How I digitize my vinyl

It's a mad project, so the least I can do is show you how this madman is attacking this monster task. You may even learn something in the process. This is NOT, I repeat, NOT a tutorial. Do not try this at home, or at all ;).

Links to recommended hard- and software for digitizing vinyl
CARTRIDGES

DIGITAL RECORDERS & SOUND INTERFACES

COMPUTER HARDWARE I USE IN THIS VIDEO

SOFTWARE I USE IN THIS VIDEO

MUSIC STREAMERS

FREE SOFTWARE FOR RECORDING

[M-Guitars]

Good video, dude. You put some effort in it. Man, this reminds me of my fathers vinyl collection. Thousands. Rock from the 50s to the 80s. Only the good/valuable stuff. Many records worth hundreds of dollars each. My parents moved into a smaller apartment so my father asked me to sell his collection. So I started to catalogue his collection. One day I visited them to continue my work and all records were gone. The whole collection. My father decided to speed things up and let a record dealer visit him. Do you want to know for how much my father sold his vinyl collection that he started as a teen? Five hundred dollars. The dealer first said three hundred dollars. So my father "negotiated". I was so angry at both of them. At the dealer and my father. Elvis, Jethro Tull, The Beatles, The Who, Hendrix, Willy DeVille, The Cramps, Jefferson Airplane, Tom Waits etc. Almost all of them first editions and in good condition. That was the best day of the dealers life. Oh he also sold his Marvel Comics collection for three hundred dollars. Collected since the 60s. Hundreds of comics. Many complete series, every single comic inside plastic covers since decades. No dog ears. Man. I'm shaking my head while I'm commenting here. That was one horrible day.

[DiscMilk]

Excellent process, man. Switched over from Rogue Amoeba's Fission to Adobe Audition because you made it look so easy. Everything else in my process was relatively the same, with iZotope and MP3Tag.

[young_of_the_mill]

Your doing a good job with your content! Keep it up, I appreciate it! Thanks man

[rastanz]

I connect my turntable to a phono preamp into my focusrite 18i20 which is connected to my PC via USB. I use Reaper DAW and IzotopeRX 10 as my audio editing choice's because Adobe Audition kept giving me audio driver issues after an update.

Great video!

[Mikado]

Very cool. That TASCAM DA3000 recorder looks sweet ...I've been using a pair of somewhat vintage TASCAM CD-RW4U burners to make raw digital transfers. Might have to look into the DA3000. Once uploaded to the computer I use Audio Cleaning Labs MX version to clean up the raw transfer. Yes, it's old software, only runs on Windows, but it works surprisingly well and has an attractive price point.

You talked about setting recording levels for the digital transfer and this is probably the most important aspect in making clean sounding digital transfers. Having grown up in the age of analog tape recording, I discovered you cannot exceed the digital "window". Digital distortion is ugly and immediate if you exceed the 0db level. And that includes the peak transients as well. So it is good to see you talk of setting what would be "low" recording levels (in comparison to analog recordings on tape). Something to consider adding to your equipment repertoire is lay hands on a Behringer "Ultramizer Pro". It's an older piece Behringer no longer makes, but it's features are rather amazing. It essentially maximizes volume without exceeding digital limits. All processing is done digitally ...inputs/outputs are analog. You can enhance bass, tweak the high register and add some "surround" effect. Obviously there are limiter/compression capabilities as well. So if you looking to make a "mix tape" or maybe a transfer for playback in your vehicle ...any situation you want to boost volume without blowing the digital limits ...this would be a good use for the Ultramizer. It's kind of fun to play with ...Cheers!

[tejanotunes]

What is the best way to transfer vinyl to get the best quality? I am about to begin recording my vinyl collection but debating on how to do it. I’ve got the audio technica lp 120 USB turntable with AT-VM95SH stylus. I have a Sony str-av1020 receiver. I can transfer the record straight to cd via an external cd recorder. Then import the cd into my laptop as a wave file using iTunes. I’ve always been happy with the quality doing it this way. Or I could connect the turntable straight to my laptop either through usb or to the mic jack and record that way without the receiver bc turntable has internal amp. I use audacity and export it as wave that way. I don’t use editing filters to remove pops etc…I think using filters takes away from the natural sound. Or I can use receiver and connect to mic jack on laptop. I wasn’t sure if it makes difference when recording to laptop if I should use receiver or internal amp with turntable. My laptop runs on windows 10 with the sound card that came with it. Could the sound card lessen the quality bc it is not a top of the line sound card? I thought still sounded pretty good. But I just want to make sure I’m getting the best results before investing lot of time. Could the sound card affect the quality whether I connect through usb? Hopefully this makes sense it’s just there are so many ways to record…appreciate any feedback. And by quality I am referring to the natural smooth sound of the lp. I know the stylus can make a difference and that is why I upgraded to the shibata. My lps are in great condition, every now and then there might my a pop or crackle but I do not mind that. I love lot of bass. I am kinda just leaning towards recording straight to cd recorder via Sony receiver but want to make sure. Any tips on scanning lp covers? I plan on doing it with gimp art and scanning in portions and then put together. If there is an easier way with great results please let me know. Thank you!

[Ken]

This is an excellent video. I'm just getting into digitizing some of my vinyl record collection, and I've learned a ton. Thanks for taking the time to educate me.

I do have one question if you don't mind: You mention around the 5:50 mark that Ocenaudio is your choice over Audacity (among the free software options). What is it about Ocenaudio that you like better?

[vzygkmb]

Thank you for your tips. I wonder why you haven't chosen to digitise in DSD, is it because you need further processing? I am not getting into the PCM/DSD debate but it seems that going from analog to DSD makes sense while converting PCM to DSD or vice versa does not.

[davidhaslett]

Thank you for opening a different product than Audacity. I actually have Adobe subscription, so I might well try this. I have a Tascam DR05x to digitise my vinyl with.

[nickspann]

Can any CD recorder virtually do the same thing? Record analog to CD then to computer for editing?

[nickspann]

Do you need a quality sound card in your computer or does it even matter?

[kennethkrabat]

I have used Amadeus since version 1.0 - what... 15 years?
All kinds of plugins and edit options i 64 bit.
Excellent support from Hairer software.

[calicreations]

love this video! how did you connect the turntable to the tascam da 3000??

[primoz.crncec.gramofon]

Aaah, tascam da-3000 on my wishlist.. ♥

[benjaminwallace]

Vinyl studio is another good recording vinyl software

[myvinyljourney]

What other options we have for directly recording this in the computer instead of the SD card. I really like the TASCAM here but looking for something which is as good as this but can do directly into the computer? any suggestion is appreciated. I also see you are using a Tannoy monitor, could you let me know which one is it?

[andrewverran]

Have you any videos on ripping vinyl with some bad scratches on them ie how to edit out the scratches ?
PeaceFromOz

[HarakiriRock]

Great video, but I would advise against copying and pasting like you did at 13:00. Duplicating the left and right channels results in centered mono. I imagine it would be quite jarring to hear for a split second while you're enjoying the music, especially if you edit out a lot of pops/clicks that way. Plus it's altering the music and not truly preserving it. There are often different instruments playing different notes on each side, momentarily removing a channel could really mess up a song.

[a-fox]

You flew though using Mp3tag so fast that I have no idea what steps to took to rename the files.... anyway you can do a tutorial on what you did with Mp3tag and Discog????

[young_of_the_mill]

Do you ever just record to cassettes in lieu of digital ?