Vinyl to mp3

[thedwork]

as i type i'm making my first conversion of an LP to mp3 format w/ my audio-technica AT-LP60-USB turntable. won't know how (if...) it worked for another hour probably. the turntable came w/ a free Audacity program (an essentially free and basic home recording software program). if i did it right (doubt it ) it's pretty easy to set up. i seem to have levels and it's coming through my computer speakers so that's good.

anyone have one of these usb turntables? same model as mine? interested to hear advice, frustrations, etc... if it's half as easy as it seems to be so far, i'll be putting a good amount of vinyl into my ipod. gee... that's a wierd phrase: put vinyl into ipod

it is what it is.

[Chuck Nessa]

Can you go from vinyl to wav?

[BeBop]

Can you go from vinyl to wav?

Try http:\\www.nadelectronics.com and the bargain/quality PP-3 preamp.

(Sorry, I think I messed up that URL, but you get the idea- NAD Electronics)

[thedwork]

Can you go from vinyl to wav?

yes.

i just finished my 1st little converting session and it worked. took a little tweeking and a relatively short learning curve. audacity won't allow you to export as mp3 directly from the program onto your desktop without downloading some other program (believe it or not it's called LAME). but it allowed me to export as WAV and then i just clicked and dragged those from my desktop into my itunes program. those are less compressed anyway, right? so it's all good.

already synced it up and it seems to be fine.

i heard that WAV format is possibly harder for ipods to deal with and may be not good for their battery? anyone know anything about that?

generally very happy to have this capability. there are "editing" features in the audacity program as well. could get interesting...

Edited September 29, 2010 by thedwork

[papsrus]

WAV files are quite large, so will eat up iPod space much more quickly than mp3 files would.

[AllenLowe]

buy a copy of Wavelab Essential. It costs something like $89-$99 dollars. Record your tracks onto it. Save the tracks as Waves. Convert the tracks to MP3s, which Wavelab does beautifully with excellent sound.

[thedwork]

WAV files are quite large, so will eat up iPod space much more quickly than mp3 files would.

yeah, i hear you. but space isn't my issue. so the wav file being bigger (less compression, right?) is actually a plus.

my issue is that i read somewhere that wav files were not good for the lifetime of the ipod battery. i just bought my 1st ipod - a used 2008 classic/video. seems to be working fine and i assume i should be able to get at least 1-2 years out of it. it is true that when the battery dies on your ipod, that's it. pre-planned obsolescence, right? so i wanna have it last and if wav files hurt that, i'd rather stick w/ other formats. GB space - no problem. battery life - issue.

not trying to hijack my own thread

the main thing is that it seems that importing/converting vinyl to mp3/wav on your desktop is a snap. if i experiment w/ the "edit" functions on my vinyl wav files in the audacity program i'll post about it.

[Jim Alfredson]

Wavelab is a good program. Goldwave, which is free, also allows you to save in mp3 format.

[sonnymax]

...my issue is that i read somewhere that wav files were not good for the lifetime of the ipod battery...

I also have read that playing wav and aiff files can shorten the life of the iPod's battery. Both of these formats are uncompressed. Uncompressed files use more cache space then compressed files, forcing the hard drive to work harder to retrieve data. I recommend converting the wav files to either flac or aac files, or even mp3 at 320kbps. These formats are considerably smaller than wav files and still sound great. And although you say that storage space isn't an issue, it will be. You'll be surprised how quickly you can fill up an iPod with wav or aiff files.

Here's a link to other tips on maximizing your iPod's battery life

[Noj]

I'm in the process of transferring a bunch of reggae 45s directly from a Jamaican DJ courtesy of a friend of a friend. I'm using my Numark TTUSB with Audacity. It does a reasonably good job, though I find none of the noise removal tools are worth fiddling with. At most I'll pump up the volume a little.

Often I'll just google the track and see if someone else has uploaded a clean version before I bother to transfer.

[Tom in RI]

Is Goldwave free? I paid for my copy, serves as a frontend for the LAME encoder.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The only problem I can see with many of these USB turntables is that they seem to be entry level players with really bad cartridges/styluses. I wouldn't play my vinyl on the one I've seen in the local Newbury Comics. One play with that crappy stylus and you'd probably damage the record.

If I were to get one, it would probably be the Pro-Ject Debut III USB or the Music Hall USB-1. At least they come with a decent cartridge and even better, it can be swapped. Many of the really cheap ones come with a fixed cartridge.

[mjzee]

I take a more circuitous route. I record my vinyl using my normal turntable onto a good Marantz CD recorder (I'm told it has a good DA converter), then rip that CD and edit it using Amadeus Pro. I save the results as mp3 files and import them into iTunes.

[thedwork]

I take a more circuitous route. I record my vinyl using my normal turntable onto a good Marantz CD recorder (I'm told it has a good DA converter), then rip that CD and edit it using Amadeus Pro. I save the results as mp3 files and import them into iTunes.

that's a very good idea mjzee - and simple! i have a stand alone tascam cd burner that is super fine.

my first conversion using my usb turntable was cool, and pretty easy, but i wasn't able to adjust the input level - it seemed to be "set." and the level turned out to be pretty low compared to everything else in my ipod. not good. i assume/hope being able to control the level on my tascam would solve that problem. and while it may seem like an extra step to have to rip to cd first - and then to itunes - the cd burning is really just replacing the "burn" to audacity before it goes into itunes from there. the first step doesn't take any more time - it just takes place outside of the computer...

If I were to get one, it would probably be the Pro-Ject Debut III USB or the Music Hall USB-1. At least they come with a decent cartridge and even better, it can be swapped. Many of the really cheap ones come with a fixed cartridge.

i'm pretty sure the one i got has cartridges/stylus that can be replaced. seems pretty good so far. i'll have to check and make sure...

Edited October 3, 2010 by thedwork

[thedwork]

I take a more circuitous route. I record my vinyl using my normal turntable onto a good Marantz CD recorder (I'm told it has a good DA converter), then rip that CD and edit it using Amadeus Pro. I save the results as mp3 files and import them into iTunes.

that's a very good idea mjzee - and simple! i have a stand alone tascam cd burner that is super fine.

my first conversion using my usb turntable was cool, and pretty easy, but i wasn't able to adjust the input level - it seemed to be "set." and the level turned out to be pretty low compared to everything else in my ipod. not good. i assume/hope being able to control the level on my tascam would solve that problem.

it totally did solve that problem. i've burned a number of LPs onto cd and then ripped them into iTunes from there and they sound great.

thanks mjzee for the smart, simple solution!

[mjzee]

You're welcome!