I need to transfer some music from LP's to MP3 files so that I can make up a CD. The LP's were never released onto CD.
I was toying with the idea of purchasing and using one of these cheapo usb decks, but am very reluctant to payout if they are no good.
I have the chance to purchase a Garrard ST25p record deck and my thoughts were that I could plug it into my tape machine and then into my PC. I know the latter works well....
Any thoughts on the subject please.
Kindest regards,
Jim
I'm imagining the USB record deck is plasticky, weighs about 2 ounces and has horrible wow and flutter ... An older deck going through a tape player should be better, except you don't emention whether or not you'd have a pre-amp to do equilization, I think some packages can do that in softare now, whether it's as good, I've no idea.
A Garrard SP25 is hardly hifi either..
No, but surely better than a usb deck. Forget the usb decks. If you want something decent, get an old good quality deck & cart, and run its output thru an amp with phono input then to the pc. Keep any tape deck out of the loop, it will only degrade the quality a fair bit.
Be warned that with the necessary post editing and noise filtering you're looking at about 4 hrs per album.
NT
Many thanks guys for the advice, it was much appreciated. Off to buy the old Garrard deck now. Kindest regards,
Jim
Neither are MP3s, so it isn't all that critical.
Good point.
You can jack the MP3 bitrate up though.
But to the OP - forget MP3s, use something like OGG if you are going to spend time on this. You can always batch convert to a second copy in MP3 format if required for end player devices.
Strictly speaking you need a special pre-amp between pickup cartridge and PC line in to achieve the RIAA equalisation. As well as to achieve a decent signal to noise ratio.
If you don't aready have a deck, then buy something better than the Garrard. That's the deck I used for disco's in the 70s, and while they're built like a brick outhouse, making it indestuctible, they rumble like a forty ton truck. Even the latest generation of disco deck which you can pick up for a few quid at your local cash converters are better, and will accept better cartridges. The better the playback, the easier the conversion and cleaning up will be.
Also, you will need an RIAA pre-amp to get enough signal for your sound card. Either use a hi-fi amp or buy a seperate one.
Finally, before you start,make sure the records are clean, and replace the stylus.
Unlike RIPing CD's, RIPing LPs runs as 1x speed, and you lose all the track boundaries, which you'll have to edit back in afterwards. This makes it time consuming.
Now I'd look for a decent deck assuming your records are half good. IE something like a second hand technics. Try to find someone selling an Riaa amp or buy a cheapo old amp with a pick up input, join the line out to the line in on the card in your machine and do it that way. I've heard some of these crappy usb offerings, bloody rubbish. You may need a decent pick up which are still available. Are you absolutely sure they have never been on cd? Japanese releases of obscure material are a rich vein. Often some folk have already done the job of course, look on the torrents. I don't see you can be arrested for downloading what you have already.
Brian
Better to record as uncompressed WAV than *any* compressed format.
Saying "use OGG" is like saying "buy a cardboard cereal box" when you mean "buy some weetabix" ;-)
or FLAC (as I think someone previously mentioned)
I would echo the sentiment of a reasonable deck and preamp. Couple of points to keep in mind... While its easy enough to find an amp with with a phono input stage and hence RIAA compensation, take care, since not all of them can provide the line level equalised version to an output - so check the Rec Out selector will allow phono to be directed that way.
Regarding file formats, I would suggest making initial copies to a lossless format, then making MP3s etc from there - saves ever having to re-digitize when you want better quality. I tend to archive stuff to .flac format.
If doing much of this, then a decent soundcard is worth the investment, since it will tend to acquire far less unwanted noise than the typical motherboard sound on many PCs.
There is software out there that will find the gaps and top and tail each track. Works ok on some source material, but not as well on classical or anything with very quiet passages.
Eh? The record output on an amp is/was perhaps most used for dubbing records to cassette. I've never come across any which can't. Indeed, pretty well all such amps had a pre-amp which was only used for RIAA equalisation and raising the cart level to that of other sources. So unless designed to prevent LP copying, I can't see any point.
Indeed, given storage is so cheap: then batch convert to MP3 or whatever when needed (or OGG if you're confident all your playback devices support it)
In terms of the hardware I use an external USB soundcard, 30 quid or less, switchable between high gain RIAA or low gain flat input, headphone monitor built in, Behringer UFO202 :-
Hence why I mentioned it, since many assume its universal. The Kenwood KA 3020 for example (hugely popular budget amp in its time) has no preamp-out connection in spite of having two tape loops.
Spose it kept the cost and complexity down - you can do all your source and output switching before the preamp.
I may be missing the point that you are trying to make. I had a 3020 for a few years. It was jolly good. Although it didn't have a pre-amp output suitable for driving a power amp, it was possible to get a line level output from a phono cartridge by taking the output from the tape out sockets. I still have a Cyrus amp that has the same arrangement. The only drawback, if there is one, is that the volume and tone controls (where fitted) are bypassed if the tape out is used. This is a desirable characteristic if one wishes to record something.
At present I use a small mixing desk with phonograph input and a Dual record deck to digitise LPs. Although even the most obscure vinyl that I have (and some of it was very obscure) is now available on ITunes, Amazon or as remastered CDs.
Yes you are right. I seem to be having a brain fart (I just had a look my KA 3020s - one original, one "SE", and they both have phono on the rec out selection)
So I am now not sure which amp I was actually thinking of... (I just remember being confounded at the time since I wanted to take a line level equalised phono output to a computer, had it all hooked up, and then realised it was not possible to select that input to be directed to the tape out sockets)
If you're looking at really old kit, eg 1950s, it can very occasinoally lack a tape in/out facility, so you just take your output from any input socket and switch teh input selector to the input socket youre using as the output socket, and it works fine. But the chance of the OP playing with corner cutting 50s kit is pretty remote.
NT
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