Ripping Vinyl - will it ever be easy?

[zenpmd]

Will there ever be an easy way to do this? What is the current easiest way? I dont want to buy cds anymore; I am happy buying digital copies but that isnt always possible, therefore I'd like to buy vinyl for their beauty, rip it, and then do most of my listening to that digital copy.

 

Thanks!

[Jawaburger]

The easiest way I know of is to take audio out from your preamp/receiver into the mic input on your computer using RCA->3.5mm adaptor and use Audacity or Windows Sound Recorder to record the incoming audio. You can also try using a phono preamp with a USB out, like the NAD PP3 or the Rega Fono Mini, both of which have a passable ADC. I know the NAD comes with software for the record ripping; not sure about the Rega. Those are the easiest and cheapest routes, though maybe not the most desirable when it comes to quality.

[astrotoy]

The major problem with ripping vinyl is that everything is in real time or longer. So if you have a 50 minute LP, it takes at least one hour to do the ripping and the tagging of each side, longer if you want to separate tracks into different files. You can often find album covers on the net, but back covers and inserts, if you want them in your file are your responsibility - a camera probably is the easiest, flat bed scanners are hard to find that can do an entire album without stitching software. Also, many albums do not have timings for the length of sides. So either you have to sit there while the rip takes place, or set your alarm to remind you to check after 20 or 30 minutes to see whether the side is done. I believe that Pure Vinyl is pretty easy to use, though I have never used the current version. I have done more ripping than probably anybody else (10,000 albums over 5 years), but I don't do it the easy (or cheap) way.

 

Larry

[StephenJK]

Will there ever be an easy way to do this? What is the current easiest way? I dont want to buy cds anymore; I am happy buying digital copies but that isnt always possible, therefore I'd like to buy vinyl for their beauty, rip it, and then do most of my listening to that digital copy.

 

Thanks!

 

I record to a Korg MR-2000S digital recorder. It connects to a tape monitor loop of my preamp. I modified it to have a 320 GB drive instead of the 80 GB it came with. Recording at 1 bit/5.66 MHz takes about 1.2 GB for each LP. Recording is easy, just hit record and pause when flipping over albums.

 

All files are then transferred to my laptop. I then use Korg Audiogate to convert all the files to 24/96 FLAC. The album is now one big file.

 

That file is then brought into a program, VinylStudio. The program will do an Internet lookup for the album art and track information. If Rock and Roll, most are found. Classical, Jazz, obscure things are not. If not found, track information is entered by hand and the cover art needs to be done with a digital image of the jacket.

 

The program will do track breaks that need to be tweaked, as the track times don't allow for accumulated slippage due to space between tracks and runout grooves. That being said, it's not hard to do, simply drag the track break and/or delete long gaps - such as when you don't get back to the LP to hit the pause button for a few seconds or so.

 

You can then run a hiss/rumble/crackle filter to do a bit of cleanup. If anything, I use the crackle filter only. You can then save the album with the folder and naming convention that you want, and you're done.

 

The advantage of this setup is twofold. Firstly, I record without any hassle and using an extremely high quality ADC. Secondly, the task of recording and mastering is split. When mastering albums, that's all I'm doing and I can focus on that.

 

If you want to get into recording LP's, it's really dependent on how many albums you have and if you want to record them all. I've done about 800 now, all very high quality with 24/92 Flac as the final format. I do keep the original 1 bit/5.66 MHz files so that I don't have to worry about recording an album again.

 

The investment in the recorder was certainly worth it. It started when I found myself thinking about buying CD's of albums that I already owned because I was too lazy to get up and find the LP. Now, I just record my LP's, and focus on buying albums that I don't already have.

 

Hope this helps.....

[Guidof]

Easy, yes. But also time consuming (see astrotoy post above)

 

I use an ART USB Plus ADC. The output from the TT plugs directly into the ART, which pugs directly into the computer USB port. I use Vinyl Studio software to digitize and de-click to 24/192 resolution. OK, I'm cheap, but it's an inexpensive way to go, and the digital copies sound indistinguishable from the LP in my system.

 

Regards,

 

Guido F.

[StephenJK]

Easy, yes. But also time consuming (see astrotoy post above)I use an ART USB Plus ADC. The output from the TT plugs directly into the ART, which pugs directly into the computer USB port. I use Vinyl Studio software to digitize and de-click to 24/192 resolution. OK, I'm cheap, but it's an inexpensive way to go, and the digital copies sound indistinguishable from the LP in my system.Regards,Guido F.

Hey, it's whatever works for you! I've aways had a turntable in my stereo rack so my focus was on how to work something in as conveniently as possible.

