What is the best LP and tape to Hard Disk converter device and format

[admin_exported]

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[Petherick]

Do you already own any of the following: record deck, tape deck, computer?

 

[John Duncan]

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Possible Meanings:

Feed Freight Assistance Adjustment Fund

 

[Anonymous]

First of all sorry for accidently sending gobbledegook everyone.

Thanks for your reply Peterick. I own all of those. A techniks middle quality deck, sony cassette and i5 64bit PC. I am looking for something to play 78s as well.

 

[Anonymous]

You need a good Analogue to digital converter (ADC), look in professional brands such as MOTU, M-Audio, Apogee...I use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 (but a pro 14, or the usb version is enough for analogue transfers, if you don't mind being limited to 44.1/48KHz). Then you'll need softwares to clean your files, I use clickrepair (http://www.clickrepair.net/), it's fairly priced and I get good results from it (there are pro softwares such as Izotope...depends on your budget).

For 78rpm...well you need to buy another deck (like Rega P78, or Project debut 3 with 78 options).

I've read about a new product to clean vinyls too, but haven't tried it yet, it could save part of the cleaning process (http://recordrevirginizer.com/).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for replying. I have just purchased an M-Audio interface because I play instruments and plan to record my own music. That might work with a record player, but the inputs might not be able to take the small output from my record player. It has line and mic inputs but not record deck. Should I bring the output from the deck up to line level first with a stereo pre amp do you think? Would this add more noise though? Maybe use my Yamaha 1000 hi-fi pre-amp?

 

[Anonymous]

I also have a software question. Although I place to get Cubase soon it would be like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut if I applied to to recording LPs. The scratch reduction software mentioned sounds interesting, but what happens between the audio interface and the hard disk. What is the best recording software for LPs and will it recognise my audio interface. Is .wav the best recording format?

 

[Anonymous]

You probably could, but I don't know if your Yamaha has a phono input. Search for "RIAA curve" if you want to know more, but to keep it simple, amplifying a turntable signal is not just boosting the volume, you need a specific equalizer for it.

There are also digital equalizers for this, btw. So if your M-Audio input is sensitive enough to pick up the phono signal without adding too much noise, you can perform the equalization together with the general cleaning. There are various RIAA VST plugins, and Audacity can perform RIAA Equalization as well.

edit: regarding the software: according to good hifi tradition, if it ain't expensive, it can't possibly be good enough, right?

For serious recording I would suggest any recording software that understands ASIO, so Cubase qualifies. It also supports VSTs, so you could even do the equalization there. Don't worry about the file format, you're going to keep it in Cubase Project format anyway until you're done editing. Then you can choose any format you like: aiff, alac, flac, mp3...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that. I will try Cubase for this. Not used it yet so there will be another curve involved in addition to the RIAA. I also have Roxio 11 but that just seems so dodgy in use. I thought the days of flakey software were largely left behind when XP arrived but not old Roxi. The Yamaha pre-amp mentioned does have phono inputs as it takes all inputs and can use its own battery. But the output is optical to go into its partner power amp. How would I get optical into the M-Audio if I decided to use the Yamaha pre-amp?

If I feed stereo from a record into a mixer such as the one in Cubase, which position should the panning controls be adjusted to give a true reproduction of the original recording? Should they be set in the extreme right and left positions? If not how can you determine what is right?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that. I will try Cubase for this. Not used it yet so there will be another curve involved in addition to the RIAA. I also have Roxio 11 but that just seems so dodgy in use. I thought the days of flakey software were largely left behind when XP arrived but not old Roxi. The Yamaha pre-amp mentioned does have phono inputs as it takes all inputs and can use its own battery. But the output is optical to go into its partner power amp. How would I get optical into the M-Audio if I decided to use the Yamaha pre-amp?

If I feed stereo from a record into a mixer such as the one in Cubase, which position should the panning controls be adjusted to give a true reproduction of the original recording? Should they be set in the extreme right and left positions? If not how can you determine what is right?

 

[ultraminiature]

I have been converting several hundred LPs, singles and cassettes to a digital juke box using Terratec 6Fire USB. This is more flexible than the onboard audio input on the motherboard and has a lower background noise level. Some computers are very good and an old Pentium II with a Soundblaster Live! is equally good and I have used that for converting compact cassettes. The same card in two other PCs (one even with the same motherboard) where too noisy and the low background noise could be head in the recording when played back. External USB sound cards avoid this. The Terratec 6Fire USB has good ADC and DAC and will also accept MM phono input.

http://www.mcmullon.com/reports/importing_audio_video/importing.htm

I prefer to use my Meridian preamplifer and the tape output into the sound card and match the levels of the recording to avoid clipping tested by playing back as the pass through can sound perfect but the recording could still be clipping.

Cassettes may have material not available on LP or CD or elsewhere. I have a number of radio plays and live recordings which are still worth saving for the future. Never convert a tape copy from vinly if the original is available. Convert a CD in preference to analogue sources, although the CD may not be the same as the original LP (missing or extra tracks). All analogue conversions are in real time and so it may be more cost effective to buy and download a lossless version of the album but if time 'free' and costs are high you already bought the album and creating a digital version need not cost very much at all. Even top line equipment can be obtained second hand at then sold at little or no loss a month or so later when the work has been completed.

I use Audacity and Nero to save as wave and MP3 (320 or 192 for lower quality tape) and also then convert to AAC 128 for use on an MP3 player.