How do I make mp3's from my LP's?

[The Rino]

I have about 100 or so LP's that I would like to put on my iPod. I have a record player w/ RCA outs and no pre-amp. Can anyone tell me if the following is a good idea to get reasonable sound quality from LP to mp3. I found a stereo phono pre-amp online at this link:

http://www.1stintunes.com/shopdispla...at%2Ehtm&bc=no

And I found a usb audio input device at this link:

http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/produ...oducts_id/1480

I'm using nero 7 to separate the tracks. I want to do this as cheaply as possible. Your input would be appreciated, thanks

[blmelon]

for $35 the usb route is worth a shot. if you don't like it or it doesn't work, you aren't out much and can sell that on ebay.

i use my old sony receiver and run rca to mini from the tape out to my mic in on my laptop and it sounds fine. it doesn;t take too much especially wehn you are going to mp3.

[Katysax]

I tried that a couple of years ago. You still need a preamp to get the sound into the imic. I bought a cheap integrated amp (for $50) from Radio Shack and used just the preamp. I ran the output of the preamp into the imic.

I don't use the imic any more. It worked pretty well with a Mac but doesn't work that well with XP.

The process was a serious pain in the neck. Getting the tracks separated at the right place, starting and stopping the LPs etc. I ended up buying CDs for the LPs that I wanted to be digital and just converting the LPs that I had that didn't make it to CD. It just wasn't worth the effort.

[Lord Chaos]

I'll second Katysax's recommendation: Copying LPs is a pain. If you factor in your time, you're better off buying the CDs if they are available. I only do LP transfers for records I can't find on CD.

I am, however, thinking of buying LPs of CDs that were remastered badly with the current fashion for very LOUD mastering.

[LFF]

Originally Posted by Lord Chaos

I'll second Katysax's recommendation: Copying LPs is a pain. If you factor in your time, you're better off buying the CDs if they are available. I only do LP transfers for records I can't find on CD.

I am, however, thinking of buying LPs of CDs that were remastered badly with the current fashion for very LOUD mastering.

I disagree. As with all things - it depends. Most new LP's are mastered by great engineers and contain a much different mastering approach to CD's. For some people the sound difference alone makes it worthwhile.

I personally love to spend a couple of hours transferring one LP. The sound and more importantly - what you learn about manipulating sound - is what makes it worthwhile to me. I can now fix so many "duds" and can make a lot of music shine like a polished diamond. It is part art, part science. More importantly, it allows me to relax and to listen to great music.

Copying LP's to CD is only a pain if you want it to be a pain. Let me give you an example. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me. The SACD cost me about $20.00 new. Let's not include tax, gas, shipping, time searching, etc. The LP cost me $30.00. That's a $10.00 difference.

So in short here is what you get:

SACD = nice, professional package, stuffy sound that clips, bad imaging and good music = $20.00

LP = Very nice collectible, with nice warm sound, fantastic depth and imaging, about 3 hours work for a nice transfer and 1 to replicate the artwork = $30.00 + 4 hours worth of work.

Here is an SACD rip compared to my needledrop of the LP. (Both are WAV files under 1 minute)

SACD

LP

Was it a pain for me? No. I only wish I would have purchased the LP first before I purchased the SACD. Would have saved me $20.00!

Keep in mind that this only a short clip and that the sound difference is greater when played back on a hi-rez system. Huge difference IMHO.

This is only for a modern LP too. There are many, many more LP’s which contain music which is not available today. In many, many cases such as the Sinatra Capitol Years catalog, the sound quality on the old original LP’s completely kills the modern CD sound.

In other cases, the music is simply worth the time and effort, like in this case. This is Jean Goldkette & His Orchestra playing My Little Girl. Try to find dynamics like that these days!

Old analog formats really are worth all the trouble. I have found many gems for under $1.00 – a little bit of love and care and time for polishing and you get top notch audiophile music like this. This LP cost me $0.25 (YES – 25 CENTS) and took me about 2 hours worth of work to polish up. Not bad if you ask me.