[skolis]

I have done more ripping than probably anybody else (10,000 albums over 5 years),

 

Larry

 

That's astonishing! I just starting ripping my LPs using Vinyl Studio and that means I would have to spend 5 hours a day, 365 days a year for the next five years to catch up.

I think you win!

[Jabs1542]

Yes, Astrotoy wins.

 

I've done over a hundred now and would recommend VinylStudio as a minimum. Remember what you get out is only as good as what you put in, so take your time, focus on quality, and don't do so many in one session that you get sloppy. Another recommendation - do as good a job of record cleaning as you can before you record.

[skolis]

Yes, Astrotoy wins.

 

I've done over a hundred now and would recommend VinylStudio as a minimum. Remember what you get out is only as good as what you put in, so take your time, focus on quality, and don't do so many in one session that you get sloppy. Another recommendation - do as good a job of record cleaning as you can before you record.

 

Yeah I'm pretty impressed with VS and as I'm getting used to more and more of the features, pretty happy that so

far it can do everything I want ( and alot more.....) I'm cleaning with a VPI 16.5 which seems to work fine.

[Daudio]

recommend VinylStudio

 

Jabs,

 

Looks pretty good ! At first I had it confused with PureVinyl, which is a no-go for me.

 

Do you know if VS can import DSD files (Korg MR-1), edit, and save as PCM ?

 

TIA

[Audio_ELF]

No, because unlike ripping a CD there is no "perfection" only the options which suit your circumstances / budget.

[Jabs1542]

Jabs,

 

Looks pretty good ! At first I had it confused with PureVinyl, which is a no-go for me.

 

Do you know if VS can import DSD files (Korg MR-1), edit, and save as PCM ?

 

TIA

 

No idea about the DSD, I can only dream of recording in DSD

 

I rip straight to VinylStudio, I like the needle lift feature (though I did have to tweak it because it has a hard time with really good vinyl - it thinks the needle got lifted in between songs). The album lookup feature is pretty cool, it will give you all the tracks with an approximate location of the track splits so all you have to do is drag the handles around until the splits are where you want them.

 

When your ready to take it up a notch you'll find that clean up (pops, clicks, vinyl noise, etc) is MUCH better in Izotope RX (current version is RX4). Izotope allows you to prescreen and listen to what was REMOVED, which should be a bunch of crap but occasionally you will hear a tone, now you know how and where to adjust your filter - and there are lots of different filters. Speaking of filters, another cool trick is vinyl noise, if you have an album with really bad vinyl you can train the tool on a blank area (like between tracks) so it can learn the noise pattern, it will then make an inverse filter out of that so you can remove the vinyl noise. This noise filter is customized to that album, no generic filter here.

[Daudio]

I like the needle lift feature ...

 

Speaking of filters,,,

 

Yes, 'needle lift' to quiet track gaps sounds like a good idea.

 

But I'm not too interested in a bunch of filters. I practice a 'simplicity' approach to my audio, and I will probably only manually remove the most egregious clicks (those you can't hear through), and leave the rest untouched for a truer sound of my better (mostly classical) recordings.

 

Maybe, I might experiment a bit with the fewer, ordinary pop/rock/misc. records I have to digitize

[skolis]

Jabs,

 

Do you know if VS can import DSD files (Korg MR-1), edit, and save as PCM ?

 

TIA

 

This from an earlier article: "Thanks to Charles Hansen for the heads up on this news—AlpineSoft has added DoP (DSD over PCM) functionality to their VinylStudio vinyl ripping software (v8.6). Now you can rip your records to DSD (or PCM up to 32/384 if you prefer) on the cheap as long as you have a DSD-capable analog-to-digital converter (the Ayre QA-9 and the PS Audio NuWave Phono Converter happen to be two such ADCs). VinylStudio runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 / 8.1 and Macintosh and you can download a free trial version or buy it for $29.95 from alpinesoft.co.uk."

 

You'll have to experiment with the import and conversion but at least it's clear

VS recognizes DSD.

[firedog]

Not until there is some kind of online database with accurate track and timing listings of albums that you can download and that will divide/tag your recordings properly. In other words, no.

[StephenJK]

Not until there is some kind of online database with accurate track and timing listings of albums that you can download and that will divide/tag your recordings properly. In other words, no.

VinylStudio will access a number of online sellers and web sites, including Amazon in four different countries (maybe five?), Discogs, Freedb, etc. You can do a search for a specific catalog number if you like. With rock and roll I've found all except the most obscure titles. With Classical, it's difficult because there are so many different naming conventions for the same piece. Jazz and blues is better, but title specific. I would say the hit ratio is better than 90%. Remember, though, that titles were released by countries with sometimes different tracks or track orders as well as cover art. The database you're looking for would need to be more comprehensive than what a I suspect a non-commercial site would be willing to develop.

