How to Convert Vinyl to MP3

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[IMG ]5. How to Convert Vinyl Records to MP3 – Chris Pirillo tells us how he plans to use the Ion LP-Ripping Turntable with USB Output to digitize his albums. I’m thinking of doing something like this so if anyone has any suggestions on the best way, let me know.

source:How to Convert Vinyl to MP3

But what if I want to go the other way around and convert MP3’s to vinyl? ;-)

I have a standard plain-jane Audio Technica turntable, it has a built in pre-amp which makes it extremely simple to convert vinyl to digital since I don’t have to fuss with a pre-amp going from the turntable to the sound input on my desktop machine. Believe it or not, I use Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition, it comes with a cool utility to convert analog music sources to digital, and it works great. A lot of the records I have are so old, many of them won’t be remastered to a commercial CD, hence why I did it myself and with great success.

Yep, there are other solutions out there which most likely do a better job, but my ears won’t be able to tell the difference anymore.

Hey Chris!
Love your work; keep at it.

I collect LPs and I do record from time to time. My process lacks a great deal of style, however.

In terms of hardware, I output my table through a mixer, and then into my soundcard. Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) is my software of choice; it allows me to capture the signal and export to MP3 at whatever quality I like. That allows me control over the signal.. I don’t know if you’ll have better or worse tools with a USB-ready table.

With only the bare minimal of editing (trimming leading and trailing ends, and both sides of the flip), I end up with one fat file that is the whole album. Some go to the length to trim it all out into individual songs, clean up the pops, tweak out this hiss… I normally do not, as I dig the tonal character. I understand there are software packages that help with those tasks, but I do not partake and cannot comment for pros/cons in that arena.

Another ‘downside’ is that recording time, for me, is real-time. I don’t try any speed-shifting or other tricks to make the process faster. So, if part of your goal is a “mass conversion”, my path may not be the one for you!

However, I have fun doing it, and I get to hear my vinyl on my portable media player of choice, DRM free. And with albums anywhere from free to a buck or two (new/mint not TOO much more than CDs, normally, tops), it affords me a big music collection of the older stuff.

Last big con being the lack of “cheap” ‘new’ stuff.. although there’s some indie bands pressing the occasional vinyl lately (my wife’s cousin’s band being among them). [plug: letsgetoutofthisterriblesandwichshop.com]

I’m sure there’s other ways and lots of people out there doing it. One fantastic resource can be found at recordcollectorsguild.org, for example. I’m sure more comments will follow!
cheers!

Chris, let’s be honest here. The “music from your childhood” is still playing on the cassette deck in my 14-year-old truck. If you were listening to vinyl while watching Sesame Street you had a very high-quality upbringing.

Music from my childhood mostly involved banging enthusiastically on rocks and logs. And the occasional scream as the bare feet danced into the fire.

I record my audio cassettes and LP’s to my computer often, with great success. I have an old turntable with a diamond needle with an amplifier, which is great for the sound, and I get a cable to go out into the computer’s line in, and after repair the mp3 files’ with de-crackle and noise reduction, with Nero WaveEditor.

Slow. Slow and tedious. You start to really appreciate the “x” on your CD-drive. Like “48x”. OK, you can – theoretically – play your vinyl in at 45 or even 78rpm, but assuming we’re looking for one-off audio quality then that’s probably a non-starter.

How long is it since you sat down to listen to a vinyl album? I bet you’ve forgotten the part where you have to get up and flip the record half-way through.

I started out to rip about 300 albums a couple of years back. The equipment setup was a pig and the post-recording phase took up to an hour each: you have to check for jumps, fix up crackles, correctly identify song breaks and create the MP3 tagging info that modern software likes to have.

I gave up. Christmas brought one of those ION thingies, which at least helps on the hardware side. But I still wonder where the time will come from. I’m starting to think that it may be simpler to bite the bullet and just buy CDs where possible: CDs are cheap again, especially for old stuff. That should get me down below 50 albums that have to be recorded, which I could probably get done over a year or so.

I did wonder if there was a business model here: rip other peoples’ vinyl for them – it gets cheap if you retain the files and can just distribute them to subsequent owners. But I can’t see it making anywhere near as much as my day job.

