digitizing vinyl

[humanflyz]

Has anyone here ever done his own needle drops? And so, how are the results?

[The Expanding Man]

Limited experience. Results were quite passable.

I used an M-Audio 24/96 soundcard. My TT is a Thorens TD160S with an AT440ml. My phono stage was a Mu-Fi X-LPS.

The main hassle is, that after you do a recording in real time, you have to use something like Audacity to edit each side of the vinyl into tracks.

Some people even use Audacity to draw out the pops and clicks. I've heard people say that after they spend days doing this, they have heard the music that much that they have no desire to listen to the needle drop.

I did mine in 16bit 44khz resolution. Down the track, I'd like to try to use 24/96 burnt onto DVD. Not sure how to do this, I think I might need some video editing software.

I can't do anything at present until M-Audio release a vista 64 driver.

[Dusty Chalk]

One of Hirsch's turntable rigs -> Alesis Masterlink @ 24/96 -- I thought they were good.

[deepak]

I've done a few with my setup, using an E-MU0404usb as the ADC. The original vinyl sounded better.

[darkless]

Slight threadjack: My father has a B&O vinyl rig (probably just halfway decent, but I haven't listened to it). He would like to digitize his vinyl and wants to spend max $1000 on it. What should he buy? He doesn't have any fancy ADC stuff and neither do I. He has looked on some of those hideous vinyl "players" with USB out.

[hYdrociTy]

I think wadia has a simple ad convertor for these purposes. If your phono preamp has balanced out, the apogee minimee is great, and would probably serve other purposes too. Plus you can get the minime used much more readily. The lucid ad9624 is also a good converter. Record it in 24 bit 88.2khz with the apogee or lucid (I dont remember what the wadia adc did) then find a good program to dither down to 16 bit and convert sample rate to 44.1 using secret rabbit code in foobar.

[n_maher]

I don't there's such a thing as simple when it comes to digitizing vinyl. As mentioned previously the gear is less than half the battle (yo joe!), the time suck is going to be playing each record, converting the file to lossless (assuming it rips as a wav) and assuming that everything goes well on the first pass. I mean seriously, you're talking about 1x conversion rates and then having to post process from there. Ugh, I hate ripping CD's and that's usually done an 8 to 10x...

[justin]

I don't there's such a thing as simple when it comes to digitizing vinyl. As mentioned previously the gear is less than half the battle (yo joe!), the time suck is going to be playing each record, converting the file to lossless (assuming it rips as a wav) and assuming that everything goes well on the first pass. I mean seriously, you're talking about 1x conversion rates and then having to post process from there. Ugh, I hate ripping CD's and that's usually done an 8 to 10x...

Unless you're OCD you could just listen to the vinyl while converting it...or your phono pre-amp is so bad it can't drive a headphone amp/pre-amp & ADC at the same time

[n_maher]

Unless you're OCD <snip>

Not OCD, just lazy. For someone like me with a relatively small collection (30 or 40 LPs) it's pretty doable, for someone with a large collection that's a pretty large time investment.

[justin]

[aardvark baguette]

This is exactly what I've been gearing up to do w/ a buddy from Headfi. Chances are you've heard of him.

But I dont know if he wants his name revealed. He has so much stuff digitized. Ive heard samples and it kicks ass. Sure vinyl beats it, thats obvious, but for listening at work...

We are planning on tackling all of the Fantasy 100 45 RPM vinyl releases, as well as the upcoming Blue Note "Music Matters" 45s. All remastered from Steve Hoffman and Co.

Its a huge investment, but I need more jazz, and I will be getting some sort of high end turn table down the road when I move into a bigger space.

Needledrops of old dusty records are not worth it, but virgin vinyl is a whole 'nother story

[Dusty Chalk]

Needledrops of old dusty records are not worth it, but virgin vinyl is a whole 'nother story

You should try cleaning them first. I have a lot of vinyl from when I was a kid (and adolescent, and post-adolescent, and young adult) -- and I treated them absolutely terribly. I tried playing them on Hirsch's rather nice rig after cleaning, and you couldn't hear a spec of dust. I think the needle even found the portions of the record that I hadn't completely worn out.

[aardvark baguette]

In my case, I have no pre existing vinyl collection. Cleaning is supposed to work, but there are some expensive cleaning solutions/methods out there. I'd just assume buy new if its something like a preorder. I think he is actually going to clean these anyway, even though thery're new, but Im not sure. Im just sending him stuff, so I can afford to be uneducated on the matter

[milkpowder]

I have no idea how good this is, but I just saw this in a hifi magazine last month or so:

http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?prod=debutphusb&cat=turntables〈=en

[jp11801]

I have done a number of drops to the alesis masterlink that came out great. Yes it is a 1x process but I have things to do around the house while the LP is playing. Once you get the hang of splitting tracks on the alesis it is a snap.

Here is the crazy thing if you do your track splits well itunes will recognize your LP!!

I just sold the alesis and am going to try the new apogee unit that just came out

[grawk]

There's an apogee rosetta 24/96 on ebay right now for $599 buy it now...that'd be a steal for doing needledrops.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apogee-Rosetta-AD-24-bit-96k-Converter-Near-Mint_W0QQitemZ280186785072QQihZ018QQcategoryZ41784QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem