Vinyl transfer

[rgro]

Just wanted to put in a good word for a piece of software I just started using over the weekend to digitize my old vinyl albums so I can add them to my Vortebox/SBS system. This program was recommended by a chap over on the Vortexbox forum. It's called VinylStudio and you can get a trial version for free at:

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/

Note that if you use the free trial version, you can fool around with all the filters, de-clicking, etc., but it will not allow you to save the corrected files. You can save the uncorrected files, however. This wasn't quite clear to me up until I tried to save a file and saw the pop-up message.

I've resurrected my old Technics SLBD-20 turntable and a $5 RCA to 3.5mm cable into my laptop's mic connection through an iMic (which allows you to select a "line in" function). Amazingly, for a few dollars in hardware and $30 in software, I've got something that works far better than I would have ever expected. Some of the really old and over-played and under-cared for albums are really beyond much help, but the ones in good shape, to my ears, often sound better digtized than what comes out of the speakers direct from the turntable (I listen while I'm digitizng). The "de-clicking" part of the software is pretty cool and the program also supports saving in flac (which is what I've done). It's not perfect, but it'd pretty darned good.

All this and the support is phenomenal. I had a small issue with Mp3tag not being able to deal with embedded art that I'd added in VinylStudio (don't do it if you use Mp3tag!), emailed VinylStudio's support and had a reply within a few hours on Easter Sunday, no less. I am impressed and would recommend it to anyone.

And, finally, I've got no relationship whatsoever with these folks---just passing this along for those who want a simple, inexpensive, but good quality way to change vinyl to digital.

[RonM]

Jeez, thanks a lot!

I looked up the iMic device. Cool, could use that (very very occasionally), I'll have to get that. Ordered.

Looked up VinylStudio. Ditto.

You just made me spend much more than I'll save by ripping my (very few) vinyl records that I don't already have digital copies of!

Ron

ps -- thanks anyway.

[rgro]

Jeez, thanks a lot!

I looked up the iMic device. Cool, could use that (very very occasionally), I'll have to get that. Ordered.

Looked up VinylStudio. Ditto.

You just made me spend much more than I'll save by ripping my (very few) vinyl records that I don't already have digital copies of!

Ron

ps -- thanks anyway.

My pleasure....any time! ;>)

Fortunately, I'm on the front end of that...just have a handful of CD copies of existing albums. Excluding my time which is, of course, of incalculable value ;>), the $60 or so (including the iMic) to do this seems almost criminally cheap.

[Tony T]

Just wanted to put in a good word for a piece of software I just started using over the weekend to digitize my old vinyl albums so I can add them to my Vortebox/SBS system. This program was recommended by a chap over on the Vortexbox forum. It's called VinylStudio and you can get a trial version for free at:

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/

I ripped 600 LP's with Wave Corrector: http://www.wavecor.co.uk/
(coincidentally, also a UK Company)

If you haven't invested too much into VinylStudio, take a look at Wave Corrector.

[rgro]

I ripped 600 LP's with Wave Corrector: http://www.wavecor.co.uk/
(coincidentally, also a UK Company)

If you haven't invested too much into VinylStudio, take a look at Wave Corrector.

Looks like no flac support which is a non-starter for me.....otherwise it looks fairly similar...

[Tony T]

Looks like no flac support which is a non-starter for me.....otherwise it looks fairly similar...

If you have FLAC installed on your system, you can use the "External Encoder" settings in Wave Corrector.
I do like that VinylStudio has a Mac version. Also like that it can look up track listings and album covers.
Had I not already ripped all of my LP's, I would have taken a look at VinylStudio.

Tony

Edit: Wave Corrector now has FLAC support built-in

[TheLastMan]

Looks like a good piece of software, and seems more up to date than the one I use, SpinItAgain, which was last updated in 2009. In fact I suspect it was based on SpinItAgain as it seems to have a remarkably similar feature set!

The "library" facility and output to FLAC look very useful, and are missing from SIA. If I wasn't already halfway through my collection, and didn't have a good established workflow, I would probably have gone for this software.

One word of caution, the fact that it keeps your collection as WAV files as well as outputting either as FLAC or MP3 would mean using a heck of a lot of disk space. Not a problem if you have a dedicated 2TB drive, but otherwise better to add the cost of a new drive to save all this stuff. Bear in mind Squeezeboxes use less network bandwidth with FLAC than WAV, so you are likely to be duplicating your collection, or even triplicating if you have an iPod as well.

Also bear in mind that using a good 3rd party app for encoding and tagging (dBpoweramp, MP3tag, tag&rename etc) will give you more flexibility. However, as a "one-stop-shop" solution this looks like excellent software.

[spile]

I went through a phase of converting my vinyl to WAV (CD) but have now given up for a number of reasons:
1) Takes to long and too much hassle
2) Quality is lost when compared with original CD
3) I can still play vinyl on my Linn LP12
I now just use it for records that have not been released on CD

Software used was GrooveMechanic

[Tony T]

I went through a phase of converting my vinyl to WAV (CD) but have now given up for a number of reasons:
1) Takes to long and too much hassle
2) Quality is lost when compared with original CD
3) I can still play vinyl on my Linn LP12
I now just use it for records that have not been released on CD

Software used was GrooveMechanic

I agree with 1) and 3), however, I achieved excellent quality when I ripped my vinyl to Flac (wav). While I also can still play my vinyl (also on an LP12), I love having my vinyl now accessible on my SBS (and also converted to mp3 for use on my ipod). Took me 9 months to rip 750 LP's, but in the end it was worth it. I have a few LP's also purchased as CD's and when I compare both when played via my SB Touch, I find it hard to notice differences.

Tony

[Daverz]

Just wanted to put in a good word for a piece of software
I've resurrected my old Technics SLBD-20 turntable and a $5 RCA to 3.5mm cable into my laptop's mic connection through an iMic (which allows you to select a "line in" function).

So you're connecting your cartridge output directly to an mic input? With this setup I'd be worried about a non-optimal impedance match and noise from amplifying the cartridge output. I assume your software applies the RIAA EQ.