Need help converting Vinyl to digital

[TheHulk]

I have quite a few albums (100-200) that I would like to make decent copies of so I can listen to them on my ipod. Does anyone know of a link / article / source for the best way to do this without spending a fortune. I have seen the USB turntables and I have an old Bang and Olufsen RX2 but I don't think the cartridge is any good. Should I get a replacement cartridge and use the RX2 with my old amp or buy something else? I don't need perfection here but I would like the results to be worth listening to on my ipod and I really don't want this to be complicated because if it is I probably won't do it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[TimJo]

If you own a Mac, I'd recommend getting an Apogee Duet. It is both a DAC and an ADC. The only problem is it is Mac only, and I'm not sure how you define "a fortune" - it is $495.

Regardless of what you use, the most time consuming part is breaking the recorded album side into individual tracks, and then adding the artist/name/info data so they are usable in iTunes.

Good luck. (BTW, it is worth the effort if you have the time to devote to it.)

 

[Artemio]

i say go for a new cartridge for the process, and if possible get a stereo capture card, they usually have better DAC/ADC stages, and are not as expensive (less than 100 USD for an M-Audio i believe).

You can of course use a standard sound blaster, but the results are not as good. They are not bad either, and since you are not striving for perfection I believe it won't be an issue.

What I do recommend though, is that you buy ClickRepair. It is an excellent piece of software for removing pops and clicks from surface noise:

ClickRepair – declick and decrackle your audio | Audio Restoration | Brian Davies

You can read on the methods used in detail from the page. regarding capture software, I use Audacity, which is free and great for the task.

 

[Uncle Erik]

You should fix up your B&O and get it playing again. The Needledoctor should have the correct cartridge for it, as well. Give it a cleaning and a new belt if it needs it, too.

For recording, try WireTap from Ambrosia Software if you have a Mac.

Also, have you considered just listening to vinyl? I planned to do a lot of needledrops when I got into vinyl, and I've done a few, but get the most pleasure from just spinning vinyl. I know that's not practical for portable use, but give it a try at home instead of digital.

 

[TheHulk]

I have a PC (Not Mac) and I have no problem listening to Vinyl it's just not practical when I'm commuting on the bus.

 

[breakfastchef]

Here is what I did. I picked up a Sony turntable on sale at a local Best Buy. I bought a phono stage preamp (MN TC-750) for $55 from Phonopreamps.com Home Page. The TT plugged into the preamp and the preamp outputs ran to the mini stereo plug input of the built in sound card on my PC. I used the application Spin It Again (Acoustica - Easy to use Audio and Music Recording software. Mix, Edit, Record, Burn, Convert, Label and create!) for around $30. Spin It Again is pretty slick, super easy to use and can save files in MP3, OGG, WMA, and WAV formats. After converting around 200 LPs, I sold them all on eBay, though I kept my Jazz LPs.

 

[mshan]

You could start by just downloading the freeware program Audacity, then hook up your current turntable to your current sound card and see what you think.

I got the Audio Technica PL-50, connected it to the integrated sound of an eMachines T6528, and results were surprisingly listenable.

That AT PL-50 is surprisingly musical given it's low cost and plastic construction, but upgrading the analog to digital conversion to something better than integrated adc would probably improve results markedly.

And like others said, the most laborsome part is going to be separating a full lp side into separate tracks and then tagging them.

 

[Gyck]

You should certainly try to get your turntable working and buy a phono preamp. It can't cost any more than buying a new usb turntable, and it's way more fun!

 

[utep10]

Ditto on the replacing of the cartridge and also the use of Click Repair.

For phono stages, don't forget to consider an older used preamp/receiver. I'm using an Adcom preamp/phono that has a discrete phono stage and can be had for <$100.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Redo]

I'm in the process of doing this as well. This is how I'm doing it.

First, the gear I'm using. I bought an ESI Juli@ sound card and TC-760 phono preamp from phonopreamps.com. I'm using a Denon LP player from the early 80's (DP-30L) with a newer Grado cartridge.

I use KRISTAL software to record the album sides, all done with ASIO support at 24/96 (though it stores it as 32-bit for the time being). I then export the file to 32-bit/96khz .wav and open the file up in Audacity. I get rid of the needle drop sound at the start, normalize to -.3db, fade in/out at the start end or whatever I need to do. Then I follow this guide to split up the tracks:

Splitting recordings into separate tracks - Audacity Wiki


I then resample to 44100, and export to FLAC.


It takes some time, but I figure If I'm going to spend the time doing this in the first place, I'll do it proper. I leave all the pops and clicks in, if it's there then ohh well, it's part of the fun with Vinyl!

Once you have it all split up into FLAC files, getting the file to mp3 is very easy. I do recommend you store the Vinyl files in a lossless format though, at least as a testament to all the time you'll spend archiving your LP's into the digital realm.

 

[CyberTheo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, have you considered just listening to vinyl? I planned to do a lot of needledrops when I got into vinyl, and I've done a few, but get the most pleasure from just spinning vinyl. I know that's not practical for portable use, but give it a try at home instead of digital.

I totally agree that there is no substitute for listening directly to vinyl. I'd made digital copies of many albums in my vinyl collection but I've always listened to the original LP when I'm at home. The difference between the original and the copy is apparent in my system. Good enough for background music and playing through my car deck.

I've used Soundblaster USB sound card for digitization. The recording interface of the included software is very good; it allows me to break up the tracks on the fly without post processing, then I just edit in the track titles and burn to CD. Quality is quite acceptable using the Soundblaster. I've switched to M-Audio Audiophile sound card recently. The software that comes with it is very fat and runs slow, so I've been using Audacity to record instead. The recording quality is a bit better than the Soundblaster, but breaking up the track afterwards takes some effort.

 

[CyberTheo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use KRISTAL software to record the album sides, all done with ASIO support at 24/96 (though it stores it as 32-bit for the time being). I then export the file to 32-bit/96khz .wav and open the file up in Audacity. I get rid of the needle drop sound at the start, normalize to -.3db, fade in/out at the start end or whatever I need to do.

I've been using Audacity to record as well as track splitting. What is the advantage of using Kristal for recording?

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberTheo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been using Audacity to record as well as track splitting. What is the advantage of using Kristal for recording?

Hmm... maybe not much in this type of task but, ... in some cases, you'll get better levels and/or clearer recording path by using native ASIO (which isn't supported by Audacity). Even WDM/KS (Kernel Streaming) (incl. Asio4All etc. wrappers) is a bit better driver mode for recording than what MME/DS are (which ones Audacity supports (IIRC)) ...


jiitee

 

[CyberTheo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jiiteepee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm... maybe not much in this type of task but, ... in some cases, you'll get better levels and/or clearer recording path by using native ASIO (which isn't supported by Audacity). Even WDM/KS (Kernel Streaming) (incl. Asio4All etc. wrappers) is a bit better driver mode for recording than what MME/DS are (which ones Audacity supports (IIRC)) ... jiitee

Thanks. I couldn't get ASIO4ALL to work with Audacity and the M-Audio driver. Though the recordings sound OK with MME driver, I'll give Kristal a try.

 

[bigshot]

The best advice you'll ever get about transferring vinyl is ALWAYS back up your raw transfer at full CD quality with no noise reduction. That way, you can always go back and use new and better noise reduction software at a later date when it becomes available to you.

See ya
Steve