A monster Question with no satisfactory answers as yet

[artme]

I want to convert my LPs ( You know the old Vynil ) to dvds or , preferrrably, MP3 format.

Question is How? Simplest method possible is what I want.

Many, many thanx in anticipation.

artme, aka Arthur.

[Ian Smith]

Artme,
Provided you have a turntable with an inbuilt pre-amp and RIAA equaliser you can just squirt the audio straight into your PC via your soundcard inputs and record it directly to you hard disc using any one of a number of available bits of free ware.
However, having gone through the exercise myself and lost many hours of my life to the process I just have to ask why?
Unless they are totally irreplaceable just save yourself the time and go out and buy the CDs.
Converting analogue to digital is a real time exercise i.e. you have to play the record through at it's normal speed. Then, unless you have some pretty good gear, you'll have to edit out the snap crackles and pops and then finally burn it to a CD/DVD.
Better you spend that time in the shed making sawdust.

Ian

[watson]

G'day Arthur,
The following site may help.
Item 36726
http://www.rockby.com.au/myindex.cfm

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

A while back Tandy (or was it Dick Smith?) was selling cheap turntables that plugged into the sound card on your computer.

Not exactly Hifi quality, but what's simpler than sampling your records while simply listening to 'em? :)

I meant to buy one myself, I've quite a pile of eosteric LPs that AFAIK either haven't been released on CD or are collectibles in their own right. But somehow I didn't get a round tuit. :sigh:

I gotta agree with Ian that if they're already available on CD, that's the better way to go in terms of better quality and less "wasted" time.

[watson]

A while back Tandy (or was it Dick Smith?) was selling cheap turntables that plugged into the sound card on your computer.

Not exactly Hifi quality, but what's simpler than sampling your records while simply listening to 'em? :)

I meant to buy one myself, I've quite a pile of eosteric LPs that AFAIK either haven't been released on CD or are collectibles in their own right. But somehow I didn't get a round tuit. :sigh:

I gotta agree with Ian that if they're already available on CD, that's the better way to go in terms of better quality and less "wasted" time.

So you have got a copy of "Tapestry" :U

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

So you have got a copy of "Tapestry" :U

Carole King? [shudder]

No... but I have a few LPs like the Beatles Rarities album, which includes "Sie Liebt Dich," "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," "Matchbox" & "Across the Universe" among other titles. I've never been able to chase down a CD of it, and although many of the songs can be DLed as MP3s there are still one or two I still haven't got. (Except on the LP.)

Or "Music of the Incas" by Pachacamac, which is played entirely on what they they think are reconstructions of Incan musical instruments. Lutes made from the shell of an armadillo, a flute from the leg-bone of a llama... but sound fantastic. :) Never officially released as anything but LP.

[joe greiner]

For general use, e.g. in car, the snap, crackles, and pops endow them with a quaint quality no longer available. And the simpler direct transfer allows more shed time, unless you enjoy tedium itself.

Remaining comments deleted because my brain hurts.:rolleyes:

Joe

[watson]

Carole King? [shudder]

No... but I have a few LPs like the Beatles Rarities album, which includes "Sie Liebt Dich," "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," "Matchbox" & "Across the Universe" among other titles. I've never been able to chase down a CD of it, and although many of the songs can be DLed as MP3s there are still one or two I still haven't got. (Except on the LP.)

Or "Music of the Incas" by Pachacamac, which is played entirely on what they they think are reconstructions of Incan musical instruments. Lutes made from the shell of an armadillo, a flute from the leg-bone of a llama... but sound fantastic. :) Never officially released as anything but LP.

Every body has at least two copies of Tapestry, because they forgot to send back the "Do Not Send Me This Month's Selection" form.
There is a download for a thing called Sound Studio which works really well when the record player or cassette is plugged into the 'puter. It has pop and click negation, and lots of other facilities, and whilst in the shed, I have rescued many a cassette or album
whilst having a bit of remembering time...........I couldn't find Tapestry though :o

[Lignin]

Hey,Skew,
I had the Inca recording many moons ago.It's a ripper!!:2tsup::2tsup:
How about burning a few copies for us Luddites??:U:U

[ian]

I want to convert my LPs ( You know the old Vynil ) to dvds or , preferrrably, MP3 format.

