Converting LPs to CDs - anyone with experience and/or advice?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have about 250 record albums and I’d love to get them on an iPod or CDs so I can listen to them in the car. I figure I can find all kinds of stuff with a quick Google search, but I’d really appreciate any advice on what to look for and what to look out for. What devices should I consider and which should I avoid, either by type or brand? Are there things I can do to get the best possible results? I know some of my albums are in sad shape - I’m not expecting crystal clear sound… unless maybe there’s some anti-pop software or something?

Oh, to hear my Cowsills albums again!!!

:smiley:

2

do you have a working turntable and stereo or only records?

3

I’ve got a turntable and stereo, but to be honest, it’s been ages since I’ve turned it on, so it may well be dead or full of mice or something. Or it might be fine, since it’s in a cabinet.

4

Can you output the stereo to the computer’s sound card? Should be pretty easy. A headphone output jack would do the trick.

5

I bought a turntable with a USB plug and software for around $100. Worked great!

6

Honestly, I would think about re-buying them on iTunes or Amazon (if they are available, that is). Not only will you have to spend 250 hrs to record the albums into your computer, you would probably need more time than that to clean up, tag and catalog these recordings. Sound quality will be better the more time you are willing to spend on it, as there is no single button that will magically fix all the errors. If you are willing to invest the time, getting a USB turntable with appropriate software is indeed the best option.

7

This! The Ion Turntable, with USB connection. Use the “Audacity” software, which is (I believe) free. The whole thing works great. I’ve done over a hundred LPs this way.

Ion also has a cassette tape USB device, which is super.

Audacity has click-removal features, and also functions to correct for speed, pitch, and other problems.

8

I have a little device which connects the audio out of my amp to the usb of my laptop, and so works for both LPs and cassettes. It comes with filtering software which works great, and which also lets you set track boundaries for some tapes where they are far from obvious. I had a bunch of tape which I recorded reel to reel in the early 1970s and moved to cassette in 1978 and moved to CD in 2008. They sound great. (Some are very rare, like stuff on Dylan bootlegs still not yet officially released.)

Unfortunately this little box seems to no longer be sold. I saw an LP to CD system in Half Price Books for $75, but don’t know how good it is.

How does the phonograph to CD system work for records where the tracks merge seamlessly into one another? Does there have to be a gap to set the tracking correctly?

9

Another thumbs up for the Ion turntable. It works great and I’ve been able to listen to several dozen out-of-print albums for the first time in decades since I got one last March.

10

I use something similar, an Audio Technica turntable into USB and PC, then into Audacity for clean up and tidy up. It works well, but takes a little practice to make it sound good. I’ve converted a bunch of my old LPs into CD and once you get the hang of it it’s fairly quick. You can then import the CDs, which I do so that I have a physical copy of the music.

11

Seriously. Think about how many hours you will have to devote to this project, and whether it’s worth it to record copies of the songs you own vs. getting pristine digital versions of them from internet sources. My guess is the vast majority of your LPs are available on line. I suppose it would save some money if you could copy off your LPs. But they will sound awful and it will take many hundreds of hours to record, tag and file all these LPs. Is there some reason you want copies of those specific LPs? I wouldn’t bother getting a USB turntable if you’ve got a stereo with headphone out jack. That can go straight to your computer’s soundcard input. But do you know how to use recording software to make MP3 files and software to tag them with song title/album? And you realize you are going to have to stay right there and babysit each album as it records, right? I wonder if there are taping/duplicating companies in your area that could do this for you, and how much it would cost. What you want to do is a pretty big project.
It can be done, though. I have made digital audio recordings from cassette tapes and video tapes. I have a home recording studio, though, which makes these things a bit easier.

12

I used my existing stereo setup. Purchased a new drive belt, and new needle for the turn table. I also purchased a pci sound card for my computer and a cable with RCA plugs on one end and a mini plug one the other. I used a free copy of Audicity and spent the winter converting my records to cdx and mp3 formats.

13

Can’t believe I forgot I’d started this thread… sorry.

To address the questions of my doing it myself - time isn’t an issue. I’m not under any deadline and frankly, I haven’t heard many of these albums in years, so listening will be enjoyable. I may also find out that music I once loved is, in fact, terrible, so by screening as I go along, I can edit my collection. Also, some just aren’t available on line - I did have some unusual preferences 40 years ago. And I see no reason to pay someone else to do something I’m capable of doing. Like I said, time isn’t an issue.

