Anyone familiar with USB turntables and converting vinyl to MP3?

[auburngrad82]

I'm in the preliminary stages of shopping for a way to convert my vinyl albums to MP3 and I've seen several USB turntables that might work. Does anyone have any recommendations or alternatives? I have about 400 albums that have been gathering dust and would love to move them to my pc or Ipod.

[SoxFan]

1. Kicking, because I'd like to know as well

My limited edition, clear vinyl Sidewinders album isn't doing the world any good at the moment, folks!

[hvn_nbr_2]

9. Yeah, me too.

Awhile ago, there was an ad on DU for one of those and I thought about it.

Apparently you can rig up something yourself. I found a turntable pre-amp on turntablebasics.com that they said you need to set it up for yourself.

Downthread someone suggested hiring it out. I'm curious about that, quality, cost, etc.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I just got one of those things but haven't had time to hook it up yet.

I have about a brazilian old LPs that go back to the late '60s, and one of these days I'm going to convert them. I hope it works.

[jazzjunkysue]

3. You have to do it all in real time, you realize.

I hope you're unemployed. It will take you decades. Better to hire it all out, in my opinion.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. That's one of the reasons I haven't yet embarked on this project.

It will take awhile. And I will also have to figure out a way to keep the cats off the turntable.

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. Hiring it out

I wouldn't even know how to find such a service. Where would you go, what would you google, or whatever? Any ideas on cost, quality, etc. I'm guessing that since vinyl people tend toward the fanatical, you might get better quality than you would doing it yourself, but don't really know if that's true.

[jazzjunkysue]

23. Look for the digital video people :They do weddings, etc and will do audio

conversions.

[DarkTirade]

5. If you've got a turntable that's portable enough,

you might as well just record straight into your computer and do it all yourself. :) Most computers have at least a 1/8th inch in jack for microphones. I don't know if it can do stereo sound or if it's just mono though. I've got a fancy-schmancy soundcard so I don't use the regular one that's built into my computer.

[cemaphonic]

6. don't turntables need preamps though?

I'm mostly a CD-baby, but LPs were still around when I started buying music, so I may be misremembering. But I think that turntables needed preamps, so I don't think that plugging in directly to the mic input on a regular soundcard would get very good results.

[DarkTirade]

7. Yeah, as far as I know they need amps.

So include amp in the portability factor there.

The turntable my parents had was the exact same width and length as the amp they had, so it just sat on top of it and we treated it like one piece. So I didn't even think of it as being seperate. :P

[Pierre.Suave]

18. It is not that easy.

[DarkTirade]

24. It is with my computer...

but that's because mine's set up to do recording.

[Pierre.Suave]

26. So, not to be a jerk here...

but you plugged into the headphone jack and did some recording?

I can't imagine that sounded very good...

I have a piece of equipment here that plugs into the computer via firewire, that I plug whatever I want to record into it, whether it be a record player or a guitar. That piece of equipment then sends the info to Logic Pro where I can manipulate it and save it as an audio file of whatever sort I choose.



and yes, there is a special sort of amp that a record player needs (RIAA curves or some crazy ass thing)

[DarkTirade]

27. Which is why I said I wasn't sure how good the headphone jack is.

I've never used a plain headphone jack to record, I've always used my soundcard that has numerous inputs made for recording. If you're not willing to buy a recording quality soundcard like I did, then yeah, you can get external things like the one you have. Either way, it's worth price checking against the machines made for transferring records.

I don't know how much the external thing that you have cost, but just doing a quick cursory internet search I found one that's made for hooking up equipment like tape, record and CD to the computer.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gem-Sound-PLUSB-Phono-to-USB-Interface?sku=801626

Only a hundred bucks. Add a couple of 5 dollar cables and that's still less than the 150 bucks I've seen the cheapest USB players for. So if you already have a record player, why spend the extra fifty bucks?

And as far as just recording into the computer... I'm fairly certain you don't need any special amp. Just about any regular amp should do. Unless your record player or amp has built-in speakers and no output lines of any kind, there's no reason you can't find a way to record it. And it looks like the USB thing I linked to is its own pre-amp anyway.

