Computer and vinyl to digital, info, please

[admin_exported]

Hello, I am completely new here, so please bear with me.

I have always been a vinyl fan, but since moving into a static caravan I find that my renewed interest in hi-fi will not be satisfied by vinyl as the structure is too flexible and even a small dog walking across the floor would have the stylus skipping merrily all over the record. So...I first need to get all my old vinyl put on computer at my son's house, where all the albums reside, using a Rega Planar 2 or 3 which I am twisting his arm to buy! We already have an A&R A60 integrated amp. Then, when all is on the PC, I need to know how to play them all through a similar amp and some decent speakers in the mobile home, so I can get somewhere near the incredible sound I once enjoyed in the days when I had all that stuff set up on concrete and brick.

Would anyone who is into digital stuff be able to tell me what I need? I don't want any portability at all, just to be able to play my old vinyl without mechanical transport systems.

And please, nothing too expensive.

Cheers,

RJF

 

[audioaffair]

Welcome to the forum. Am I correct in saying that after transferring your vinyl to computer you wish to play them in your mobile home on a PC through your amp and speakers you already have? In which case, all you need it a turntable set-up capable of playing the vinyl into your computer. If you are flexible on the Rega Planar, Pro-Ject make the Debut USB which plugs directly into your PC to transfer vinyl to your PC via a USB cable (the universal PC connection your machine should have if made within the last 10 years). If you want a different turntable, all you need is a phono stage inbetween such as the Pro-Ject Phono Box USB (which isn't too expensive) that connects between your turntable and PC. You then just need recording software - there are plenty of free options on the web if you search for "free sound recorder"

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for the reply.

I need to persuade my son to do the recording as he is in bricks and mortar and has all my (and a lot of his own) vinyl 12 miles away.

I'd kind of prefer he gets a Rega as it was my old system and I am a terrible tub-thumper...I like to keep it British.

Then, somehow, we have to get what he records on to my PC. I don't really want to get into CD writing and transfer this end. I suppose that's not possible to do, is it? I did say I was new to all this digital stuff! Could he e-mail the recordings to me?

It's just that I have so much great vinyl and really miss it, but there's no way I could play a Dansette in the mobile home, never mind a Rega!!

Also, I read that you need a sound card and I don't even know what that is, also that the file sizes are massive. Is that true?

Thanks,

RJF BTW, the F stands for Field, like your signature!

 

[The_Lhc]

RJF:
Many thanks for the reply.

I need to persuade my son to do the recording as he is in bricks and mortar and has all my (and a lot of his own) vinyl 12 miles away.

RJF, I will say up front if your son isn't interested in doing it then it won't get done, it's not difficult to do but it does require some commitment in terms of time as, obviously, you have to play the LPs in real time. I've actually given up doing mine but that's largely because the software I was using was a bit of a pain, couldn't cope with gapless records and so forth, I should try something else really.

I'd kind of prefer he gets a Rega as it was my old system and I am a terrible tub-thumper...I like to keep it British.

If you're talking about the turntable then just letting him have yours for the duration would be the easiest option, then do as previously suggested get the Pro-ject Phono Box USB, I paid about 75 quid for mine (they might be cheaper now) and it's simplicity itself to set up.

You'll then need some recording software, there's plenty out there but Audacity is a good one and is free, this will allow you to record the side in one hit and then split the individual tracks off afterwards. Then you'll need to tag each track individually, with the artist name, album, track name etc etc.

Then, somehow, we have to get what he records on to my PC. I don't really want to get into CD writing and transfer this end. I suppose that's not possible to do, is it?

The easiest thing to do would be to buy a cheap USB hard drive, stick on your son's PC copy all the files onto that and then take the drive to your PC and copy them off again, easy.

Could he e-mail the recordings to me?

No.

Also, I read that you need a sound card and I don't even know what that is,

Does your PC make noises beyond basic beeping? If so you have a sound card (presuming you have some speakers plugged into the PC). It's almost inconceivable that you don't have one to be honest.

also that the file sizes are massive. Is that true?

Can be, it depends on the format you record them in (and your definition of massive as well I suppose), given that you presumably want to keep the best sound quality you can, you probably want to record losslessly using FLAC or some such, this will result in bigger file sizes, typically around 30-40MB per track, depending on the complexity of the music.

 

[the record spot]

Hi RJF, for a relatively inexpensive solution, pick up an external HDD - Amazon is a good place for this: I bought a 1TB Western Digital Hard Drive for a little over £50 delivered. If your internal hard drive is of a decent size (500Gb or better) you can stick with that for now until you feel more adept with the process.