Question is How?
Simplest method possible is what I want.

Arthur

the ION USB Turntable is the simpliest method I know see http://www.usb-turntable.org.uk/

I recall favourable reviews in the local press and on radio in the leadup to Christmas



ian

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I used my folks account, so they got stuck with the... "unwanted items."


I had the Inca recording many moons ago.It's a ripper!!:2tsup::2tsup:
How about burning a few copies for us Luddites??:U:U

I would if I could. Once artme gets his system set up I'll roll up to his place with a few hundred LPs under my arm to "borrow his 'puta for an hour or two." :D

[David H]

Arthur
Aldi had a reasonable LP player for doing just that a few weeks back - comes up on sale every now and then. BOught one myself to put al my wifes single onto disc. Does take time and with a little editing can sound quite okay. Player comes with program for computer editing. I think Jaycar also has a cheaper one as does Dick Smith
Very time consuming as well. Could take it out in the shed but then I guess you wouldn't want to get dust on Carole King/ duh I meant your Beatle records.
Mines is just sitting here beside computer because I've been out in shed too much!
David

[artme]

Hey,hey,hey.!! Wondeful replies and thanx all!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

I have a Luxman Turntable, I have "music of the Incas", I have far too many albums to replace with CDs. I have stuphph that only a few of us have heard of or will be interested in.
Am going to Todd"s Hi Fi next week to see what they have.
Skew = you are full of surprises! What else do we share in the line of musical tastes? Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Harry Chapin, Alex De Grassi, Nelson Consalves????

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Skew = you are full of surprises! What else do we share in the line of musical tastes? Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Harry Chapin, Alex De Grassi, Nelson Consalves????

Thank you. (I think. :D) The first three I have (Ry C, R Newman & Harry Chapin) but the others I haven't come across. I think that one of the last LPs I bought was a Harry Chapin... "Sequel" from memory.

I was brought up on a diet of bagpipes, Nana Mouskouri and classical orchestral... Chopin, Beethoven, Handel, Bach, etc. So I learned to appreciate composition and, more importantly, sub-themes. I like music that every time I listen to it I hear something different or something new, regardless of genre.

Eroc, Wapassou, Cybotron, etc. were my "thing" during the late 70s/early 80s, all the experimental moog (and later synth), although I also enjoyed (and still do) the creative works of Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Emerson Lake & Palmer and some more... "popular" stuff. If it was, to me, ground-breaking stuff, I have a copy. :)

Never been a fan of most "common" RnR or pop music though. :no: Too shallow... you hear it once and you know that next time it'll sound exactly the same. :sigh: Although I do have a lot of early Rockabilly records by some relatively unknown artists, Alice Cooper and [gasp] all Enyas stuff. :-

[Gra]

I got a cheapie from Kmart that you can plug a usb key/MP3 player into and it will convert the LP into MP3 format for you.

Skew, you are welcome to come and have a play if you wish

It even plays 78's

[artme]

Interesting Gra.

Skew:
My Musical upbringing totally excluded Coutry and Western as my mother couldn't stand it! We only listened to ABC radio and didn't have any sort of "record player" until I was in my teens. We borrowed and scrounged albums from everywhere and listened to everything.

Mum has a wonderful knowledge of all sorts of music and that was great for us. She was an avid theatre goer and still has programs from musicals, such as "Showboat" that she bought when she went to see shows at the Tivoli and other theatres.

My first wife was of scottish heritage and we both started bagpipe playing with the local Scottish band. However I don't think I could play a note now.I love bagpipes.

When studying at night I would listen to Eric Child's "World of Jazz' and Kim Bonython's "Tempo of the Times" so self education was part of my upbringing.

