Transforming your vinyl collection into the digital world
Do you have rare vinyl albums stored at home that are just simply not available on CD or to download? Is your vinyl collection now too vast and precious to be transported around from party to party? Have your just paid $500+ dollars for a one-off 7" on ebay?
If you want to record your vinyl and convert the files into mp3 format then this article will go into detail about the best way to prepare for recording and shows you the different options available for archiving your vinyl so you can finish with the highest possible quality recordings.
Hardware Setup
You will need, as a minimum, these four pieces of hardware to professionally archive your vinyl into digital format.
1. A turntable.
2. A phono preamp.
3. An analogue to digital converter.
4. A computer.
The turntable sends out a weak signal which needs to be boosted by a phono preamp and have the RIAA equalisation applied (more on this later). The A/D converter transforms your audio into bits and bytes, for the majority of you, your SL unit will do this task. Finally the computer enables you to record, edit and save your recordings.
The diagram below shows one of the three possible paths you will need to take in order to digitise your vinyl.
The TTM 57SL route
If you have a TTM 57SL connect your turntable to a phono selected input on the mixer and connect your mixer to the computer using the normal USB lead. Jump forward to the heading on preparing your records.
Mixer & SL 1 unit route
You may have noticed that we have swapped the mixer and SL 1 unit around from the normal position for using Scratch Live.
The reason we advise you don't connect your turntable directly to the SL 1 unit is that the SL 1 is not designed to archive vinyl from a directly connected turntable. The feature that allows sampling from phono level inputs is intended just for that - quick sampling for effect, where the highest fidelity is not a priority. The SL 1 units primary function is to track control vinyl.
Connect your turntable to a phono input on your mixer. Then connect the master line out from your mixer to the SL 1 input and connect your SL 1 unit to your computer with the USB lead. Finally it's important that you go into the setup screen inside Scratch Live and select line input.
By using your mixer as a preamp and instructing your SL 1 unit to accept a line input you will get a perfect 16-bit CD quality recording.
RIAA equalisation
Before any piece of vinyl is manufactured the track has a minor treble boost and bass cut applied, this is known as the RIAA equalisation curve. When you play a record your phono preamp should have the ability to faithfully balance back the RIAA equalisation effect and hence return the track to it's original frequency response.
It's expected that every mixer with a phono preamp includes RIAA equalisation as it's an important feature. In reality higher-priced mixers will balance the RIAA effect to a better standard. If you are using a budget mixer it may be worth looking into using an alternative phono preamp. If you want to read more on what is the RIAA equalisation effect click here.
SL3
With the Rane SL 3 you can simply connect your master output or record output from your mixer to the Auxiliary input on the SL 3. Make sure that the dip switch for this is set to line.
Using a third party device route
1. Some people may prefer to use an external phono preamp instead of their mixer. There are plenty on the market and deciding which one is best comes down to the more you invest the better the signal to noise ratio. The audio signal could then be sent into an external sound card, an SL 1 unit or the sound card in your computer to be digitised. Here are some links with further information on phono preamps.
2. Also on the market are small hardware devices that accept all number of analogue inputs, including phono. These devices will digitise the signal and send it via USB into your computer. Be careful and investigate these devices before you use them checking they do include the RIAA equalisation.
Preparing your records
It's well worth cleaning your vinyl properly and thoroughly as possible before you start. Cleaning off dust, grime and general dirt will reduce the chance of the needle skipping and you having to start recording again. Dirty vinyl will have more clicks in your recording so cleaning before you start will reduce the amount of time you spent editing the waveforms on your computer.
Use a specially designed record cleaning brush. Here is one of the most in-depth articles we found on how to clean your vinyl. After playing a record check the stylus tip, it's likely there will be a tiny amount of dust collected there.
Turntable setup
Use a professional direct drive turntable that allows you to adjust its features for the best performance. Keep your turntable away from your computer and monitor as the tiny magnets in your stylus may be affected by the magnetic field surrounding your computer and monitor. Check your pitch is set to zero.
Tonearm & platter
On the turntable platter, if you have a rubber slipmat then use it to ensure the record doesn't slip and spins at a constant speed.
To set up a perfectly weighted and balanced tonearm for recording purposes, you are aiming to get the tonearm in a perfectly horizontal position. First place a record onto the turntable and place the needle onto the record. If your turntable allows, adjust the height of the tonearm so its horizontal.
