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Topic: Converting vinyl to MP3. Anyone tried one of these? |
Steve Green
From:
Gulfport, MS, USA
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 4:23 am |
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There seems to be a variety of these on the market but at that price you don't get a very good pickup. I just plug my hifi into my PC. Some versions of Windows record in WAV format but it's easy to convert. In fairness, the one I tried came with some cataloging software.
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Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 6:05 am
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| Keep in mind if you record as an MP3, it is "something less than full fidelity". If you record wav it is full fidelity. If you have an MP3 and convert it to wav you don't regain the lost fidelity, it is as it was as an MP3. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 6:57 am
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Yes, if you have plenty of memory to spare then WAV is best. A CD burnt from a WAV file is better quality than from an MP3, but the WAV is typically 10 times bigger.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 7:42 am Re: Converting vinyl to MP3. Anyone tried one of these?
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| Steve Green wrote: |
| Is there a better solution? |
Better? I'd say so.
But that depends on your budget, how much time you want to spend on the project, and whether you have 7, 70, 700, or 7000 songs to transfer from vinyl to mp3. And of course on how sensitive you are to imperfections in sound quality that might be generated by a mediocre turntable or amplifier. I wouldn't have high expectations of a 65 dollar item that included a cartridge.
If 7 or 70, I'd probably just obtain the mp3 directly in that format in some other way---99 cents a song or less, depending on your method. No conversion, no expense for the turntable, no learning curve on how to use it. There is some chance the stuff you want to convert is very very hard to find and unavailable directly on mp3. But most even semi-common stuff is out there to be had.
If 700 or 7000, you might consider getting a legit decent quality turntable like you maybe had 30 years ago. Connect it to your PC, maybe using an external sound card that might cost $50-----turntable to external sound card, external sound card to PC. No amplifier or home stereo receiver involved at all.
If I was going to do the recording through a PC with a decent turntable, I'd decide first if I was going to do any editing or processing of the songs---removing ticks and pops, fading endings, removing hiss, etc.
If I WAS going to do editing, I'd record in a lossless format like WAV or FLAC, then edit as desired, then convert the edited files to a high bit rate mp3 after the final edit--say to 192 bit rate or higher.
If I WASN'T going to do any editing at all, I'd probably record directly to a high bit rate mp3, since mp3 is your desired final format.
As Jack said, any time you re-save an mp3 you lose a little bit of fidelity--just like copying a tape. But in my experience, if you edit an mp3 only once, you may not notice any deterioration.
Audacity works well for this.
High quality mp3s typically take up about 1 Gigabyte of storage for 200 to 250 songs. WAV files are roughly 10 times larger. FLAC (also lossless) is somewhere between mp3 and WAV in storage requirements. I always begin with WAV because I have plenty of storage space and then edit and do a final save to mp3 format. |
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