As for a suitable ADC-DAC converter, check out the Roland Cakewalk UA-25EX. This is a USB device, which means it'll run off your PC, will take the analogue signal from your LP, convert it to digital and it'll go on your computer. Thereafter, you can use it as a DAC before sending the files to your hifi. You might need an adapter cable for the input, but Maplins should supply these for you I think and at low cost. It comes with a bunch of software, but there's also some good free applications which are recommended as well. The Roland gizmo comes in from around £150 but shop around as prices vary up to £170-odd. Here's a shot of the rear panel below for info:-

 

[The_Lhc]

the record spot:As for a suitable ADC-DAC converter, check out the Roland Cakewalk UA-25EX. This is a USB device, which means it'll run off your PC, will take the analogue signal from your LP, convert it to digital and it'll go on your computer. Thereafter, you can use it as a DAC before sending the files to your hifi. You might need an adapter cable for the input, but Maplins should supply these for you I think and at low cost. It comes with a bunch of software, but there's also some good free applications which are recommended as well. The Roland gizmo comes in from around £150 but shop around as prices vary up to £170-odd. Here's a shot of the rear panel below for info:-

Are those RCAs inputs or outputs? Looks a bit complicated! Mind you if it can sample at 24/96 then that's useful, although the file sizes will be even bigger obviously...

 

[the record spot]

Yes, it looks a bit fussy, but the back panel on the bottom's for the outputs I think, the front panel has the inputs, so a different cable, but adapters should sort that out. The functionality's terrific for the price, variable sample rates, a compression/limiter that you can bypass, various output options, 24/96 capability...£150 and it runs off your PC or Mac. Neat little package.

 

[The_Lhc]

Yes looks like it, might be a bit much for what the OP wants to do perhaps? Guess it depends how techy his son is.

 

[the record spot]

Could be, and there's others out there for sure. Certainly for the money, it's worth a look - IU mean, £200 gets the external HDD, this and you're away (assuming the cable adapter's not a problem). High quality music solution for digitising LPs and probably a fair bit more. You've probably gathered I'm a tad amazed at how inexpensive it can be to achieve that these days!

 

[Anonymous]

Gentlemen, what a marvellous set of replies. Thank you all.

the lhc...You must have a son like mine! A very perceptive reply indeed and one I had shoved to the back of my mind, but when I consider what a hopeless organiser of time he is, I admit yours is the most significant point. He's a great lad and does help us out with stuff, but getting him to do anything in his own house is less than successful unless "the old man's " there kicking his butt! He lays our carpet, I plane his doors and hang them. He wires my old car (beautifully!), I do his old car's bodywork, but asking him to play all my vinyl, realistically, ain't gonna happen unless I can mix some of his considerable collection in with it, for his sake.

The suggestion of using an external hard drive was one I should have thought of myself. Many thanks, that is the obvious path, for sure.

My PC has 32 Gb in it, but get anywhere near that and it slows appreciably, so an external HD makes a pile of sense.

With all your excellent suggestions, I think it's time to run the idea past him. Alas, I think the time problem is going to be the killer!

Once again, thanks very much for your emminently sensible and helpful replies.

Something tells me that an investmesnt in a decent CD player is what I'll end up with as I do have a lot of CDs here and the bouncy castle I live in shouldn't affect a CD player so badly. Just won't get that lovely sound I used to enjoy.

Cheers,

RJF

 

[the record spot]

RJF:Just won't get that lovely sound I used to enjoy...

Ah, don't be too sure about that - I've a decent vinyl collection and grew up with it, but find the right recordings and you're in for a treat. If you're keen, *** over to the Steve Hoffman site, register on their forum and use the excellent search function. You'll probably find a thread for your favourite artists and which are the recommended masterings for CD releases. One of the best music resources on the internet and while they get a bit carried away with some obscure and hard to find (in the UK) Japanese releases, it's invaluable for all that.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds useful, thanks.

The cost of a decent CD player rather puts me off, but since you can now get almost everything off internet sites, I was wondering if it would make more sense for me to try to make the pootah sound better itself by playing it through speakers like my old but great Mission 700s. Is that possible?

When I worked in Germany a few years ago, a friend bought a little box and a sub-woofer from Konrad department store in Munich for just under £100 (300DM). It sat on the floor under his PC and made the most amazing sound I'd heard since my hi-fi set-up! Neither of us could believe the performance. Now something like that would be great. He was playing his CDs on his computer at the time. I would be well satisfied by that. Is there a modern equivalent of whatever this amazing wee box was doing?

