in the list to select the track.

8. Click IN (if it isn't selected).

9. Click and drag the red "cartridge" until the "stylus" (the playback position) is located at the beginning of the modulated area on the surface. This will be an offset of approximately 3 seconds (3.081 seconds is shown below). The cursor will change to a double arrow (not shown here) during the manual stylus positioning operation.

10. Click IN if it isn't selected.

11. Get ready to adjust the Monitor Level control (in case it's set too loudly) and click the tonearm cueing button (the icon of a stylus poised above a record, shown in the image above to the immediate right of the cartridge).

If you are rattled by the loudness level, just click the cueing button again to immediately stop the sound.

12. Now is the fun part of using the scratch editor. Click and drag the surface of the record to "spin" it, as in Step 3 under the Normalize the Audio Level section above (hold down the Shift key on the keyboard to show the individual Left and Right channel waveforms). The mark position is located at the CENTER of the waveform display. Everything to the LEFT of the mark is being played (and "off the edge of the screen:" the waveform display only shows a magnified portion of what's being played).

13. The lead-in marker position is correctly set when only track lead-in noise is heard. Moving the playback position beyond this point, you will begin to hear a bit of the music from the track. A good spot to choose is close to a waveform zero-crossing point, as shown.

Note: the scaling of the waveform is automatic, and is done separately for the pre-markin and post-markin parts of the waveform (that is, to the left and right of the central dividing line). When the lead-in signal of interest is located to the right of the dividing line (past the markin location), the quiet part of the lead-in waveform will immediately expand to fit the vertical scale of the left side of the waveform display. This is another aid to identifying the beginning of the track. (The automatic scaling behavior can be disabled in the Preferences panel, if desired.)

 

14. Click UPDATE.

Below is a movie with audio that illustrates the steps above.

15. Click OUT.

16. Click the track in the list to reselect it.

17. Drag the stylus to the end of the modulated area of the first track. For the example music file, this will be an offset of approximately 2 minutes 57 seconds.

18. Click and drag the surface of the record to "spin" it, as above. One difference with setting mark-out is that everything to the RIGHT of the mark is being played.

19. The lead-out marker position is correctly set when only track lead-out noise is heard. It sometimes helps to release the mouse and listen carefully. Make minor adjustments by clicking and spinning. The correct offset for the example track is shown: 2 minutes 56.862 seconds.

20. Click UPDATE.

21. Click the cueing button to pause playback.

Note: with a bit of practice, you'll quickly get the hang of using this method to set the track markers. It's especially useful for accurately locating the track positions in the presence of vinyl background noise.

22. Click the mouse on the track Name in the list. You may have to pause a moment to wait for the editing cursor to appear. Type in the track name, Six/16.

23. Click NEW to add another track.

24. Proceed as above to set the other track marks on Side 1. Click the record label to change to Side 2 and locate the Side 2 tracks.

When you are finished, you should have track marks resembling those shown below for Side 1 and Side 2 (refer to the images below for the song names). There are two sets of markers below: one determined with the 128 kBPS AAC compressed .m4a file, and one with the converted (as described above) .aif file.

Track Markers Were Determined from Counting Fifty Problems (PV).m4a:

Track Markers Were Determined from Counting Fifty Problems (PV).aif (converted from .m4a):

Yes, the .m4a and the iTunes converted .aif file do have different durations! The packetization of the .m4a format means that it's unlikely that your split tracks (rendered in the following steps) will EXACTLY match your track marks. If you want to accurately split the tracks, you must work from the converted .aif file, or allow extra "padding" at the beginning and end of the tracks.

We've provided a set of "ready to go" cut lists for the downloaded music file in the Cut Lists folder included with the music download, if you want to just jump on ahead to the next step, and don't feel like practicing using the editor.

You will have to create the .aif version of the Counting Fifty Problems file with iTunes to accurately use the cut lists. If you want to work with the .m4a file, you can use the cut lists as a starting point for further refinement.

To use the supplied cut lists:

Navigate to the folder holding the cut lists: Users/your username/Music/Pure Vinyl/Track Lists and Vinyl Images/Househearts/Counting Fifty Problems.

Drag the files Counting Fifty Problems Side 01 Cut List and Counting Fifty Problems Side 02 Cut List into the folder, replacing the existing files.

After copying the files, click the record label to immediately reload the copied cut lists.

 

 

Render Tracks and Vinyl Platter Images for Playback:

1. Select Render Tracks and Vinyl... from the Album menu.

2. Choose a destination for the rendered music files, and click Render.

3. The settings above will cause iTunes to be launched for adding track tags. A snippet of the beginning of each track also will be played in iTunes.

Tracks and vinyl images for each album side will be rendered. The rendering progress will resemble the image shown below:

4. When the rendering process is complete, you can quit iTunes or pause playback.

 

Now the rendered vinyl platter can be played in Pure Vinyl, as an uninterrupted album:

5. Click the cueing button, and the finished vinyl image will begin playing. Note that the cue-in and cue-out points determined in the marking steps are respected.

To flip the record, click on the label, and click the cueing button again to resume play.

 

If you want the record to automatically flip and continue playing after the stylus reaches the end of a side, select the Continue Playing option (is selected by default) in the Tonearm Run-Out subpanel of the Audio Files tab of the Pure Vinyl Preferences panel.

Note that the lead-out edit in the example track list file (from the music file download) of Side 1 is rather "loose:" it goes fairly far into the vinyl lead-out area. You might want to tighten that edit (shorten the mark-out for the last track on Side 1). You won't need to re-render, unless you also want to shorten the rendered iTunes track. Any changes made in the EDIT mode are automatically applied in the PLAY mode. You can even modify or add more Pop corrections; they will be incorporated on playback.

Note: the music has what seems to be a spurious snare drum whack at the beginning of Side 2. This is the way the track is supposed to sound.

This concludes the tutorial overview. See the individual workflow documents for more detail regarding the above and other procedures.

Return to Index