peep, homie:

www.scratchlive.net

chock full of good info.

i don't know if there's any real way to speed the process up. it's kind of inherently slow...

thanks man, I kinda figured I was doomed from the start.

Ill check that, and some some others.

I guessed there might have been a few a-typical errors people all make when they first start this arduous process...maybe get ahead of the curve a bit.

graci

-J

how come your previous attempts at vinyl ripping sounded bad? what was your recording setup back then?

i would definately do a good amount of testing and playing around w/ different settings, just to make sure you are completely happy w/ your current rips. the only think worse than recording 12K of records is realizing you need to re-do a bunch of them.

in terms of the obvious tips:

-use a rubber mat, not a slipmat
-use a needle designed for recording - i've been using the Shure M97xE Cartridge. make sure everything is properly aligned and weighted.
-look into using a record clamp to weigh down the vinyl.
-monitor your recordings through headphones, not speakers.
-remember to check input levels for clipping before you start recording.
-delete the extra silence at the beginning/ending of your rips.
-maybe look into some sort of program for any cleaning up of your files. i pretty much leave my rips as is. normalizing them in audacity is about it for me.

using the 57 is a good choice for recording. just follow the above suggestions, read around a bit more and you should be pretty happy w/ your rips.

Thanks for the tips..

I was using a tt56.
Technics (Obviously)
Shure 35X (but I also tried the 44-7s, as well as the ortofons..the 35xs seemed
to have the nicest sound over all)
from the 56 I went xlr to rca (yes I know...it was over kill, but rca to rca looked like the same waveform... not much difference, plus the RCA out I believe was booth/aux out, not main)
then into a Phillips CD recorder, which had gain inputs I kept in the green with occasional spikes into yellow, never into red.
which ripped a cd then into sound forge., which was a WAV cnv to 320Mp3

it always just seem to not have any kick to the tracks when I played them out.
it was noticable between a vinyl play, and a CD burn of the original vinyl.

I dont want that to happen to all the stuff I want to play

if i had to guess the source of your earlier problems:



start playing around w/ the 57 -- you'll be MUCH happier with the quality of your rips.

Man, if you could have heard the debate I got into w/ the wizard at best buy about it being the CD recorder...

in retrospect...I think he was right.

i HAVE heard great things about recording thru the 57 (as the recording interface). But personally, I feel nervous about using a USB1.1 connection to deliver complex audio (although it works fine with SSL) when USB 2.0 has greater bandwidth, and firewire has that PLUS more stability.

your decision to use XLR to RCA i think is wise and justified. Even if it were just a simple RCA connection (shiit, i go rca to 1/8inch jack), a clean analog signal is going to be your best bet for preserving vinyl audio quality. If your computer's soundcard is 16-bit (at least), you should be able to get great rips going directly into your recording software.

Word, leave the Philips on the shelf :)

Archive your original AIFF/WAV reordings and convert to your preferred format with your preferred software (i do 320k mp3s with iTunes, no problem).

good luck!
-af-

p.s. no way no speed things up - its all real-time with vinyl. and YIKES, 12000+ is a lot. Even doing 100/week will take 2 years. It will be worth your time to browse used/discount CD bins whenever you pass them.

One tip,
When I name the wav/aiff file I put all the info that I want in the id3 tag into the filename something like

tracknumber~artist~album~track~genre~year~label.wav

Then after I've converted to mp3 I can use id3 tag it to insert the information into the id3 tag from the filename and then rename the mp3 file to something shorter. If I make sure all the filenames follow exactly the same format I can do as many tracks as I like in one go.

well i just did a stack of 32 singles today...... took over 2 hrs..... i renamed the files as i went but in serato they appear as <serato recording) i have like 3000 more to do and at this rate ill never be done.......

Everyone should look into the ION USB Turntable if you would like to speed up the process. It can record at 77 RPM and then reset the speed with the software to the desired 33 or 45 RPM. The unit runs about $150. Small price to pay for half the time it will take normally. If you'll trust one of there refurbs, I've seem 'em for around $85. You can also take out the pops and hisses. I believe Numark is the actual maker but just google the ION USBTT. Hope hat helps!

Whoever came up with this idea is stupid. Period.

Phono cartridges have a limited frequency response. By speeding up the records by the factor of two you are halving the frequency range after slowing down the tracks internall again. Very stupid idea.

That is completely irrelevant in this case. USB 1.1 can handle enough bandwidth for 44.1 kHz, uncompressed PCM audio.

This sucks. I was hoping I could do this and still preserve the original quality of the recording.

OK I understand the point of the recording process and that it isn't quit up to par. But am I the only one that DJs with MP3s @ 320kbps and not wave??? Could you really tell? I mean, if you're such an audiophile, why risk it at all by archiving to digital anyway? And isn't the halving of the frequency the exact same thing that SSL does with "Key correction"? Just wondering... OH, BTW... I had it wrong. The ION does not do the faster speed of 78RPM. I know there is a model that does though. I think the units are still worth the small cash.

Could I tell whether your audio files run at 16kHz or at the half which is 8kHz?

Yes. And if you can't... well I feel sorry for your ears.

Sorry! You're right, I'm wrong... I'll just keep my suggestions to "help others" to myself. ;)