Anyway, I appreciate the information. One further question - anyone know anything about NCH Software Golden Records? I read a little about it on line and it seems to be promising.

Thanks again for the responses!

14

Don’t have specific experience with that NCH product, but I do with other software they offer, and I was NOT impressed.

Someone upthread mentioned Audacity, which is free shareware, and it is very very good.

To me, the question is not about paying someone else to do the work, but about what kind of quality reording you end up with.

I wouldn’t buy a new turntable untill you listen to your oldest albums and decide if they are still in good enough shape to re-record.

On the stereo, you need to look for a pair of connectors most likely labeled “line out”. They will probably look like this. The white is the left channel and the red is the right channel. Most likely your computer has a different kind of line in – like this.

Here’s where you’re going to run into your issue. Many computers’ line inputs are mono - only one channel, not two. The connector looks the same in both cases. You will have to look at your computer’s documentation to figure out which yours is.

If you computer has a mono line input, then you have a choice. You can still use your old turntable, get what’s called a y-connector cable to run both chennels together into one, or you can start buying more stuff to get two channels into your computer.

How about looking at your stereo and PC and letting us know how you want to proceed. If your stereo doesn’t have a line out (pretty unusual but not unheard of), you’ll need to buy a new turntable with a USB output, and if you do that it will also make irrelevant the question of whether your computer’s “line in” jack is stereo or mono.

If you have a mono “line in” on your PC but insist on stereo reording, the new turntable with USB is also your best bet.

If you have a stereo line in out on your player, and a stereo line in on your PC, you just need a cable to connect the two, you need to download Audacity, and you’re set to go.

Let us know how you want to proceed, and I can post some more info.

15

If your computer lacks a stereo line in, you can get an external interface, like Griffin’s iMic. Much cheaper than replacing your turntable. All of the filters I’ve tried seem to distort the sound, I’ve found that I get better results by not filtering the audio and manually removing the clicks and pops in quiet passages in Audacity (you can zoom in far enough to see the individual samples and change them by dragging them, it’s pretty cool).

16

I’ve done lots of vinyl to PC/CD conversions using an old style turntable and stereo amp with it’s tape out connected to line in of the PC. Audacity is my preferred program.

The results have been perfectly acceptable though obviously dependent on the condition of the records and not as good as a ripped CD. If money is more of an issue than time, I’d say it’s well worth it. There is a bit of a learning curve but if you are doing this regularly it will get quicker. Expect to waste a fair amount of time correcting mistakes.

It’s very important to get recording level and left/right balance right. Set levels for the loudest section and leave them for the whole recording. (much easier if you know your records) Fortunately, LPs always seem to be the same loudness on both sides.

For LPs, (in Audacity) using the label track and “export multiple” creates separate named files for each track and basic tag data can be added as you go or use Musicbrainz Picard on the files to get fuller data. I settled on exporting as flac to use as back-up and then creating MP3s for portable players; this way I can choose different compression levels for smaller devices, though capacity is less of an issue nowadays.

Processing after recording always had noticeably detrimental affects on sound quality for me so I just deal with the loudest scratches. They are clearly visible as spikes in the waveform which you can zoom in on and redraw the wave. (Or delete a few samples or force silence or reduce volume - all seem undetectable in the finished file, being only milliseconds long.)

Listening to the finished products with the familiar minor pops but not the really disturbing ones took a bit of getting used to but is very satisfying, and a whole lot more convenient than vinyl records.

ETA: didn’t know about the mono only computer input possibility. How cheapskate can they get? Come to think of it, when I first did this (over 10 years ago) I built a pre-amplifier to increase the signal level from the amplifier because the sound card wasn’t sensitive enough. Didn’t have that problem with other PCs.

17

I think it would be at least half as much work to go through the albums, list the songs, search and find them on Amazon or another site, and purchase them. Plus, at 99¢ per track, and an average of 12 tracks an album, we’re talking maybe $3000 for those 250 LPs.

18

The one question I have is, what prep should be done to the albums before tossing them on the USB turntable? It’s been an eon since I’ve cleaned an LP.

19

It’s not a quick and easy process. But well worth it for stuff that isn’t available in current formats.

20

I love the post, but I have to say, from what I understand, this is absolutely a very VERY bad idea. Maybe it won’t fry the tt outputs, but it sure might, as I understand. Maybe as a last dtch effort. I have fried one piece of equipment I liked doing this, and who knows what all else has been shortened in lifespan buy using a y splitter as a mixer.

Am I wrong?