Although it would offer a justification for buying one of these: http://www.elpj.com/

I have. I didn’t have any records at all until a couple of years ago. I realized that I could only get certain songs on vinyl – and I had to have them. So, I back ordered the Ion and started building a collection. I’ve ripped around 200 records.

The Ion is a cost effective way to do it. I’m very detail oriented and have had some issues with sound. i.e. a high pitched buzzing sound. But, through various means (turning down auto gain and then raising the levels in Audacity), I have been able to cope with that and rip audio at 128 that actually sounds pretty good, for the most part. I really don’t know what I’m doing, but I’ve been able to get by alright.

I did have to send my first Ion back, even though I am not sure there was anything wrong with it. It was for the buzzing noise. I called support and they offered to replace it, so that’s what I did. But, it still has the same problem, even after I bought a separate USB card so that the USB ports weren’t tied directly to the motherboard (I believe that was their recommendation… I forget, to be honest).

You do have to spend time. i.e., ripping the records, raising the levels, cleaning up the audio (if you choose… I leave it as it is, for the most part – yeah, I get the little popping sounds, but when I try to clean them, the music takes a metallic, hollow sound, which is even worse), exporting to .mp3, etc. You’re far more well versed than I, so I am sure there is nothing I can tell you there.

But, like I said, I’ve been able to make it work. So, I’d recommend it as a cost effective way of ripping records. Good luck!

Hi Chris
Vinyl to CD, very timely as it has to be accomplished at a 1:1 rate for the initial recording, which will kill about an hour – and don’t forget to turn the record over! Then there’s the editing, which I think is pretty important. I hear of those who say they like the tone, pops, scratches, skips, etc. and some of them will remain, but there are bound to be some pretty severe ones that just beg to be cleaned up. Next, entering in the MP3 tag text (song title, artist, album, etc.). Remembering that MP3 is a lossy format, I think you’re better off recording to .wav first and then to MP3 after editing. Oh, did I mention that I have over 1,200 record albums? Most of these are not available on CD and cannot be replaced (try finding Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee, Brenda Lee, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Horton, Johnny Ray, etc. to name a few), all you’ll find, if anything, is a collection here or there.

I’ve converted a few albums with more on the way, but it isn’t for the faint of heart. If you can get the CD, you’re probably much better off. I use a Technics Turntable, Magix Audio Cleaning Lab and I purchased a pre-amp from Fry’s to help with level control and using other inputs (Cassette, Reel to Reel, etc.). This has to be a labor of love, there’s no money in it and it is time consuming but, to a music affectionado, worth it to preserve some of the great music that was available only on vinyl and may some day be so obscure as to be considered obsolete. Just a few things to ponder….later….Marv

Chris!

I use Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net). I’ve got a couple of very long homemade RCA cables running along the baseboard from an output my old ’stereo’ which has a turntable as well as dual cassettes and a CD and more, to my PCs inputs.

It works fantastic. I usually just sit and listen, and when a new track comes on I hit the Stop button, then File > New, and a new Audacity opens. While the next track records, I tag and ‘export as MP3′ what I just did. Then I close the first Audacity. When the 2nd track finishes, I do the same thing for the third, and so on.

If I get distracted and more than one track records, it’s easy enough to split the tracks (just look at the waveform — the track breaks when it’s just about flat).

Sometimes I’ll go back and use Audacity’s noise removal, or if I know there are some pops or other simple noises I’ll find them and edit them out. But mostly I just leave it all alone. Gotta remember, we’re talking vinyl here. It’s ok if it sounds like vinyl!

I used to use Rip-Vinyl, by Wieser Software (at http://www.ripvinyl.com/).
It is also very good, but doesn’t have the control or tools that Audacity has. One thing it does have is a couple of controls that break up tracks for you. You set a slider to make define a silence level, which is the space between tracks. Then you set another slider to make a new track after x.xx seconds of ’silence’. Then you walk away. Usually works nicely, but sometimes there’ll be a bit of ’silence’ during a track and it’ll split that track.

Audacity also costs about $10, which you can do on line. You can download it and use it for free, but it injects a nasty 3 or 4 second tone after a minute of recording and then every so often.

I first used it several years ago, and went to Audacity maybe 3(?) years ago. If you want a good program with a simple interface that does one thing and does it good, and don’t mind paying $10, go for Rip Vinyl. If you want free, like to geek around a bit and want more control, go for Audacity.

