Question:
I've recently bought a lot of vinyl singles and would like to listen to them on the go. I have an old sony mini disc recorder that I could use to record them, and then play them on my portable mini disc. What I would like to know if it would be worth getting a modern cd recorder.
What are they like at recording vinyl? Can they record analogue?
Would it be worth getting one, or should I stick with the old mini disc recorder which can record vinyl.
Which would sound the best.
Any advice please.
If I bought one, I would probably go to Richers, as they are close by and cheap. So therefore, if you do recommend a cd recorder, what deck would be the best.
Many thanks
Roy.
Try it with minidisc first. It's much simpler, you have one and the quality difference is very marginal.
Thanks KaptinK
Why is it much simpler?
Cheers
Roy
Hi
I think it depends on how far you want to go with regards to quality, etc. If you're "serious" (take that for whatever meaning you'd like) about it when it comes to transferring Vinyl => CD it would definately be worth considering the PC route.
I.E. Connecting up your turntable to your PC via your sound card. It's advisable to run your turntable through a Mixer or PreAmp before the soundcard. Record your track in. You'd need something along the lines of Sonic Foundry's SoundForge with the Architect plugin to do this, that is likely to set you back quite a bit in £££. But you can pick up nice little proggies for this sort of thing and they help you clean up your recordings too (e.g. Dehisser, Pop Remover, Equaliser, etc). I think they're around £40. Check your local PC World, and if need be look up the title on the net as you're likely to get it cheaper.
If you go through all of this, then you get nice WAV files at the end, which you can then burn onto CD (and help preserve your vinyls). I'm not too clued up on recording things directly within my Hi-Fi setup. But it must be said, that better results are certainly gained via the PC route.
Let me know if you need more assistance on this. :thumbs:
Here's my 2p worth:
I tired of the PC route very quickly! I found it slow and tedious. I bought a s/h Philips CD recorder. Connected it to my Home Cinema Amp as a replacement for my Cassette deck with analogue in and out, I also connected up the digital out from the amp. Needless to say I already have a turntable connected, so all I do is start playing a disk and press record on the CD writer. Simple.
It can also record from digital sources such as my Sky+.
There that should have confused you!
Cheers
Dave
Thanks for your help guys.
I've had a look at the PC root, I've downloaded Audiocity, but so far have not been able to get it to work.
I must admit I did want to look at a very simple route, but the thought of better quality recordings does excite me.
It does concern me how the cd recorder compresses the sound to fit it on. I remeber the minidisc recorder always sounded quiet compared to when I recorded a cd digitally.
Any more advice would be well appreciated.
Once again thanks
Roy
My turntable does have a pre-amp built in!
Admittedly, the PC process is perhaps a little more tedious and time-consuming, but not that much more IMO. Everything still has to be done in real-time. Any extra time you spend on the PC method will be to your benefit, because you're cleaning up the recording - and that ofcourse is the big big advantage doing it this way.
If you have a half-decent turntable with a good cartridge, then recording straight into a Hi-Fi CD Recorder should give you half-decent results. But you can certainly get better quality through the PC method and you have a lot more flexibility.
One thing I would say mate, is steer clear of freeware programs for this type of stuff. The algorithms on such programs tend to be of not great quality (I didn't want to eloquantly state "crap quality"), and as a result the quality of your recording will suffer post-enhancement (i.e. whatever you decide to do it in terms of EQ, etc). It will of course depend on how much you wish to spend. SoundForge (w/ Architect plugin) and Wavelab tend to the cream of the crop for this stuff, but they are professional standard wave editors and will set you back at least £200 (likely to be more). Steinberg (the company who make Wavelab) have a program called Clean, which although I haven't used before I would not hesitate to recommend given Steinberg's excellent reputation. I can't remember if we are allowed to post links in this part of the forum or not, so I'll just post it like this and hope it's ok:
h**p://www.steinberg.net/en/ct/products/audio_editing/clean_plus_pc/index.php?sid=0
This should set you back around £25-30. Very affordable and should be more than adequate for what you're looking to do. :)
Thanks SC725
I will give it a whirl.
