Recording LPs to CD

sda2mike

I have a proposition for anyone who might be interested...I have a lot of LPs that I can't find on CD..To reduce shelf space and clutter :eek: I have retired my turntable...My pitch: Would anyone be interested in recording say 30 to 50 LPs, in a high quality format, in exchange for the LPs? I'll send the LPs & CDs, you just devote some tweaking and time..

ledhed

What type of LPs? What bands and styles?

audiobliss

And could whoever do it expain how they did it so I might could try it with some of our LPs? I assume it'd be a similar process with cassettes to CDs, and I'd actually be much more interested in that.

Sami

LP to phono in (pre), then from pre line out to sound card line in.

audiobliss

Well, I've figured that much out before. The next problem is what program to use? What kind of compression/file format to use? How to edit the recordings and edit out gaps and such.

jcaut

It's not particularly hard to do- It's just the time that it would take to do a good job would be substantial. The quality you could expect would be primarily dependent on the cartridge/turntable and phono-preamp that would be used in making the recordings, and on the condition/cleanliness of the records themselves. Most decent .wav editors have some provisions for noise and pop removal, but they usually degrade the sound in some other way, and should be used sparingly. For recording to CD, I don't believe there would be any advantage in recording at higher quality than 16-bit, 44.1Khz wav.

Any good .wav recording and editing application could be used. There's a good one that comes with the full Nero package. Goldwave is a good one, but it's not free. Audacity is another one-- I think it IS free. I'm too lazy to search for links right now, but they should be easily Googled.

Jason

heiney9

To do it correctly is time consuming. I wouldn't use a computer sound card if it can avioded. I have in the past with old cassettes and it's worked out alright but I was just fooling around. My brother recently transfered a huge bunch of old 12" dance mix lp's and it took him almost 2 months to get it done so it would sound great.

He has the huge advantage of having a Denon home cdr unit in his main rig. He also has a great TT & cartrdige so he just burned them using the home unit and then ripped the .wav files to his computer to clean them up. This is the best way to get the best results.

You could get a phono pre-amp and feed the signal into you computer via the sound card and then use editing software to clean it up and mark track indexes etc. You would need a fair amount of HD space to do any editing on a large scale, also a pretty fast machine or you will be there for hours working on each individual track. This method is less desireable unless you have a really good sound card, IMO.

This would definetly be a labor of love for anyone who takes it on and wants to do it properly. There are really no short cuts. Everything has to be done in 'real time', until you are ready to burn the finalized tracks.

H9

audiobliss

heiney9 wrote:

Everything has to be done in 'real time', until you are ready to burn the finalized tracks.

H9

Yeah. That stinks. Good thing I'm not into high fidelity and thus can take shortcuts!!!

jcaut

Heiney is right, and that's the way I've done some of my personal ones in the past: Burn to a CD-RW with the home component CDR deck, rip to wav files on the computer with EAC, then edit, track, index, whatever-- then burn to CDR. Very time consuming, but the results are good. I've never tried it direct to computer, but if you have a pretty good soundcard you still should get good results. Depends on how picky you are, I guess.

Jason

Polkersince85

That's what I do, I've got a Harman/Kardon CDR26 that has a set of analog inputs and settings/VU for analog recording. Labor intensive but works great.

neomagus00

yeah, you need a pretty bitchin sound card to get this to work, cause i'd say you should record at 96kHz, 16 bit... some of the editing you'll do can cause high-frequency artifacts, at the very top end of the sampling rate... so you do your editing in 96kHz (which takes twice as long for every operation to process, which sucks), then resample to 44.1kHz at the very end... and i like goldwave, it's free for 3000 operations (this includes zooming and such)...

Polkersince85

Another option I use for general listening is recording to a VCR. I have a Sony PCM 501ES PCM Modulation Processor. You feed the Phono into the Sony, it converts it to PCM code and then outputs this code to a HI-FI VCR. Playback is the reverse. Don't underestimate the SQ. A couple of hours or more of decent background music comes in handy sometimes.

DAGLJAM6

Try this software: http://www.polderbits.com/index.html
You get a free 2 week trial plus you can extend that another 2 weeks.
Pretty straight forward and decent transfers. If nothing else you can see if you want/need a program with more bells and whistles I found that it seems to have just enough additional editing sub-programs (Filters for pop and crackle etc.) without being to demanding on processor speed and/or my patience factor.

sda2mike

ledhed wrote:

What type of LPs? What bands and styles?

i'll post a list tomorrow

sda2mike

for those who might be interested...here's the list of lps i'd like to record to cd....thanks!

john lee hooker....best of (2lps)
cream....best of
clapton....behind the sun, eric clapton ('70)
10cc....bloody tourists
roy buchanan....dancing on the edge, my babe
koko taylor....the earthshaker
bto....not fragile
jeff beck group
beck, bogert, appice....live (2lps)
gregg & duane allman....(debut?)
duane allman....anthology (2lps)
johnny winter....guitar slinger, nothing but the blues, first winter
michael bloomfield....(analine)
blues image....open
blues explosion....9-25-82 (w SRV)
jethro tull....benefit, live (2lps)
bob seger....night moves (original master recording)
rory gallagher....blueprint, jinx
king crimson....in the wake of poseidon
ace frehley
james gang....rides again, straight shooter, live
frank zappa....waka jawaka
robin trower....BLT
bach....motteten (digital recording from '80)
ted nugent....tooth fang & claws (w/ the amboy jukes) cat scratch fever, double livegonzo(2lps)
grover washington jr....reed seed
steve morse....the introduction
poco....legend, live (2lps)
traffic....john barleycorn, low spark
hot tuna....final vinyl
van morrison....wavelength
neil young....everybody knows this is nowhere
mark knopfler....local hero
weather report....mr gone
muddy waters....live @ mr kellys
albert collins....frozen alive
atlanta rhythm section....champagne jam
albert king....years gone by

