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Existos usefull information on converting vinyls to digital.

Hello!
It's time to contribute some useful info to the message board!
This might intrest somebody who wants to convert his record collection to digital.

First of all buy this : http://www.htfr.com/more-info/?catno=MR103765
This is the closest you can get to a pro record cleaner without getting a loan .
It's called the disco antistat and it's imported from Germany.
The only reason htfr calls it ''vinylfile rpm'' is so that you wont buy it from somewhere else.


It works like a dream and my records sound better than they ever did.
Amazing, huge difference!! It's also very fun to use!
Useful thingi to have around if you still dig record buying.
Next clean all you records and put them in their sleeves.

Don't go out and buy a preamp unless of course the specs on it outperform your current dj mixer.
This won't usually be the case because they are not mass produced these days.
It's up to you to deside if it's really a good idea to spend 1500$
for a tin box that contains a disjointed phono stage some blind, deaf old man put together in his basement.
Don't. Unless money is not an issue for you.
If you are on a budget you would rather spend the money on other things.

However if your mixer allows you to turn of the eq do so because Eq circuitry (in the hardware world) introduces phasing.
If your mixer has a prefade come out of that.
You are after the shortest signal path possible.

Use your soundcard to record. Ideally you will have some ballanced inputs in your soundcard and some balanced outs on your mixer.
If not just work around what you have.
If you have ballanced outs on your mixer but rcas on you soundcard you will need to splash out for a impedance converter which sucks.

Now if you are after the best sound possible buy this:


http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Rosetta200/

2 ins, 2 outs! Ultra accurate and transparent connects via firewire a bargain at just 2500$!
Also be sure to hire a proffesional mastering engineer to ''remaster''
your collection. Hey, it's not like you cant afford to if you are concidering buying this.

For the rest of us a soundcard will have to ''do''.

I use peak pro 4 to record .If you are on a pc download a demo of soundforge.
Sony has made enough money over the years selling tvs and radios which also indicates that they can afford to hire proper programmers to write the software. Software far better than your freeware type.

They give you a fully functional demo for 30 days which could be enough
depending on:

-How much spare time you have.
-How big is your record collection.

Change your styli and replace it with a fresh one. Record at the highest bitrate your soundcard and computer allows and sample down to whatever bitrate you will use.
I use 24 bit 48k (dat quality) and throw it on a lacie hdrive.
This makes the lower end rounder, fuller and more cohersive.
If you plan on using cd decks you are looking at redbook audio.
Record everything as fast as you can (remember you are using a demo) and if you run out of room back them up to cds/dvds/harddrives.
DONT edit and DONT normalize yet.

Next after you have recorded everything visit the waves website and
download a demo of their diamond bundle.
They will give you high quality mastering plug-ins that you can use for 14 days.


Holy living fuck! The hardware equivalent of those plug-ins costs more than a skyscraper., Existo exagerates.


After you have done that go to the preferences and make sounforge scan to find those plug-ins.
Next assuming you are all set, go to your view menu and click on the plug-in manager & the plug in chainer.
click on the folder named ''third party''.

Drag and drop the x-crackle, the x-hum, the x-noise, and the L1 ultramaximizer. Save the chain.

Play it through the chain.

On the x-crackle plug in moderatelly set your threshhold and reduction values monitoring what you are removing.
If you are hearing hi-hats reduce the threshhold value till you are only hearing crackles.

On the hum plug-in selct the dc offset preset from the menu.
Dont select the hum preset because it will make your drums sound weird.

Now on the x-noise hilight the begining of the recording where there is no music and hit the learn noise button after playing it throught the plug-in chainer.
This will create a noise profile for the plug in to prevent removing music.

Put your release value all the way up to preserve the ambience.
With your reduction value set to 0 start moving the threshhold up to moderatelly remove some surface noise.''Moderation is the key here '' Existo advises.
''You can live with a wee bit of surface noise but you really don't want your ''x-vinyl'' to sound like gremlings singing in a cave.''

Next on the ultramaximizer call up the Idr type 1 ultra or normal NO limiting.

Hit process. Normalize.
Congratulations!!
You have now made a virtualy noise free, high quality back-up of your record.
Repeat the process for the rest but do them one by one not in a batch.

Now for Ultra-accurate cd mixing you might want to consider fixing the timing in ableton live.

All turntables variate a wee bit.
This might make your mixing a bit more challenging as the tempo waves a little bit.You can fix that in ableton live.

''Manualy fixing the timing in ableton live can be really fucking boring! '', Existo notes.

''I am not doing it because I am using traktor 2.6 & fs2.
Traktor takes care of that. Plus I am not really into cd decks as they work in incriments.
I find it hard to believe that as of 2006 with all the technology of the world a turntable first made 30 years ago mixes better than the latest most advanced cd decks.''

Quality as usual harriz.

Thanks, this will come in handy.

quote:

Originally posted by Allied Nations Quality as usual harriz. Thanks, this will come in handy.

You are welcome!
After quite a bit of research I found this info asking people at mastering forums so I thought I would share this with other members. Everything sounds amazing!
Of course these plug-ins will expire and I won't have 3000$ to spend on actually buing them but it's a no lose situation because I will have converted everything by the time they do.

I just whack it into an audio CD recorder.... then if i want it on the pc in mp3 or wav format it takes 20 seconds to rip it from cd

quote:

Originally posted by Freak I just whack it into an audio CD recorder.... then if i want it on the pc in mp3 or wav format it takes 20 seconds to rip it from cd

Computers can achive far better sound for far less money.
I would get a soundcard that supports 24 bit 96k or higher and software to do the recording than buy a stand alone cd recorder with the money

quote:

Originally posted by harriz Computers can achive far better sound for far less money.

How'd you figure that?
Its going straight onto the cd!

Its also a time thing- I cant be assed doing all the steps you mentioned- far too time consuming for not much of a gain in my honest opinion. Its time consuming enough recording them direct to cd without pissing about doing unneccessary fucking about with the sound.

Set the level, clean the record, hit record button, play the record, press finalize. Done. Next.... simple as that.


Each to their own and all that.

quote:

Originally posted by Freak How'd you figure that? Its going straight onto the cd! Its also a time thing- I cant be assed doing all the steps you mentioned- far too time consuming for not much of a gain in my honest opinion. Its time consuming enough recording them direct to cd without pissing about doing Set the level, clean the record, hit record button, play the record, press finalize. Done. Next.... simple as that. Each to their own and all that.

There, there I can't see why you are being rude...
This information might be useful for somebody that doesn't own a fucking cd recorder
That's all.
I use it I like the way it sounds so I am sharing this info with other members who are not in your privileged position of owning a cd recorder to use solely for this purpose.

Asuming we all have computers and usually have soundcards too you can see why somebody might want to try it.
If you can't be assed, with all this ''unneccessary fucking about with the sound'' then don't.
Some people...

I wasnt being rude?

I can be if you like!

Just simply offering an alternative for people and my opinions nased on my experience- rather than treating something one person posts as gospel.
hence:

quote:

Originally posted by Freak Each to their own and all that.

Dont take things so fucking peronally.

quote:

Originally posted by Freak Just simply offering an alternative for people

To go out and buy a cd recorder

Freak has a billion records (litearlly, IIRC ~20k?) there's no way he'd follow that instruction, it'd take him literally years. He was just adding on to your guide as an alternative for people who don't have a good soundcard, the programs or the equipment. Relax dude.

hmm, my stanton str 8-80 has a spdif output and i bought soundcard that has a spdif input, i dont know i havent tried it cus im alot of miles away from my gear, but does anyone have any experience with this kind of vinly ripping? is the quality good?

quote:

Originally posted by r5a Freak has a billion records (litearlly, IIRC ~20k?) there's no way he'd follow that instruction, it'd take him literally years. He was just adding on to your guide as an alternative for people who don't have a good soundcard, the programs or the equipment. Relax dude.

20k X 10 = 200.000$

If you have spend that much money on records hire somebody to do it for you as it's not like you can't afford to.

But on the other hand I wouldn't even fucking bother if I had that many records.
Oh hell! Just spin the wax and buy some cds and use them on the side occasionally for some new stuff while pushing vinyl as your main format.
Vinyls sounds rich and warm as it's pressed of dats at 24 bit.
Why bother converting?
20.000 times 25 minutes = 500000 minutes = 8500 hours = 350 days non stop.
So even if he dedicates 3 hours a day for that it will still take him 8 years!
Fuck that! We only get 24 hours a day and there is better things to do with your time.
I can see why he he thinks this will get tired fast.
It's not worth the effort switching formats.

When I wrote this post I had a 400 to 1000 tracks in mind

quote:

Originally posted by Akazi hmm, my stanton str 8-80 has a spdif output and i bought soundcard that has a spdif input, i dont know i havent tried it cus im alot of miles away from my gear, but does anyone have any experience with this kind of vinly ripping? is the quality good?

