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Tony Sade
01-28-2009, 8:56 PM
Anyone use of of these? I've got a thousand or so LPs from my younger smoke-filled days that carry lots of great memories but take up way too much space. Although I haven't figured out what do do about the memorable cover art and liner notes on some of these gems, I can live without the vinyl and with the smaller space that will be taken up by substituting CDs.

I'd appreciate any thoughts, recommendations, suggested alternatives.

(A friend showed me a process using a standard turntable and GarageBand on a Mac (which I have) but given how long it took him to transfer one song in the demo he did for me, I figure I'll be dead long before I get half-way through my collection.)

Thanks,

John Shuk
01-28-2009, 9:02 PM
I have a few recordings done this way from a friend and they are pretty good.

David DeCristoforo
01-28-2009, 9:32 PM
The recordings are pretty good and they can be "cleaned up" but they have to be recorded in "real time" so it takes as long to record a song as it does to listen to the song. No way around it that I am aware of.... Once the music is on your computer, your optical drive will be the determining factor in how fast you can copy the music to a CD

Thomas Bank
01-29-2009, 7:16 AM
I use Toast Titanium and Spin Doctor - but have to admit that I still have not ripped my whole vinyl collection.

Dan Mages
01-29-2009, 8:13 AM
Anyone use of of these? I've got a thousand or so LPs from my younger smoke-filled days that carry lots of great memories but take up way too much space. Although I haven't figured out what do do about the memorable cover art and liner notes on some of these gems, I can live without the vinyl and with the smaller space that will be taken up by substituting CDs.

I'd appreciate any thoughts, recommendations, suggested alternatives.

(A friend showed me a process using a standard turntable and GarageBand on a Mac (which I have) but given how long it took him to transfer one song in the demo he did for me, I figure I'll be dead long before I get half-way through my collection.)

Thanks,

I have close to 600 records (and growing) in my collection and plan to do the same with some of mine. Denon has just released a new turntable, the DP-200USB, which is designed for this sort of activity. One of the nicer features is that you can rip the music directly to a USB drive for future enhancement on a computer. And since it is made by Denon, it should do a good job as a record player. Music sounds much better on vinyl than in MP3, eh?
http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/4724.asp

Dan

Eric DeSilva
01-29-2009, 9:23 AM
<audiophile warning>

If you are going to take the time to convert LPs to digital format, take some time to think about what you want to convert them into. MP3 is a lossy format--its very compressed, but the compression is untaken at the expense of data. There are formats that, while not being as compact in terms of file size, don't lose data that is read. My vinyl stays vinyl--I kind of like the ritual of playing records--but when I rip CDs, I use Apple's Lossless format. It is about 1/2 the size of the raw CD data, but can be uncompressed to a bit-for-bit perfect version of what is on the CD itself.

My wife suffers from some fairly severe hearing loss, and even she can tell when I switch back and forward from a good mp3 (LAME encoded at -alt preset extreme) to an Apple Lossless file.

</audiophile warning>

Pat Germain
01-29-2009, 10:20 AM
That Denon sounds like a good choice. Just don't be tempted to buy a cheap turntable. Unlike a CD player, there is a huge difference is performance between a cheap turntable and an expensive turntable. One of the reasons CD players caught on so quickly was you could buy a pretty good model for less the cost of a turntable cartridge and stylus.

If you're going to be recording those vinyl treasures, it's definately time to bust out the "Discwasher". Boy, this all brings back so many memories...

Chris Padilla
01-29-2009, 11:05 AM
Cool thread. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I grew up in the 80s and good old Columbia House Records 11 LPs for a penny under 5 different names. It would be nice to get those LPs on CD or MP3 (or whatever) to listen to them more easily....

Eric DeSilva
01-29-2009, 2:39 PM
If anyone wants to get rid of vinyl in the Northern VA area, let me know. I still like the stuff.

Scott Donley
01-29-2009, 5:21 PM
If you already have a turntable and audio inputs on your sound card all you need is a cheap preamp and the software of your choice. Also a lot of time, it does bring back a lot of memories though, :D

Pat Germain
01-30-2009, 11:55 AM
If you already have a turntable and audio inputs on your sound card all you need is a cheap preamp and the software of your choice. Also a lot of time, it does bring back a lot of memories though, :D

Yeah man! Plop into a bean bag with a bottle of Boone's Farm and enjoy the nostalgia. For added effect, tack up some black light posters.

Myk Rian
01-30-2009, 12:35 PM
I still have my Pioneer PL-71 direct drive TT and a Lafayette amp. I've connected the line-out to the computer to record some of my old LPs.

Chris Padilla
01-30-2009, 1:01 PM
So I did some more digging on this.

