Ripping Yarns
Posted by: Mr Underhill on 08 May 2011
Introduction:
I have thousands of LPs. Many are not available on CD, and I am not keen to re-buy music I already own.
However, I am increasingly listening to my music digitally, which raises a few questions for me:
1. Am I still enamoured of vinyl?
2. Can I capture a quality copy of my albums?
Which will lead on to a further question in due course:
When played back through a digital front end which do I prefer: CD, HiRes or LP rip?
Below I am going to document my methodology and thoughts, some of which are conjecture / my understanding - and I would be grateful for some refutation, or confirmation.
I hope this may be of some value to others who are going in this direction - and to me if others can help me get good results.
Ripping Vinyl:
Ideally I would like to have played the album back via my EAR 864 pre amp, and taken the tape out into my digital recorder, an M-Audio MicroTrack (MT) at 96KHz / 24 bit.
Unfortunately the MT, despite having three selectable input levels, was over-loaded.
I bought some attenuators, which worked, but killed the music stone dead.
I thought about buying a passive pre-amp, but was suspicious this would also 'shape' the music.
I am currently trying to buy an M-Audio -10db pad, and IF I manage to get hold of one, this time, I will re-record a few of the LPs and post my findings.
In order to move forward I have been recording straight from my turntable into the recorder: LP12/ARO/Geddon/DV20.
RIAA:
Not using my pre amp means that I have to apply RIAA after the fact, which introduces some interesting options.
RIAA is, I believe, applied when the master is cut to reduce bass, and so limit the size of the groove, and boost the high frequencies to reduce the level of hiss heard on playback; the reduction in bass allows a greater play time.
On playback the RIAA curve is applied, reversing the effects introduced during mastering.
The 'standard' was introduced over an extended period, during which time different companies used different curves. The RIAA curve became the de-facto standard from about 1954.
Which LPs?
I don't have room for all my albums in the living room, so I keep a store of about 150 in some cubby holes, and rotate these. There are certain LPs that come down more often than others, and it was from these that I chose to record:
1. Rush - Moving Picture
2. Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell
3. Cole Porter - High Society
4. Dire Straights - Love Over Gold
5. Steely Dan - Gaucho
6. Jethro Tull - Stormwatch
7. Jethro Tull - Broadsword and the Beast
8. Joni Mitchell - Dog Eat Dog
9. Oscar Peterson - West Side Story
All of these are about thirty years old - or older.
Recording:
My aim was to avoid clipping. BUT, this caused an issue. I could avoid clipping, BUT ended up with a very 'unsaturated' recording - probably the wrong expression for a digital recording.
Figure1: 
Shows shows the raw captured file.
Taken using Audacity, with clipping highlighted. This is the Waveform view.
As you will see I hit a very few peaks.
Figure2: 
Shows the same file having applied RIAA.
Not quite what I was hoping. In fact the file sounds pretty good, just somewhat quieter than the files ripped from CD, which entails some getting up and down --- Come on Naim, include a volume control in your Server Webapp!
--so, I decided to experiment with pushing the recording into clipping, in the hope that the application of the RIAA curve would help rid me of any nasty effects: I suspect this is moonshine!
I chose Dire Straights - Love Over Gold,
Figure3: 
Raw file of Telegraph Road
Figure4: 
The applied Eq curve, variation on the RIAA curve.
Figure5: 
With Eq applied.
As you will see, a fair bit more red. Applying the Eq rids the file of clipping, but I suspect the wave form will have been damaged - but do I hear any ill effects?
No. However, I can hear the damage that has been inflicted on the album over the years by a variable set of turntables and cartridges during Telegraph Road - my favourite track.
I am labelling my LP rips as shown:
Figure6: 
Serve Web App.
Processing the RAW Files:
Audacity allows you to remove clicks, but I haven't found this too effective. I generally only use this on the 'run in' and 'run out' from tracks.
Repair is FAR more effective. But a real pain to apply, as it only works on a very small number of packets.
I generally do the cleaning up, and Fade In and Fade Out before applying the Equalisation.
The Eq allows you to apply a number of different curves. I have played with most of them. The vast majority of my vinyl is post 1954 so the RIAA curve is my de-facto start point.
HiRes / CD / LP:
I used my eldest daughter as a Guinea Pig. Problem with my girls is that to get them to SIT STILL and listen to music I almost need a rivet gun. I chose to play here Red Barchetta from Rush's Moving Pictures, which I ripped from DVD last week at 9624(DVD) and 44.1/16(CD). I also have my 9624 LP rip.
Two things: 1. I didn't bounce up and down varying the volume, so the DVD and CD were louder; and, 2. I only played up to the first few lines of singing - I did tell you she was happy to sit and listen didn't I?
Result -
Daughter No1: She preferred the CD rip. Was immediately drawn to the vinyl noise on the LP rip.
