Transferring LP to CD and Computer

[porcy62]

I have a fairly collection of LPs, I would like to tranfer some of them on CD, don't really need some expensive stuff, neither I need a hi-rez or huge quality. I need the CDs for my car stereo and to burn some CD for a friend who plays trumpet.

I guess I need a stand alone A/D converter with pin-jack or XLR imputs, from my preamp, and an USB output (to my Apple laptop), and a free software to record on hard disk. Any suggestions?

[Claude]

What is your budget?

Stand alone A/D converters are rare. I would recommend getting a good external sound card.

Why do you need XLR inputs? This will limit the choice to professional equipement.

Edited February 4, 2009 by Claude

[porcy62]

Thanks Claude!

I mentioned XLR because I have both outs (Balanced XLR and unbalance pin jack) on my preamp.

Would an external sound card do the job? I presume sound cards come with their own software, am I right?

About the budget, very low budget.

[Claude]

If your laptop does not have audio inputs (very often only a microphone input is available), or if the sound quality of the built-in sound chip is poor, you need an external soundcard, which is an A/D and D/A converter combined.

I don't know much about Apple, so can't give recommendations about hardware or software. The sound card will need to come with Apple drivers.

[porcy62]

  Claude said:

If your laptop does not have audio inputs (very often only a microphone input is available), or if the sound quality of the built-in sound chip is poor, you need an external soundcard, which is an A/D and D/A converter combined.

I don't know much about Apple, so can't give recommendations about hardware or software. The sound card will need to come with Apple drivers.

Thanks!

[porcy62]

Have the common soundcard both an USB and a FireWire sockets to connect to the computer, and do they need any external power supply?

[Jazzjet]

  porcy62 said:

I have a fairly collection of LPs, I would like to tranfer some of them on CD, don't really need some expensive stuff, neither I need a hi-rez or huge quality. I need the CDs for my car stereo and to burn some CD for a friend who plays trumpet.

I guess I need a stand alone A/D converter with pin-jack or XLR imputs, from my preamp, and an USB output (to my Apple laptop), and a free software to record on hard disk. Any suggestions?

Personally I would recommend buying an ION USB turntable for the job. As for the software, I use CD Spin Doctor which comes as part of the Roxio Toast package as this works well for me. If it has to be free, Audacity is very good.

[sidewinder]

  porcy62 said:

Would an external sound card do the job?

I've used an external Soundblaster card via USB to DIN converters to reasonably good effect porcy. It seems to function best with the internal MC boards still in situ in the pre-amp. Good results at 24 bit/96 kHz.

Edited February 4, 2009 by sidewinder

[Claude]

  Jazzjet said:

Personally I would recommend buying an ION USB turntable for the job. As for the software, I use CD Spin Doctor which comes as part of the Roxio Toast package as this works well for me. If it has to be free, Audacity is very good.

I assume that he already has a good turntable and phono preamp. So it would not make much sense to rebuy a lower quality turntable with built-in preamp and soundcard. A soundcard will be enough to complete the setup.

[mjzee]

For Mac software, I can highly recommend Amadeus Pro. It's not free, but it's relatively inexpensive ($40), and does a great job. The owner/programmer is accessible, and does listen to suggestions.

[JohnS]

  sidewinder said:

  porcy62 said:

Would an external sound card do the job?

I've used an external Soundblaster card via USB to DIN converters to reasonably good effect porcy. It seems to function best with the internal MC boards still in situ in the pre-amp. Good results at 24 bit/96 kHz.

I have an onboard soundblaster so I can confirm what Sidewinder says. It does just about everthing I need. In fact I just run a lead from my headphone socket. Works extremely well for me.

[Shawn]

If you have a regular line out jack on your pre-amp you shouldn't need to buy anything, just run it directly into your soundcard.

I use a Soundblaster Audigy card and have had good results with it.

[jazzbo]

I'll say he has.

[Shrdlu]

I have had excellent results just hooking my turntable up to the line-in on the computer, using Musicmatch (software). You need a booster amp between the turntable and the computer - you can get those at hifi stores. And, you need to run a ground wire directly from the turntable to the computer chassis, or you will have hum city. To do that, I just poke the wire through one of the holes in the back of the computer.

The results sound better than any CD reissue, whatever the intials of the reissue; that remark even covers the Japanese CDs. Only problem, LPs crackle.

[Stonewall15]

Check-out the TEAC LP-R400 Turntable. This a stand-alone LP to CD converter unit. It has a manual track advance feature which is necessary when recording LPs to CD. The unit will also record from radio. The cost is around $300 but is well worth it if you have a lot of LPs that you want to transfer to CD.

[Enterprise Server]

You can go to somewhere like Fry's and get an A/D converter with a USB output to you PC (or laptop). You can then load your old VHS/ Beta tapes to your hard drive and use the applicable software to edit the video for a DVD burn.

[zootsi]

Here's a very inexpensive and simple way to convert vinyl to cd:

1. Using your stereo system, record your album onto a cassette.

2. Download a free copy of Audacity software onto your pc, and get familiar with it's features.

3. Connect a good quality boom box to your computer. Just get a stereo mini patch cord , plug one end into the boom box earphones out, the other end into the pc's line in or mic in.

4. Use Audacity to record the music form your cassette, saving it as an mp3 file.

I've done this for many of my vintage lp's, and it works great. It's a slow processs, and the fidelity is fair to middlin' but it's totally free, and quite simple.