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oliver sudden
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« on: 12:16:16, 09-02-2007 » |
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Well, I'll give it a go.
I know there are some of you out there who transfer their vinyl onto computer. What do you use? What would you recommend - especially for someone who doesn't in general do the vinyl thing but who has a few schallplatten he would like to be able to listen to from time to time?
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Paul_H
Posts: 4
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« Reply #1 on: 17:09:04, 09-02-2007 » |
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I'm using one of those Ion turntables they've been selling in the Guardian and a version of the Audacity GPL software they provided with it (the one on the CD didn't work properly). The turntable is connected to my PC so it's a bit difficult to be sure about the sound quality but so far the results are OK when I then burn them and play them through the audio in my living room. Because it's so long since I bought any classical repertoire/electroacoustic on vinyl, most of what I'm transferring has been either rock or otherwise with a loud signal, so harder tests remain. Because old LPs are quite messy and some of the recordings weren't that great anyway (I've just decided not to bother with Verklaerte Nacht - an old sextet recording under Boulez from the 1960s), a certain amount of editing is required. My PC and soundcard are quite new - with a previous Windows ME PC and Adaptec CD Creator (now subsumed into Roxio) the results had a metallic and harsh edge which was very unappealing. Cleaning up recordings can be time consuming - I've got hundreds and I've hardly started on my LPs - but I'm pleased with it so far.
Paul
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #2 on: 08:55:18, 10-02-2007 » |
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Hi Paul, Thanks for that information. I'd be interested to hear how it measures up to classical stuff. I thought that in theory those USB turntables had the sound card in them - does the computer soundcard also get involved in the process? I did see in a German mag not so long ago a feature on external soundcards: Tascam US-122, Edirol FA-66 and M-Audio Audiophile 192 (in no particular order) seemed to come out with pretty good marks. Any thoughts on those? I have a couple of Boulez Verklärte Nächte, one with EIC, one with Domaine musical - I'm sure a way could be found to get you a preview copy. If it's the 1960s it woudl have to be the Domaine musical I suppose, which is on CD nowadays anyway in a very reasonably-priced box along with some amazing things: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000CRQZNM?tag=musicwebuk&creative=374929&camp=211189&link_code=as2&creativeASIN=B000CRQZNM |
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Tantris
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« Reply #3 on: 11:08:44, 10-02-2007 » |
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A lot depends on what quality you want. The USB turntable is compromised at several stages in the chain, and isn't going to deliver a high quality result, but it'll probably sound OK in comparison to .mp3 files. If you have only a small amount of vinyl, but want a high quality result, than you will be better off finding someone with a very good quality turntable, and who is able to make a high quality recording. Or indeed buying the CD - the Domaine Musical releases from Accord last year were a revelation in comparison to the old Vega LPs that I had - especially the first recording of Le Marteau sans Maitre. I am intending to sell all of my vinyl over the next few months, as I rarely listen to it now, and I find the background noise / dust on LPs to be very distracting - e.g. Barraque's Piano Sonata needs episodes of silence, not clicks and pops! I have been interested to see this appear on the market, which might end up replacing my current digital recorder. It is still too expensive, but prices for this kind of technology should continue to fall. In conjunction with a very large hard drive, it may even enable me to get rid of all of my CDs as well as the vinyl. |
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John W
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« Reply #4 on: 23:38:10, 10-02-2007 » |
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I have a couple of turntables that I use to record vinyl (and 78's) onto the PC. There's a Goldring Lenco GL75, lovely deck but the tone-arm is a bit wobbly, probably 35 years old (ebay purchase). Shure cartridge is original. Got new stylus for vinyl and a 3mil stylus for 1920's/1930's 78's. Also a Garrard SP 25 MkIII which is what I use most of the time to play vinyl, Goldring cartridge/stylus and and have a 78rpm stylus for it too (2.5mil for 1940's 78's). That deck might be also about 35 years old (ebay purchase) Each deck has an Acoustic Solutions amp which I connect to the PC. See photo of the Garrard. Notice the cable from the PC is plugged into the headphone socket of the amp; some will say that's all wrong but I do get better volume control, less noise using the headphone jack so I stick with that method rather than the amp line-out. On the PC I use a freeware Audacity software for editing, noise reduction. Good enough for my purposes. Above the amp is CD player and DAB/FM radio - to record programmes to the PC for editing/CDburn. FM reception is lousy in Warwickshire even using splitter from the TV roof ariel. DAB reception is very good.  John W |
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« Last Edit: 23:41:07, 10-02-2007 by John W »
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Bryn
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« Reply #5 on: 23:46:24, 10-02-2007 » |
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Those GL75s were really good for the money. I got one from Comet when Comet was a one floor box-shifter operation above a shop in Wardour Street. Cost me about £28 IIRC. Still got it, but it needs a new idler wheel.
