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DEL.ICIO.USHow to: From vinyl phonograph album to digital
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I still have a box of ancient vinyl phonograph records. While I do have a turntable from many years ago (actually a very nice one), I’ve never transferred the music to digital form.
Mostly that’s because it sounds like too much trouble to me. I can find almost anything I want - including the recordings on vinyl - as an MP3. So that’s the easy way out for me.
Many of my readers do want to transfer music from vinyl to digital form though. While I understand the theory of how to do it I’ve been reluctant to write about it because (1) without doing it myself I don’t feel comfortable just rewriting what someone else said and (2) to include all the gotchas and do a complete job - well, it would take more space that my print column allows.
But I have found a good link that will walk you through the process of making the transfer.
Since I’m no expert on the process, I’d be glad to hear - if some of you have done this - any suggestions, corrections or comments. Then, when I get reader e-mail asking how to do this, I can refer them to the archives here on the blog.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Do-it-Yourself Projects
Comments
By Patrick
February 6, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this
I have a program I bought extra called “Magix Audio Cleaning”, version 6.0 (I think). It is a GREAT program for converting your old vinyl albums to MP3 files, then ripping them to a CD. It even has a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to connect your old record player into the computer using the microphone line-in plug in the back, and then setting up the program to record the album. You can filter out a lot of the scratches, hisses, and pops associated with vinyl albums. You can also convert those old cassette tapes too! Remember all those “mix tapes” you compiled back in the 80s or 90s? Convert them.
The latest version is 11.0 and has a few more features. Click here for more details.
By Meg
February 6, 2007 11:00 AM | Link to this
thinkgeek.com sells a record player with a USB connection, it converts albums to MP3s.
By Bob
February 6, 2007 04:03 PM | Link to this
My sons gave me an ION turntable that connects via USB. It uses Audacity software that cleans, and converts the track to MP3. Learning curve is steep, but the final product is great.
By Sandra
February 6, 2007 07:55 PM | Link to this
Has anyone tried to record their vinyl albums to CD using a CD recorder instead of the computer? That is what we are trying to do—but not having much success. Anyone know how to do this?
By Andy
February 6, 2007 09:23 PM | Link to this
Sandra,
CD recorders need to record a lot faster than the record player can push out the music (think about how fast your CD recorder will rip a 4-minute song vs. how fast the record player has to play it). To keep the recorder from stalling (and making the CD unusable), you’ll need to first store the music to your local hard drive. If your hard drive isn’t big enough, I’d recommend getting an external drive for less than $100.
By David
February 7, 2007 07:07 AM | Link to this
After waiting 20+ years for some of my 80’s vinyl to show up on CD I decided to just go ahead and convert about 50 titles. It’s pretty cool how great some of this stuff can sound. I used a turntable I bought in 1986 with a stylus that’s probably 15 year old (not a great quality setup). Just hooked it up to my receiver and plugged the receiver into the back of my computer. It’s really that easy as long as you have the correct adaptor for the back of your computer (RadioShack has ‘em).
I recorded each album side as a big WAV file and then used free Audacity software to edit each song (just search Audacity… they offer their software free right on their site and it’s works like a charm). The only cleaning up I did was to zoom in on each song where there was a big click and edit it out (not hard). And I also faded out each song adding a bit of silence at the end so when a full album plays back there is no noise at all between tracks. I didn’t really try to use automatic pop/click cleaning because I wasn’t really happy with the results.
After I edited each WAV track I’d convert all the tracks to Mp3 and keep the WAVs as a CD that can be played in any CD player (and for backup). This whole process was a lot of fun, but then I’m a music fiend. It’s nice to have access to music I haven’t really listened to in years.
BTW, if you don’t want to bother with this process you might be able to find a long lost vinyl recording at one of the myriad of music blogs out there. Do a search for “sharity blog” and see what I’m talking about!
By Tim
February 7, 2007 07:43 AM | Link to this
For those that would like to transfer their old vinyl records to CD or to mp3, there is a turntable made with USB built in and can transfer directly to your home computer mac/pc. The turntable is made by Numark and is called TT-USB. It can be found for sale at most music stores including Sam Ash Music, Atlanta.