Help & Best Practices

General Use

MusicCapture records vinyl through your browser or connected hardware. The workflow:

  1. Record — Start listening on the Dashboard. Recording begins automatically when music is detected and stops after silence.
  2. Identify — Tracks are sent to AcoustID or AudD for automatic identification.
  3. Edit & Tag — Use the editor to split long recordings, add covers, run OCR, and manage ID3 tags.
  4. Download — Export from Library or Sessions as MP3 with embedded metadata.

Managing Settings

Your settings are saved per account and persist across sessions.

  • Audio Device — Choose Line In, Stereo Mix, or your interface. Avoid microphones for line-level sources.
  • Silence Threshold — Adjust how quiet audio must be to trigger stop. Lower = more sensitive.
  • Recording Start — Margin above noise floor and confirmation time control when recording begins.
  • Min Track Length — Discard segments shorter than this.
  • Dashboard Values — Threshold offset, silence duration, and min track length in the browser recorder are saved to your profile.

BYO-API users: add your OpenAI, AcoustID, and AudD API keys in Settings. Free and Full tiers use platform keys.

Getting the Best Results

Direct Line-In Connection

For best quality, use a line-in or Stereo Mix connection — not a microphone. Microphones apply gain that overloads line-level signals from turntables and interfaces.

Managing Gain

Set your interface or sound card input gain so that peaks land around -6 to -3 dB. Too low and you lose detail; too high and you get clipping. Calibrate while playing a loud passage.

Hardware for Better Quality

Consider:

  • Phono preamp — If your interface has no phono input, use an external phono preamp before line-in.
  • USB audio interface — Better than onboard sound for lower noise and cleaner ADC.
  • Dedicated ADC — High-end interfaces (e.g. Focusrite, RME) improve SNR and accuracy.

PC Recording + Mobile Cover Upload

For best of both worlds:

  • Record on PC — Use a desktop/laptop with a good interface for stable, high-quality capture.
  • Upload covers from mobile — Photograph sleeves with your phone and upload via the Covers or Session pages. The mobile camera often yields better images than a webcam.

Recording Workflow

  1. Select your audio input in Settings or on the Dashboard.
  2. Click "Start Listening" — the noise floor calibrates automatically.
  3. Start the record; recording begins when audio exceeds the threshold.
  4. Between tracks, silence triggers stop after the configured duration.
  5. Captured tracks upload automatically. Check Raw or Unidentified for processing.
  6. Add session covers, run OCR, identify, and tag. Export from Library.

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