Help me record a very long .wav

[spanishannouncetable]

I really like the radio station soundtracks in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I know they have released some "official" soundtrack CDs but I don't want them because -
a) they leave out too many songs I want
b) they left out some funny commercials
c) they don't have a CD for the public radio show "Pressing Issues"

On the game disc the stations' playlists are not one long file each but many small files, so a direct digital extraction was out. Each music station's loop runs about an hour, so I picked a starting point and let PS2 play while recording the whole hour to VHS HiFi stereo. The tapes are ready and sound great.

I would like to record each station from the tapes to the hard drive on my friend's PC, then burn the recording to CD-R so I can listen to them in my car. It can't play mp3, so they need to be recorded in standard CD audio format. What is the easiest, cheapest piece of software that can do this ?

Thanks in advance :)

[Steve Mehs]

Got Roxio Easy CD Creator? This can be done really easily with the Sound Stream application.

If you don't have them already, pick up some audio cables, that have RCA L+R on one end and a 1/8 mini plug on the other. Plug the RCAs into the output of the PS2 and the miniplug end into the line in on your sound card. Start up Roxio, launch Sound Stream, hit record and Start GTA soundtracks. This will record straight off the in line from the sound card, in wav format. After you get what you want you can burn to CD or compress into MP3. Doing it this way, you don't have to worry so much about denigration of sound quality. Since you have the audio you want onto a VHS tape, you can use the same procedure, but hook up the VCR to the sound card instead of the PlayStation.

[spanishannouncetable]

Is Roxio downloadable shareware or freeware ? It sounds like exactly what I need, especially if its free :)

I already have the cables. I decided to go with the tape because on the game disc you are pretty much stuck starting with whatever song the station was playing last when you saved a particular file - no random access or fast-forward in the game menu. Recording it in VHS HiFi beforehand gives near-CD quality and the ability to start and end the recording when I wanted to.

-edit-

Some googling found this -

www.polderbits.com sound recorder & editor for archiving tapes, LP's and anything else, and only a 412k shareware download.
Perfect :D

[MarkA]

CDex - cdex.n3.net I believe

[Steve Mehs]

CD Creator Platnium is $100 MSRP, but can be found a lot cheaper after sales at rebates at various places

[cnsf]

Nero Burning ROM and MusicMatch shareware could do it.

[lee635]

I use winamp (no cost) with the "line in" plugin to burn out .wav files from LP record albums. Then you'll need one of the CD writing packages others have mentioned. You may have a software package included with your CD writer.

If your pc has enough horsepower, you can set the winamp output to an mp3 plugin and record all day long.

There's also a plugin to edit the recording length and another that alleges to take the pops and clicks out of your recording. However, I found that you lose quite a bit of the dynamic range and prefer to leave the imperfections in place.

Good luck.

[raj2001]

Try Audacity (http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/). It's released under the GNU GPL, so it's free (speech and beer) (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) and it's availabe for alot of OS'es. You can also make MP3's or OGG's without having to use another program to encode, in case you also want MP3's.

Does your sound card have a digital input (fiber or coax)?

[spanishannouncetable]

Originally posted by raj2001
Does your sound card have a digital input (fiber or coax)?

Nope, just a standard line in.

Thanks for all the links. I'll keep this thread handy, as one of these is bound to be what I need :righton: