conversion of lps to digital

[stevieboy]

does anybody convert their lps to digital? i know anil in bangalore does.. do post on what you use to do so and a rough overview of the process. researched on the net but hoping to discover something new perhaps...

thanks in advance!

 

[srikarkav]

Hi stevie,

murali_n does that. May be you can message him.

cheers,
sri

 

[Hiten]

Hello Stevieboy
I have converted few LPs.
1) First attempt was Hindi Movie LPs. converted from Philips Ceramic Cartridge Player to my pc (Onboard sound) The recording picked up good amount of high frequencies (Piezoelectric material of cartridge may have hardened).
2) Second try was with akai player for Bhimsen Joshi Classical vinyl. Result was very good with magnetic cartridge (with Brand New Stylus)
3) Third attempt was Anand Shankar Music done on Same Player +New Stylus+Pioneer Stereo Amplifier Phono in to PC. As vinyl was in mint condition In my opinion results were superb.
I record in wave format. Remove noise/clicks/pops (A little less than required) and convert it in to high bit rate mp3.
Though for best quality you will need good phono preamp and sound card I will recommend you to try a USB TT and if you dont find much difference USB TT will be convenient.

 

[murali_n]

Hai stevie,

I have converted a lot of LPs to CD. Pl PM your Cell No. I can tell you how to do it. I have also explained how it is done in my recent post elsewhere in the forum.
From your posts I understand that you have ordered for a Behringer Phono to USB converter. It must be similar to a sound card.

I suggest you can use Spin-it-Again software, which is very user friendly or SONY Sound Forge which is very professional.

I use SONY SF , where removing clicks and cracks is a breeze.

Pl clean the LPs with mixture of Isopropyl Alcohol + Water prior to playing the LPs. If the LP is in very dusty condition give another wash with liquid soap+ water and use soft nylon bristled brush. This will make your LP very clean, the sound will have less click & crackles, so your post recording work is reduced.


N.Murali

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Where, among local shops, would Isopropyl Alcohol be sold and, if not the obvious, what would I ask for?

What proportion with water?

Stevieboy, Murali discussed some of these points on my thread about sound cards -->here

 

[murali_n]

Where, among local shops, would Isopropyl Alcohol be sold and, if not the obvious, what would I ask for?

What proportion with water?

Stevieboy, Murali discussed some of these points on my thread about sound cards -->here

Hai Thad,

You can source Isopropyl alcohol at any Chemist shop. A litre may cost about Rs.120/- approx.

1:1 would be ideal, but please use Bottled water (read Kinley/ Aquafina).

N.Murali

 

[Vivek Rao]

HI,

In the past I have successfully used the Creative sound blaster external USB sound card coupled with its software.

My Philips LP was connected to my Marantz PM7001 from where I routed the signals though the Soundblaster external sound card. I have found the quality good since we can select the format quality of the recording.. The creative software provides ways to attenuate clicks/hiss etc but really not useful for me since I would like to capture the original as it is without any DSP.

Unfortunately I have not been able to split the songs and had to save the entire sides of the LP as one single file.

Regards,
Vivek

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I thought I'd keep the "authentic vinyl noise" --- but it doesn't work out. Somehow, one accepts it when listening to a spinning lp, but it is very annoying on the digitised copy.

This may be psychological, but I also suspect that it may be to do with the nature of digital music. Even though it is a very short-lived sound, a scratch is going to clip.

I record each side, and then split out each song and save under song titles. I am making this up as I go along, as I've only just started, but intend to keep the full sides as archives, perhaps with major scratches treated but otherwise unprocessed and certainly not compressed. . Although I am working, at the moment, entirely in .WAV files, I may decide to keep my "listen-to" files in flac, or even ogg

 

[deba]

I use Adobe Audition 3.0 to do my Vinyl backups and use the restortion menu to reduce pops and crackle. I use the Internal Creative Sound Blaster Platinium Card with a standard Intel Processor based Desktop.

Always work in WAV format while processing.

Thanks.

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

You could also use cool edit pro. It allows you to edit and clean up pops and crackles. I am just starting off on the process.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I use CoolEdit Pro, but it is not free software; very expensive.

Adobe Audition is the current incarnation. The company sold themselves to Adobe. There is a lesser product, called Soundbooth, I think, which lacks the multitracking abilities of Audition. That would do for me, and I might invest, one day. I tried to download a demo, but couldn't get Adobe's complex (it would be, wouldn't it!) download system to work for me. I'll have another go!

 

[stevieboy]

thanks guys for all the responses!

was trying to see what the general quality would be like when people captured with regular soundcards and the like without using a really high end one. seems good so far so lets see how the behringer performs. later on thinking of picking up the hagerman kit and viren would help me by taking out the phonostage and keeping only the a-d converter. reign had pointed me towards the really high end card lynx two but that's really too much dough!

also have come across debates on recording in 24 bit 192hz versus 16 bit 44.1hz and arguments that recording at higher rates and then downsampling would again create problems cos of algorithms that do it so better to do in cd rates itself...

regards

 

[stevieboy]

Hai stevie,

I have converted a lot of LPs to CD. Pl PM your Cell No. I can tell you how to do it. I have also explained how it is done in my recent post elsewhere in the forum.
From your posts I understand that you have ordered for a Behringer Phono to USB converter. It must be similar to a sound card.

I suggest you can use Spin-it-Again software, which is very user friendly or SONY Sound Forge which is very professional.

I use SONY SF , where removing clicks and cracks is a breeze.

Pl clean the LPs with mixture of Isopropyl Alcohol + Water prior to playing the LPs. If the LP is in very dusty condition give another wash with liquid soap+ water and use soft nylon bristled brush. This will make your LP very clean, the sound will have less click & crackles, so your post recording work is reduced.


N.Murali

hi murali,

pming you my number. yes i do clean and vacuum my lps so most of them are pretty quiet. for starters am gonna try the audacity software which i've already downloaded and which is gonna come on a cd with the behringer. anil from bangalore has soundforge which he offered to copy for me but its pro and a bit complex i've heard. i'll try both and then decide on one to run with.

regards

 

[stevieboy]

went throught the thread on soundcards as pointed out by thad. thanks thad once again! cranky's post on interpolation errors is exactly what i fear if i use higher sampling rates and then downsampling back to cd rates.

also the plus of using an outboard usb dac is that hum issues wont be there. also might not have a laptop in future. planning to get a macbook sometime so onboard soundcards are out.

my chain is turntable>viren's tube phonostage analog signal to>A-D converter sending digitized signal to>recording software for clean up if required.

 

[stevieboy]

I will recommend you to try a USB TT and if you dont find much difference USB TT will be convenient.

hi hiten,

i have a good quality turntable and cartridge so usb tt is definitely a no no for me the behringer works like the usb tt, simple analog line in plug in from my phonostage.

the issue am facing is finding a good pure A-D converter which will accept an analog line-in. by the way you wanted take5 right? when i convert i'll mail the song/album to you!

regards

 

[Hiten]

Hi Steve,

have a good quality turntable and cartridge so usb tt is definitely a no no for me the behringer works like the usb tt, simple analog line in plug in from my phonostage.

the issue am facing is finding a good pure A-D converter which will accept an analog line-in.

Oh! I see, you dont want to compromise on quality. a TRUE Vinyl fan.

by the way you wanted take5 right? when i convert i'll mail the song/album to you!

Thanks ! I already have CD and Cassette. But do send song 'Take5', will be interesting to listen the difference. Thanks again.

 

[stevieboy]

got the behringer yesterday and made a few rushed transfers just to see if everything is working. so far seems really good! tried my phono>a/d converter and the onboard phonostage. the onboard phonostage is pretty decent but no match for a well built phonostage.

overall highly recommended for a hassle free good quality transfer. sounds good through headphones will burn a cd and see how it sound through speakers.

one problem the input level control doesnt seems to be working! and its going max quite frequently. probably an issue with the output of the phonostage will have to tune that down somehow cos with the inbuilt phonostage the level is ok. any ideas on why the input level control doesnt work?

 

[heliumflight]

got the behringer yesterday and made a few rushed transfers just to see if everything is working. so far seems really good! tried my phono>a/d converter and the onboard phonostage. the onboard phonostage is pretty decent but no match for a well built phonostage.

overall highly recommended for a hassle free good quality transfer. sounds good through headphones will burn a cd and see how it sound through speakers.

one problem the input level control doesnt seems to be working! and its going max quite frequently. probably an issue with the output of the phonostage will have to tune that down somehow cos with the inbuilt phonostage the level is ok. any ideas on why the input level control doesnt work?

Steven can't wait till you recitfy this issue. You have the master's guidance and I'm only following you all the way...

 

[suri]

does anybody convert their lps to digital? I know anil in bangalore does.. Do post on what you use to do so and a rough overview of the process. Researched on the net but hoping to discover something new perhaps...

thanks in advance!

heresy! - you must not do this

 

[stevieboy]

heresy! - you must not do this

grin grin. dont worry suri it's better than a digital cd but still nothing like the original lp. wot to do? cant carry my turntable around eh?