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OT- How to convert a record (vinyl) to mp3 or wav?

My dad's bday is coming up and he wants to put his old records on cd and on his computer. I was told their is some technology you can buy that easily converts the music. Anyone know where to buy this contraption and roughly how much it costs? He is a biker, so it's not totally unrelated to the cause here....

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on February 9, 2009 at 10:44pm
Thanks all you music techies. We bought my dad an Ion...I'll tell you all if he likes it. Cool idea if it works.
Permalink Reply by Anne B. on March 1, 2013 at 4:11pm

Julie, how did the project for your dad work out? 

Glad I found this post as I'm looking for advice on getting a new record player. I'm not an audiophile and don't own a ton of vinyl- I mostly just buy records for < $2 at Laurie's Planet of Sound. You can find me sitting on the dusty floor patiently looking through the fifty cent bins. My current record player is a 60s all-in-one Newcomb EDT-28B. It was previously owned by a school district and never sounded great but is getting worse. There's a couple repair places I'm aware of but given that it only cost me $40 it's likely that any repair would be far more than that and I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to get a Crosley all-in-one that breaks in a year or two. I guess I'm looking for that elusive middle ground between crappy and expensive. 

So I'd like to get a turntable, amp and speakers but have no idea where to start. From preliminary googling, this seems highly recommended: 

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT-LP120-USB-Direct-Drive-Prof...

 
But I'd like to know how much an amp/speakers (preferably used) would cost me, so what the total cost of having this as a system would be. Any suggestions on best places to get the turntable and other stuff locally are appreciated. Is Craigslist good for this? I'd love to leave Amazon out of the equation but don't know where to start. I just want to listen to my 50 cent records (price, not the artist, ha) and make mix CDs of them and have a decent sounding system. 
If anyone wants the old Newcomb for parts/tinkering when I get a new system, let me know! It looks like the one in this photo:
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 1, 2013 at 4:20pm

Excellent!

koala said:

Equally funny is that I'm a dad and my kid wants to listen to LPs. He had his friends over to listen to Physical Graffiti on vinyl. I hear it was so cool. :)
Permalink Reply by william on March 1, 2013 at 4:59pm

go vintage. check out decibel on milwaukee ave; they will have what you're looking for and can provide assistance. I think the hi-fi stuff that came out in the late 70s to the dawn of the compact disc mid-late 80s is as good as it ever got. peak of the the technology & usually easy to repair/maintain. 

Permalink Reply by David P. on March 2, 2013 at 2:10pm

Koala,


Thanks for mentioning this. It's so obvious but I probably assumed that the software for the analong-digital conversion would be the difficult part. I've got a lot of vinyl and a very nice turntable and receiver to listen to it with, but there's always been stuff I've wanted to digitize so I can play it in the car, etc.

koala said:

If your dad still has a regular old turntable and a receiver with a phono preamp, I've had success running the tape monitor out of a receiver into the mic input on a laptop computer. All you need is a RCA to 1/8 stereo patch cord and recording software (Audacity should work for this). If your dad recorded LPs onto cassette tapes, this is pretty much the same idea.

I have also used the ION USB turntable. It works fine. If you listen really closely, it has a bit of rumble and whine to it, but the Audacity software has a really nifty noise reduction effect that wipes it out. This is a good solution when you don't have a phono preamp.
Permalink Reply by David P. on March 2, 2013 at 2:12pm

I'll second william's suggestion. I've got a Technics turntable from the early '80s - a hand-me-down from my dad - that is fantastic.

william said:

go vintage. check out decibel on milwaukee ave; they will have what you're looking for and can provide assistance. I think the hi-fi stuff that came out in the late 70s to the dawn of the compact disc mid-late 80s is as good as it ever got. peak of the the technology & usually easy to repair/maintain. 

Permalink Reply by Peter Grimaldi on March 2, 2013 at 6:17pm

This is the best idea. A friend (not computer literate) bought an ion, and asked me to try it out.
Really cheap turntable, no tone arm weight adjustment, no speed adjustment, no tracking adjustment. Sound quality was horrible. Transfering the same album on my old turntable and receiver like koala did resulted in a much better sounding file.

koala said:

If your dad still has a regular old turntable and a receiver with a phono preamp, I've had success running the tape monitor out of a receiver into the mic input on a laptop computer. All you need is a RCA to 1/8 stereo patch cord and recording software (Audacity should work for this). If your dad recorded LPs onto cassette tapes, this is pretty much the same idea.
Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on March 2, 2013 at 6:42pm

I don't even remember posting this, wow, where has my memory gone???  This year for his bday I bought him Greg Borzo's newest book called Chicago Cable Cars.

1zt7hr8qm0y90Permalink Reply by 1zt7hr8qm0y90 on March 3, 2013 at 12:11am
Oh my gosh. My dear Julie, why would you or anyone want to do that? The posts suggest that it's hard and software is needed. Think about music that is digital and so compressed that it is hollow. Now think 1970. Think analog. Think a cassette deck to record from vinyl to cassette and then think a cassette player (Walkman). Take it from an old audiophile hippie that still uses vacuum tube equipment as does any guitar player worth their salt because of the frequency response.
1zt7hr8qm0y90Permalink Reply by 1zt7hr8qm0y90 on March 3, 2013 at 12:20am
Anne B, are you serious? That is a picture of a toy record player, not a precision turntable with a full size platter, 1 gram tracking force, diamond stylus (needle) and anti skating control and we can throw in pitch (accurate speed control via strobe). That which you show in the picture will gouge the grooves.
Permalink Reply by william on March 3, 2013 at 8:02am

If the vinyl collection isnt too massive, I'd rather just bittorrent the albums from a private tracker known for high quality rips (i.e what and waffles). 

Permalink Reply by Anne B. on March 3, 2013 at 6:44pm

Oh, this gave me a good laugh, thanks! You're making me want to re-watch High Fidelity.

I just want to listen to cheap records and buy equipment that isn't a disposable piece of crap or crazy expensive.


Douglas Iverson said:

Anne B, are you serious? That is a picture of a toy record player, not a precision turntable with a full size platter, 1 gram tracking force, diamond stylus (needle) and anti skating control and we can throw in pitch (accurate speed control via strobe). That which you show in the picture will gouge the grooves.

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