ledhed

Geez, I have all I need (It would give me a good excuse to buy the M-Audio "Audiophile" soundcard) even the software (Just got it) AND, I like your collection but, I have four videos I have to do, add school and moving my sister into college (In BOSTON) and it means I am covered up. I would have loved to help you out though.

heiney9

SDA2MIKE,

In all seriousness, you'd be much better served to just buy these on CD. If you can have some patience you can get them used or whatever. The amount of time it would take to transfer these would not be worth it plus the quality will never be up to CD versions. Obviously if there are LP's that are out of print then by all means transfer those otherwise unless you are seriosuly strapped for cash get the CD versions.

FWIW, IMO

H9

sda2mike

heiney9 wrote:

SDA2MIKE,

In all seriousness, you'd be much better served to just buy these on CD. If you can have some patience you can get them used or whatever. The amount of time it would take to transfer these would not be worth it plus the quality will never be up to CD versions. Obviously if there are LP's that are out of print then by all means transfer those otherwise unless you are seriosuly strapped for cash get the CD versions.

FWIW, IMO

H9

thanks, h9
i was hoping to avoid the poor lp to cd transfer that the factory puts out on some of the less popular titles. half or more in my list are out of print, that's for sure...i didn't realize it was such a process. gotta cruise the flea markets

madmax

Sent you a PM.
madmax

sda2mike

madmax wrote:

Sent you a PM.
madmax

Hey Madmax!
I rcvd your PM...I'm having trouble replying..Must be a security thing @ work...Most of the LPs are in real good shape....Some may not be playable on your equipment...I'll let you make tht call...PM with your shipping address and I'll send 'em out this week..
Thanks!
Mike

heiney9

sda2mike wrote:

Hey Madmax!
I rcvd your PM...I'm having trouble replying..Must be a security thing @ work...Most of the LPs are in real good shape....Some may not be playable on your equipment...I'll let you make tht call...PM with your shipping address and I'll send 'em out this week..
Thanks!
Mike

Max steps up to the plate..........and hits a home-run

H9

sda2mike

madmax wrote:

Sent you a PM.
madmax

AWESOME system, BTW!!!!

madmax

heiney9 wrote:

Max steps up to the plate..........and hits a home-run

H9

As you said below, it is a labor of love. Certainly more hassle than it's worth but that is part of the hobby. Besides, it will be interesting to see what I can get out of those old grooves.

sda2mike

madmax wrote:

As you said below, it is a labor of love. Certainly more hassle than it's worth but that is part of the hobby. Besides, it will be interesting to see what I can get out of those old grooves.

I got your PM...When you get 'em, take your time...I'm in no hurry...No way can I listen to that many at once!
Thanks!
Mike

heiney9

madmax wrote:

As you said below, it is a labor of love. Certainly more hassle than it's worth but that is part of the hobby. Besides, it will be interesting to see what I can get out of those old grooves.

There certainly are some 'gems' in there....have fun . Out of curiosity have you given thought to how you want to transfer them?

Keep us posted it should be an interesting process.

H9

madmax

heiney9 wrote:

Out of curiosity have you given thought to how you want to transfer them?

Keep us posted it should be an interesting process.

H9

Pretty much I will go through my existing system except instead of going through the Jolida amp I will grab the output right at the phono pre-out and go directly into a stand alone CDR recorder. If I find I need more dynamics I will run through the Audible Illusions preamp between the phono pre and CDR.

Scratches and pops are sometimes unavoidable but with my new additions to the phono setup (the new cart and phono pre) I hear very little surface noise on even poor pieces of media. Also, by cleaning the lp's and treating the static a lot goes away. We will have to see how much shows up on the CD. Of course a little tweaking with my array of EQ's and such could be an option. I want to stay away from the sterile sound you get when everything is processed one way or another. I'm going to try and get it to sound like the LP should have through great equipment.

Overall, my idea behind recording is not necessarily to "clean up" the recording so much as to capture it's sound when reproduced by high end equipment.

madmax

sda2mike

madmax wrote:

Pretty much I will go through my existing system except instead of going through the Jolida amp I will grab the output right at the phono pre-out and go directly into a stand alone CDR recorder. If I find I need more dynamics I will run through the Audible Illusions preamp between the phono pre and CDR.

Scratches and pops are sometimes unavoidable but with my new additions to the phono setup (the new cart and phono pre) I hear very little surface noise on even poor pieces of media. Also, by cleaning the lp's and treating the static a lot goes away. We will have to see how much shows up on the CD. Of course a little tweaking with my array of EQ's and such could be an option. I want to stay away from the sterile sound you get when everything is processed one way or another. I'm going to try and get it to sound like the LP should have through great equipment.

Overall, my idea behind recording is not necessarily to "clean up" the recording so much as to capture it's sound when reproduced by high end equipment.

madmax

wow! what luck! this site has been invaluable!