Convert albums (Lg. vinyl plates) to digital

[gjwilson]

I`ve always wanted to load all of my record albums into my computer but I have no clue where to start. I`ve tried searching our forums but haven`t hit on the right key words yet. Help me if you can........................Gary
I apologize if this is the wrong forum......please redirect me if needed.

[elmers]

What you need to do is get a decent sound card, a decent record player and some recording software. While you can use your onboard audio card for this the quality will likely not be very good.

Im assuming you hava a record player of some sort. What you do is plug the line out of your player into the line in of your audio card. Then you set the sound card to record from line in. Then you need to set the output from your record player to the maximum possible level without clipping. Usualy recording software like SoundForge has a monitor option where you can see how loud your recording will be. Then click record in your audio editor and press play on your record player. Once the audio has been played/recorded you can crop the track and save it to your HD. Optionally you could do some sort of noise reduction, mp3 the recording, burn it to a cd...

[cstierhoff]

You can't hook a turntable up directly to a sound card. You will need a Phono Pre-amp to go between the turtable output and the soundcard line input. Most of the older tuner/amplifiers have a phono preamp built in. Most of the newer tuner/amplifiers do not. So, unless you are taking the line out of your tuner you will need a preamp.
Here is a kit. Pre amp kit. ( The first paragraph describes why you need one) Here is a Google 'Phono preamps' search for others.

Here is one of many sites that describe how to.
Vinyl to CD website. Also do a google for vinyl to CD or LP to CD to get more info.

Ther are many varities of software that can get rid of or reduce the pops and cracks you hear .

Examples of some software:
Goldwave

Wave Repair

Wave Corrector

Good luck,
cstierhoff

[elmers]

"Most of the older tuner/amplifiers have a phono preamp built in"

Lol. Am I really that old that I assume all record players have built in preamps?
Whatever the tip is good. A good preamp is an importatnt thing to have.

[MD1032]

If you can find an M-audio Delta 410 card, it would be perfect for this job, and you'd have yourself an excellent card, too.

[radio1_mike]

I did a few of my vinyls with my Audigy and Radio Shack belt-drive turntable (w/pre-amp) and Cool Edit 2000.

The results came out really well. The only thing you do have to be careful of is what kind of filters you use to cut out the crackle and pops and the hiss.

Agressive filtering can and will affect sound quality. I did some playing on a few, and reduced the noise to nil, but all my highs on those songs had artifacts...

This will be especially true if you convert those wavs into compressed files.

But have fun!

[griobhta]

there is a great audio forum called hydrogenaudio and if you search about there you will find quite a few posts about this sort of thing. It can be a pretty daunting place sometimes, much of it goes right over my head but here is one thread.


g

[gjwilson]

Thanks for all of the input........apparently, I need to do some more reading on this topic and practice a time or 10. If I come up with any exciting tips as I progress I will share them.
Gary

[RayH]

It's a lot of work that I only do for the rarest of recordings.

[john_phoenix]

Quick and easy program to use is RIPVINYL (shareware) I have used this to convert quite a lot of my LP's to CD's