While the initial start-up price to transfer LP’s may be a little high – the rewards you get in sound quality and the knowledge you gain for fixing sound is truly priceless.

In short – my advice would be to get a used but working Technics turntable, an AT440MLa, a nice vintage integrated amp like a Fisher 500-TX and an EMU 0404USB. You can use headphones to monitor. Use a program like Adobe Audition to capture and your choice of de-clicking software to remove the noise. This should all run you under $200.00 if you shop carefully.

Once you have everything hooked up properly and transferred and polished, just save to WAV and encode to MP3.

If you don’t want to go through all of this – you can always pay someone to do it.

[joe_cool]

I have the CD version of the samples listed above (Norah Jones). Sadly, there is very little difference in the dynamics between the CD and SACD version. But I do agree, when you find a great recording, it's worth the effort to make a format conversion which can be enjoyed.

[narticus]

LFF - What takes so long besides the actual playing of the record itself? Not meant to be an insult, just curious. When I rip to Audition, I use the auto de-click feature (forget what it's called exactly) and that usually does a great job. Do you actually go through and manually fix each pop/click?

[LFF]

Originally Posted by narticus

LFF - What takes so long besides the actual playing of the record itself? Not meant to be an insult, just curious. When I rip to Audition, I use the auto de-click feature (forget what it's called exactly) and that usually does a great job. Do you actually go through and manually fix each pop/click?

No insult taken.

With a brand new, minty record, the longest part is actually playing the record. About 15 minutes to clean after capture and about 10 minutes tweaking after that.

What takes the longest for me, is designing the jewel case. Scanning and photoshoping the cover takes a while.


On not-so-minty LP’s, I go though and manually fix each pop/click as I find that just throwing it into an automatic de-clicker will affect the music. I sometimes use hiss reduction or NR reduction very judiciously to fix some parts. Also, some transfers are in need of serious EQ in order to sound best. Each record takes a different amount of time.

New records are easy if the stamper was de-horned and the record properly pressed and cleaned afterwards.

It’s those oldies but goodies that take a while to restore.

[narticus]

I see, i didn't realize you were translating the packaging as well.

Good to know about the auto de-clicker. Didn't know it had an affect on the music. I'll give the manual method a try next time.

Also, I'm not sure if I understand how to EQ in Audition. What method do you use?

[LFF]

Originally Posted by narticus

I see, i didn't realize you were translating the packaging as well.

Good to know about the auto de-clicker. Didn't know it had an affect on the music. I'll give the manual method a try next time.

Also, I'm not sure if I understand how to EQ in Audition. What method do you use?

Yeah - I try to make my reproductions as accurate as possible in the full sense of the work.

The auto-de-clicker in Audition is great. You just have to make sure you don't kill the highs and mids. Run the declicker and then listen to it. Then stop it, press ctrl+z and listen to it again. There should be NO DIFFERENCE in the sound except for the added clicks and pops. If you hear the tone change or higher frequencies, the declicker is set too high.

As for EQ - there are many options. I like to use a parametric equalizer with a natural slope. The EQ points depend on the music and the type of music I am fixing. I always try to get a natural, smooth warm sound. So I always EQ to get that sound from all recordings. I will focus on the either the main vocal and/or main instrument. I find that once you get that right, all the rest falls into place and only a little more tweaking is needed.

When using EQ try not to go overboard. If you feel you need -10db at 1500 cycles then do -5db. Estimate what you feel is right, then cut it in half. I find this translates well once you listen to it on other systems.

Also, when you EQ try to subtract instead of adding. If you boost a cycle, do it in small steps of 1/2 a db. Usually subtracting will yield better results as when you subtract a certain frequency, you will also lower the hiss and noise contained in that frequency. Most importantly, use your ears and have fun!