Converting vinyl LPs to MP3 format

01-05-2013 11:54AM #1

Maybe not exactly the right section for this but I'm hoping that this will get a bit more traffic from people with actual hands on experience than the tech forum.

Anyway, I'm looking to convert a pretty hefty collection of vinyl, about 1,500 albums or so, to MP3. Yes, I know there are specially designed turntables for doing this, but the thing is I'm not really convinced about the quality of them. All the reviews I find seem to say either the unit has a below average sound quality when used purely as a turntable, or else the conversion itself wasn't great.

So my question is does anyone own one of these things? Or did anyone else ever convert your vinyl for you? If so then what make/model is the turntable and how highly would you rate the sound quality while a) playing records and b) the finished MP3 product?

Any advice is much appreciated, and a "virtual" beer offered to anyone who can help.

maccored · 01-05-2013 11:57AM

why not use a normal turntable running into a normal stereo amp and then run the outs to a computer and record them as lossless/aif/wav? The sound of an mp3 depends on what resolution its encoded at.

melekalikimaka · 01-05-2013 12:00PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Maybe not exactly the right section for this but I'm hoping that this will get a bit more traffic from people with actual hands on experience than the tech forum.

Anyway, I'm looking to convert a pretty hefty collection of vinyl, about 1,500 albums or so, to MP3. Yes, I know there are specially designed turntables for doing this, but the thing is I'm not really convinced about the quality of them. All the reviews I find seem to say either the unit has a below average sound quality when used purely as a turntable, or else the conversion itself wasn't great.

So my question is does anyone own one of these things? Or did anyone else ever convert your vinyl for you? If so then what make/model is the turntable and how highly would you rate the sound quality while a) playing records and b) the finished MP3 product?

Any advice is much appreciated, and a "virtual" beer offered to anyone who can help.

line out into line in, save as flac, bout as good as you'll get... you'll be spending an awful long time doing it tho, would you not download flacs off the tracks from online?

nlgbbbblth · 01-05-2013 07:48PM

Check out my YouTube channel.

The bulk of the tracks are my vinyl rips encoded at 320 kbps.

I currently use a Thorens TD-150 MK-II turntable [1973 model] which is fitted with a Stanton cartridge. I had an Ortofon cart but preferred the Stanton sound.

I connect it to my laptop using a standard lead.

Use Audacity as the software - it's free and easy to use.

I've digitised over 500 LPs. It takes time but you get used to it. I usually convert the data to two separate "versions" - WAV [for burning to CDR] and MP3 320 for uploading.

USB turntables are rubbish - avoid.

Custardpi · 01-05-2013 10:51PM

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

Check out my YouTube channel.

The bulk of the tracks are my vinyl rips encoded at 320 kbps.

How did you manage that? According to this (which may be incorrect but I can't find anything to contradict it) the highest rate available is 192kbps. Have you tried downloading a track from your Youtube channel & seeing what the bitrate is of that? Still, you're not as inaccurate as some people on Youtube, who seem to think the site is capable of streaming 24/96 flac!

Youtube audio can only ever really give a flavour of what the original track sounds like, good for sampling music, playlists at parties etc but not for proper listening.

Slightly off topic, what Ortofon cartridge did you try with your turntable? Mine is the exact same model, currently using a Shure M75E cartridge with it but was thinking of getting an Ortofon 2M Red in the near future.

nlgbbbblth · 01-05-2013 11:33PM

Custardpi wrote: »

How did you manage that? According to this (which may be incorrect but I can't find anything to contradict it) the highest rate available is 192kbps. Have you tried downloading a track from your Youtube channel & seeing what the bitrate is of that? Still, you're not as inaccurate as some people on Youtube, who seem to think the site is capable of streaming 24/96 flac!

Youtube audio can only ever really give a flavour of what the original track sounds like, good for sampling music, playlists at parties etc but not for proper listening.

Slightly off topic, what Ortofon cartridge did you try with your turntable? Mine is the exact same model, currently using a Shure M75E cartridge with it but was thinking of getting an Ortofon 2M Red in the near future.

I upload to YT using http://www.mp32u.net/

Filesize is capped at 10MB. A four minute track encoded at 320 is around 8MB. The mp3 files uploaded [when I click the 'browse' button on mp32u.net] are the ones I've ripped at 320. I haven't downloaded any to check.

The YT uploads were primarily used as trailers / samples for LPs featured on my blogs. As you say handy for sampling but not appropriate for a proper listen.

I had the Ortofon F15S cartridge but wasn't pleased with the sound. I had previously used Stantons on my KAM and Ariston decks so was happy to go back to using them.

The Thorens deck is fiddly for playing at 45 rpm. I need to make some adjustments.

02-05-2013 01:21PM

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, all.

Rigging my turntable directly into a PC isn't really an option at the moment. Long story but basically there's too many miles between me, my vinyl, and my computer. Plus the fact that I'm also in the market for a decent quality turntable right now and not afraid of splashing a few quid if it's a good one. The general consensus seems to be that a USB turntable might not really be a serious option for now, which is kinda disappointing that the technology hasn't progressed to that standard yet.

bullpost · 03-05-2013 01:00PM

I had an old iRiver mp3 player which had a line-in option. Used it to record some of my vinyl encoded at 320 kbps. I then used Audacity to clean up mp3s. Was happy enough with the results. There was an option to split album into tracks during recording as well which I used but it didn't always work.

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, all.

Rigging my turntable directly into a PC isn't really an option at the moment. Long story but basically there's too many miles between me, my vinyl, and my computer. Plus the fact that I'm also in the market for a decent quality turntable right now and not afraid of splashing a few quid if it's a good one. The general consensus seems to be that a USB turntable might not really be a serious option for now, which is kinda disappointing that the technology hasn't progressed to that standard yet.

06-05-2013 03:07AM

bullpost wrote: »

I had an old iRiver mp3 player which had a line-in option. Used it to record some of my vinyl encoded at 320 kbps. I then used Audacity to clean up mp3s. Was happy enough with the results. There was an option to split album into tracks during recording as well which I used but it didn't always work.

Oh really? Thanks a lot for that. None of the players I ever owned had a function like that so it never occurred to me to look. Something I'll look into though.

loyatemu · 10-05-2013 12:39PM

Is it rare stuff? If not you'd save a lot of time just downloading it (whatever about the legalities, ethically I wouldn't have a problem with downloading stuff I'd already paid for...).

zoid · 16-05-2013 08:59AM

I'm looking into this at the moment also. I have about 400 records and would like to get digitizing.

I have a very good audio interface (RME UFX) but no turntable.

I was thinking that if I got a normal turntable then I would also have to get a good mixer with phono inputs, to boost the level before recording at the audio interface.

was looking at USB turntables, Sumiko Project turntables look really good. (sumikoaudio.net/project).

btw yes some of this vinyl is rare and not available to download (i can't find it anyway). also would be nice to listen to some vinyl now and then!

Converting vinyl LPs to MP3 format

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