What soundcard do you have and what kind of mixer ?

ive got an maudio 410 soundcard, and a stanton mixer

quote:

Originally posted by Akazi ive got an maudio 410 soundcard, and a stanton mixer

The m-audios converters will be far better than the built in ones from your turntable.
Come out via analog into the mixer with eyour loudest part of the groove peaking at 0 record into the pc. Be carefull not to clip!

Your soundcard supports up to fuckin 192! Cds (redbook not superaudio) operate at 44.1
But capturing the sound at a higher bitrate will asure more acurate and transparent
analog to digital convertion.

Plus m-audio gear kicks ass for the budget minded producer!
The production world in general has far higher standards than the dj world!

The problem is that you need shitloads of ram to capture the sound so high.
If you record with the buffer rate all the way up and you still get bt style studers set it at 24 96k which will still be 270 times clearer (mathematically) than a cd because of the resolution.

Next sample down and save at cd quality. Open, process, dither and save again.
It will take you like 2 minutes.
Better than cutting it at 44.1 via spdf because the program will have far more info to work with. and your end result will sound better and closer to your vinyl record.

But dont take my word for it. Try both methods and see what sounded better.

Hope this helps.

o wow man, thanks, ill try the higher bitrate recording possibility too.


Edit: i have 2 gigs of ram, i think that should be enough.

Hey Harriz, Thanks for the Tread!

I've been interested in getting my vinyl converted to digital for a while now. I've tried couple of things and learned some things too.
At first I've used the Ortofon Night Club Spherical needle, Denon DN-X100 mixer with Balanced Outs into M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface via Balanced XLR ins and the 3 foot TRS to XLR Balanced cables.

First thing, I've noticed that less needle weight produced better and more pronounced highs as well as better lows. But too light caused distorted sound. So for every record I would pre-set the cartridge weight lightest as possible where its just about to hit distortion.

M-Audio Fast Track Pro supports resolution up to 48Khz 24bit. I used that setting while recording in Sony Sound Forge 8.0. I then saved my recording straight to 44.1Khz 16bit Wave. Right away I've noticed great reduction of highs and clarity of the track from the records sound. Thats where I discovered Resampling option with Interpolation Accuracy setting. When set to 1 it gave me the same shitty sound. When set to 4, the highest, i got almost no intelligible sound difference between 48Khz and 44.1Khz. Somewhere around the same time I found Bit Deph Converter. In the help file it said that High Pass Triangular Dithering mode and High Pass Contour Noise Shaping sounds best. I tried that and got a 44.1Khz 16bit file that had the same high and low level as the original, but the high definition of the sound became somewhat slightly dull and the track does not sound as open and fresh as the record itself. THe difference is miniscule, and everyone i showed the sound of the record and the wave, could not tell the difference. Maybe I hear there things cause I am listening on Mackie HR-824 studio monitors. But overall, doing high Interpolation accuracy and dithering with noise shaping is definitely better than not doing them at all, although I still doubt the importance of bit deph dithering and noise shaping in the outcome.

Later I've tried ARTcessories DJpre2 Phono Preamp. That thind definitely kicked Denon's ass in terms of the sound quality. It also has input capacitance switching. 100pf (picofarad) setting gave slightly more highs than 200pf setting with the Ortofon needles.
There was much more opennes and definition in the sound along with clarity than the Denon mixer. The reason is probably because I've eliminated a couple of preamp circuits within the mixer along with the EQ. I've used the TRS input on the M-Audio connected to the RCA outs on the Preamp, since TRS ins are unbalanced and high impeadance as well as the RCA's.

I am not looking into using any kind of pop removers and noise removing plugings, because I believe that the more you mess with the track, the worse it will sound. If you can prove me wrong, please let me hear before and after audio samples. I am still learning here and will appreciate the input.

My next improvement is going to be the better soundcard. While M-Audio is MUCH MUCH better than the Sound Blaster or any built in computer sound card i've tried, I think the Mackie Onyx 400F might be the next thing in line. http://www.mackie.com/products/400f/index.html

Also, I am looking for a better sounding needle as far as it comes to playback and not DJing. I have noticed that Elliptical tips give more highs than Spherical tips. I might pick up an Elliptical tip for the Ortofon. If anyone already done that, please let me know if it's worth the expense.

quote:

