Converting Vinyl Records to CD - Comments Page 1

Hi Bob, This is a great idea and it serves several purposes. You make your vinyl records portable, but I think the most important aspect of conversion is that you preserve the records themselves from the constant playing. I also have the TEAC unit, but there is nothing that beats putting on one of my old (or new) vinyl records!

I have had much success with a program called Spin It Again by Acoustica. The program is reasonably priced at $34.95, user-friendly and what I like the most is that it is menu driven for a very easy to use program.

I want to thank you for your information and I will be adding a link to your site to my site: http://www.collectingvinylrecords.com

Bob, That was a great tip on turning vinyl in to CD's. Now what about turning casseate tapes into CD's and what do I need to do this?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The process is basically the same, except you plug your cassette deck into the stereo amplifier.

Actually Bob, to convert Cassettes you don't need an amplifier. You can plug the output from the Cassette deck straight into the sound card (with the appropriate cables)

Great instructions for something I've wanted to do for years with my extensive vinyl collection both LP and 45's. My only question: will this work equally well if I substitute a laptop for the desktop? Thanks, Bob.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, there's no reason a laptop wouldn't work for this.

Bob, It's not quite as simple as you've laid it out, as I've learned by transfering my vinyl to CD. Remember that the turntable can't tell when your computer has "stepped away" momentarily to multi-task something else. The result is skipped audio when the computer wasn't "listening." Resist the temptation to check e-mail while dumping in your old LPs, and close all programs to keep your CPU focused on digitizing the audio. Love the 'Bus.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Good advice, it's also helpful to have lots of RAM and a fast processor. :-)

I have been doing this for the last year. I use CD Spin Doctor 2 on my mac. It works great and the program is not expensive. I can check email or do any other tasks I want and not have to worry about not geting the entire record on my machine. Just buy a Mac and start transfering your records you PC guys!!!

Hi Bob, Great tips. I've heard the free AudioGrabber is good for Vinyl. The full version of Nero has functionality for recording Tapes and Albums to CD, removing tape hiss and some of the vinyl noise. Select the audio section and scroll right. Its part of SoundTrax

To digitize my favorite albums, I picked up a turntable from Radio Shack that has a build in preamp. My current amp no longer has Phono input jacks. Also it allows me to patch into the sound card directly, as Robert suggests. But keep in mind to do a test first to set your levels. You want to record a good signal but not chop your peaks. You may have to readjust periodically if you change genres too.

Been doing this for a couple of years now, and a great program to use for eliminating noise - rumble and hiss etc is WaveRepair it's a shareware program and well worth checking out. I actually bought it $US30.00 well worth it.

Hi - currently I am converting our "stock" of vinyl to CD, so have a few comments. You don't actually need an amplifier, what you need is a stereo pre-amp which is sufficient to boost the output of the pickup to the line level of the sound card. Also, unless you are heavily into nostalgia and want to keep the clicks, pops and crackles you might want to use an audio editor that is able to remove these. The latest (beta) version of Audacity has added this feature to its repertoire and seems to do a great job.

Hi Bob. Great article. Just a tip for ripping vinyl. The most important part of recording anything is the input level. Too little and you have to boost the level latter, giving you extra noise. Too much and you get a distorted over-driven sound. In either case you get a less than desirable Signal-to-Noise Ratio. You want the signal (of the actual music) to just hit the first notch in the RED on the highest/loudest spikes only. IOW just above the 0 Db. (zero decibel, 1:1 ratio) level. This gives the added benefit of plenty of headroom when ripping older scratched vinyl, to go back latter and cut the tops off any bad "pops and scratches" before you burn it to CD. Keep up the great work!