Saving LP's to CD's

[CDC]

I want to record a bunch of my old LP's to CD's. I'm not sure how to save the music on my PC so I can burn it. If some one is familiar with this, please let me know what software I may need and how I get my PC to save the LP music. I have been wanting to do this for a while. Now that winter is here, I think its a good time to try it. Thanks a lot.

CDC

 

[DavidL]

I am thinking that this is as simple as taking your phono output and plugging it into a sound card audio input. There may be signal level differences and there are "Phono preamps" to deal with that that would go between the phono ouputs and the sound card inputs. I would try it direct first and see if you can get enough input signal to get good signal to noise ratio (no noise on quiet passages) without saturation (too loud that the recording is distorted). Record to your hard drive, and then burn that to a CD.

You get to reenjoy your oldies but goodies as this is a "real time" process (no speeding it up).

 

[WayneW]

I am thinking that this is as simple as taking your phono output and plugging it into a sound card audio input. There may be signal level differences and there are "Phono preamps" to deal with that that would go between the phono ouputs and the sound card inputs.

IIRC, you definitely want a pre-amp in there as a phono preamp does some heavy equalization. There is also some software that will help remove the clicks & pops.

 

[CDC]

Thanks DavidL, I was thinking I would use "line out" on my rcvr to input my sound card. Won't that work? Will the pc recognize the input? Like when a disk is inserted in a drive? I'm just unsure. I hate to sound "ign'ernt" but some things just can't be helped. Thanks.

CDC

 

[jwilson56]

Ok... my 2 cents.... unless you can't get the recording in a CD format.. then you can try recording your CD and burning it. However no matter how good you do that it will never compair to a CD that has been remastered. I would not waste my time if you can get the recording on a CD. I have seen some done with all the best software/hardware you can think of and it pailed in comparison to a CD. So I am speaking from experience. If you have a large collection of LP's then joing BMG or some other club... I know I had to rebuy hundreds of records.... (I have over 800 CD's).

If your talking rare LP recordings then I would suggest looking for a software package that is designed to take out pops, ticks and hiss from the recordings.

Sorry to burst your bubble....

John

 

[jay]

There are turntables with USB. Google 'USB turntable'.

 

[mustangcoupe]

there is software out there that is designed to help with the pop and hiss.. I haven't used it but my neighbor got it for Christmas (i dont think he has used it yet either...)

 

[jay]

Try a free trial. I use this app.
http://goldwave.com/

 

[CDC]

Thanks for all the help. CDC

 

[JeffCharger]

I've used Cool Edit Pro to do some conversion of reel-to-reel and LPs to CD. It does a good job, but too painful - since you have to listen to each song, and adjust it individually so that you can "skip" thru songs as we've become accustomed to with CDs.

The s/w has so many options that it took quite a while to sort out the few features that were useful to me. Nice software, but a bit complex for the work I wanted to do.

I have also seen the USB turntables for < $200. I wondered if they are any easier. I believe that they come with software, but haven't really jumped into any depth in investigating.

What I want is one to automatically identify the gaps between songs and put the markings to enable track skipping.

Does anyone have experience with these? Are they any good?

 

[rocco]

I need to do this also, so I talked to a friend of mine who has been ripping a large collection of classic 78 LPs for the last 5 years. Here are some of his points:

He spent $500 on software for this, yet that pales compared to the time you need to invest. Even with the good software, you need to tweak each track if you need decent results. Of course, old 78s are not going to be as cooperative as 45s or 33.3s might be.

Be sure that the software lets you tweak in real-time. Some don't, and that becomes VERY time consuming. Most software can detect the gaps, and split the LP into separate tracks. Most, if not all, of the software records to a .wav file, and then you would use an encoder like LAME to convert to your favorite format.

Don't expect great results in removing pops and scratches. Although the algorithms are great at removing them, they are not "on-top" of the original audio, but have "replaced" the original audio. That means that removing the pop sometimes leaves a noticeable hole. Some software allows you to "backfill" the hole.

The Ion USB Turntable is simply a belt-driven turntable with a USB audio adapter and Audacity software. If you have a turntable already, it is probably of better quality, and you can buy a USB audio adapter for 1/5th the price or less. The Audacity software is open source, and a free download.

You can download Audacity here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

 

[hgupta1]

I've been converting LPs to CDs pretty regularly. (a lot of music that I like only comes out on vinyl). With a good turntable and a good sound card (like the m-audio revolution), the music can sound as good as CDs.

I think the biggest difference in making it sound good is removing the dirt and debris from the grooves. Even new records have vinyl dust that settled in the grooves when it was made. A vacuum like the ones found here make even old records sound like new and removes a lot of the pops.


I use Audio Cleaning Lab which finds the tracks and can quickly remove any pops and hisses and allows some mastering of tracks. Its fairly cheap too.

By the way, the USB turntables are only as good as the analog-digital converter that they use. It may be better to use a great AD converter close to the turntable and run the output into a digital in jack on the computer.

 

[rocco]

By the way, the USB turntables are only as good as the analog-digital converter that they use. It may be better to use a great AD converter close to the turntable and run the output into a digital in jack on the computer.

Absolutely true.

And I can't find a single specification on the Ion unit (which is the same as the Numark, which is the only other one I know about). No sample rate or bit-width for the analog-to -digital convertor, no frequency response, not even wow & flutter.

I've emailed Ion, asking for specifications and will report back . . .

 

[ChuckSchick]

It may be completely unnecessary to say this, but... please, oh please, keep all of the files on your hard drive. After saving an LP for 20+ years it would be horrific to write all of the files to a CD-R with a (much debate here) 5 year shelf life.

... probably didn't need to be mentioned, but you never know.

 

[upstatemike]

It may be completely unnecessary to say this, but... please, oh please, keep all of the files on your hard drive. After saving an LP for 20+ years it would be horrific to write all of the files to a CD-R with a (much debate here) 5 year shelf life.

... probably didn't need to be mentioned, but you never know.

Not sure I understand this... Hard drives are the things you usually back up to CD-R because they are hot, fast moving parts that will fail within a finite amount of time. If there is a problem with CD-R shelf life then an alternative archive platform should be considered, but referring to a hard drive as a permanent or even long-term storage medium? I just don't see it.