MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab SE

If you are converting an old collection of vinyl and have found that other programs are just too complicated, then you absolutely need to check this one out. The company, Magix, claims on their boxed commercial version that it is the best selling program of its kind - worldwide. I am positive that is no exaggeration.

To convert an MP3 audio file into a digital album takes just four steps - 1) Input the source file. (Vinyl is almost as simple) After the source is inputted, use the track marker to locate the start of each track. Then use FreeDB to look up the album and rename the tracks. 2) Cleaning. This is where you can apply filters for some of the more popular recording devices, remove noise, pops, hiss, etc. There are literally dozens of settings. This section also has a step by step wizard to guide you through the process. 3) Mastering. Like the cleaning step, this has dozens of filters. Here, you are correcting and improving the sound. There are a few things it can't do - like remove vocals for karaoke or process mono into stereo. 4) Export. Now that you are at this point, you can burn off a new CD, save a folder full of MP3s or WAV files - whatever you want to do to save your end product.

There are newer versions of the Audio Cleaning Lab, of course. With each new version, more features are added and old ones are improved. For example, the commercial version can sample the noise of your turntable and use that as an overall filter, removing the rumble from the album. Yes, all turntables have rumble. Get over it. But what you have is their 'Special Edition', which has a smaller subset of their main program.

Summary

If you are just getting started converting audio files, or if you are not sure if the Magix commercial producti is for you, this program is DEFINITELY worth checking out.