I happen to enjoy Enya. I like Abba because their music is so layered. I think Joanie Mitchel is a true poet and has a brilliant voice. I like Woodie Guthrie. I love Brasillian jazz.
Stephan Grapelli, Svend Asmussen and Florian Zarbuck are right up my alley too.

Enough of my ruminations. I've got to organize myself for a small GTG with Sam, Pasho, Munruben and co.

[Flipflop]

Get yourself a copy of Nero and an Optimus turntable (with built in pre-amp) from Dick Smiths and the world will be your oyster!.

I have been converting my LPs to CD for a couple of years now and the system works beautifully with above components. You can take out all the clicks and crackles, disc surface noise etc and the end result is fabulous.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

That's probably the quickest & easiest method, and also uses the least hard-drive space... but I reckon it's a compromise.

I prefer to sit down and record the whole LP direct to hard-drive as one humongous WAV file, then load it into Sound Studio Pro or Cubase and break the recording up into individual tracks. (I was often tempted to move to Cakewalk instead, but $$$...)

I can then apply the filters/effects to suit each track, rather than as an 'average" over the whole volume. I often have problems with wow and flutter, which meant later tracks need different tweaks to the earlier ones. (Oh, the joys of cheap turntables. :doh:)

It takes a lot of time... which is why I'd rather buy a CD instead. IF one is available. :wink:

[Jigsaw]

I am wanting to convert my LP's to Cd's and MP3's as well.
My research has indicated.
Turntable with phono outputs, plugs into pre-amp to provide amplification suitable for sound card in PC (but also equalisation for phono output, I think).
Pre amplifier output plugs into "Line In" on sound card.
That is all the physical hardware stuff done.

From a software point of view there are freebies around (audacity is one) but they tend to be more complicated to use. If you want a simple approach try LP Ripper and LP Recorder from http://www.cfbsoftware.com/default.aspx. It is an Australian programme and costs around $110 for both programmes. You can download a trial version before you buy.

The LP Recorder program will just take the ouput from your turntable and create a wave file suitable for putting onto a CD. If you have 6 tracks on side one of the LP and you want to record all of them, you have 3 options.

1. Use LP Recorder and at the end of every track, stop the recording and start a new one. This will create the 6 tracks as 6 wave files but you will have to be listening and operating the software for the duration.

2. Use LP Recorder and record all of the 6 tracks as one wave file. You don't need to be there for every track start and finish. Now you can use the Edit facility of LP Recorder and you find the start and stop of individual tracks and you break them up into 6 wave files.

3. Use LP Recorder and record all of the 6 tracks as one wave file. You don't need to be there for every track start and finish. Now you use the LP Ripper program and it automatically looks for gaps between tracks and breaks up the 1 wave file into the 6 wave files.

With all of the options above your wave files will be called Track 1 to Track 6.
If you want to name the tracks with the correct titles, you can edit the names yourself or other wise go to a website such as freedb.org or gracenote.com and type in the name of your LP and it should find it and provide you with all of the track names. You can copy and paste these into the LP programme and then create a CD using you CD burning program.

If you want to create MP's, you can get a plug in for LP Recorder/Ripper that can generate MP3's.

Note: The LP Ripper program should handle the breakup of most LP's OK. It may have trouble with recordings from Live events or Classical music in determining the correct start stop of the track. In live events there may not be silence between tracks because of audience clapping etc. For classical music, there maybe be silent periods within the track that are not the start and stop of the track.

[Flipflop]

Ripper, your detail sounds similar to what Nero will do, although splitting into tracks seems like it may be simpler with Nero as you have complete manual control if you want it. The editing features with Nero are superb and simple too. Also, as Nero is a suite of bits and pieces, you can also do lots of other beaut things, including dealing with photos and movies- making slide shows etc.

Good luck.:)

Flipflop

[Flipflop]

Sorry, that last post should have been addressed to Jigsaw (where the hell did I get Ripper from).

Flipflop