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ADC - Analog to Digital Conversion


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Does anyone have experience with the Pure Vinyl software for ripping LPs to digital? Are there less expensive alternatives that provide better quality or is Pure Vinyl the best I can expect in the $200-300 price range? I am obviously very curious just how well vinyl to digital conversions stack up to everything else in sound quality. Also is there some database (at least for the more popular LPs) that may contain album and track information that could be cut and pasted or imported somehow into the iTunes library? I believe someone recently posted a similar question regarding obtaining album and track information for CDs that have been ripped to a computer that is not always connected to the Internet. Out of ignorance I always just re-rip the CD when I'm connected but hopefully there is a more efficient way.

 

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Thanks Chris. I was able to get album artwork for many of my albums, which is something I never bothered to do before - nice. I also used the Get Info feature in iTunes and noticed that in addition to artwork there is a separate page tab for lyrics. Are there any albums that provide lyrics or is this a future iTunes feature or available only if you download the album from the iTunes store?

 

Unfortunately I did not get the CD track names for the albums whose info was missing since I must have used Cog or Play to rip some CDs to digital files that were then imported into iTunes. I believe iTunes requires that you use iTunes to rip the CDs in order to get track names or album artwork.

 

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I've never seen an album with lyrics on that tab before. Probably a future feature.

 

I think the tracks names only work if you have an entire album selected because of the way CDDB figures out what the album is. Not sure if you selected an entire album or just a track or whatever. I think albums should still get the info even if not ripped in iTunes. The info matches up with the total number of songs and the lengths of the songs and the length of the album etc... in order to provide the track and album info. This should not change no matter what ripper is used. Oh well, you gotta love technology.

 

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I started archiving my vinyl a couple years ago. I had read about Pure Vinyl in a couple audio magazines and jumped in. Being a novice I had some difficulties which the people at Pure Vinyl tried to help me with... it was "quirky". Pure Vinyl allows you to record directly to computer via an audio interface and apply the equalization in the software. You better have ample gain on the cartridge or an adjustable gain on the audio interface. The other way is to go through your preamp (with phono section) where the equalization curve is applied in the analog domain and you do not use the equalization feature of Pure Vinyl. The plus with Pure Vinyl, as I see it, is that if you have a number of LPs prior to the standardization of the RIAA curve, Pure Vinyl can apply the various equalization curves in the digital domain. You have to check with the record label to find out what equalization curve they used and then apply that in the Pure Vinyl software when you are recording. Most of my LPs are after the RIAA curve was standardized so that is not a great benefit for me.

 

Frankly I found the Pure Vinyl software cumbersome and difficult. Working with the sliding tonearm and making a "vinyl image" before you can work with the tracks was tedious, and frankly of no benefit as I can see. Removing ticks and pops by finding a similar waveform and cutting and pasting that in place of the tick was a PIA. Numerous posters in various forums have stated there is no difference in the SQ of the recording software. The main factor affecting SQ is the audio interface.

 

I started using Audacity, available as Freeware on line. Straight forward, easy to use, and you can do a whole lot more with your recording than with Pure Vinyl... fade in, fade out, tick and pop removal, normalize, etc. Normally my vinyl is in pretty good shape so I remove the pops individually within Audacity. But if you have an album with numerous ticks and pops and can't begin to remove each and every one individually I can recommend Click Repair (about $40 I think).

 

Also be aware there is a difference between home audio gear and pro audio equipment. Home gear uses a -10 dB level and pro gear uses +4 dB level. Unless your audio interface has a variable input and can make up that gain you'll need a level matching interface so the two can work together. I'm not a technical person so I'm sure there are others who can step in here and clarify/ correct what I've said. I'm just speaking from my personal experience.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

RHA

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Thanks RHA. I think some of my equipment is pro audio gear though I'm definitely not a pro at doing any of this stuff so I appreciate the help. I will try using the output from my phono stage into my Macbook Pro using Audacity to digitize some albums to 24bit/96kHz AIFF files. I also have a TC Electronics Konnekt 8 unit that is capable of 24bit/192kHz A2D that I will try to insert between my phono stage and Macbook for comparison. This kind of reminds me of diving off the high diving board - looks scary until you just do it and then you can't do it enough - lots of fun.

 

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Hi RHA, Audacity also has built in presets for equalisation for early LPs/78s, and RIAA, just highlight the audio then go to Effect>Equalization and select the desired curve from the 'select curve' drop down list near the bottom.

 

@ audiozorro, I would still recommend doing the eq via a pre-amp for RIAA though and only using the digital eq if really necessary for old records, since the phono signal straight into a line level input will be too weak and close to the background noise.

 

HTH.

 

Peter

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