[corkybstewart]

Vinyl to MP3 is a PITA.

Have you tried a USB turntable?

My turntable is a Thorens TD 160  I bought in 1972 with my first paycheck.  I bought a Roxio device for connecting it to my computer and converting the analog to mp3 so I can do that, it'll just take forever.  I guess I'll hook the laptop up in front of the TV and hope there's a decent game on TV tonight.

[narcout]

I recommend you do some research as to the bitrate you're going to rip to. 

I believe the iTunes default is 128 kbps.  It this is going to be your permanent archive, you might want to consider 256 kbps or higher.

[punatic]

I recommend you do some research as to the bitrate you're going to rip to. 

I believe the iTunes default is 128 kbps.  It this is going to be your permanent archive, you might want to consider 256 kbps or higher.

It's coming analog from vinyl.  256k is a waste of memory.

[corkybstewart]

Since the World Series went 11 innings I was able to rip 42 CD's.  That's better than I expected to do tonight.

[euge]

Since the World Series went 11 innings I was able to rip 42 CD's.  That's better than I expected to do tonight.

Woohoo! Ten percent!

If you want to do your vinyl you ought to consider using FLAC or at very least record them as .wav files. This should produce nice fidelity. Might necessitate the purchase of a new petabyte hard drive but at least memory is cheap these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lossless_Audio_Codec

[a10t2]

petabyte hard drive

I think you could probably reduce the bitrate a little and be OK. 

[morticaixavier]

I recommend you do some research as to the bitrate you're going to rip to. 

I believe the iTunes default is 128 kbps.  It this is going to be your permanent archive, you might want to consider 256 kbps or higher.

It's coming analog from vinyl.  256k is a waste of memory.

why do you say this? I would think coming from analog you would want the highest bit rate you could possibly fit on your harddrive! analog is essentially infinite bit rate as it is continuous rather than discrete.

[bo]

I recommend you do some research as to the bitrate you're going to rip to. 

I believe the iTunes default is 128 kbps.  It this is going to be your permanent archive, you might want to consider 256 kbps or higher.

It's coming analog from vinyl.  256k is a waste of memory.

why do you say this? I would think coming from analog you would want the highest bit rate you could possibly fit on your harddrive! analog is essentially infinite bit rate as it is continuous rather than discrete.

"Infinite" Lets not go crazy here.

[denny]

My turntable is a Thorens TD 160  I bought in 1972 with my first paycheck.  I bought a Roxio device for connecting it to my computer and converting the analog to mp3 so I can do that, it'll just take forever.  I guess I'll hook the laptop up in front of the TV and hope there's a decent game on TV tonight.

Spend $100 and get a real USB turntable.  It will come with software that will make your life easier.

[denny]

I recommend you do some research as to the bitrate you're going to rip to. 

I believe the iTunes default is 128 kbps.  It this is going to be your permanent archive, you might want to consider 256 kbps or higher.

It's coming analog from vinyl.  256k is a waste of memory.

Anything less than a 256K MP3 won't sound as good as the source.  Granted that vinyl isn't all that great, but why would you want to "dumb it down" even more?

[Joe Sr.]

Make sure you back up EVERYTHING.

I lost a HD a year or so ago and had not made a recent back-up of my library.  Talk about a PITA.

Every now and then I still come across an album that's missing.  And then I have to go and dig it out of the basement and rip it again.

[morticaixavier]

I recommend you do some research as to the bitrate you're going to rip to. 

I believe the iTunes default is 128 kbps.  It this is going to be your permanent archive, you might want to consider 256 kbps or higher.

It's coming analog from vinyl.  256k is a waste of memory.

why do you say this? I would think coming from analog you would want the highest bit rate you could possibly fit on your harddrive! analog is essentially infinite bit rate as it is continuous rather than discrete.

"Infinite" Lets not go crazy here.

Well, think about it, with an analog 'data' stream if you want to exactly represent every aspect of said stream you would need an infinite number of bits. if your sampling rate is say, and IANARE (I Am Not A Recording Engineer), 60 bits per second that means that every second you take 60 samples of what the sound is doing but if you double that to 120 per second you get twice as much info and you can continue to double that sample rate indefinetly until you run out of storage without ever getting the same sample twice.

[Joe Sr.]

Spend $100 and get a real USB turntable.  It will come with software that will make your life easier.

What software does/did yours come with?  

I've used Audacity and have to say it's got some pretty powerful features for editing audio.  And it's free.

Also, in your experience, do you think that the data transfer on the USB is superior than bringing the sound in through the microphone jack on the sound card?

In the past, I've run my old turntable through an amplifier and in through the mic-in.  Sound quality is pretty good, but I'm also dealing with some old old vinyl that has some warping and scratching.  I could also probably use a new needle.

And do you have a recommendation on a USB turntable?  When I looked at USB turntables a few years ago, my concern was that they seemed relatively cheap compared to the high-end turntable I bought oh so many years ago.

[denny]

and IANARE (I Am Not A Recording Engineer), 60 bits per second that means that every second you take 60 samples of what the sound is doing but if you double that to 120 per second you get twice as much info and you can continue to double that sample rate indefinetly until you run out of storage without ever getting the same sample twice.

Well, I am a recording engineer.  44.1K is the standard for CDs.  Most music these days is produced at a 96K sample rate and either 24 or 32 bits.  That's getting up there in terms of resolution.  So you can see that even a 256K MP3 is a vastly reduced sample rate, not to mention the data compression (like saying "hey, we don't think you can hear that so we're throwing it out") that they do.  But you're correct in that more is better.

[BrewingRover]

What Joe said about USB turntables. The ones I've looked at all came with Audacity. The pain for me is editing the metadata, not the sound input.