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« Last Edit: 23:51:01, 10-02-2007 by Bryn »
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John W
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« Reply #6 on: 00:01:22, 11-02-2007 » |
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Bryn, Somebody explained to me why the tone-arm has gone wobbly on the Lenco, ageing of some part. Can be fixed, at a cost. My low tech solution is a little piece of plastic jammed in the right place  The fully variable-speed Lenco turntable is useful for getting 78's 'in-tune', playing back at the speed they were recorded; speeds on the cutting deck apparently could vary 75-85rpm, sometimes deliberately for a speedy charleston. The standard at Columbia was nominally 80rpm during the 1920's and said so on the record labels. The Lenco is also useful as there is no autochanger. This allows playing of 78rpm discs smaller than 10" which have very small circular labels to allow the groove to run closer to the centre and have 3 mins of music (autochangers will lift before the record is finished). |
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Tantris
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« Reply #7 on: 08:38:21, 11-02-2007 » |
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I currently use a Rega Planar 3:  |
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John W
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« Reply #8 on: 12:15:47, 11-02-2007 » |
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Wow, cool Tantris! Makes mine look very... retro  |
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Alexander_C
Posts: 7
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« Reply #9 on: 15:13:43, 11-02-2007 » |
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Very cool turntable, Tantris.  My gear: Rega P2 + AT110e QED preamp Sony portable MD (in PCM mode) Click Repair (very impressive) Audacity Not exactly audiophile, but the AT cartridge is surprisingly nice-sounding for the money, once aligned properly. Plus, because my preamp and recorder are battery-powered, I don't have to worry about mains hum. |
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TimR-J
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« Reply #10 on: 15:56:58, 13-02-2007 » |
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I'm a poor student so can't afford a fancy new USB turntable - but a combination of iMic (about £20) and Audacity (free) does the trick well enough. Hardly audiophile, but very workable for next to nothing. And Audacity is a great piece of software. The nice thing about the iMic is that you can use it to plug any phono output onto your computer. It also works in reverse, as an alternative headphone jack out of the computer (USB cuts out any hiss from the computer's in-built headphone jack). That Rega turntable is gorgeous though - one to save up for! |
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RobGordon
Posts: 15
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« Reply #11 on: 01:45:25, 15-02-2007 » |
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Because old LPs are quite messy and some of the recordings weren't that great anyway (I've just decided not to bother with Verklaerte Nacht - an old sextet recording under Boulez from the 1960s), a certain amount of editing is required.
Paul
Cool edit pro is a good programme -easy to use too. I used to be a dj and had a lot of old 80's singles. Cleaned up well recorded from my rega3 to a pioneer cd-r. The ripped to laptop and de-noised. Very good results too. |
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harrumph
Posts: 76
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« Reply #12 on: 11:19:12, 21-02-2007 » |
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Cool edit pro is a good programme -easy to use too. It's now called Adobe Audition. When it was Cool Edit, it had a terrific users forum where you could get lots of useful advice on LP-to-CDR transcription and noise cleanup techniques from professionals (including, for example, Andrew Rose) world wide. Cool Edit Pro is a very powerful package; to get the best results of which it is capable is, in my opinion, not particularly easy. Nearly all the LPs I have transcribed have eventually become noise-free without adversely affecting the music, but it has required hours of work in each case, so I only do it for precious records which haven't made it to CD. For example, my current project, Changes by Gordon Crosse on an Argo disc. While the Cool Edit forum existed, I collated all the useful information that I could find on it into a single Word document. I'm really glad that I did. |
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David Samuels
Posts: 9
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« Reply #13 on: 11:11:22, 26-02-2007 » |
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I use a Revox B790 turntable for LPs -- it has variable speed -- with a Nagaoka Boron cartidge. The Revox is now 30 years old but still performs faultlessly. I feed the PC line in from the Tape 2 Out sockets on an Arcam Alpha 9 and Audacity as the software. Works fine.
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RobGordon
Posts: 15
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« Reply #14 on: 02:04:04, 08-03-2007 » |
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Cool edit pro is a good programme -easy to use too. It's now called Adobe Audition. When it was Cool Edit, it had a terrific users forum where you could get lots of useful advice on LP-to-CDR transcription and noise cleanup techniques from professionals (including, for example, Andrew Rose) world wide. Cool Edit Pro is a very powerful package; to get the best results of which it is capable is, in my opinion, not particularly easy. Nearly all the LPs I have transcribed have eventually become noise-free without adversely affecting the music, but it has required hours of work in each case, so I only do it for precious records which haven't made it to CD. For example, my current project, Changes by Gordon Crosse on an Argo disc. While the Cool Edit forum existed, I collated all the useful information that I could find on it into a single Word document. I'm really glad that I did. Hmmm.....that would be a handy thing to have........ |
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