Cartridge and stylus
Its important to use a stylus that will give you the most faithful reproduction of the music. Buy or borrow from a friend the best quality stylus possible. Clean the cartridge and stylus removing any dust and dirt, there are stylus cleaning liquids and brushes available or you can use a dry cloth. Saliva is not a cleaning solution and using it will result in your stylus picking up extra dirt.
Here is how to correctly adjust the counter weight: Twist the counter weight on your tonearm until you get the tonearm almost floating, perfectly level, with the stylus tip at the level of the record's playing surface. Now hold your counter weight still and rotate just the dial until its reads zero. When it reads zero, slowly twist the counter weight until you reach the recommended tracking weight for your stylus (Check with your stylus' manufacturer).
Suitable counter weight settings in a club environment are usually between 3.0 and 5.0 grams as the extra force is needed to compensate for bass vibrations, scratching and when you back-cue.
This extra weight can have adverse effects on your sound quality when archiving so your usual settings may not be optimal.
Preparing your mixer
It's best to make all your recordings with flat EQ settings, extra EQ recorded now can't be subtracted later, so check the EQ dials are set to zero. If you want to record some mild EQ cuts or boost's then be cautious with amounts. Check the pan is centered.
Move the needle to a loud part of the record and tweak the input gain on your mixer and the input level adjustment knob on Scratch LIVE making sure the signal is strong yet stays inside the green LED area, if the signal is occasionally hitting the yellow area thats fine but if the signal goes into the red you will get digital clipping and you will need to start the recording again. For more information check out this article on gain structure in general.
Monitor the signal using your headphones, turn off your monitors as the vibrations from them will effect what the stylus picks up.
Recording
If your using the TTM 57SL change the recording input to 'a pre' inside Scratch Live.
If your using the SL 1 unit change the recording input to '1 in' inside Scratch Live.
With everything set-up it's time to start recording. The keyboard shortcut keys ctrl-n will turn record on and off in Scratch Live. Record one side of your vinyl, if it has multiple tracks you can edit it on your computer later into separate tracks. Name the recording and press enter to save.
Recordings are saved in "MyDocuments\MyMusic\SratchLIVE\Recording" on a PC and "~/Music/ScratchLIVE/Recording Temp" on a Mac. Recordings are saved as 16-bit, 44.1kHz, stereo AIFF files. If you are using the Rane MP4 recordings are saved as 24-bit, 48kHz, stereo AIFF files.
After recording a record always store your vinyl in a vertical position. If you leave it lying horizontal with weight on-top it will start to warp.
Editing your recordings
When it comes to editing your recordings we recommend you use the software program you are most familiar with. If you don't have any software then try Audacity, it's free, simple to use, works on PC and Mac and will meet all your requirements for editing vinyl recordings.
1. If you've recorded two or more tracks from one side of vinyl, make enough copy's of the original recording so each song has its own file.
2. Delete all the silence from the start of each track so that the music starts instantly. Leave a few seconds of silence at the end of a track.
3. Look and listen for pops and scratches in the recording. Locate any scratches in the track and decide, are they noticeable enough to be removed? If you think so, zoom in on the waveform close enough to see the individual samples in the wave and use a pencil tool to edit out the pop and re-draw the wave.
4. Normalise your recording. The normalisation process increase the volume of the audio up to it's highest possible level without clipping. To do this in Audacity select the audio by pressing ctrl-a. Go to 'effect' on the top of the screen and select normalise.
5. Save your finished AIFF files in a folder, when you've finished a recording session make a copy of the folder and archive it away. Always keep a folder of the original recordings stored on your hard drive, external drive or burnt on DVD.
Encoding your recordings
You can now play the AIFF recordings in Scratch Live, however if you want to reduce the size of the recordings you can encode them into a suitable MP3 format. We recommend you use iTunes. If you are new to iTunes this article explains how to get started with building and organizing your library of music.
Select which bit rate you want to encode your MP3's into by going Edit - Preferences - Advanced tab - Importing tab - Use the 'setting' drop down menu and select custom - from here you can select your desired bit rate. 320kbps is the highest quality. We have a more in-depth article about encoding the best sounding MP3 files.
Finally to encode AIFF files into MP3 format: Drag your AIFF files into iTunes, highlight them, right click and select 'Covert selection to MP3'. It pays dividends to complete all the tag fields, genre, artist etc, on each MP3 track. Right click on each MP3 and select 'Add Info' to fill in the tags.
It's a time consuming process turning records into digital files so if you decide to do it, it's worth doing properly, first time around. Good luck and enjoy.