Thanks again,

RJF

 

[The_Lhc]

RJF:
Gentlemen, what a marvellous set of replies. Thank you all.

the lhc...You must have a son like mine!

I don't have any children but I rather suspect I AM a son like yours!

A very perceptive reply indeed and one I had shoved to the back of my mind, but when I consider what a hopeless organiser of time he is, I admit yours is the most significant point. He's a great lad and does help us out with stuff, but getting him to do anything in his own house is less than successful unless "the old man's " there kicking his butt! He lays our carpet, I plane his doors and hang them. He wires my old car (beautifully!), I do his old car's bodywork,

You sound like a couple of blokes I could use to get some of my old cars going!

but asking him to play all my vinyl, realistically, ain't gonna happen unless I can mix some of his considerable collection in with it, for his sake.

The suggestion of using an external hard drive was one I should have thought of myself. Many thanks, that is the obvious path, for sure.

My PC has 32 Gb in it, but get anywhere near that and it slows appreciably, so an external HD makes a pile of sense.

With all your excellent suggestions, I think it's time to run the idea past him. Alas, I think the time problem is going to be the killer!

It's just a bit more of a faff ripping vinyl, compared to CDs, you can do a CD in a couple of minutes and it'll all be automatically tagged and ready to play, but with vinyl it's all manual input, so it will need an awful lot of time put aside to it.

Once again, thanks very much for your emminently sensible and helpful replies.

Something tells me that an investmesnt in a decent CD player is what I'll end up with as I do have a lot of CDs here and the bouncy castle I live in shouldn't affect a CD player so badly. Just won't get that lovely sound I used to enjoy.

Cheers,

RJF

You could get necessary gear, the dohickey I mentioned isn't expensive and just do a few now and again, I don't know how many LPs you've got but you'd get there eventually.

 

[staggerlee]

Another cheap option is just to register with Spotify, pay £10 a month and you can access all the music you ever want. No need to worry about hard drives, ripping etc

You can add a dac to improve the sound quality

 

[audioaffair]

RJF - based on what you're looking to achieve, have you considered a simpler one box solution like the Teac LPR500? This allows you to easily copy vinyl (and cassettes) to CD through one simple unit and then play these on a separate CD system.

 

[method man]

I wonder chaps, what is the legality of downloading a digital version of music that you already own?

Using bittorrent for example.

I believe its still legal to copy your own music as a backup and for personal use. I have to be honest

I have in the past downloaded albums that I only own on vinyl rather than try to digitize them myself. Also

Ive sometimes downloaded some of my wifes pop rubbish rather than rip her CD's

for our hardrive/squeezebox system.

 

[Anonymous]

What is the TEAC thing? I wonder if using a cheap record player to USB isn't the best way to lose all the quality. That's why I wanted to get or convince my son to get a decent turntable, so we can make a good fist of recording the vinyl.

But as the lhc says, it's a monster time commitment. And I can't even get over there to try as my old car has its nose in the air with no engine and in this weather, I rarely venture out. I think it's the cabin fever that has relaunched the hi-fi thinking. I just didn't realise how LITTLE I know of modern developments. You don't have to be away from an interest for long to appear ignorant of so much.

I used to build show/concept cars for the Germans and my son used to restore classic racing cars,so between us we can do most things, but I'm metaphorically all fingers and thumbs when it comes to modern Hi-fi.

My wife bought me a pair of dirt cheap headphones a while back and shoved them on me last night. I could not believe the quality of the music I was listening to on Youtube. If two pound headphones sound that good, what must all this other trickery make it sound like!?

Having seen Isaac Guillory live twice, I can say that it would be difficult to improve on what I heard through those 'phones.

Doesn't get round the problem (time, mainly) of recording all the vinyl, of course, but if I could get some better speakers on the PC, I could just play my CDs through that or wear the 'phones when the Mrs. wants to watch telly.

Thanks again for all the excellent suggestions and references. I will spend some time looking them all up.

Cheers and a Merry Christmas to all. I hope you all get techy goodies under the tree!

RJF

 

[iMark]

I think there is a much cheaper option: the Griffin iMic.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic

It was mainly designed for Macs and I have digitized quite a few LP's and old cassettes with it. If you don't have an amplifier with a phono stage it even comes with RIAA correction.

I don't think it will work with Windows Vista or Windows 7 but it will work with XP and any Mac OS from 10.4 to 10.6.

 

[The_Lhc]

RJF:I used to build show/concept cars for the Germans and my son used to restore classic racing cars,so between us we can do most things,

Ever worked on a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus?