Vinyl conversion to digital - because "ripping" just doesn't sound right.

[Darth Bubba]

Anyone here saving their vinyl disks to digital? What equipment do you use? Anyone just playing their pre-amp output into their motherboard line-inputs?

 

[digitalfrost]

I use a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2. I don't think interface quality matters much. Most phono pres will have a noise floor of -60 to -70dB.

 

[Hilltop]

Anyone here saving their vinyl disks to digital? What equipment do you use? Anyone just playing their pre-amp output into their motherboard line-inputs?

I did for awhile, but with Spotify didnt see a reason Anymore. Nothing rare that needs a rip. Even metal like Warlord and Picture is on streaming.
Inner groove songs on Metal Albums have problems.

 

[Robin L]

Used to. Have a couple of Tascam handheld digital recorders. Record 24 bits, 44.1 sampling rates. Keep the record level lowish, maximize after processing, usually de-clicking. The older term for this is "Needledrop", first used when 78s were being transferred to tape. Unless the only source for a needledrop is the disc, not worth it. A transfer from master tape to digital will sound better, analog disc sources are limited compared to tape or digital sources. The groove looses potential energy as the stylus moves towards the end of a side, nothing can be done to fix it.

 

[RickSanchez]

I use a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2. I don't think interface quality matters much. Most phono pres will have a noise floor of -60 to -70dB.

Just curious: what phono pre-amp are you using?

 

[Darth Bubba]

I did for awhile, but with Spotify didnt see a reason Anymore. Nothing rare that needs a rip. Even metal like Warlord and Picture is on streaming.
Inner groove songs on Metal Albums have problems.

From what I read on the Spotify site I'd need to have something that can stream from wifi to my stereo system, maybe via a small computer out to an AUX input on my preamp. That sounds (no pun intended) like a lot of signal degredation to me. How are you getting Spotify to play on your sound system?

 

[Darth Bubba]

Used to. Have a couple of Tascam handheld digital recorders. Record 24 bits, 44.1 sampling rates. Keep the record level lowish, maximize after processing, usually de-clicking. The older term for this is "Needledrop", first used when 78s were being transferred to tape. Unless the only source for a needledrop is the disc, not worth it. A transfer from master tape to digital will sound better, analog disc sources are limited compared to tape or digital sources. The groove looses potential energy as the stylus moves towards the end of a side, nothing can be done to fix it.

Well, all I have are the disks - no master tapes. What equipment chain did you use to get the music off the turntable into the handheld digital recorders? By that I mean: what phono preamp, what ADC, etc.?

 

[LTig]

Anyone here saving their vinyl disks to digital? What equipment do you use? Anyone just playing their pre-amp output into their motherboard line-inputs?

I did a few rips using an old Edirol UA-25 USB interface connected to my DIY MC phono preamp. I haven't measured its S/N yet but noise is far lower than noise from vinyl itself. Earlier I used a Tascam CDRW-700 semiprecious CD recorder.

In both cases the recordings did sound exactly like the real vinyl.

 

[bluefuzz]

How are you getting Spotify to play on your sound system?

There are plenty of Spotify Connect devices available: https://spotify-everywhere.com/collections/audio-streamers

To answer your original question, it's probably well over a decade since I could be bothered ripping vinyl. It's only worthwhile if the vinyl absolutely doesn't exist in digital form anywhere. In my case I have a handful of obscure punk/new wave singles from the late 70s that I haven't found digitally, but that's about it. I used my trusty old Pioneer PL12D turntable – bought new in 1973 and still going strong – into Diamond Cut Audio Lab for declicking etc.

 

[sergeauckland]

I've only ever recorded 78s, not LPs (by the way, when I was trained, it was called a Disc Lift, not needledrop or rip)
so I can run some noise reduction and declicking on the recording. I use the tools built in to Audacity and/or Audition as I only do it as a passtime, rather than to achieve 'commercial' grade results.

As others have said, these days with Spotify and the like, there's very little reason to do a disc lift unless the recording is otherwise unobtainable.

S.

 

[digitalfrost]

Just curious: what phono pre-amp are you using?

http://hifiakademie.de/?id=6.1

It's adjustable via dip switches and device is battery powered.

There's measurements in the PDF: https://hifiakademie.de/pdf/phono.pdf?si=MTYxMzMwMTk1Ny4xNDQ4fDgwLjEyOC4yMTEuNzF8IA

 

[Hipper]

Anyone here saving their vinyl disks to digital? What equipment do you use? Anyone just playing their pre-amp output into their motherboard line-inputs?

I used a turntable and phono amp that could be connected to my motherboard on a desktop PC. It was a few years ago so I can't remember exactly but I think I used a 'Y' cable with two outputs from the phono-amp and one input into the PC. There are now of course USB turntables that connect directly to the PC.

I used Nero Wave Editor (it is now a free download I think) to extract the vinyl to a WAV file on the PC. I then chopped these up into separate tracks. Nero can also be used to edit and tidy up each track. It also has some noise reduction and declicker facilities but I've never used them. I used a software called Wave Repair which I see is still available:

http://www.delback.co.uk/wavrep/index.shtml

Wave Repair allowed for manual declicking. This is very time consuming but works very well. I found it took about two hours per track, so twenty hours per album. It's a tedious job but results were much better then some sort of auto declicking.

I did this only for albums that weren't available on CD or were very poor quality on CD in one case. Of course no sooner had I done all the work on some albums then it came out on CD! My vinyl copies stand up very well in comparison.

