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Help please: what's the easiest way to copy from vinyl to cd?

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:48 / 13.03.04

that basically. and i *know* i'll lose sound quality blahblah but basically am looking after a friends' records and there are at least 50 I *must* have.

the tricky bit is i haven't got a minidisc player, i have turntable/amp/pc-cd-writer. So, i'm thinking i'm going to need some connecty gubbins.

suggestions?

15:21 / 13.03.04

What I do is run the turntable through an analogue input (like a mixer) into the computer, then record it in a sound editing program where you can seperate the songs, output them as an AIFF or what-have-ye, then burn a CD (using Roxio Toast or whatever you prefer).

Thing is, I use ProTools to record, which is a pretty heavy load of ware (of both the hard- and soft- variety). Unless you're really into sound recording this probably isn't an option. If your PC has a mic input, then you can probably use adapters (RCA L/R to stereo mini[?]) to plug the turntable in. I'm really not familiar with consumer sound recording software (any suggestions people?).

Hope this helped... Remember, there's always some sort of audiophile or A/V geek at most electronics stores (sans RadioShack) who can hook you up right if you're not sure about the connections, etc.

Oh yeah, you may get a buzz or hum from connecting the turntable to the PC. If so, you need to ground the turntable by attaching a wire (copper/gold/telepathic thought-string) from a metal element on the 'table to some other metal object (other than the computer...).

15:29 / 13.03.04

have you tried bearshare to see if they are downloadable...by far the easiest option

15:45 / 13.03.04

Take the tape out from the amplifier, as it's a preamped source. Feed it into your computer; phono to 3.5mm stereo jack is your friend. Then, find some sound recording software. Audacity is pretty good and free. Play the record, hit record on the PC. This doesn't take into account noise reduction stuff but it's pretty simple. Finally, encode the wav file to mp3.

Does this help? If you need to yell "explain that, go slower!", do, but that's the basics.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

00:52 / 14.03.04

I'll second Audacity. It's the best easy to use / free app for recording audio. Pro Tools Free has a steeper learning curve, but might also do the trick. If you want to get really trainspottery about the sound quality of the analog to digital conversion, ask around and see if you can borrow an audio interface from someone.

18:46 / 14.03.04

And if you're able to get decent quality, let me know exactly what you did.

I've done this a few times and what I got was unlistenable even for me, and I am very comfortable with low fidelity, to say the least. I won't find any of this stuff via p2p sources, it's all old classical in not-great condition that I want to archive. They're my own records so I'm not rushed. I will check out Audacity, thanks for that suggestion.

18:47 / 14.03.04

What I do is run the turntable through an analogue input (like a mixer) into the computer, then record it in a sound editing program where you can seperate the songs, output them as an AIFF or what-have-ye, then burn a CD (using Roxio Toast or whatever you prefer).

This is basically what I did a while ago I think, and the quality was shit. I don't know what an 'AIFF' is though, so maybe that's where I went wrong...?

Now if I've got something on vinyl I desperately need on CD, I generally try to download it instead.

04:42 / 15.03.04

An AIFF is just a higher quality audio file (like WAV files), but it takes up about 10 times the space of an mp3. Shit (or semi-shit) quality, well I don't wanna say it should be expected, because that's just nihilistic, but I've never gotten great quality recordings from dubbing records. I guess you have to see all the hiss and popping as an aesthetic to really enjoy it. OR, you could just say that to people, then when you're alone, quietly weep and punch yourself in the genitals for being such a fool.

Or not. I'm just spittin' out suggestions here.

Also remember (very important!!): When you're recording into whatever program yer using, keep an eye on the level meters (graphical scales, usually colored green/yellow/red with dB markers along the side). You want to keep the average level at about -12dB, or the green/yellow zone. Whatever you do, don't let the audio peak into the red too much, as this will create digital distortion, which is similar to the sound of the gates of Hell being opened from your beloved desktop.

08:17 / 15.03.04

Um, you actually want to keep the level as high as possible without hitting 0. Because when you've recorded, you'll want to normalise, and the further you normalise, the louder background noise sounds.

Anything ABOVE 0db is clipping (digital distortion). The red usually begins around -3db, to give you fair warning. I'd go for peaking -6 to -3, tbh. The easiest way to check this is to set the levels at the loudest point in the music and then leave them like that for the whole thing. And you should be fine.

Oh yeah, I forgot: once you've recorded the audio, normalise it to 0db. Left that out of my instructions.

Goodness Gracious Meme

11:19 / 15.03.04

thank you all. alot of the music's unlikely to be downloadable, loads of great old jazz/african music.hmm. will have a fiddle about and see how lousy the quality is.

fred: will assuredly report back.

15:46 / 15.03.04

Here's a guy who's providing quite a bit of information if you want a bit more hand-holding:

http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm

15:54 / 15.03.04

Oh, and Paleface, on the topic of volume: do you have any suggestions for how to handle classical music albums, which range from very low volume single instrument playing to loud, full orchestra playing and cymbal crashes in the same track?