Cheers
Roy
What are they like at recording vinyl? Can they record analogue?
Would it be worth getting one, or should I stick with the old mini disc recorder which can record vinyl.
Which would sound the best.
Any advice please.
If I bought one, I would probably go to Richers, as they are close by and cheap. So therefore, if you do recommend a cd recorder, what deck would be the best.
Many thanks
Roy.
Answers:
Try it with minidisc first. It's much simpler, you have one and the quality difference is very marginal.
Answers:
Thanks KaptinK
Why is it much simpler?
Cheers
Roy
Answers:
Hi
I think it depends on how far you want to go with regards to quality, etc. If you're "serious" (take that for whatever meaning you'd like) about it when it comes to transferring Vinyl => CD it would definately be worth considering the PC route.
I.E. Connecting up your turntable to your PC via your sound card. It's advisable to run your turntable through a Mixer or PreAmp before the soundcard. Record your track in. You'd need something along the lines of Sonic Foundry's SoundForge with the Architect plugin to do this, that is likely to set you back quite a bit in £££. But you can pick up nice little proggies for this sort of thing and they help you clean up your recordings too (e.g. Dehisser, Pop Remover, Equaliser, etc). I think they're around £40. Check your local PC World, and if need be look up the title on the net as you're likely to get it cheaper.
If you go through all of this, then you get nice WAV files at the end, which you can then burn onto CD (and help preserve your vinyls). I'm not too clued up on recording things directly within my Hi-Fi setup. But it must be said, that better results are certainly gained via the PC route.
Let me know if you need more assistance on this. :thumbs:
Answers:
Here's my 2p worth:
I tired of the PC route very quickly! I found it slow and tedious. I bought a s/h Philips CD recorder. Connected it to my Home Cinema Amp as a replacement for my Cassette deck with analogue in and out, I also connected up the digital out from the amp. Needless to say I already have a turntable connected, so all I do is start playing a disk and press record on the CD writer. Simple.
It can also record from digital sources such as my Sky+.
There that should have confused you!
Cheers
Dave
Answers:
Thanks for your help guys.
I've had a look at the PC root, I've downloaded Audiocity, but so far have not been able to get it to work.
I must admit I did want to look at a very simple route, but the thought of better quality recordings does excite me.
It does concern me how the cd recorder compresses the sound to fit it on. I remeber the minidisc recorder always sounded quiet compared to when I recorded a cd digitally.
Any more advice would be well appreciated.
Once again thanks
Roy
My turntable does have a pre-amp built in!
Answers:
Admittedly, the PC process is perhaps a little more tedious and time-consuming, but not that much more IMO. Everything still has to be done in real-time. Any extra time you spend on the PC method will be to your benefit, because you're cleaning up the recording - and that ofcourse is the big big advantage doing it this way.
If you have a half-decent turntable with a good cartridge, then recording straight into a Hi-Fi CD Recorder should give you half-decent results. But you can certainly get better quality through the PC method and you have a lot more flexibility.
One thing I would say mate, is steer clear of freeware programs for this type of stuff. The algorithms on such programs tend to be of not great quality (I didn't want to eloquantly state "crap quality"), and as a result the quality of your recording will suffer post-enhancement (i.e. whatever you decide to do it in terms of EQ, etc). It will of course depend on how much you wish to spend. SoundForge (w/ Architect plugin) and Wavelab tend to the cream of the crop for this stuff, but they are professional standard wave editors and will set you back at least £200 (likely to be more). Steinberg (the company who make Wavelab) have a program called Clean, which although I haven't used before I would not hesitate to recommend given Steinberg's excellent reputation. I can't remember if we are allowed to post links in this part of the forum or not, so I'll just post it like this and hope it's ok:
h**p://www.steinberg.net/en/ct/products/audio_editing/clean_plus_pc/index.php?sid=0
This should set you back around £25-30. Very affordable and should be more than adequate for what you're looking to do. :)
Answers:
Thanks SC725
I will give it a whirl.
Cheers
Roy
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