Best Way To Rip Analog LP To Music Library?

[john2in3]

I did a quick search and didn't see anything so pardon me if I missed it. But what is the best and easiest way to rip your LPs to your music library (iTunes)?

 

Here is how I do it-

 

I have a audio component that is a CD burner, it connects just like a tape deck.

 

step 1- Burn my LP side 1 to a track on an audio rewriteable CD-RW

step 2- Burn LP side 2 to a second track on the Audio CD-RW

step 3- use exact audio copy to get 2 WAV files onto PC

step 4- edit wave files to get individual songs, remove bad pops/clicks.

This step 4 is what is taking too long I am wondering if there is a better way to speed this up.

step 5- save individual tracks as .aif files with proper track number and song name in the file title.

step 6- drop tracks into "add to iTunes" folder

step 7- open iTunes and select songs; add album title and artist since iTunes will not do a lookup.

 

step 8- do a complete erase of the optical media and start over.

 

It seems to me that there has to be a better way. I have less than 100 albums so while this is kind of a pain, I can slog through it eventually. But I know people with multi hundreds of albums and am wonderin what they did.

 

-thanks

 

 

 

[docdan50]

I take record out from preamp to apogee duet ad/da 2 channel converter to mac. I use cd spin doctor to record and then cut up the tracks. I record in 24/96. Works great.

 

 

 

[audiozorro]

In the old days of R2R and cassette decks we just recorded LP side 1 to tape, flipped the LP and recorded side 2. We didn't split up the LP to get individual songs or to label individual tracks. Pops or clicks were usually not a problem with new or clean records and stylus.

 

Nowadays I use virtually the same process in digitizing LPs with my Korg MR-2000S. Lower the stylus on LP side 1, press the Korg record button to start recording, press the Korg pause button at the end of side 1, flip the LP and record side 2 as one digital audio file. If you press stop after side 1 you can get two digital audio files if you wish. I record my LPs to DSD128 but you can record to WAV files at any of the PCM resolutions. Or you could record to DSD128, the highest resolution, and convert to any of the lower PCM resolutions like 24/96/176.4/192.

 

I do name all my digital files and they are segregated in folders by artist and album.

 

For me digitizing a LP is no more difficult than playing the LP or recording it to analog tape.

 

Since you have less than 100 LPs, IMO the Korg would not make sense but I still recommend that you skip steps 4 and 5. Of course if you insist on doing these steps at least your pain won't be for long.

 

[tsdh]

Below is the steps I use to rip vinyls (I have close to 1000 vinyls, and currently around half of it have been digitised).

 

1. Play the vinyl and adjust passive-preamp behind phono-stage to get the right volume.

2. Play one side of the vinyl and record to WAV 24/192K

3. Flip the vinyl, and record to another WAV file.

4. Run the WAV file thru ClickRepair to eliminate pop/click

5. Load the file into editor, enter information (album, song name, artist, etc) and save individual song to FLAC file (resolution stay at 24/192K)

6. Delete the WAV files.

 

My equipments:

Turntable: Thorens 160 with Dynavector 10x2-H cartridge

connected with Van den Hul phono cable to

Phono stage: Audio Research SP-8

ADC: EMU 1212M

Software: Goldwave and ClickRepair

I put a volume control (switched resistor array) and balance converter using BurrBrown DRV134 behind the phono-stage to allow balanced connection to ADC.

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I've been involved in an Analog to Digital project consisting of about 15k albums. This project is an effort to digitize the albums with the best quality possible. Here is a link to some of the details.

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Pacific-Microsonics-Model-Two#comment-59404

 

 

Other notes:

 

I recently built and shipped a Zalman TNN 300 fanless computer to Larry who has all the albums.

 

This computer is running Windows XP with Pyramix 7 software and a Mykerinos AES card for capturing digital audio.

 

Larry is using a Pacific Microsonics Model Two Analog to Digital converter that feeds the Mykerinos card.

 

Limit flutter and wow to the absolute minimum. It will show up on the digital conversions forever.

 

Check flutter and wow on a regular basis.

 

Mute the volume on playback during the A to D capture.

 

Larry is capturing to 24/192

 

[john2in3]

Thanks, that's all good information. Interesting links to check out and technology to consider.

 

For what it is worth here is some more information. Of course you give the LPs and your stylus a good cleaning before starting. I have an insufficient number of albums to justify a A/D converter but see why that would be useful. Make sure the thing is spinning at the right speed and calibrate everything you can. Just common sense.

 

I have seen that pops/clicks and LF noise vary even between side A and side B of albums that have been played only one time- Yes many of my albums were only played once- to record to cassette tape back in the 1980s. They probably have the original D4 record cleaning fluid still staining their grooves! I saw a massive variation in this on side A and B of Led Zeppelin 1. Yeah its not high end classical stuff over here.

 

Part of Step #4 is to normalize the digital data to -0.3 dB or some other standard. Major pops/clicks can sometimes be off scale and cause normalization to skew, so you should remove the big pops/clicks (if you have them) first of course.

 

Because I normalize each track as part of step #4 (recall one track is entire side A or B) you don't have to be exact with your digital levels. Even a lousy A/D will have around 90dB dynamic range and my record player in silent spots will give me around 60 dB DR max. No need to stress about getting the peak hold meters to 0dB, heck -10 or -20 would suffice given the 60 dB DR of the source material. I am not oversampling.

 

Looking at the entire album side in the analog time domain you see that some tracks are clearly louder than others; and track breaks are much easier to detect in the frequency domain rather than the time domain so turn this on if you have that display capability.

 

What dynamic range are you guys seeing with your high end turntables and record cleaning systems out there? It would be interesting to know this information to see if many of us can do better. I get 60 DB on only the cleanest, best albums, most are 50 or even 40DB. I am using a vintage Kyocera Belt driven turntable with Denon Cartridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tsdh]

john2in3 said:

"What dynamic range are you guys seeing with your high end turntables and record cleaning systems out there? It would be interesting to know this information to see if many of us can do better. I get 60 DB on only the cleanest, best albums, most are 50 or even 40DB. I am using a vintage Kyocera Belt driven turntable with Denon Cartridge."

 

The dynamic of vinyl mostly depend on the pressing (beside the cleanliness). Most of vinyls dynamic range is below 60 dB. Only few can exceed that (e.g.: Sheffield direct-to-disc; Amanda McBroom - Growing Up in Hollywood Town). My tube phono-stage has only 74 dB dynamic, even with the quiet tubes.

You're right, volume level of -10 or -20dB will be sufficient to record the vinyl using a 24bit ADC. Usually I adjust the input signal to -10dB on its loudest part. If there are some pop/click which exceed that level (thus it will off scale and clip), then I will manually eliminate that pop/click using the wave-editor.

 

Other thing to note: thin vinyl (less than 200gr) most likely to have a high level of rumble, in this case I will run high-pass filter with cut-off frequency on 20Hz at the wave-editor. This will reduce the rumble.

 

 

 

 

[danny71]

I don't know if I'm off the initial topic here but this device or a similar may help you to skip the step of first burning the disc, then extracting the content.

 

http://www.furutech.com/download/ADL%20GT40_News.pdf