Archving vinyl
Posted by: J.N. on 16 December 2001
There has been talk here, recently of flying cows and better soundcards for the P.C.
I have a burner for the P.C. which is fine for stuff on CD, but want to deal with the vinyl.
Would it not be simpler and cheaper to buy a decent Hi-Fi recorder with a built in A-D converter?
That nice Mr Richer is advertising the Marantz DR 6000 at £320, which seems like a pretty good quality machine.
Whadya reckon?
It does take some time to put in the track IDs if you want to burn straight to a CDR, and the vinyl is not usually silent enough for the CD writer to detect the gaps to insert the tracj index.
Do a search on CDFS.VXD in past threads to see the full process I use, uncluding the computer bit.
DS
I would be running My Linn thing through a 52/Stageline.
I've messed with a recorder B4, so I know about manually inserting track edit points, if you need the disc to recognise individual tracks.
Any knowledge of the DR 6000 or Pioneer PDR 609, which both seem to be well rated for sensible money?
I know Phillips and Marantz are the same overall company, so perhaps I just have sucumbed to the marketing pitch that Marantz have a more 'sound' friendly attitude.
With Richer Sounds stuff, you can try to get a demo if you book up, although their stores do not seem to stock all times all the time.
DS
How many was it at the last count?
17,000 rings a bell.
You really must find a cure, for this addiction. They'll let you take a CDS home if you ask nicely.
I'm not selling my vinyl. I just want the rare ones on CD as well.
However, if you have a large music collection of both cd and lp, I can only see copying to digital for friends. Otherwise, how many times are you actually gonna play that cd-r, when the vinyl sounds better anyway? And if you "archive" a used record, what do you do when a better copy comes along, or you upgrade your deck, or your cd-recorder? If you are "archiving" new releases, why not just get the cd? And if it is an audiophile reissue, shouldn't you play the lp and not the facsimile?
--Eri
I have to admit this is one of the few items I bought unheard, but it worked out well - as a standalone player, it is competitive at its (low) price point and perhaps beyond that - certainly, it doesn't embarass itself - and its recording abilities work beautifully - the analogue->ADC is ideal for archiving your vinyl, and with careful level-setup you can maintain a lot of the 'magic' of the original vinyl. In fact, the player does so well all-round that it's given me a bit longer to save for the 'next' step, as its playback is better than I'd any right to expect for the money!
I imagine a pro-spec machine might well record better, but in fairness the DR6000 is beyond reasonable criticism in my book at that price.
TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."
John.
quote:
I'm thinking about ways to get those treasured, rare vinyl albums onto CD.
Bollocks to this. Anyone know how to archive CDs onto vinyl?
Tony.
I bought mine for 199GBP - a bargain! It has a good many useful features. It has been widely praised in the Hi Fi Press (not sure if that is a good or bad sign!) I can only say I am very pleased with the 609, it does all that I want it to and can do even more!
But I do only use it as a recorder not for playback. This is not a criticism of its capabilities in that area it simply means I have never used it in this way I prefer to use my existing kit.
Well worth taking a look at one.
Cheers
Max
The only exception to this is my live tape catalogue.
That said I'm currently very impressed by the transfers I've done using the flying calf external A-D, in conjunction with my PC, but it's a relatively time consuming task. The advantages of using a PC are the ability to archive the raw data for re-use later.
I reckon a dedicated CD recorder would be a lot easier though, as others have suggested.
I've gone the PC route solely because it gave me other advantages, for use in my audio test setup.
Andy.
is to record the LP using your stand alone recorder onto a CDRW disk. Use audio extraction software to get this onto your hard disk (you can then use the CDRW again for further transfers). Do whatever you want to the resulting wav files, then burn to CDR
I have started to experiment with a 24bit/96kHz ADC/DAC system within a PC, as the one Andy describes, for not just archiving, but also for turning the best of my existing vinyl collection into a large virtual jukebox. The resolution of 24/96 appears to be amazing, even with the relatively cheap PC cards available (<$200). Options exist for using outboard ADCs and DACs to further improve the quality. I'm just experimenting now with this setup, with the potential long-term plan of making a media server capable of feeding multiple streams to separate rooms. May never happen, but it's fun tinkering.
I also am currently using a more traditional component CDR solution (Philips CDR765) and while the quality is really not that great, I do exactly the process described above and find it very suitable/acceptable. (Burn to CDRW, dump directly to hard drive to edit & sequence, then burn a one-off CDR for playback). Despite being a little cumbersome, it works quite well. I don't use my Cool Edit Pro "declick" software at the moment, because I haven't found the right settings to make it stay away from the music, but filter out the crap. I use this system primarily to make CDs to play in the car, and of older live material I taped on cassettes and reels that is now falling apart. The CD version of vinyl from the LP12 is nothing even close, but I don't make the CDs to listen at home, so it rarely makes a difference to me.
Mike
To those who say "Why"?; I say:-
Convenience and the ability to play my vinyl faves in the car/discman/second system etc:
Plus; it's a great way to make up vinyl compilation discs.