Me: The DVD and CD are both clean sounding, the LP rip has ticks, clicks and vinyl noise. Of DVD and CD for me the DVD sounds slightly more open at the top during the vocals. The LP rip? Well, the bass line is not as linear, the DVD/CD appears to just be clean and go subterranean. The LP seems to have the LP12 upper bass hump. The DVD/CD upper registers are also cleaner and more detailed. BUT, I actually prefer the vocals on the LP rip - it is completely free of any digital edge.
Thoughts:
Playing with the RIAA has allowed me to have my own graphic equaliser. But, I have gone back to the standard RIAA curve as the best balance, not surprisingly.
With the current curve I am using I am trying to not de-emphasise the treble so much.
Overall I think this is a painful process. I want to hone the process as much as possible, and then probably only carry this out with vinyl that I can't get on CD to be honest - life is just too short!
...But when I can record using Tom De P. phono section I might be open to persuasion!
Next Steps
I am hoping that IF the M-Audio attenuator arrives, and IF it does screw up the sound, then having my pre-amp apply the RIAA will allow me to push the recording levels higher, without clipping at all.
I am toying with buying a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD Sound Card. This is an external black box which comes with RIAA built in, and will allow me to record at 9624 - £76.
The last two figures show:
Figure7: 
The files on my laptop where I work on the, hence the 'wrk' directory.
Figure8: 
The files having been copied to me Fileserver.
M
Could try buying the CD issues. I find they are quite good most of the time! 
For rare un-reissued LPs, I found a Philips CD recorder made very nice transfers, but subject to the usual LP replay difficulties, which always rendered the 33 and a third rpm LP much less fine tha the 78 rpm analogue disc or the Red-book CD,
Since the early fifties [with the adoption of the LP as the usual music carrier] the musical replay world has been in a period of darkness where quality went to pot, but fortunately the CD rescued music from this mess, and now with hires, we may end up with as standard that is as musically fine as the last of the direct cut 78 from the early fifties. Truly a massive dark age to endure till digital provided something better than 78 discs.
ATB from George
Not familiar with either your preamp or digital recorder, but it seems to me that something is wrong here. Either your EAR preamp has extremely high output via its tape out socket, or your digital recorder has rather odd input requirements. If you own a cassette deck, have you tried recording onto that, and if so so you have to do strange things to the record level? 
Incidentally, applying RIAA correction to a CD or other line source seems to me a very bad idea. After all, RIAA circuits are designed to cope with low level voltages, not the high levels as generated by line sources. You must be introducing a lot of extra noise if you do it that way.
Also I have contributed my thoughts on CD recorders to a thread in the HiFi Forum, so won't repeat them here.
Just had a thought ...
You ARE using a line level input on your recorder and haven't just mistakenly decided to use the microphone inputs? I recall lending my DAT recorder to a son-in-law, and having him complain of high distortion levels, and that was the mistake that he had made. 
The Mrs. and I are maybe ten years away from our next "downsizing" move. Staring at our wall of vinyl shelves a couple of months back, I thought to myself, there is no way that is all going to find space in our next home!
Hook
That's one of the reasons we've kept our 5 bedroom house. The other is frequent visitors - grandkids, wife's relatives from Malta etc etc. If anything, our house often seems too small! 
Mr Underhill,
Interestingly, you don't tell how the LP rip compares to the original LP. Ripping my LP's was an idea in my mind for some time. (a much smaller collection) Then, a friend convinced me I would never be satisfied as long as I don't get a very high quality ADC, which would cost several ten thousands. So, I gave up the idea. Instead I upgraded my turntable and still buying records.
I am fascinated by how meticulously you are treating the issue and researching into the method; but if you have thousands of LP's, I see no way you will have the time to rip them. If you want to save space, just sell or throw them away selectively. And, you may throw some of them in my direction . Or, just keep them as a valuable archive. Maybe, a record washing machine is what you need.
Funnily enough, having said I don't want to spend any money on this - I have been doign some digging, and was looking at the M1000 - along with gear by Lyndorf and Stello.
Still think I won't go there ....no, no, no!
...
Hi Mr. U -
After doing a bunch of research, I was thinking the same: no, no, no!
Then, one afternoon on evil bay, and there it was....an MR1000 at 66% off list minimal bid. Had good support from them on my one purchase gone wrong, so I bid the minimum and....surprise.
When I get home and get back to testing, I will try to critically report what I hear. Lots of the engineers on gearslutz dot com (what a name!) swear by this device, so I am confident that I will eventually get excellent recordings. Jury is out on whether the amount of work it will take to do so will be worth it.
In my imagination, it is nice to think that my vinyl collection is also a bunch of high resolution files in waiting. And at $20/download, the ROI on my MR1000 is only 20 recordings...
Hook