it's like searching for the holy grail (sp?) ... i'd like to know the secret formula too :)

What kind of sound card are you using? If you're using a built in sound card or a sound blaster card, you won't get that great of quality. The ADC's in those cards are not made for high quality recording. An entry to mid level sound card for recording would be an M-Audio 24bit/96khz card. Record at the highest quality wav file then dither down to 16/44 or whatever mp3 setting you want. You may need to slightly compress/limit (3:1) the file and/or normalize the file to get it to sound the same as a CD.

Vinyl is also mastered differently than CDs, so there may need to be a little bit of work to get it to sound the same.

Good Luck

any suggestions for out board sound capture devices (usb or fw)?

for lappy use.

i have a question. when I use my FS2 scratch amp to record my vynil it samples at 24bit/96 khz 1440kbps wave- if i convert it to mp3 @ 320kbps 'which is the highest option' is that gonna effect the sound quality of the file?

by the way if you guys are wondering why i still have FS2, its because i cant get rid of it and you know why, so i figured i get some kind of use out of it.

I gave up on the CD quality. I want VINYL quality. At the least, I wanted all my songs to sound as good as my original vinyls. That means a few pops+crackles are okay with me. I've tried processing the files and that works, but it's different for each file, so I gave up on that as I don't have enough time to do all my files. I also try not to over-complicate things, since that will just make me not want to do anything at all.

- Clean your records as good as possible. I use Groovy Cleaner and Gruv Glide.
- I use a fresh needle and currently the Digitrack. They sound great on regular vinyl.
- 1200 -> A&H Xone:02 -> PC Line In
- I use WaveLab and record as a WAV
- Trim the files, fix any skips or anything major while it's a WAV
- Save the file with a name that has as much info as possible (usually <SIDE><TRACK NO>. <ARTIST> - <TITLE>.wav - Example: A1. Jimmy Jones - Watch Out For Da Big Girl.wav)
- Batch convert to MP3
- Batch "Tag from Filename" to set MP3 tags

One big tip I always like to use is to record a song using different needles (if you have 'em) and listen to it in your car or somewhere you listen to music all the time. As soon as you hear it, you'll know if something's off.

does anyone know how much the m audio costs?or any good site when i can buy it from

the bitrate for a 24-bit/96khz stereo wav file image should be something around 4608kbps.

1440kbps looks like a 16-bit/44.1khz wav file. You might wanna check your software to make sure its running in 24-bit recording mode.

Heres what I do to rip vinyl:

1 - use Tech 1200 with plastic rubber mat and elliptical stylus.
2 - keep pitch quartz lock button 'on' on Tech 1200.
3 - record vinyl using 'MOTU 828 mk2'(firewire Soundcard) using '24-bit/96khz' resolution settings. Using Xone:92 as mixer to Record into Digital Performer 5.11(software recording program) .
* 4 - When I record the vinyl, I check my source input gain LED structure so that I rarely hit 'red' on the lights(on the single channel).
6 - export 24-bit/96khz wav files.
7 - run 'soundsoap2' on 24-bit/96khz files... to try and clean out pops,clicks, and noise. (hate this part... 1 by 1 )
8 - re-import 24-bit/96khz files back into DP 5.11 and run the 'Limiter plugin' on each file to boost audio volume.
9 - Export files from DP 5.11 to 320k MP3 file
10 - use Mac MP3gain to do final level off of vinyl encoded file to 94db. If MP3 gain lower the volume, I leave the file as is withough mp3gain.

There's probably other easier ways.. but this way seems ok for me so far.
I need to hook up with the 'soundsoap pro' plugin so that I can use it within DP5.11 .