[JonP]

The major problem with ripping vinyl is that everything is in real time or longer. So if you have a 50 minute LP, it takes at least one hour to do the ripping and the tagging of each side, longer if you want to separate tracks into different files. You can often find album covers on the net, but back covers and inserts

 

I've always believed that you get what you pay for, whether that involves spending money or investing time. It took me several years to develop my vinyl transcription hardware and methodology to the point where I was satisfied with the result. It was only when I reached that point after investing many hundreds of hours in experimentation, self-education and of course hardware that I felt I had progressed sufficiently to actually start doing it. As one well-known audio engineer has stated, the devil is in the details.

 

I would be thrilled if the time investment needed to perform a satisfactory transcription of a reasonably pristine LP was 50 minutes. Thus far, it has taken me three years to do 157 titles. It might be slow, but I don't ever have to go back again wondering if I could have done better in the circumstances.

[coolsax01]

I believe that with 3D scanners progressively getting better we'll one day be able to scan the vinyl, then transform what it sees into digital audio.

[Skeptic]

I believe that with 3D scanners progressively getting better we'll one day be able to scan the vinyl, then transform what it sees into digital audio.

Laser Turntable | Laser Turntable Player | Laser Record Player

 

Edit: It now occurs to me that you perhaps meant being able to scan and extract the audio faster than real-time.

[coolsax01]

Laser Turntable | Laser Turntable Player | Laser Record Player

I have seen DIY laser players for way cheaper but you still have the issue where it takes forever.

[dtc]

Another Korg MR-2000/Vinyl Studio user. Works very well. My final files are very close to the original vinyl, but you also need the right DAC to get to that point. I record either as 2x DSD or 24/192.

 

If VS finds your album with track break timings and you do little or no cleanup, you can do the software work in 15 minutes or less. Even if it finds the timing, you need to adjust the exact timings, take out the led in, album flip, etc. But that is quick unless there are a lot of tracks.

 

Adding your own track breaks and track names is usually pretty straightforward and does not take that long. You can almost always find a track listing and cut and paste track names. If VS has trouble finding the right breaks, you can just look at the vinyl and estimate the timings. This is helpful if, for example, you have a classical album where two movements basically blend into each other or their are a lot of quiet passages.

 

 

I will say that for a really damaged record to what I call "headphone" clean, it can occasionally take several hours if you need to do a lot of manual fixes. That is unusual, but does happen. Using headphones gives so much more detail that fixing everything can take some time. VS is very good at fixing most things but does have some trouble with long lasting ticks and really damaged areas, but that is to be expected. Out of 150 albums, I have had three or four of those tough ones.

 

Since I have to be around during the digitizing, I do a lot of the software work while recording. I just set a timer to tell me to go flip the album.

 

If you have a PC with an analog input, I would try to record a couple of albums with the trial version of Vinyl Studio. You will probably want a better A to D in the long run, but that gives you an idea of the process.

 

Snow in Boston this year was great for my vinyl recording efforts. On good days, I would do 5 albums. Sunday football days are also good for doing the digitizing.

[jrflanne]

I rip to a Tascam DR-100II digital recorder and then use Vinyl Studio. I haven't delved into tick removal and that kind of stuff. Is VS what is used with OS X? It seems to be a bit of a pain but I am a severe newbie. The sounds is good though so I have no complaints of the results.

[skolis]

I rip to a Tascam DR-100II digital recorder and then use Vinyl Studio. I haven't delved into tick removal and that kind of stuff. Is VS what is used with OS X? It seems to be a bit of a pain but I am a severe newbie. The sounds is good though so I have no complaints of the results.

 

I've been using VS on a Mac for awhile now and it works great. It's actually not a "bit of a pain" once

you get beyond the "learning curve". At the beginning, I played with an album that I didn't care about just to see how it all worked. It's become so simple that I am usually multitasking alot of stuff while it's ripping.

The tick removal is also a snap. There are two options: manual and auto. Most of my albums are pristine.

I use manual if there's a odd problem or two - mainly because there will be only one or two pops that i want to fix.

There are a few albums that my wife owned ( we won't get into how she took care of them) that I "clean" using

the auto setting ( not unusual for it to "fix" over 1000 ticks or pops) . For this, it is just fantastic.

I'm not doing this everyday, but I've probably ripped close to a hundred since my first one - and that was in the fall.

Obviously, I'm a big fan.