I have a ton of vinyl (albums not currently available on CD) and live radio broadcasts (various bands, not all Stones) that I would like to convert to disc. I have searched the 'Net and taken a look at two items. Hammacher Schlemmer's portable unit for over US $300, and a software program from Golden Records that can be downloaded; the latter's cost is much cheaper. Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks

My friend uses his home recording studio, with mixed results.

"No Anchovies, Please"

is he in a band/a musician of some sort? mixed results........not successful you mean?

Like Elmo says.
That is what I do. Can you just call up one of the samller recording studios in your town? Because they probably have the time, need the work, and will be reasonable in price. Once you bring in the blanks, and they have cassette deck and a turntable it is plain sailing.
The mastering and EQ COULD be tricky, as in good and bad though.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

[entertainde.terratec.net]

good advice..........there are lots of studios around town. I would probably need to determine what I really would like to get copied. Once I troll through my cassette collection from the past 30 plus years I'm sure that I have a few good (radio) live gems on cassette for sure. Probably any Stones stuff (boot vinyl or radio cassette) has already been replicated I would imagine.........

I think
there is no reason to convert VINYL to CD.

Because the life of vinyl is much longer as the life of CD.

And last not least:

Vinyl sounds much better as CD !

Grüsse

Gerhard
-Düsseldorf-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-04-22 23:38 by satisfaction2.

I concur with that, most people would say the same thing. But it's mush easier after conversion for playing music while travelling, etc. Anyone had any experience with the two items that I mentioned above?

I use this thing, which works very well:

[www.dansdata.com]

The only thing it lacks is an editor to edit-out pops, hiss etc. You can find freeware to do these functions. As always, it's a worthy investment to have some kind of cleaner for vinyl. Makes a huge difference.

Karl

it's funny to convert tapes/vinyl onto comp.editing (cut away guitar tunings,,klicks ,,
..and it's easy and cheep ..


the most important thing is to give the time to do it....
today you can record ,whole lp or tape,,and cleaning the house or apt ,,during the time..!!!!

vancouver.what do you use? I'm specifically interested in comments from IORR if anyone has used the above equipment or software that I found on the 'Net

Thanks

Hi Peter Wilson, I have tried several programs on trial runs and the best I have found for me was Polderbits, go into google to find it and get 2 weeks free trial with an extension for another 2 weeks. Its about $50US. I need to buy it myself now for the same reason as you plus I want to post some rare bootleg material.If needed buy yourself a small Hi Fi with turntable and connect your out to pc in, do both your vinyl and tapes, get rid of hiss,clicks and pops, join tracks from concert boots or split tracks. Cheap software but I liked it. Hope this helps.

Whiskey, that you very much for that advice. I can't wait to see what I have in my cassette collection (haven't looked at in in over 15 years!)

I would be interested to see what you have in your collection also, along with a lot of other people. Have fun doing it, I did.

Thank you to the people who made suggestions. I didn't make the thread, but as I plan to raid my parent's old record collection this summer I'll try some of these suggestions, too. No Stones in there but other good stuff.

As I see it, sw specific for "recording" lps on the HD are nothing else than a sound recorder + certain plug-ins addressed to "polishing" the final result.

I don't believe too much in post-editing. Just get the best possible sound source in the sound card (of course, it has to be not a cheap one) and record it as it is, as neutral as possible.

I use audacity for all my home recordings: its free, simple to use and it works fine. There are better sw around, but for your purposes you will not note the difference

C

I'll second that, Liddas.

If you you allready have a turntable hooked up to your stereo system, you just need to conect the tape out of that, to the line in of your computer sound card.
Make sure both systems are plugged in the same current outlet to avoid hum.

If you know the sound card is crappy - invest in a new one.
this one is quite good - just an example, tho'
[www.m-audio.com]

How to...
[www.br0wn.co.uk]

Mixed results meaning some of the pops and hiss come through. Some of this can be taken out using EQ, etc.

He's a songwriter/musician who records others, including me.

"No Anchovies, Please"

satisfaction2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think
> there is no reason to convert VINYL to CD.
>
> Because the life of vinyl is much longer as the
> life of CD.
>
> And last not least:
>
> Vinyl sounds much better as CD !
>
> Grüsse
> [home.arcor.de]
> 1-3.gif
> Gerhard
> -Düsseldorf-

I totally agree...but there are other good reasons for duplicating your vinyl collection to other media for convenient access and casual listening.

