Gah! Vinyl, why does it have to be on vinyl?!

Aaron Saunders · #1 08-12-2006, 11:33 AM

So I'm having issues right now, because I have several records that I absolutely love but I can only listen to them in my room, which sucks, because I spend a LOT of time out of the house. Once I get into the city, I'll spend even more time away from my room, and alas, I can't listen to my records on my mp3 player.

This annoys me especially, because on of the vinyls -- Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section -- is quite easily one of my favourite albums that I own, and it's my ONLY Art Pepper. Is there any sort of vinyl -> CD conversion I can do? I really don't want to spend the money on buying this album again on CD, as the vinyl was costly enough.

theshadow2001 · #2 08-12-2006, 11:46 AM

I reckon stick a mic plugged into the the PC infront of the speaker or else just buy the album. Getting the proper stuff to convert it to mp3 would probably be more expensive than buying the album again.

jazzbassnerd · #3 08-12-2006, 12:40 PM

Better than a Mic would be if you could plug directly into the computer or other recording device. Use the headphone output that is, most likely, somewhere on your stereo system and plug the other end into a recorder of some sort.

Make sure you use a stereo cable or you'll only get to enjoy the left channel.

**Damon Rondeau** · #4 08-12-2006, 01:32 PM

Your computer is a tape recorder. Using the old-fashioned lingo, you dub the record to your computer's hard drive in real time.

Been a while since I've seen a generic soundcard, but take the line out from your stereo receiver and plug it into the line-in on your soundcard. Get yourself a PC recording program -- if you don't have one you're gonna need one (there's free stuff but names escape me right now; I use Cubase.) Set the program up so it's listening to the soundcard's line-in. Record each track separately or the whole side, whatever. You're going to wind up with big wav files. Rip 'em down to mp3.

Keep the vinyl. In a moment of early 90's insanity I got rid of all mine. In the long-run vinyl may turn out to be the longest-lasting medium.

**Jeremy Allen** · #5 08-12-2006, 02:39 PM

Audacity is free, easy to use, and effective:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

You can either take a stereo line from the headphone jack on your stereo to the input on the soundcard, or better yet get one of those RCA-to-1/8" cables that any store now sells as an accessory for iPods and go from the "tape out" or "tape B" or whatever on your stereo into the soundcard. I digitized about 200 LPs in this way for a friend (I'll never volunteer to do that again!), and once you figure out where to set the input gain on the soundcard it's a piece of cake.

Kam · #6 08-12-2006, 03:25 PM

Yeah, I've done this for my girlfriend's dad with a bunch of his vintage LP's...the best part is he gave them to me as payment!

Aaron Saunders · #7 08-13-2006, 11:22 PM

Yeah...I definitely can't find an out on my stereo. At all. It's all in one cabinet, so all the wiring is inside. I'll just wait until I have a mic and record it that way (poor quality as it might be.)

Trevorus · #8 08-13-2006, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron Saunders

Yeah...I definitely can't find an out on my stereo. At all. It's all in one cabinet, so all the wiring is inside. I'll just wait until I have a mic and record it that way (poor quality as it might be.)

Then go get yourself a used turntable (stand alone unit) and use it's outputs into your computer.

Aaron Saunders · #9 08-13-2006, 11:43 PM

...or I could buy the CD, at that point.

Thomas Stone · #10 08-14-2006, 12:31 AM

use the headphone socket on your hi-fi.

Kam · #11 08-14-2006, 10:12 AM

Or you could open it up and splice the wires...

Aaron Saunders · #12 08-14-2006, 10:17 AM

I don't trust myself to pull that one off.

velvetkevorkian · #13 08-15-2006, 10:07 AM

Saw an ad in a paper the other day for a USB turntable; just plug it in and record away. CAn't remember the brand or anything helpful like that but it could be worth having a look...

relacey · #14 08-15-2006, 10:16 AM

Here's a couple of pretty general descriptions of the process and procedure.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ne/4654578.stm
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...2/b3996079.htm
Ron

**Damon Rondeau** · #15 08-15-2006, 10:22 AM

Sounds to me like maybe Aaron has one of those old stereo cabinet dealies that are so common in Canadian basements. You know, a little smaller than a dining room sideboard, probably legless and containing a phonograph (maybe an 8-track -- they were featured on the newer models.) There aren't any line-outs, digital outs, USB connections or even headphone jacks on those babies!

Aaron Saunders · #16 08-15-2006, 11:02 AM

Oh, don't worry, I'm inheriting one of those -- the one I have is an all-in-one CD, casette, record player, and radio that's completely self contained and (albeit smaller) very much modelled after the unit you just described

.

Scott McC · #17 08-15-2006, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron Saunders

So I'm having issues right now, because I have several records that I absolutely love but I can only listen to them in my room, which sucks, because I spend a LOT of time out of the house. Once I get into the city, I'll spend even more time away from my room, and alas, I can't listen to my records on my mp3 player.

This annoys me especially, because on of the vinyls -- Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section -- is quite easily one of my favourite albums that I own, and it's my ONLY Art Pepper. Is there any sort of vinyl -> CD conversion I can do? I really don't want to spend the money on buying this album again on CD, as the vinyl was costly enough.

They have a copy of this in the library at Humber, you can check it out when you get there. No sweat.

jazzy bass man · #18 08-15-2006, 12:52 PM

To fix this problem I bought the "Microsoft Plus! Superpack for WIndows XP"

There is an analog recorder included and I found it to work very well. It automatically splits the track (sometimes it messes up but its easy to fix) and removes hiss and pops (for vinyl).

Unfortunately the package cost like $20, and the analog recorder is the only part of it I use so it was not the best deal.

Aaron Saunders · #19 08-15-2006, 01:00 PM

Awesome. I went on a tour of the school and they took us through the library...there was about 7 or 8 music students. They had to almost literally tear us away to continue the tour

. Personally, I was perusing the Sonny Rollins section...

jazzy bass man -- actually, that sounds like a really good idea. I might actually think about that one for the future (this Art Pepper isn't the only vinyl I want copied...)