Improve sound of mp3's ripped from vinyl?

[kukuman]

Give [Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) a try. You can use its pencil tool to remove clicks and pops. You have to edit them yourself, so it's best if you know what you're doing. It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, and it's open source (i.e. completely free, but the interface and documentation have some rough edges).

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[leggo rocker]

leggo,

what program do you use for your mac?

Well, I don't really use anything.

Because I record vinyl to WAV or MP3 via the iKey device I don't need any software at all.

I don't bother removing the pops and stuff as they really don't bother me.

I have a copy of Final Vinyl, Audio Companion and Soundtrack all sitting idle. I also have a program called 'Switch' which can change the format of sound files, say from WAV to MP3 etc.

When I record mixes for leggorockers.com/downloads I don't mess with the sessions. I just play and record real time and that's what gets uploaded, direct without editing.

[ACEtone]

Have to agree with Leggo on most of what he said. The clicks and pops are just part of it. But for really bad clicks and 'topping and tailing' I use Peak (pencil in corrected waveform or reduce gain on nasty anomalies), which isn't really free, but...
As Kukuman said Audacity really is free and is pretty easy to figure out - does most of what Peak can do. The only problem is that you have to rip to .ogg files and then convert to wav or mp3 which is more time consuming (unless you have something that plays .ogg files).

I don't use Audacity much as it doesn't work with my audio interface - only works with the built-in sound card. Don't know about other sound cards...

And, when making your mp3s, do encode to the max. 320kbps - it is worth it. I did a lot of vinyl ripping a few years ago and unfortunately in my ignorance at the time encoded many at 128, 160 kbps. Criminal really...

[Dubs_West]

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[Snow Leopard]

I use Polderbits (for pc) which has a click & hiss filter that works pretty well for me. I think you can get a free preview.