Vinyl to Digital - Best Method ?

Yo Mamma

I have recently started to digitise my vinyl collection. I have tried a few different methods with varying degrees of success from Numark USB Decks to Technics through My Mixer to one of these, connected to laptop and using Audacity...

For whatever reason I cannot seem to get the quality I want when recording this way.

I am getting this annoying sound that i can only describe as....I don’t know....it sounds like the needle vibrating, I use brand new Ortofone Scratchmaster Headshells but still get this noise on the recordings, it’s a high frequency noise that appears only on certain baseline tracks and is attached to the base-line if that makes any sense ?

I recently got my decks completely overhauled and they are in tip top working order with new tonearms and reset pitch controls and assemblies, I have a pair of KRK Rokit 8's and the sound quality is superb when playing my tunes direct through them so I know the decks and headshells are not at fault here. (Or don’t think so anyway)

The sound or interference or whatever it is is coming at the Analogue to Digital stage....I think. It's either that or when it hits the port on the laptop. Either way it's causing me some considerable heartache as I want to nail down the method as best I can and crack on with the project.

Has anyone come across this before ?

Has anyone done this to their Vinyl before and can you share any tips for getting the best quality conversions out of it ?

I know there are tons of different ways online and believe me I have googled the crap out of this so I am pretty familiar with what’s out there I am more looking for your own experience and what works or worked for you when you were converting your Vinyl.

Any help/advice appreciated.

:pac:

sgtbilko01

I'm using a combination of Virtual Dj and a demo version of RIP Vinyl.RIP is an inexpensive program,which i'm sure will work fine on its own.I use VDJ to record as the Demo of RIP insearts a beep after 5 seconds and RIP to tweak the audio.Does the job for me anyway and as far as i know VDJ home edition can be got for freepence now!

Yo Mamma

Whats your hardware setup like ? Technics, mixer ....

sgtbilko01

Oh ye,my bad,i'm using usb TT until i get decks sorted at end of month,so i'm not even sure if my setup will work then.Iv'e spent countless hours with Audacity and like yourself,the sound just never seems right:o

mordeith

I've done this a few times by putting the output from my mixer through an external amp and from the headphone socket on the amp to the line in socket on the laptop. Always comes out fine although you have to keep the output from the amp way. You can increase the recording volume on the laptop through the recording software. I usually use EXP Studio (free)

TroutMask

To get good results when capturing vinyl to digital you will need the following:
1) a stable turntable fitted with a good cartridge & a fresh stylus - tonearm should be set up with correct weight for stylus and correct anti-skate settings;
2) clean records - put them through a fluid-based cleaning machine if they are dirty (cloths & brushes do not really clean the records);
3) preamp - preferably audiophile quality and matched to your cartridge;
4) an audio interface - as budget allows, the higher the quality the better;
5) software for performing the recording/capture;
6) (optional) restoration tools - decracklers, declikers, denoisers in software or hardware, e.g., Cedar.

Executive Steve

High pitched noise eh?

What's your laptop like?

All your gear sounds perfect for the job, but if there's digital squealing on there it probably means you're recording into the mic input of your laptop and the onboard soundcard doesn't have a dedicated line-in. Try using an external soundcard.

If the problem persists, invest in a ground loop isolator.

Yo Mamma

Executive Steve wrote: »

High pitched noise eh?

What's your laptop like?

If the problem persists, invest in a ground loop isolator.

Yeah the laptop is pretty crap, I was using a good work laptop but had to change that recently and am using the Mrs's Dell Inspiron laptop....its slow as fook and I am convinced that this could be part of the problem, just dont have the funds right now to be buying a Macbook or whatever....

Ground loop isolator ? where would this fit in to the schema ?

milltown

Executive Steve wrote: »

High pitched noise eh?

What's your laptop like?

All your gear sounds perfect for the job, but if there's digital squealing on there it probably means you're recording into the mic input of your laptop and the onboard soundcard doesn't have a dedicated line-in. Try using an external soundcard.

If the problem persists, invest in a ground loop isolator.

My money's on Steve being right. Sounds like the line-in or the soundcard in the laptop isn't up to the job. See if you can beg borrow or steal a Numark DJIO or Native Instruments Audio 2/4/6/8. You'll spot the odd soundcard on adverts.ie for €50 or less.

Yo Mamma

is that not what this is though ?

I was using a Numark Stereo IO before but was getting the same problem. I might record a track tonight (one of the worst offenders) and post to youtube so you can hear what I am talking about.

milltown

Sorry, yeah I missed that.

Another question: If you record as .wav files does it have the same problem, or is it as pronounced? Problem could be with the encoding to MP3 perhaps. Or were you ripping to .wav anyway?

Can you monitor the audio input into the computer? Say, with headphones plugged into the laptop? Might give a clue as to whether the problem is there on the way in or on the output.

Also, (don't take offence) I presume you have tried reducing the volume and gain output from the mixer? If you let software look after normalizing volume it can do some odd things to the sound.

Yo Mamma

you can kinda hear it in this track at about.27 seconds in : As the Baseline kicks in there is a high pitched kinda reverb on the base....... hopefully u will be able to hear it.....

Yo Mamma

milltown wrote: »

Sorry, yeah I missed that.

Another question: If you record as .wav files does it have the same problem, or is it as pronounced? Problem could be with the encoding to MP3 perhaps. Or were you ripping to .wav anyway?

Can you monitor the audio input into the computer? Say, with headphones plugged into the laptop? Might give a clue as to whether the problem is there on the way in or on the output.

Also, (don't take offence) I presume you have tried reducing the volume and gain output from the mixer? If you let software look after normalizing volume it can do some odd things to the sound.

Yep to all of the above, I always record to .wav when converting vinyl, best quality possible (without getting very expensive) I monitor everything using the laptops headphone port and am always very careful with my eq and record levels....

milltown

Only remembered to have a listen to that now, sorry. I think I can hear what you mean. Not as obvious to me and my old ears at the 0.27 mark but I can hear what sounds like a high pitched "response" (for want of a better term) to the bass a bit further in. I don't think I'd have noticed it if I were you, but I also know that once I had noticed it, it would bug the crap out of me.

It doesn't sound like ground loop noise to me. I suppose the next thing to do is borrow a different computer?

copeyhagen

any places in dublin that can do this? have a tonne of classics would love to rip to digital, have no tt or amp at moment