Recording my vinyl collection to MP3

[richy_rich]

Hi,

Anyone done this? - got a load of records I want to backup onto MP3 format.

Can this be done via stereo outs from your amplifier into your PC and what software do I need - I've got media player and musicmatch jukebox.

Let me know if you have done similar before.

If you are thinking 'what is a vinyl collection' then you are prolly too young to help me

Cheers,

Rich.

[Swamp Thing]

I think I've just seen a write-up in What-HiFi of a new turntable that has a USB port on it so you can record from vinyl. Stick in a pen-drive, transfer your files to your PC, then you're set up for MP3. I'll dig out the article tonight and let you know.

Swamp The Hifi Geek

[WindyAnna]

Someone recommended something to me that plus into your amp and stores tracks as MP3 - so in theory you retain the sound quality of your deck / amp if they are decent. I will dig out the info at home later and post if I can find it.

WA

[gingerjedi]

Search and download the same albums in MP3 format, you'll be surprised what you can find if you try hard enough.

[ferret]

Think this is the kiddie:
http://www.thedjshop.co.uk/products.asp?id=3063

It supports high speed recording too, plays the record faster than real time and then slows down the resulting audio file with some software to make it real time, saves sitting through each track.

Have seen reports of the digital converters not being up to audiophile standards but I could not tell you the difference between a 190 and 320kbps mp3 file so I would be happy to get one. I have other audio gear though so route my old deck through a mixer and into the PC and have recorded a few old tunes this way. If you have the vinyl you could save some time and try something like soulseek (http://www.slsknet.org/ site seems to be down at the moment) which is a music geek's dream for finding old vinyl that people have already ripped.

[Sysman]

I've done the same for audio cassettes. Because my Mac doesn't have an audio in socket, I got an iMic

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

and used Audacity (freeware) to do the editing.

I found that going direct to mp3 produced the odd gap in the music on my system, so I recorded direct to aiff, then from that to CD.

[interested]

I'm in the middle of doing this and actually wondering whether I can be arsed. I've got the USB turntable, but you have to use Audacity, run a couple of filters and then convert to MP3 using the LAME plugin. Then I'm importing to iTunes.

All in all a bit of a ball ache. I did 5 records on Saturday morning, about 500 to go.

[dotnetter]

USB Turtables are crap, best way to do it is get a decent Technics deck with some decents carts and needls, a decent soundcard and some audio editing software like audacity or cool edit. Record at 192k + preferably 320k

[Sysman]

I'm in the middle of doing this and actually wondering whether I can be arsed. I've got the USB turntable, but you have to use Audacity, run a couple of filters and then convert to MP3 using the LAME plugin. Then I'm importing to iTunes.

It's certainly time consuming. What I ended up doing was shoving a bunch through the first phase while doing something else like watching telly, and doing the editing bit later. I started out grabbing the lyrics for stuff I wanted in iTunes (I was coming from cassette, so few if any album cover lyrics), but I soon got fed up with that.

[Sysman]

USB Turtables are crap, best way to do it is get a decent Technics deck with some decents carts and needls, a decent soundcard and some audio editing software like audacity or cool edit. Record at 192k + preferably 320k

I suspected that about USB turntables. I certainly don't like the idea of putting my "carefully preserved over the years vinyl" through a player at double speed!