I was off MOG for an entire weekend, for the first time since I signed up in January. Here's why...
I saved about 50 LPs from my collection of about 250. After moving with them ten times, I finally said, "No more." All said, I have very few regrets about the ones I turfed. And I am very happy to still own The Ramones, Clash, Sex Pistols, Rezillos, and other old-school LPs. Over the years I have replaced quite a few albums on CD, but I kept a turntable and I do listen to vinyl now and again.
I have always wanted to import some of my records into iTunes, but after messing with Nero a few times, I gave up. Learning the software was on my long list of Things I'd Like To Do Someday. It would have stayed there, except that my dad showed me a peculiar machine in a sales flyer. It had a turntable and cassette deck, could burn your records and tapes to CD, looked like a vintage record player in a wood-tone console, and cost $500. Well I would be damned if I let my dad buy one of those things, so I went home and learned to use the f'ing Nero software!
My test LP was The Pretenders' first album, one of my all-time favourites. I spent a couple of hours recording it and playing it back in real time and deciding on a format for saving files. The original audio files are huge: a 3-minute song created a 30 MB wav file! Not for the faint-of-hard-drive. After recording all 12 songs and converting them, I tried to burn them to CD with great trepidation, but...it worked!
So now I get to start on my dad's collection. I've decided I will alternate one of mine, one of his, one of mine, one of his. So my next few conversions will look like this:
The Pretenders
John Denver
The Ramones
Anne Murray
Patti Smith
Demis Roussos
My dad and I had fun sorting through all his records this weekend and choosing his favourites to digitize. Among his old vinyl records were a few that my brother, sister, and I had forgotten about...everything from Abba to the Grease soundtrack to...an original copy of The Beatles Yesterday and Today album!!
Life is good. I even had time left over to go see Danny Michel again (one of my favourite indie singer-songwriters) and to see the new Fantastic Four movie. If I don't watch out, I might find that I am getting a life!
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That's very cool to be able to do that. I'd like to do that as well but don't have the money to buy said equipment right now. I don't know how many lps I have that I'd like to convert but I probably have 100 lps total. Some of them I've replaced on cd already like The Cure's "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me", The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead", "Strangeways Here We Come", New Order's "Low Life", "Brotherhood", cause I just couldn't live w/o them on cd, especially after my needle broke on my stereo & I just didn't bother to replace it.
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Yeah definitely a worthy project. Wish I had the patience but I got WAYYY too many albums to do it.
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I've seen some of those all-in-one machines in the UK. Also seen a turntable only with USB connector. But having had to set-up several clients PC's (pre this sort of technology) to record from thier hi-fi's, I think the DIY hook-up is much more fun.
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Augusts, although I do have a functioning turntable, I have replaced some records with CDs, such as New York Dolls, Jim Carroll Band, and Iron Maiden!
Lester, I'm not sure how long my patience will hold out. I'm trying to get some done while I still have this initial blaze of interest!
Robin, yes, and much cheaper too. One thing I forgot about is that the turntable and pre-amp create magnetic interference so I kept having to move the equipment around!
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I have a number of LP-only material that wasn't oversampled to CD and likely never will be. My sister has been bugging me about a Kamehameha Schools double LP set that she'd like muxed onto CD. I plead that decrepit stereo equipment from the 1960's can't cut it, and, besides the turntable's belt is a crumpled, sticky mess. A local indie record shop owner said that it would take a month and $85, which seemed a bit pricey. If I can change the focus of my obsession from video to audio, it will be time to plug one of those USB turntables into the 3GHz P4 tower or the 1.25GHz G4 AlBook and Spin Doctor some music CDs.
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Coolio. I have a cd player that can record an analog source to a cd. That's kind of nice but my stereo went out and I haven't been able to listen to my records for a while. I've been thinking about getting this: http://www.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=1846&cat=309# It's usb and you can use it for records, tapes, and 8 tracks and only $149. I'm curious about the sound quality though.
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Wahiawa, eighty five dollars? Surely us music geeks are up to the task. I already had the Nero Soundtrax software which was bundles with their CD burning apps, but I think the Roxio Spin Doctor has all the same features. My PC is a 2 Ghz P4 with XP.
Fistula, those units are cool. If you don't already have a turntable, that might be the way to go. Turntables put out such a weak signal, the sound quality is all in the speaker system! (Well, that and the sturdiness of the platter and the weight/balance of the arm?) I don't think the Nero software I have will record from a USB source, but probably newer versions would.
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Yeah I've got a new Gemini turntable that my wife got me for x-mas some years ago. The stereo went out though. Gotta get a new one. The speakers are excellent. I have all the parts for music except the part that is necessary for it. At least I can listen on the computer, car, ipod, and kitchen radio.
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I hooked my turntable up to my sound card and just played records through the computer speakers; they sounded great!
Turntable to pre-amp with RCA audio cable, then pre-amp to sound card using RCA audio to headphone jack cable
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I need a set up like this. I really miss listening to my records. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I've even bought records that I haven't even heard. What are you using?
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Fistula, I just have an old Denon turntable from the 80s! I have a little pre-amp which is about 2" x 4" uses a 9-volt battery. Similar to this, cost me $40 Cdn:
And the two cables which I mentioned above. That's it! My computer came with Harman/Kardon 2.1 speakers. Sounds better than it is. They are perfectly average. If I want big sound I listen through my home theatre system!
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Thanks man. I'll have to check in on a pre-amp and new sound card. Cool speakers for your computer. Mine came with none and I'm using crap ones I got from my last job after I got fired years ago. I had a friend that had a sound card that allowed him to hook the player right up to the computer. I need to do more research. Thanks for the info!
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I really need to do this, too. I have a cabinet stacked full of vinyls that I would love to hear more often ... seems the time I spend playing records is few and far between these days. If I'm going to make the conversion I want it to sound great though; I won't waste the effort it'll take to end up with some crappy mp3 files. The disc space required is a bit daunting at 30mb a track, though. Are you trashing the original wav files after you've burned them to disc, or are you keeping a back up? Seems like at the very least one would need to invest in a large external drive (which, after finding Mog six months ago has become a necessity anyway) ;) I'm also curious if you're having to spend much time "cleaning up" the files before you burn them?
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You're welcome, Fistula. Good luck!
goodmusiconly - I have a second 80 GB hard drive which I will use to store the original wav files (will not be keeping Dad's - sorry, Dad!) Maybe I will burn them all to DVD and then erase them from hard drive. I am keeping copies in iTunes saved in AAC format which are about the same size as MP3s. I am not cleaning up the files at all. My records are in good shape, and the minor crackles and pops will remind me of the vinyl experience!