Actually, even if you go for Audacity, download RipVinyl just for it’s Help. It explains how to run cables, and even shows pictures of cable ends. The computer setup for both is the same.

Ripping vinyl into MP3 is a waste of time. Do you actually intend to listen to your music from your childhood?

Try putting on an album or two. You’ll realize you don’t care for the music.

I have ripped plenty of music CDs on to my computer. I don’t even listen to them much.

I went searching in the internet for obscure music. I found some and downloaded them before the crackdown from the music companies. I don’t listen to them much and it was about ten years ago.

Old music is fine to have, but what’s the use?

$150! I don’t know if there are 150 songs I want to rip from my old albums. May just be easier to d/l those I also have to think there is a more cost-effective way to hook my old (albeit high-end in its day) direct-drive turntable into PC via the mic jack, or RCA-to-USB hook up.

Yes, but I wouldn’t say mass. I’m using a good but old turntable, sending the output of my preamp to my computer and using MS audio recorder thingy that comes with Plus! It’s handy for setting levels and getting rid of pops and hisses but can’t get rid of low level noise entirely.

I also used a little phono pre-amp that sits between my normal pre and the turntable. It was suggested by Patrick Norton who has converted a lot of hi LP collection. Here’s the link to that phono pre: http://www.phonopreamps.com/tc750lcpp.html

It takes time but it works well if you get a good turntable. I don’t know about the one you suggest but I would stay away from a USB turntable unless you can test it out – otherwise I’d think you’d get extra noise in the quiet sections.

If you like your old music, this is well worth the effort. Besides, you can have fun sampling at a high rate and making just as good as store bought CDs from them too, including getting the album artwork from the web (or scanning it yourself.)

But I’d also think that there’d be nothing immoral with downloading the entire album that you already own from the web for free. Even at 192, this is audibly inferior to the original album on a good stereo system so there is therefore notable loss of information. This makes downloading it the same as making a copy for your own “fair use.” Something that is legal, despite what any funky RIAA lawyers might think. But, of course, I don’t have the money to fight any frivolous suits. Rolling your own from the original give you a nice warm fuzzy though, something no downloading or RIAA jerk can do (I hope!).

I use Audiograbber and have for years. I paid $19.00 for it but it is now free. You can rip CD’s or Vinyl or cassett tape. It does a really good job and has a forum if you have any questions.

Like others have said vinyl conversion, it’s a labor of love, and if your time is worth money, you might wanna look into other options.

Of course, audio quality , like beauty, is in the ear of the beholder, some are satisfied with a simple replication…others may have to tweak the sound endlessly until satisfied.

I have an ION USB Turntable, with built n preamp, which is convenient enough on the hardware end, as my experiments with external preamps floundered.

After using the ION… I bet you’ll also need storage solutions of some sort…like a separate USB hard drive if you want to save the original files to tweak later.

I saw John Mellencamp talking up a more automated system last year on a talk show one night regarding a Teac he uses. This device is really your basic dormroom type all in one stereo that auto separates tracks automatically, and costs approx $300 currently at various online retailers. It does not do mp3 conversion, simply burns them into a regular CD which you then rip later. Crosley makes the “songsaver” a similar low end device sold at Target, Linens & Things etc Those units could be a slight timesaver if you don’t mind inevitable CD ripping t get music into the computer/mp3/Ipod world. You’ll have to add mp3 meta data yourself as well, and as far as I know, these manufacturers are getting mixed to poor reviews on audio & reliability, plus devices do not have USB interfaces. In fact, they are limited output as well, Teac forces you to listen to vinyl via 3 inch speakers included with product.

God luck…

As software authors we might be a bit biased, but using dedicated software for the task (as opposed to a general purpose audio editor like Audacity) helps a lot. We’ve put a guide together at http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/vinylstudio/guide.aspx which we hope is useful. Sorry it is so long. Filtering out clicks and scratches is particularly important for classical recordings (’cos of the quiet bits).

As for the turntable, I would use a standard unit with a phono-preamp cabled to the PC’s sound card. The Ion does not stop at the end of the record, which is more than a nuisance if you want to make recordings unattended (there is a model that does thiugh – the one with the ‘05′ suffix).

Vinyl to MP3 is it possible?