Anyone have advice on converting vinyl to digital?

[Jackass]

Recently met a woman that inherited an old 600+ vinyl collection. She wants to convert some of the albums to CD. I've been avoiding the allure of vinyl and don't have a clue.

Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[chessman]

Recently met a woman that inherited an old 600+ vinyl collection. She wants to convert some of the albums to CD. I've been avoiding the allure of vinyl and don't have a clue.

Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

We need a complete inventory of what you have. It may be a gold mine. :thumbsup:

[Jackass]

We need a complete inventory of what you have. It may be a gold mine. :thumbsup:

I have not seen it but suspect it is. Sounds like allot of pristine old jazz vinyl. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I'm a little dubious of her motives. I met her once while she was on a date with a friend/business partner of mine and she decided to look my # up in the book and call me for "advice" instead of asking my friend for the #.:no clue: Do I need more covert complications? Perhaps.
Of course I may just be the only audio geek she knows. Nah, I much prefer my first theory.:brows:

[Putz]

Not an authority on this but I know they make turntables with USB outputs that you can connect to a computer to convert the files to CD/MP3 formats.

Check out this link for more info. I just randomly selected it. No idea if this is a good product or not

http://www.jr.com/numark/pe/NUM_TTI/

[chessman]

Another potential solution (I have no personal experience with it) ...

http://www.dak.com/reviews/2020story.cfm?Ref=G&PM=LPCD&type=GSrch&Srh=digital_turntable&gclid=CKrWn7SnlZsCFcxM5QodOGIdpQ

[bunnyma357]

The process is relatively tedious, but can be worthwhile.

The easiest way is probably to get a USB TT like the Ion, Numark, or for better quality something like the Project Debut III USB.

http://www.jr.com/brand/ion/n/2254/

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/80649

A lot of people use Audacity as the program to digitize into and edit tracks, it's multi-platform and free. I'm on a Mac and have been using Sound Studio 3, and like it, but am considering a switch to Pure Vinyl and higher resolution captures.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=5012

http://www.channld.com/pure-vinyl.html

There is a lot of work breaking the album down into tracks and then tagging the files, but once you develop a workflow it picks up speed. I'd recommend capturing as high a resolution as you can, since it would be a real pain to redo them - at least CD quality or higher, rather than MP3's.


Jim C

[Jackass]

Thanks for the info guys.

[lngbruno]

I have been doing exactly what you plan on doing and it is time consuming if you want to do it right. My vinyl collection has many jazz albums that were never converted to cd and, with the direction of where the music industry is headed, will probably never be converted into a digital format.

In my situation, I set up a stand-alone system in spare BR so I can perform the conversions on bad weather days (snow or rain). The system consist of a TT > preamp > stand-alone consumer cd burn unit. I use headphones to monitor sound. Since it is all done in real time, you have to baby-sit the process, so make sure you have a comfortable chair. The key ingredients are 1. clean, very clean vinyl, 2. a very good TT setup, 3. patience.

I started this a little over a year ago and have done only 26 conversions. How do they sound? Absolutely wonderful! My vinyl friend likes how they sound over other commercially produced cds.

There are services around that charge a high price to perform the conversion, but it will be converted to how they want to perform it. This means if they rip to a computer and use software to correct tics and pops, you will lose some resolution. I sampled one and didn't care for the way it sounded. However, this was one sample and I'm sure there may be better software out there. I wanted to remain true to the sound coming off the vinyl, which includes an occasional tic and pop.

IMHO, unless there are several albums in the collection you want to have a copy of in your collection, don't do it. Remember, no good deed goes unpunished. You can fill in what the punishment may end up being. :nervous:

Lou