It appears that capabilities that auto-name CD songs won't work for vinyl rips.

Unless you manually slice the songs up, you end up with "album side sized" songs. In other words, 1 "song" is the whole side of one album. I guess there are automated song-slicers out there but your mileage may vary.

Finally, how many MP3 songs can you buy from Amazon for the price of this ripper? How much time will it take to do all this? There are places that will do this for you: Reclaim Media (http://www.reclaimmedia.com/index.html). Maybe it is easier/better over the long run? Dunno....

Jerome Hanby
01-30-2009, 3:23 PM
Same and same. Costco had a good price on these a while back.


I have a few recordings done this way from a friend and they are pretty good.

hank dekeyser
01-31-2009, 8:45 PM
Oh yeah, spinnin the old vinyl. Here's what I did years ago before USB was king. I had my PC hooked to a (used to be) nice pro-logic receiver.Good old Kenwood KD-3055 (aka the Rock) Turntable goes into receiver (umm newer ones dont even have a phono input) phono in- tape mon out to PC - record in real time w/ Nero (older version) and clean up w/ same. amazing the pops and hisses you can get rid of - even on a clean recording. Save as / convert to MP3 whatever you like.
Hope it helps -

Kevin Groenke
01-31-2009, 9:55 PM
I got an Ion Mixmeister for ~$50. This is basically an RCA-USB box, so you can use your existing turntable, tape deck, reel-reel, super8, whatever. The included software isn't particularly advanced (you need divide and label individual tracks as somebody mentioned) but it's easy to use and it sounds as good as the vinyl it's ripped from. I was really surprised how good my old Phillips 312 TT sounds. I haven't ripped too much, but it's great to have that local, import and rare vinyl from my college days on my ipod, it seems everytime the Mighty Mofos, the Funseekers, Suicide Commandos, Rifle Sport, Jazz Butcher or another of the ripped tunes comes on in the shop, somebody asks what it is.

http://www.amazon.com/Ion-URECORD-U-record-Music-Archiver/dp/B000V9M8R8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_8?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1233456471&sr=8-8

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EF%2BGKb0XL._SS500_.jpg

Jim Becker
02-01-2009, 9:44 AM
Kevin, that looks like a very nice device for those of us who have a good turntable stashed somewhere. That said, I don't have much on vinyl anymore...just a few things that were very unique plus a couple "district chorus" type recordings...so for me, I'll probably couldn't justify even the cost of this to consider a transfer. But you never know... ;)

It occurs to me after writing the above that since this fellow also has line input, it's also good for other sources. Hmm...I have some stuff on my old four-track that might put things over the top to get them into the computer realm... :)

Kevin Groenke
02-01-2009, 10:22 AM
I didn't have much vinyl either until recently when my bro re-gifted me the ~100 platters that he got from me when we moved cross-country back in the 90's. I didn't even know he had them, so it was one of the best gifts ever.

Now that I have an easy way to rip stuff, I've stopped by used record shops a few times. Somehow it's more entertaining than shopping on itunes or even flipping through cd's at best buy (which I haven't done for years) The smell, the sound, the clientele of a RECORD STORE are unique and on the brink of extinction. There is some great stuff out that to be had for almost nothing, There are still a couple of thirft stores around here that have quite a bit of vinyl. You've got to watch the condition a bit more, but I'm filling out my jazz collection (Bird, Miles, Coltrane, Gillespie, Young, ++++) for .25 ea!! Bop on vinyl really is better than digital.

-kg

Pat Germain
02-01-2009, 10:39 AM
This thread reminds me how things are going full-circle. The economy sucks, Detroit auto companies are in trouble and now we're spinning vinyl again. :D I'm now ready for the comeback of the custom van! Recent talk of a Zeppelin tour just adds to the effect.

Dan Mages
02-01-2009, 11:05 AM
I got an Ion Mixmeister for ~$50. This is basically an RCA-USB box, so you can use your existing turntable, tape deck, reel-reel, super8, whatever. The included software isn't particularly advanced (you need divide and label individual tracks as somebody mentioned) but it's easy to use and it sounds as good as the vinyl it's ripped from. I was really surprised how good my old Phillips 312 TT sounds. I haven't ripped too much, but it's great to have that local, import and rare vinyl from my college days on my ipod, it seems everytime the Mighty Mofos, the Funseekers, Suicide Commandos, Rifle Sport, Jazz Butcher or another of the ripped tunes comes on in the shop, somebody asks what it is.

http://www.amazon.com/Ion-URECORD-U-record-Music-Archiver/dp/B000V9M8R8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_8?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1233456471&sr=8-8

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EF%2BGKb0XL._SS500_.jpg

So I assume that the record player plugs into the back. Does it have a ground connection? Is it a pass through device, or is it designed for stand alone?

