@elsifer: Did I say USP? I meant USB. Uh duh.

elsifer

@elsifer: Oh, and I also prefer to rip my LPs to uncompressed WAV files first, and then burn 'em onto CD's for archiving before doing the MP3 thing. But that's just me.

elsifer

Now here's a subject that's dear to my heart. I even went so far as to purchase a small preamp since my rig is in a tight space, and my huge old amplifier box was taking up too much space. Of course, one could just go and buy a USP turntable these days - but that takes all the fun out of it. Besides, my old Technics turntable probably does a way better job.

elsifer

The wiki mentions the Windows Volume Mixer to set the recording level. While setting the level, I'd also mute all other audio sources, such as the microphone and optical drive.

Also, I wouldn't trust a regular PC sound card for high-fidelity audio. I'd consider a dedicated external recording device, such as the ART USBPhonoPlus [artproaudio.com].

RobDLG

This subject is definitely up my alley. The USB turntables come off as cheap to me. I feel better about routing my turntable through an amp and into the computer. Regarding the USB turntables, do I have to go with the cartridge & needle that they sell it with or can I swap in my own? I'm concerned about a low-quality transfer. If anyone can recommend a good USB turntable product, then do tell.

cheesebubble

"though recording repairing at CD-quality levels before exporting to a lossy format like MP3 will generally result in favorable results."

Not sure what he meant to say there. Probably a reference to recording in a full-fidelity format, such as flac and then exporting to a lossy format, such as mp3.

I was hoping he would talk a little more about that, and at least make a clear statement about it. But he saved it for last and muddled his words.

penguiniator

This is something I have lots of experience doing. This article was poorly written by someone without much expertise in sound engineering. So here's the deal:

You need a good regular (not DJ) cartridge (I recommend Grado), a decent preamp - it doesn't have to cost more than $50, and a decent *external* A/D converter (preferably a USB or FireWire device), and you need to record directly in a lossless format like Wave, then convert to mp3/wma/ogg or whatever. Since vinyl has lots of surface noise, the lower the bitrate, the worse it will sound. You never want to go directly to mp3 or use a USB turntable. You will get a thin, noisy result.

OnipSemaj

@OnipSemaj:
Could you give us a specific example of what you consider a decent USB A/D converter?

Nikkon

Isn't "Record Albums" redundant? Or at the very least, "albums" is extraneous...

Dignan17

@Nikkon: Seconded on the external sound card. I did this for a film company a few years back using my internal sound card to record the music, and there was so much noise from the computer mixed in with the recording.

tommertron

I've done this too - he means record to WAV, then process in other ways.

I used a RCA turntable from Radio Shack with built-in pre-amp ($99 at the time), my computer's line-in, and Roxio's software (because I already had it) with results that were OK for me.

I found it easier to record the entire side of one album as a giant WAV file, then use Roxio's Sound Editor to split it into tracks because it detects silences between tracks and you can adjust track markers if it guesses wrong. During that same process, clean up pops and clicks, etcetera. It's way easier than trying to position the needle for each track.

I _was_ retaining all of the WAV files to reprocess to something later (if my player supported different formats) but a hard drive crash caused me to lose some. I recommend making a backup of them, perhaps on external media; OR you can burn audio CDs as backups.

TimHare

@elsifer: Thank you thank you THANK YOU for saying this.

I have my turntables connected to my mixer, and the booth out from my mixer into the line-in on my PC. That way I can easily record my mixes when I'm in the mood, or if I just want a way to make my vinyl portable and listen to it on the go, I can slap a record on, drop the needle, press record on my good friend Audacity ([audacity.sourceforge.net]) and walk away.

You could run out and buy a USB turntable and connect it directly to your PC, but if you already have a record player, you likely already have the needed components to do it all yourself!

phoenix

@Dignan17:
I don't understand. "Albums" is not extraneous or redundant. "Record" is simply describing the type of album it is, i.e., a vinyl record.

OnipSemaj

@TimHare:
I record entire sides at a time as well, then I split the tracks using a good sound editor like Goldwave. However, it has been my experience that you should not try to clean up pops and clicks or use noise reduction - it really reduces your overall sound quality. The *best* way to reduce surface noise and pops is to clean the record really well and use a good turntable/cartridge combination. The right turntable with a good platter makes all the difference.

OnipSemaj

@Nikkon:

There are quite a few units ranging from $35 to about $500 and up. I use a $35 Berhinger UCA202 (take a look online at musiciansfriend). For the price, it has excellent sound and is completely isolated from your motherboard.

OnipSemaj

I was going to just digitize my favorite LP's that haven't been reissued as CD's, but I seem to feel some sort of compulsion to do the whole bunch, like I might be losing something otherwise. If I had any sense I would just throw out all the old scratchy junk. Why can't I bring myself to do that?

Partial to Audiograbber myself. [www.audiograbber.com-us.net] using line-in sampling under File menu. Tried doing a few at a time, but that gets to be a pain as you have to reset volume on the stereo and computer and remember to mute other devices, so I dedicated one of my laptops to the task and try to do at least a couple a day.

Capone

I have a terabyte of music files, over 6000 CDs. Not exactly a luddite.

As for the room full of LPs I just listen to them as LPs on a turntable. Most orchestral music just sounds better than the digital versions.

If you want to heap the scorn of non-hipness to LPs so be it. You won't change my mind.

rockhopper