Although tape and vinyl fans can find the majority of the stuff they used to own on CD or digital download there are always exceptions: for every Gilbert O'Sullivan CD re-issue, there's a missing album by the Keef Hartley Band or British blues-jazzers Patto. In addition, there are all those odd recordings that people have got stashed away of church services, school concerts and other cherished memories, lovingly stored on vinyl or tape and in danger of being either lost or ruined over time.

So there's still a considerable market for a product like Rescue your Vinyl & Tapes Version 2, which includes everything you need to connect a tape or record deck to a PC's sound card and then record the results. And we mean everything: you get cables, a mini stereo phono-to-jack adaptor and even a tiny line pre-amp which means you can just plug a turntable straight in without having to worry about tracking down an amplifier.

Cleaning up old recordings has usually been a good fit for PCs but the software has too often only made sense to audio-heads and lacked the simple features necessary to satisfy what most of us want: to remove clicks and scratches and perhaps brighten up a finished recording before burning it to disc or saving it as a digital file.

Rescue your Vinyl & Tapes Version 2 delivers this courtesy of an interface that lets you record, clean and master in only a few mouse clicks, yet offers plenty of audio wizardry under the hood for when you really need it.

You can import audio files, tape or vinyl (via the line in connector) or pull audio from a CD into the main project window which shows a neat overview of the whole project along the top and then a detailed view underneath.

For simple jobs, use the automatic cleaning assistant or choose a preset (for example, 'Restore vinyl record in bad condition') or if you want more control, step through the wizard. Neatly, this allows you to compare the original with the edited version as you go, making sure you don't lose track of what you're trying to achieve. Alternatively, if you know your 'de-hissing' from your 'de-noising', just click the cog icon inside each effect and you can fine tune the settings by hand.

There's plenty to like about this software: the way it keeps the help file open unobtrusively to explain various technical audio functions; the way it'll guess where one track ends and the next begins and automatically insert track markers (necessary so you can skip between tracks on a finished CD) then let you move them if it guessed wrong; the ability to draw curves onto the waveform to raise and lower the volume of individual sections; how you can apply changes to the entire recording or just individual track, thus taking into account how one may be more scratched than another.

We also like the mastering section where you can mess with the EQ, dynamics and brilliance (important with old recordings which can sound 'dead' compared with modern music) and add stereo effects. The program also supports the compressed audio formats that count (including Ogg Vorbis) and does a good job of burning successfully to CD. If this has stumped you in the past, the CD assistant should sort you out.

If you've got an ‘ordinary' sound card, expect the usual silliness in making sure you've chosen the right input and got the recording levels right, and don't place too much faith in the pre-amp unless you invest in a mains adaptor (that thing gobbles batteries) but apart from that, for anyone who's got old records and tapes that need a wash and brush up, this is an excellent choice.

Verdict
Rescue your Vinyl & Tapes Version 2 comes with everything you need to digitise old records and tapes onto your PC, clean them up, add dynamics and then save the results as either digital audio files for an MP3 player or a CD you can play in the car. The simple interface will help new users achieve good results, while the ability to fine tune things will please those more demanding users whose ears are used to working a little bit harder.

Company: Magix

Contact: +49 (0) 30 29392 280

Tags: compact disc gilbert o'sullivan gramophone record sound recording and reproduction personal computer vorbis ogg vorbis compact cassette