Thanks,

Dan

Tony Sade
02-03-2009, 10:37 AM
A much belated thanks for all the suggestions (and sympatico reminiscences--sometimes I think it's amazing that I can remember certain periods at all). I'm probably going to go with the Ion Mixmeister that Kevin discussed since I have a perfectly good turntable. Honestly, I was hoping for magic--something I could just point at my 6 orange crates full of LPs and--Presto!!--the tunes would magically appear on CDs, or at least iTunes and thus ready for ripping. At one LP a night (if I'm lucky) I'll be at this for nearly 3 years. Time to throw out the losers, I guess.

Cheers,

Chris Padilla
02-03-2009, 11:22 AM
http://www.reclaimmedia.com/ is something that will give you that "Presto", Tony, but along with it will disappear some hard-earned ca$h!! :)

I actually emailed back and forth a bit with the owner of the above company and he claims that if your time is worth minimum wage, that is what it will cost you to transfer your albums and cassettes.

Doug Shepard
02-03-2009, 11:26 AM
I still need to finish going through my albums to put them on CD's. Started doing them a number of years ago (pre-MP3) but then got sort of burnt out on doing it, and need to finish about another 100 albums. I guess I have what could be considered Old School
http://www.avgiant.com/Tascam-CD-RW402-CD-Recorder-Player

Tony Sade
02-03-2009, 8:21 PM
http://www.reclaimmedia.com/ is something that will give you that "Presto", Tony, but along with it will disappear some hard-earned ca$h!! :)

I actually emailed back and forth a bit with the owner of the above company and he claims that if your time is worth minimum wage, that is what it will cost you to transfer your albums and cassettes.

Over 6 grand to transfer 500 LP's? That's way outta my league. So it'll take me 6 years instead of 3. I'll try to figure out a way to multi-task--maybe tune up some planes while waiting to flip the album.

Tony

Kevin Groenke
02-03-2009, 9:11 PM
So I assume that the record player plugs into the back. Does it have a ground connection? Is it a pass through device, or is it designed for stand alone?

Thanks,

Dan

Dan,

The box has 2 RCA's and a gnd on the back. RCA in, USB out - included software handles it from there. Not a stand-alone device, you plug it into a pc or mac. I don't know exactly how it works, but it does.

This story:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/34597819.html
refers to a company that will trade CD's for mp3's and ipods
http://ipodmeister.com/

Perhaps somebody does the same with vinyl.

-kg

Jerome Hanby
02-04-2009, 7:34 AM
Over 6 grand to transfer 500 LP's? That's way outta my league. So it'll take me 6 years instead of 3. I'll try to figure out a way to multi-task--maybe tune up some planes while waiting to flip the album.

Tony

This is probably sacrilege, but you could get one of those auto playing turntables, the kind where you put a stack of albums on the spindle and they drop one at a time and play. It would require a bit more back end work with an audio editor, but you could grab several album sides in one gulp, then slice them up and glue the matching sides back together.

I do something similar transferring video from my DirecTivo to the PC. Start the DTivo "saving to VCR", click the one button record on my video capture software until it's going to record longer than the program, and go work in the shop. When I get time to take a break, I go start another one. Later, I edit them down and batch convert them to Divx. Would be easier if I could get the video transfer over ethernet working correctly...

Chris Padilla
02-04-2009, 11:52 AM
Over 6 grand to transfer 500 LP's? That's way outta my league. So it'll take me 6 years instead of 3. I'll try to figure out a way to multi-task--maybe tune up some planes while waiting to flip the album.

Tony

Is that the cost, Tony? I never got any official numbers from them so I honestly do not know the cost....

Eric DeSilva
02-04-2009, 12:57 PM
Over 6 grand to transfer 500 LP's?

At $12 per LP, ya might wanna think about just buying the dang CD. Probably save yerself $4 per album.

Tony Sade
02-04-2009, 9:05 PM
Is that the cost, Tony? I never got any official numbers from them so I honestly do not know the cost....

Yup-there's a calculator right on the site. 500 LP to CD conversions @ $13.25= $6625.00.

At those prices, ya might as well buy the CD's, assuming you can find them.

I'm gonna have to think about this some more.

Jerome Hanby
02-05-2009, 9:33 AM
On the USB Turntable issue, check out www.woot.com Today

Chris Padilla
02-05-2009, 1:14 PM
Yup-there's a calculator right on the site. 500 LP to CD conversions @ $13.25= $6625.00.

At those prices, ya might as well buy the CD's, assuming you can find them.

I'm gonna have to think about this some more.

I bet they would give you a volume discount!! Yeah, that is spendy...hmmm....