 

[Robin L]

Well, all I have are the disks - no master tapes. What equipment chain did you use to get the music off the turntable into the handheld digital recorders? By that I mean: what phono preamp, what ADC, etc.?

The Tascam recorders have the ADCs, 24/96 capable, but as LPs rarely have anything going on above 20k [and I can't hear that high anyway], I recorded at 24/44.1, downsampled to Redbook for the transfer to CD or file. Sometimes used the phono pre built into a receiver [big old Kenwood 9600], sometimes used a stand alone phono pre from Radio Shack that had less self-noise than the Kenwood. I dumped the results into Audacity [freeware] and used Click Repair most times. One recorder has a 3.5 mm stereo jack, the other has two mono 1/4 inch jacks. The noise floor of both recorders easily outperform the self noise of LPs, or of even the electronics of the record playing system with nothing playing. I first used a Shure 97xE cartridge, got better results with a Shure M44-7 cartridge. Note that I was transferring LP to digital formats for others, often working from damaged materials. Keeping the stylus in the groove was the most important consideration, fidelity was not as important as simply getting from one end of a disc side to the end without skipping. Yes, I had access to LP cleaning equipment [a local record shop had an ultrasonic cleaner], that oftimes was crucial. If I could find the same recording in a decent transfer from a streaming site like YouTube, I'd use that as the results would be better sounding. Again, the analog disc format is inherently faulty and nothing can be done to fix it. If the record was old and abused [and they usually were] there would be accelerated IGD and the discs would have more audible wear at the end than the beginning. The folks who produce streams at sites like YouTube or Amazon have better source materials than commercially issued LPs. When I moved to a small apartment, I gave up all the gear except the recorders, gave away all of my [2000] LPs, no longer wanted to hear my LPs, one way or another.

 

[Robin L]

. . . Wave Repair allowed for manual declicking. This is very time consuming but works very well. I found it took about two hours per track, so twenty hours per album. It's a tedious job but results were much better then some sort of auto declicking.

I did this only for albums that weren't available on CD or were very poor quality on CD in one case. Of course no sooner had I done all the work on some albums then it came out on CD! My vinyl copies stand up very well in comparison.

The pencil tool in Audacity allows for manual declicking. Click Repair catches more, takes less time. I suspect there are real-time digital declickers available now, Click Repair needs a file to work on, does not work in real time. Most of the time, if a disc really needs clicks and pops to be removed, manual declicking is too time intensive.

 

[Darth Bubba]

http://hifiakademie.de/?id=6.1

It's adjustable via dip switches and device is battery powered.

There's measurements in the PDF: https://hifiakademie.de/pdf/phono.pdf?si=MTYxMzMwMTk1Ny4xNDQ4fDgwLjEyOC4yMTEuNzF8IA

I barely remember my German language lessons from high school from 46 years ago, but this model looks like a better performer than most. Now watch Amir test the thing and shamble my opinion

 

[Darth Bubba]

The pencil tool in Audacity allows for manual declicking. Click Repair catches more, takes less time. I suspect there are real-time digital declickers available now, Click Repair needs a file to work on, does not work in real time. Most of the time, if a disc really needs clicks and pops to be removed, manual declicking is too time intensive.

Years ago there was a program that had a unique approach to de-popping and de-clicking. The author(s) noticed that pops and clicks had extremely fast rise times and decay times. A "spike." Some music (cymbal strikes) have fast rise times, but always have slow decay times. Their program scanned the music backwards, looking for fast rise times, which were actually the fast decay times of the spike. It could automatically reduce the spike, or mark it for manual removal. I don't know its name, nor if it operated in the analog domain or digital domain. But it showed some pretty good thinking outside the box.

 

[Robin L]

Years ago there was a program that had a unique approach to de-popping and de-clicking. The author(s) noticed that pops and clicks had extremely fast rise times and decay times. A "spike." Some music (cymbal strikes) have fast rise times, but always have slow decay times. Their program scanned the music backwards, looking for fast rise times, which were actually the fast decay times of the spike. It could automatically reduce the spike, or mark it for manual removal. I don't know its name, nor if it operated in the analog domain or digital domain. But it showed some pretty good thinking outside the box.

I'd run Click Repair backwards first, then forwards. That was recommended, I think, by the company.

 

[Darth Bubba]

In my meanderings around Ebay I have found the NAD PP3i, NAD PP4, Rega Fono Mini A2D, Pro-Ject Phono Box USB, and the Thorens MM 088 ADC Phono Preamp units. All are devices that can take phono input and output a digital signal to my computer's USB inputs. Has anyone used one (or more) of these? Are they superior to simply feeding the output from a "normal" preamp with a phono section into a PCIe audio card in my computer and letting Audacity go to town on the captured signal?

 

[Robin L]

In my meanderings around Ebay I have found the NAD PP3i, NAD PP4, Rega Fono Mini A2D, Pro-Ject Phono Box USB, and the Thorens MM 088 ADC Phono Preamp units. All are devices that can take phono input and output a digital signal to my computer's USB inputs. Has anyone used one (or more) of these? Are they superior to simply feeding the output from a "normal" preamp with a phono section into a PCIe audio card in my computer and letting Audacity go to town on the captured signal?

The weakest link in the electronic chain is going to be the phono preamp. Get the best phono pre you can. Amir has a positive review of the Cambridge Audio Duo, goes for about $300. No digital out, but the self noise of the phono preamp is usually a much bigger problem than the ADC:
(1) Review and Measurements of Cambridge Audio Duo Phono Preamp | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum

 

[Darth Bubba]

I'd run Click Repair backwards first, then forwards. That was recommended, I think, by the company.

That's the Audacity function, correct?