Vinal to PC

[codeblue]

I have a large record collection, mainly 12"'s, and have decided to transfer the lot to my PC. I need advice on the typed of hardware i will need to get the best possible quality transfer. I have NO sound card.

Motherboard is the MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum

Pair of Technics 1210's and a Pioneer Dj 600 mixer

I also need software advice, but will post in the Software section.

[bonestonne]

all you really need is an amplifier, and a line in on the motherboard. i'll take pictures on a setup i have in school for it tomorrow, but basically speaking, you run the turntable into the amplifier [that is, only if it is not amplified itself] and then you run a line from the amplifier into the LINE IN on your motherboard. don't use microphone unless you're 100% positive that its stereo, almost none of them are.

i hope you're up on your audio here, otherwise just google the terms you don't know.

most turn tables that are made today have either 1/8" stereo out, or RCA outputs. you need to just get a stereo amplifier [a guitar amp will not work] and go into the input labled PHONO, for phonograph. it will minimize the distortion from the needle.

if you're using a big combo sort of thing thats amplified, you just need to run either RCA or 1/8" into your line in. stores like radio shack might carry adapters or even cables that go RCA to 1/8". i have one here thats about 3' long, does what i need it to do.

i'd go into the software section to give you tips, but while im at it [and i do record vinyls] i'll tell you what i use.

there are two programs, pretty much the same, only one is easier to find than the other. one is called Cool Edit Pro, the other Adobe Audition. Cool Edit Pro 2.0 is the same as Adobe Audition 1.5, both are fairly old programs, but they do work well, although neither are free. theres no easy way to use free software to go from vinyl to .mp3, in fact, there is no direct way to save to lossless format audio without programs that cost the good part of $100+. it seems kinda stupid to need to pay for it, but the two programs i mentioned are very expendable, and can be use for many many things, i use it here at home to record saturday night live musical guests, which i did just last night..i also record music from websites, concerts on TV, etc and so forth. after a while it makes up for itself.

[djstevieb]

Get a half decent sound card, but make sure it has LINE IN, theyre not expensive!

I've recorded things onto my computer from external devices and used both Cool Edit and Audacity in the past. Audacity is free and will do what you need it to do.

You can find it Here

If you do use audacity and have any questoins just post in here and I'll see what I can do

[codeblue]

Thanks for the fast reply guys

Im a bit of a stickler for high quality, and as i only want to do this transfer once, then pack away my deks again ( , sob, sob) I dont mind spending a bit.

Soundcard, I'm looking at the terratec dmx 6 fire

The software needs to have the same abilty as RIP Vinyl , whereby it will start a new wav file after a defined period of silence. This is a must due to the large amount of tunes i have and will be transfering. RIP doesnt have editing, noise reduction, or any other features other than ripping, so it's no good for me.

[bonestonne]

it would be wiser to go for Adobe Audition, and there are a few reasons for it.

Adobe Audition will record the entire album as it is, exactly how its played. you'll be able to split it up and save each track as .mp3, .wav, and a few other formats. also, it can record anything from the selected recording device, theres no need to get an additional sound card. i use integrated sound on my motherboard, and there are songs that come out the same as if i had a sound card.

in a sense its cheaper and can be use limitlessly. you can even just use the trial on adobe.com to do it, i used that while i waited for my copy to come in the mail. it just depends on how much you're willing to spend, and if you want industry standard or not.

[CoffeeFiend]

What you need is more often called a phono preamp (e.g. TCC TC-750LC), not an amp! (Well, some amps do have a line out though, so he's not really wrong either). You obviously want something decent (there's *all kinds* of them out there, won't get into details). You can find some that aren't too expensive (even on the 2nd hand market - I'm sure you can find a bunch on ebay)

Then a good sound card is of course a good idea - something with a decent S/N ratio, low noise/crosstalk/intermodulation/thd, good frequency response, good ADCs and all (a 24/96 capable card is not a bad idea either - downsample later if you want). That terratec seems like a very good pick (well known name, likely good drivers unlike Creative's junk, ASIO support and all). Perhaps even a bit overkill, unless your records are in very good condition, that your turntable is also very good, that you have a very good preamp, and half decent cables too. Makes no sense to get a super high-end sound card if you'll use a so-so preamp that adds too much noise and distorsion (and get hum in cables or such too). It makes no sense to have a sound card record a poor quality signal in high fidelity (s**t in, s**t out). And again, squeezing the last little bit of fidelity out of it only matters if you're going to encode to a decent format (if it's low bitrate mp3, then no need to overly worry about anything, it just won't sound that good regardless; and you'll end up redoing it again later). Make sur you don't get any clipping when recording either. Most onboard AC97 sound sucks - especially for recording. Poor / cheap ADCs, low S/N ratios, etc.

Mind you, you can even scan them

[LLXX]

Most onboard AC97 sound sucks - especially for recording. Poor / cheap ADCs, low S/N ratios, etc.

I'm sure the turntable output isn't going to be that high-quality anyway. I find the Realtek ALC6xx chipsets are quite good for onboard audio.

[Takeshi]

I have a large record collection, mainly 12"'s, and have decided to transfer the lot to my PC.

That's a bit vague as you haven't said what format you're after. If it's lossy format then forget about high-end stuff.

It's fine if you really want to do the analogue to digital transfer as a hobby but it'll be very time consuming.

TBH, unless the songs are not re-issued on CD, for quality I'll just buy the CDs (or SACDs/DVD-A if available). Getting rid of the pops and cracks in a home studio is not all that satisfactory.

[codeblue]

I used to be a DJ and have loads of white lables and hard to find 12"'s with classic b-sides. If i could D-load them on E-Mule i would.

As for format, probable the best possible. I can they convert them to MP3's and archive the origional. Looking to by Traktor and mix em up

TRAKTOR