Originally posted by antronx Hey Harriz, Thanks for the Tread! I've been interested in getting my vinyl converted to digital for a while now. I've tried couple of things and learned some things too. At first I've used the Ortofon Night Club Spherical needle, Denon DN-X100 mixer with Balanced Outs into M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface via Balanced XLR ins and the 3 foot TRS to XLR Balanced cables. First thing, I've noticed that less needle weight produced better and more pronounced highs as well as better lows. But too light caused distorted sound. So for every record I would pre-set the cartridge weight lightest as possible where its just about to hit distortion. M-Audio Fast Track Pro supports resolution up to 48Khz 24bit. I used that setting while recording in Sony Sound Forge 8.0. I then saved my recording straight to 44.1Khz 16bit Wave. Right away I've noticed great reduction of highs and clarity of the track from the records sound. Thats where I discovered Resampling option with Interpolation Accuracy setting. When set to 1 it gave me the same shitty sound. When set to 4, the highest, i got almost no intelligible sound difference between 48Khz and 44.1Khz. Somewhere around the same time I found Bit Deph Converter. In the help file it said that High Pass Triangular Dithering mode and High Pass Contour Noise Shaping sounds best. I tried that and got a 44.1Khz 16bit file that had the same high and low level as the original, but the high definition of the sound became somewhat slightly dull and the track does not sound as open and fresh as the record itself. THe difference is miniscule, and everyone i showed the sound of the record and the wave, could not tell the difference. Maybe I hear there things cause I am listening on Mackie HR-824 studio monitors. But overall, doing high Interpolation accuracy and dithering with noise shaping is definitely better than not doing them at all, although I still doubt the importance of bit deph dithering and noise shaping in the outcome. Later I've tried ARTcessories DJpre2 Phono Preamp. That thind definitely kicked Denon's ass in terms of the sound quality. It also has input capacitance switching. 100pf (picofarad) setting gave slightly more highs than 200pf setting with the Ortofon needles. There was much more opennes and definition in the sound along with clarity than the Denon mixer. The reason is probably because I've eliminated a couple of preamp circuits within the mixer along with the EQ. I've used the TRS input on the M-Audio connected to the RCA outs on the Preamp, since TRS ins are unbalanced and high impeadance as well as the RCA's. I am not looking into using any kind of pop removers and noise removing plugings, because I believe that the more you mess with the track, the worse it will sound. If you can prove me wrong, please let me hear before and after audio samples. I am still learning here and will appreciate the input. My next improvement is going to be the better soundcard. While M-Audio is MUCH MUCH better than the Sound Blaster or any built in computer sound card i've tried, I think the Mackie Onyx 400F might be the next thing in line. http://www.mackie.com/products/400f/index.html Also, I am looking for a better sounding needle as far as it comes to playback and not DJing. I have noticed that Elliptical tips give more highs than Spherical tips. I might pick up an Elliptical tip for the Ortofon. If anyone already done that, please let me know if it's worth the expense.

That souncard looks nice!
If you want a cartridge for serious sampling you will have to find the industry standard shure v15xmr.
This is out of print so expect to pay 500$ for it.
From the cartridges still in production I would recoment the stanton 890fs
which boosts 35 db channel separation.It was specificaly desined for this purpose.

The x-cracle and x-noise add no distortion if used correctly. They have been used widely in the industry for vinyl remastering of vinyl records where the master recordings can not be found.

Companies like waves and tc electronics (who dominate the higher end hardware) literaly spend millions of dollars every year
to hire the best programmers to write the software.

The l1 ultramaximizer will bring out a lot of the detail in the highs that was lost in the press.
Trustme JAW DROPPING difference.
The only include it with their 3000$ diamond bundle.

Hey, if have time, could you
send me a small 10 second wave
file sample of one of your best
sounding conversions usign all
of the software you described?

check out this preamp:
http://www.needledoctor.com/s.nl/sc...it.A/id.2305/.f
it got slightly better specs over
the ARTcessories I am using right now
20Hz - 20Khz, with + - 0.25db accuracy looks
nice! It also got tubes.

Nice Guide.

On my PC I've got a program called Audio Cleaning Lab, don't know if you've heard of it?

I use it for recording my mixes, records and other stuff, would be handy for you and other people that want to rip their records as it can do several things in your guide which you are using mutiple different programs to do.

Its pretty cheap too I think it costs around £20 here.

Bump for relevance.

Thought I'd share this plugin I found:

http://wavearts.com/downloads/

The Master Restoration suite is awesome, 30 day full-function free trial, and it actually does a decent job at cutting out most of the background noise and clicks. Enjoi

useful info. thanks

I wanted to archive my vinyl using my Serato SL4. I see they have a tutorial but don't see it setup for the SL4. Anyone have any suggestions on using this?

http://serato.com/articles/scratchl...ttm-57sl/page/2

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