Have any Dopers had experience with those machines that transfer vinyl records to CDs? There seem to be two kinds. One that costs around $400 that has a built-in CD burner and presumably filters scratch. The other kind, about half that needs a computer and outputs some kind of sound file, from which you can burn your own. Do you need (or do they supply) scratch filters? How good is the sound on those CDs, assuming the records are decent quality.
I have maybe 200 vinyl records, all between 40 and 55 years old. I have not listened to them for years. The record player is too hard to get too and CDs are just so much less effort, but if I could transfer them, I could listen to them.
I don’t have any personal experience with these, but I wouldn’t assume that these things always have scratch filters and the like in them. I’m sure the better ones do, but I suspect the cheaper ones don’t.
There are limits to these things, too. Let’s face it, you’re coming from vinyl. It’s very difficult sometimes for any sort of automated thing to determine if a particular pop is a defect on the vinyl or if it’s part of the original recording.
If getting a good quality recording off of these is very important to you, then I would take a very close look at the specs for whatever you are considering.
Also, make sure the turntable is belt drive (you get less motor noise from a belt drive turntable) and pay attention to the wow, flutter, and hum specs.
I did a very quick google search and most of the units that came up did not list the specs on the pages where they were being sold. You’ll probably have to go to the manufacturer’s web pages for any detailed specs.
I’ve got one of the second kind - it’s an ION. I had a bunch of vinyl that I wanted to include on our music player (everything on there is loaded as mp3s). To be honest, if it’s the only way you’re ever going to listen to the music, it might do, but the quality isn’t great. I paid less than £150 for the turntable/software so I wasn’t expecting much, but it does what I needed it to, and the end result was never going to be great quality in any case. I suspect if you pay more and investigate the specs a bit you’ll get better quality, but I’d be surprised if one of these things ever really satisfied a true audiophile.
You didn’t ask, but the process of ripping/burning/whatever you want to call it, is incredibly tedious and time consuming in the version I have. It was supplied with two versions of the software, one which supposedly identified breaks between tracks and one which requires me to add each track separately. The auto detect software I got was just rubbish, so I’m left with doing everything pretty much manually. It’s taking me a very very long time. I’m glad
I have it and I’ll be pleased when it’s done, but it’s a painful process.
I’m doing it right this second, just waiting for 'Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches" to finish. I’m using no special technology, just an analogue lead from the amplifier into the mic socket on the computer, and ‘Audacity’ which I downloaded for nothing. I eventually stopped trying to filter scratches as I think the results sound worse than before (obviously I’m no sound engineer). I’m going to convert them all into MP3s and I’m not that bothered about the sound quality - I just want to save some songs and albums that I might never get round to replacing once I get rid of the vinyl. As Charley said, you spend a lot of time splitting up tracks (though you could just keep each LP side as one track if you wanted to).
The one I mentioned comes with software which has filters for both records and cassetes. My LPs are in pretty good shape, but the cassettes were transferred from reel to reel tape in 1979, and were originally recorded in 1972. The CDs I burned from them sound great, far better than the original tapes.
I’ll try to find if the one I bought is still available, and will post a link if it is.
That was my experience also, though I recorded some of the tapes I transferred from the radio, so I don’t know how any program could tell track changes reliably. Traditional records worked ok, but I have some things where the change is arbitrary. I wouldn’t call it painful, but it was tedious. While recording, I wrote down the time for track changes. The software showed the waveform for the recorded album with where it thought track changes could go. From my times and the waveform, I could insert track changes pretty reliably. Perhaps I have a high threshold of pain.
Does the turntable to CD system let you adjust track breaks? If not, I’d consider that a serious weakness.
I was one of the idiots who paid out $150 for an ION USB turntable. But I liked it.
There was a minor damage thing during shipping that occurred, so I sent it back. They sent me a replacement. It was an upgrade to the next model.
I loved it.
The original was good. Also came with Audicity software, but it was good enough. The replacement was WAY better. I’m no professional audoiphile, but I’m impressed with what I can do with the sound cleanup. I like leaving the scratches and skips (sometimes) in there, because its got the real vinyl feel. But i can also control the song combos (like Judas Priests’ *The Hellion *and Riding on the Wind, or Van Halen’s *Eruption *and You Really Got Me.
Maybe so, but I (and apparently many others) have been very happy with how ClickRepair addresses this task. The software’s creator, Brian Davies, is a mathematics professor who has taken a very scientific approach to all of this.
ClickRepair is a cross-platform solution for removing pops, clicks and “crackle” from vinyl. It completely automates the task…you load your digitized recording, and it gives you a visual representation of every unwanted artifact it finds.
You can listen to your recording as is, then instantly switch to the “post processing” mode to hear what it sounds like with the clicks removed – pretty dramatic if you’re processing a really beat-up record. You can even just listen to the clicks themselves. Or you can turn all audio off, which speeds up the processing well beyond real-time.
If you’re feeling particularly geeky, you can use ClickRepair in manual mode, and see a waveform to assassinate individual clicks. But I’ve never felt the need to do this – I’ve been very happy with the results in automatic mode.
Uber audio geeks will go on about the source material being adversely affected, but for normal human beings with non-dog-like hearing, I really think this is the way to go.
Vinyl records don’t have the dynamic range of a reel-to-reel or a CD but converting them to CD is an economical way to transfer 200 albums worth of music. It would cost $2,000 if each CD was purchased at discount.
I have transferred maybe 500 LPs to digital files (including burning some CDs) using a Numark USB turntable (it’s similar to the ION, but more solidly built in my opinion). Used with Audacity software, it’s been an easy process (once I got a bit of experience with it) and the results are great.
I stopped using the Audacity noise filtering function because at levels capable of really reducing scratch and hiss it also noticeably distorted the music (piano sounds were most affected). I edit out significant scratches and pops manually, which can be time-consuming if the record is in mediocre or poor shape. It’s very satisfying though to take a battered recording and clean it up to the point where it sounds good again.
If your records are in decent shape and you don’t care about removing minor defects, the process goes quickly (I can record albums in 45 rpm and then rapidly switch them back to 33 rpm once the recording is done, which saves time).
One thing I discovered is that classical music records, whether from your own collection or purchased used, can be a major pain to transfer to digital files. Every scratch is distracting when the music is very soft, a problem that doesn’t crop up much with AC/DC.