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Ripping Vinyl For Dummies

Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
edited January 2007 in Strut Central
Question,what's the best way to convert vinyl to MP3 format?I've been told that I do shitty rips and I want to correct this fault.Here's what I use to rip vinyl:-an iMic-Audacity software-iTunesPlaese to son me, be it thru PM's or on blast.

  Comments

  • spelunkspelunk 3,400 Posts
    1) Good listening cartridge on a good turntable
    2) Clean your records!
    3) Good phono preamp, through your mixer or otherwise
    4) Good Analog to Digital Converter. (i.e. a good pro-audio soundcard)
    5) Recording program (Audacity is fine), make sure you record at 24-bit and then dither to 16-bit though.

    I'm guessing your issue is that you're using an iMic. Once you get a better A/D converter things will sound much better.
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    [qoute]make sure you record at 24-bit and then dither to 16-bit though.[/qoute]

    Can you explain what this means and how to do it in audacity (if you're familiar with it)?
  • eliseelise 3,252 Posts
    I noticed this on a website I shop at.

    Anyone heard of this table?
    Im guessing the sound quality is shitty, but wondering if it could actually be useful?

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    USB recordable turntable

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    Pitch level is included in software!!
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  • spelunkspelunk 3,400 Posts
    [qoute]make sure you record at 24-bit and then dither to 16-bit though.[/qoute]

    Can you explain what this means and how to do it in audacity (if you're familiar with it)?

    It means you to to preferences and under recording quality or some menu like that you'll be given a list of options, 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit floating point. No commercially available soundcard records at 32-bit, but almost all sold these days record at 24-bit.

    Then, when you export the file, you'll need to do so as a 16-bit file in order to play it outside of audio editors, protools, etc. Dither is explained here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither#Digital_audio) but basically it's a form of rounding decimals to squeeze data into a smaller resolution file. Different dithering algorithms have different ways in which they shape the noise that this process creates, with Apogee's being some of the best.

    Audacity allows you to choose between a few basic dithering algorithms. There are 3rd party plugins and whatnot to do this as well, but I'm not too up on that right now. 99.999 percent of people wont be able to tell the difference between them, which is what distinguishes audio engineers from normal, sane human beings.
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