I use CD Spin Doctor and Toast for Mac

open-g Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you you allready have a turntable hooked up to
> your stereo system, you just need to conect the
> tape out of that, to the line in of your computer
> sound card.
> Make sure both systems are plugged in the same
> current outlet to avoid hum.


Another solution is to use USB devices. Avoids the noise, via soundcard, from the computer.

I have read good reviews with regards to this ( but have no experience at all ):

[www.numark.com]


TTUSB
TURNTABLE WITH USB AUDIO INTERFACE

THE EASIEST WAY TO DIGITIZE YOUR VINYL.

The TTUSB is a unique plug–and–play USB compatible turntable that makes digitizing your vinyl record collection to your PC or Mac a snap. Packaged with all the necessary cables to connect with a computer or stereo playback system, along with software to remove clicks, pops, and other undesirable characteristics of vinyl, the TTUSB is a comprehensive package that breathes new life into older recordings.

As an added benefit, the TTUSB also includes a 1/8–inch stereo mini jack input connector to facilitate the transfer of cassette tapes (or similar line level sources) to computer files—making this unit the perfect tool for archiving older recordings, regardless of their original format. For the editing of your transferred files, the included Audacity software (PC and Mac compatible) provides a wealth of easy–to–use features. Export your analog music to popular digital formats such as WAV or MP3, and turn your old, forgotten records to the top of your digital music playlist.


> Download Product Overview

_ Adjustable Anti–Skate control for increased stereo balancing
_ 33 1/3 and 45 RPM speed playback, with 78 rpm support via software
_ Line level RCA outputs (with built-in pre-amp)
_ Adjustable pitch control +/- 10%
_ 1/8" stereo line input, RCA line outputs
_ USB computer connectivity for PC and Mac
_ Packaged with all necessary cables to connect with computer or stereo playback system
_ Ships with Audacity software, for removing clicks, pops and other vinyl sounds. Audacity supports high–speed recording and has ability to export to WAV and MP3 files

>>I have read good reviews with regards to this ( but have no experience at all ): <<

I have read quite the opposite - while I don't have experience too.
USB sounds like a smart idea, but the audio results are rather poor.

a german review
[de.news.yahoo.com]

Thanks everybody for your input.....keep it coming, lots of different opinions out there, I'm figuring out the best option to follow and I'll let you know once I get there (with the results)

I've used a standalone burner that's plugged into my stereo system. Works fine.

I used musicmatch when I converted some of my records.
Was quite happy with the result and it was quick. The program detects the gap between the songs and starts a new song.
I just converted them to MP3 but I'm sure you have the full size/quality option there as well.

TE
Oslo

I've been using one of these to convert old cassettes to CD:

[www.amazon.co.uk]

It takes output from any sound source and plugs into a USB port, and comes with a copy of Nero software to do the CD writing.

I've been using it to convert a lot of off-air radio recordings on which the sound quality was never very wonderful in the first place, so I don't know how it would perform with good quality vinyl or cassettes, but it certainly does the job I bought it for.

Dunno if you have any interest but I'd be glad to do it for you for no charge. I'm sure you have a good bit of vinyl that I would find interesting. I do reel-to-reel and vinyl restoration as part of my dayjob. The shipping would be the expensive bit.

Edit: My home setup involves using an audio technica AT-PL50 turntable (there are nicer players out there but I have my mounted well and it sounds beautiful with the needle I put in it) which I run into my MOTU 828 (24bit A/D-D/A external soundcard) and I use Sound Forge 8.0 for digitizing. When I rip vinyl for my own personal use (IE: something on vinyl that hasn't been released on cd) I use NO noise reduction whatsoever. Noise reduction may get rid of pops n crackling but it certainly destroys the beautiful dynamic range of analog audio.

Anyways, the offer stands: drakehatfield@gmail.com

-Drake



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-04-26 01:43 by drake.

Thanks drake for the very kind offer. I will e-mail you. FYI one of my clients just found a bunch of old vinyl jazz albums in the basement of a tear down house that he bought - he's going to deliver them to me next week. Not a huge jazz fan myself, but I should be able to determine if there's anything worthwhile in there.