Many thanks for this information which, to serious recorded-music enthusiasts will be essential reading and to quite a few on this list.
For me I was only seeking a simple answer to being able to play some of my vinyl-records in the car. (They are a bit cumbersome for that), so serious quality is not so important for that. Of course, I will keep my vinyls as 'master-copies' to play on my home stereo if I just want to listen to music and completely relax. I consider this medium will be around for a quite some time. CD's are already becoming obsolete with the trend moving to I-pods, mp3-players etc. I was only seeking a simple method of having my favourite vinyl music available wherever I am. -Usually not far from a CD or DVD player. This may be a handy solution to this problem. I am quite happy with the clarity and stereo-separation of Audacity. But the instructions with the software were lacking detail on functions other than exporting the Audacity recording to Wav.files, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis? (Is this some Nordic file type? <bg> Perhaps we can return to 'something' now? Best Wishes Ron (UK) -----Original Message----- From: David Tayler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 6:28 AM To: lute-cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] was something, now vinyl I love vinyl. Lasts forever, too. Tips for transfer: 1. Do not transfer vinyl on CD. Repeat, do not put vinyl on CD. 2. Use a real turntable. You can buy them very cheaply on eBay. Do not use a USB turntable. 3. If you can't deal with the whole tracking force thing, get a P mount model. Easy to deal with. 4. Technics makes great budget turntables you can buy used. If you have a big collection, borrow, rent a Rega. 5. If your records are chatty & natty, they need to be cleaned. Nitty Gritty record cleaners for this for this, the one with the vacuum. Some hifi stores will do this for a few cents. 6. Unless they are mint, you will need to use a needle that has an elliptical "nude" profile. This needle goes deeper into the groove, the results are nothing short of miraculous. There are many types; audio technica makes a nice one that goes up to 27kHz that is fine. 7. Hook the TT up to an amp that has a TT input--there is EQ built in, you need to decode it. Amps can be had very cheap on eBay, I like Rega, Rotel, NAD, there are many to choose from. Panasonic and Technics are fine, so are Yamaha and the better Sonys. 8. Hook the line out to a flash recorder such as the Fostex FR2 LE or use a decent converter. Focusrite makes a decent one, and there is a 4 channel E-MU that is pretty good as well. I use RME and Mytek, they cost more. 9. Record at a minimum of 48/24 bit wave files. Do NOT use MP#, do not use 44.1. If you need a CD for any reason, record at 88.2. records have extended frequesncies; if you chop these off you will ruin them. 10. Load the wave in Samplitude and burn as a DVD Audio. Or just save it as a wav file. This will preserve the high frequencies and the detail. USB Turntables: If you must go this way, get a Pro-ject model or something with decent parts. Better to spend your money on a good recording interface that you can also use to record yourself. Such as http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdsp_rpm.php If you need to compress the file, use aac "plus" V2 encoding, using the high frequency rate. However, your DVD audio disks, if properly made, will absolutely, absolutely beat any commercial remaster that I have ever heard. If you have something you really want some extra care applied to, record it twice, and edit back and forth to get the best tracking. Fraunhofer has new codec that will be released fairly soon that will also be good, sort of backward compatible HD for audio. EQ normally is not necessary. However, if you wish to jazz up the sound, record the master untouched, then apply effects to a separate file. Apply all effects using a minimum 24 bit master. If you Turntable has rumble, you can use a notch filter to remove it, WAVES filters work pretty well for this. dt To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
