Vinyl to digital for dummies (well me actually)

[Timber]

I have finally bitten the bullet and decided I need to get an MP3 player in order to give me tunes on the move. All my music is currently on vinyl and I need some advice as to the best way to start creating a digital library. My priority is sound quality but I'm also hoping that creation of files will be easy-ish. Can anyone advise me on hardware (I have a very nice turntable already thanks so do not want a turntable solution)/ software?

[ukbootlegs]

audacity is free and will allow you to export as wav

i think nero even has the ability to do it

i personally use audacity and i clean up the pops and clicks with free plugins

i then convert the wav to flac using dbpoweramp, and then convert the flac to mp3 for my ipod

but as you said, sound quality is essential, so make sure you back it up into flac first.

[Timber]

I understand only about half of what you have written .....but it is a start point for me to do some home works thanks.

Since posting the question I have been doing some Googling - what is unclear is how important the quality of the PC's sound card is to qualilty of the end music file?

[Hangerhead]

overall? less important than you might think, considering any of the software that removes the 'pops and cicks' is also slightly flattening the top end to reduce hiss.

Now, side-by-side comparisons will reveal this.

just listening on an mp3 player (unless recorded at 192 kbps or higher) on regular headphones or over a hifi will probably not result in that bad a sound.

i've tried it and once i stopped comparing against the reference source, i was actually pretty happy with the steinberg software I'd used for my vinyl.

ultimately, if your vinyl is super heavyweight and has no need of audio-compression or clean-up, then I think the soundcard, converting analogue to digital, will be fine!

[Timber]

'steinberg software'? which did you use?

[evans]

Originally Posted by Hangerhead

overall? less important than you might think, considering any of the software that removes the 'pops and cicks' is also slightly flattening the top end to reduce hiss.

Now, side-by-side comparisons will reveal this.

just listening on an mp3 player (unless recorded at 192 kbps or higher) on regular headphones or over a hifi will probably not result in that bad a sound.

i've tried it and once i stopped comparing against the reference source, i was actually pretty happy with the steinberg software I'd used for my vinyl.

ultimately, if your vinyl is super heavyweight and has no need of audio-compression or clean-up, then I think the soundcard, converting analogue to digital, will be fine!

If you have Nero software i think this has a program for riping records to hard disk. My freind did the same there is a problem however ; the music ripped is exellent quality if you make it MP3 320 kb or wav (larger) however the crackles are very very annoying. You can apply filters but filters also cut out alot of the resolution as well!

[Timber]

A friend has suggested I should buy a 2nd hand Digital to Analogue Converter and that way I'd be able to record straight to PC disc. Any merit in this idea ? Did DAC also allow Analogue to Digital conversion?