[bbernardini]

8. This is just me, but I would archive them in a lossless format.

You can always convert them later to mp3 for use on your favorite portable player/laptop/etc., but if you're archiving something like vinyl, I wouldn't do it in a lossy format.

[hvn_nbr_2]

11. Lossless format?

There really isn't a lossless digital format, is there? Some formats, such as MP3 if I understand correctly (which is far from certain), are more lossy than others, but isn't the lossiness in CDs the reason why vinyl nuts are fanatical about vinyl?

[Pierre.Suave]

19. Yes there is

it is a .wav file, an uncompressed digital format. It is exactly what is on the CD.

an MP3 is a lossy format because it is compressed, and during the compression you lose some data.

Vinyl nuts are crazy about vinyl because it is an exact analog reproduction of the original audio waves, the CD is a digital representation.

[bbernardini]

22. Well, I'm talking about a compressed lossless file, specifically FLAC.

It's bigger than an mp3, smaller than a WAV file, but decompresses as the lossless WAV file. It's all the rage amongst online traders of rare recordings (see the Live Music Archive at www.archive.org for one example).

[leeroysphitz]

20. Absolutely. n/t

[kineneb]

12. just about to copy several songs

for Hubby's wake- Grateful Dead: Truckin' and Sugar Magnolia (1972 album)

I can't afford a new turntable, but if you have a good vintage stereo system with turntable, all you need is a cable with:
1/8" stereo in (goes to computer)and
2 RCA jacks (for amp) on other end
-found for minimal price at your local Radio Shack store (land of exotic cables)

I will be using Audacity on Linux, IBM T30 laptop. Wish me luck.

[kineneb]

25. update- worked fine

success! for the price of one simple cable!

[evlbstrd]

13. I have my amp/receiver and turntable

with a cable from the tape jacks on the amp connected to my laptop. Clean the records REALLLLLLL good. I've used CD Spin Doctor on Mac OS X, but it crashes a lot. It's really just a digital upgrade to taping your records. And yes there is a loss factor just in the conversion from the analog signal to the digital signal. Your original recording format should be something does little or no compression. That's what lossless means.

Edited to add that Apple offers a lossless import from CD to iTunes. AIFF is still a safe bet for the original recording format.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. There's an easier solution.

If you have a standard turntable hooked up into a stereo amp, simply jack the amp into your computer sound card's stereo input. There are converter jacks available almost anywhere- stereo outputs to mini-jack stereo input. You can then use one of many affordable audio editing programs to digitally record the signal, then you can burn the resulting .wav files back to audio cds. If you prefer to simply store the files on your hard drive simply convert them from uncompressed .wav format to .mp3. Easy peasy.

[triguy46]

15. This is the one I have:

It hooks up easily, though figuring out the software on this one, as well as most of the others, is a bother. It took about 10 minutes of trial and error and a quick read of the instructions, then all went well.

Then I found out my son has taken all my good records. Shit.


http://www.amazon.com/Sony-PSLX250H-Turntable/dp/B00005T3XH/ref=pd_bbs_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207967771&sr=8-7

[stuntcat]

16. Thanks to LynneSin

I didn't even know there was a way to change records to mp3's until she told about getting her player, then I HAD to have one, if only to get my very old Prince records onto my computer. I don't know what kind she got, but I got a Stanton T.90 USB turntable. I use a program we installed called Audacity to take what's playing and change it.

This might not be much help, I just follow the instructions my husband gave me to convert my records. I don't mean to sound like a dummy but I have problems remembering stuff.. I just know I'm crazy about my record player!

[Pierre.Suave]

17. I have all the equipment necessary for this project...

if you were in MN I would do it for you.

My first question would be whether you have a PC or a Mac?

I should also add that I have done this myself with my vinyl albums, and the sound quality was astounding, but I have some pretty high end equipment.

[johnnie]

21. I was going to get one

But I have a turntable and enough audio equipment in my studio so I just do it through there into my computer. You can download Audacity for free and then record your albums at 45 rpm to speed up the process and Audacity has an option to go from 45 to 33 1/3 and it converts it for you.