Transferring Vinyl to Digital

[progknocker]

I am using Audacity
excellent help...
http://www.noterepeat.com/articles/how-to/50-converting-vinyl-and-tape-to-mp3-with-audacity

works great EXCEPT.... its only recoring on the RIGHT channel, not right and left????

all my settings in Audacity are telling me 2 channel - stereo

any suggestions?


i am using winxp, standard windows soundcard

thx for the help

[zombywoof]

Several things. Could be the input on the computer, preferences on Audacity...

Also, be sure to remain very quiet while recording. Once I ruined a rip by practising saxophone in the same room. It bled all over the "Novella" album!

[progknocker]

thanks!
I checked my connections... and I needed to push the RCA connectors harder into the ports :roll

What is ironic is when you talked about a rip of a saxophone.... I am riping..... Doldinger Jubille Concert Side One ... :cool

[rcarlberg]

Also, be sure to remain very quiet while recording. Once I ruined a rip by practising saxophone in the same room. It bled all over the "Novella" album!Rips sound MUCH BETTER if you use line-in rather than the built-in mic :)

[rcarlberg]

I am using AudacityAudacity has gotten much better, but it's still only about 80% as good as CoolEdit by Syntrillium, the shareware they (Adobe) bought up and promptly buried because it destroyed the original Audacity marketplace.

Many of us CE2K users still mourn the loss of a great product.

[zombywoof]

Rips sound MUCH BETTER if you use line-in rather than the built-in mic :)

Haha, I'm talking about the mic on the actual needle that picked up the bleed-through. :-)

[trurl]

But- but- if you transfer your vinyl to digital it will be DIGITAL!!! :O:O How would you even be able to listen to it then?? It's like eating a picture of a steak, right?? ;)

[jazzcat]

i'm not very tech savvy bear with me. - i have a turntable & tape deck but none that have usb connection. are there rca to usb cables out there i need to get to do this?

[spacefreak]

Nothing tops Cool Edit Pro, when it comes to ripping vinyl on PC. I think it's called Adobe Audition by now and I'm still using its very first version (before they turmed it in a multi-track recording studio)...

[zombywoof]

But- but- if you transfer your vinyl to digital it will be DIGITAL!!! :O:O How would you even be able to listen to it then?? It's like eating a picture of a steak, right?? ;)

Yep!

[Hal...]

i'm not very tech savvy bear with me. - i have a turntable & tape deck but none that have usb connection. are there rca to usb cables out there i need to get to do this?
Yes, but I have no knowledge about how the PC picks up the audio through a USB port. You may need a driver.

There are also RCA to mini-jack adapters that you can plug into your "audio in" connector on the back of your PC... and you wouldn't need anything extra, like a driver. They're readily available at Radio Shack, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. They look like this (click on the picture to enlarge):

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If you can't find one long enough, just add a mini-jack extension cable, which is male on one end and female on the other:

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They come in various lengths and are relatively cheap. Just make sure the jack is stereo. It will have two rings on it, like this:

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If it only has one, it's Mono:

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[Sunlight Caller]

I bought a USB turntable, it wasn't too costly and did a pretty decent job. Have to be honest though and say its a lot easier to find that treasured vniyl already ripped by someone else and (cough) borrow the file. If it's not available in the shops I think this is fair game. I haven't actually converted anything for a while now, but had fun when the novelty first hit, and have rediscovered some real gems. There is a tape to USB device I have seen too, which I might pick up one day as have a lot of old compilation tapes I would like to copy for iPod use.

[ronmac]

If it's not available in the shops I think this is fair game.

Totally agree. It's simply more convenient than ripping your own copy. There's plenty out there that just aren't available and finding a rip helps. Then there are the needle-drop releases like "Animation." Why buy that when I can do my own better needle-drop? Do it right and I'll buy it. Stick me with a shitty needle-drop and I won't. Then there are releases like "Zoot Allures," which were bastardized for CD release. I was lucky enough to find a pristine copy of the vinyl and ripped my own. Saved me the hassle of settling for an inferior release. Once again, do it right and I'll buy it.

[rcarlberg]

Nothing tops Cool Edit Pro, when it comes to ripping vinyl on PC. I think it's called Adobe Audition by now and I'm still using its very first version (before they turmed it in a multi-track recording studio)...Not the same product -- although when Adobe bought CE they started incorporating some features of CE into Audition. Unfortunately Audition is built on a framework that is inelegant, glitchy, slow, counterintuitive and resource-intensive.

So it'll never BE as good as CoolEdit was... TEN YEARS AGO!

[rcarlberg]

But- but- if you transfer your vinyl to digital it will be DIGITAL!!! :O:O How would you even be able to listen to it then?? It's like eating a picture of a steak, right?? ;)
Black-and-white photos of steak are warmer.

[rapidfirerob]

I never could understand the desire to transfer what is already great sounding onto something less so. It's your thing. Do what you want to do. I can't tell you who to sock it to.

[rcarlberg]

I never could understand the desire to transfer what is already great sounding onto something less so. Yeah it'd be crazy to make an LP of a CD.

[enpdllp]

I never could understand the desire to transfer what is already great sounding onto something less so.

Have you considered that some LPs have not been released on digital format and some folks would like to listen to it on their portable devices?

[rapidfirerob]

Have you considered that some LPs have not been released on digital format and some folks would like to listen to it on their portable devices?
Yes, I have no problem with people doing it, if that's your pleasure.

[Serendipity]

I do it the old school way with a CD recorder, then burn the CD to a digital file. I know many will not agree with this approach, as it requires a CD recorder, blank discs, and adds a step to the process. But personally, it gives me the flexibility to record to CD (and ultimately to my iPod) whatever goes through my stereo amp: vinyl, cassette, VHS, radio broadcast, DVD, Blu ray, etc. I've used my machine (a Teac pro unit) for years, and I've never had a problem. The pro unit uses regular computer CD-Rs, which are cheap enough. And I don't have to bother with the hassle of software compatibility issues, etc. Again, just one man's approach.

[demonstar]

I do it the old school way with a CD recorder

Same here. I don't know how many records I've transferred to my iPod and I have many more left to do. It is my mission to one day have all of my music on it.

[rcarlberg]

It is my mission to one day have all of my music on it.Ambitious.

The only way I can stand listening to digital files of LPs is if I do substantial cleanup and FR/DR improvement first, and that takes so damn much time I've given up trying to do all the records I wanted to do. I made about a thousand CD-Rs before I wore myself out.

[ronmac]

I do it the old school way with a CD recorder, then burn the CD to a digital file. I know many will not agree with this approach, as it requires a CD recorder, blank discs, and adds a step to the process. But personally, it gives me the flexibility to record to CD (and ultimately to my iPod) whatever goes through my stereo amp: vinyl, cassette, VHS, radio broadcast, DVD, Blu ray, etc. I've used my machine (a Teac pro unit) for years, and I've never had a problem. The pro unit uses regular computer CD-Rs, which are cheap enough. And I don't have to bother with the hassle of software compatibility issues, etc. Again, just one man's approach.

Actually, that's at least two men's approaches. I do the same thing. Except, I actually still have a working BetaMax that I've also pulled audio from. :)