• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Copying Vinyl to CD is this dorky?

AU20K

AU20K

Well-Known Member
How Dee!

I have been getting ready to copy the old vinyl collection to my PC and have been looking at this gizmo for a couple days and wonder if any of you are familiar with it and if so, do ya like it?

It's called the "Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface"

It's a USB connection to the computer with RCA inputs and outputs for the external source, it only costs $34 bux at Amazon and it doesn't look like it takes up very much space.

I think the quality of the turntable would be the primary driver for the end satisfaction on this project.

Any good or bad to say about it?

Thanks

AU
 
Register to hide this ad
AU20K said:
How Dee!

I have been getting ready to copy the old vinyl collection to my PC and have been looking at this gizmo for a couple days and wonder if any of you are familiar with it and if so, do ya like it?

It's called the "Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface"

It's a USB connection to the computer with RCA inputs and outputs for the external source, it only costs $34 bux at Amazon and it doesn't look like it takes up very much space.

I think the quality of the turntable would be the primary driver for the end satisfaction on this project.

Any good or bad to say about it?

Thanks

AU
Click to expand...

The quality of the dac converters is what you want to be mindful of. You want to do this once and do it right :music:

This unit only has a 48khz sample rate. I would look for another product.

Look for one with at the very least 24bit 96khz sampling rate.
 
Yes that device will work. But I would not have very high expectations for the sound quality. The quality of the phono-preamp inside of that device will make a pretty big difference in the results, not just the ADCs. I'd be much more inclined to recommend running your turntable thorugh a quality phone section and then digitizing it after that.
 
AU20K said:
How Dee!

I have been getting ready to copy the old vinyl collection to my PC and have been looking at this gizmo for a couple days and wonder if any of you are familiar with it and if so, do ya like it?

It's called the "Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface"

It's a USB connection to the computer with RCA inputs and outputs for the external source, it only costs $34 bux at Amazon and it doesn't look like it takes up very much space.

I think the quality of the turntable would be the primary driver for the end satisfaction on this project.

Any good or bad to say about it?

Thanks

AU
Click to expand...

I have some bootlegged CDs of some of my vinyl, but only the ones that aren't available on disc. Buckingham-Nicks is a perfect example of an album never released on CD that I can at least enjoy ripped and cleaned up from the vinyl since I don't have my TT anymore. But other than the reason of not being available I would rather re-purchase it on disc than transfer it from vinyl.
 
Jrevo said:
The quality of the dac converters is what you want to be mindful of. You want to do this once and do it right :music:

This unit only has a 48khz sample rate. I would look for another product.

Look for one with at the very least 24bit 96khz sampling rate.
Click to expand...


Oh yeah, I forgot about the sampling rate. Thanks for pointing that out and for all the other helpful advice. I will look at the threads that have already covered this. One of my next(ish) questions was weather I need a dac to do this so I'll research further before making a purchase.

Just goes to show that if it seems too good to be true, it prolly is.

Thanks again all.
 
I have a firewire version and like it a lot. I personally think there is a lot of learning required to master vinyl conversion, and I think starting cheap is the way to go.

When you have mastered the recording and editing skills you will be in a much better position to judge where to spend your money.

I've been doing this for five years and am still learning.

Mine goes to 24/96. which I've tried, but seldom use. There is no doubt that if you edit an audio file at higher resolution, the results are better. This is particularly true if you are "removing" clicks and pops. The stiching is much more transparent.

Nevertheless, the skills are the same.
 
Last edited:
Spookyfoot said:
I have some bootlegged CDs of some of my vinyl, but only the ones that aren't available on disc. Buckingham-Nicks is a perfect example of an album never released on CD that I can at least enjoy ripped and cleaned up from the vinyl since I don't have my TT anymore. But other than the reason of not being available I would rather re-purchase it on disc than transfer it from vinyl.
Click to expand...

+1

On rather buy the CD then transfer the vinyl.

+1

On Buckingham Nicks. LOL
 
Thanks for the link and the opinions. I will do some more homework before I make any purchase. I too have some vinyls that were never put to CD and would hate to let them deteriorate any more than they have already.
 
I use an EMU-0202, old but it works well. The key is to use a great cartridge and tt setup combined with a great preamp. The rest is just computer skill at removing clicks and such. Any "magic" on an LP I've been able to capture for CD, and overall the results are probably better than the LP experience since most of the flaws can be removed. A giant once-per-rev scratch is usually easy to make disappear completely. Hash due to groove damage, unfortunately is almost impossible to completely remove.
 
On a side note: When you do your LPs, I've seen where some think the "vinyl sound" transfers to the digitized version. I do not doubt that vinyl has its own (better in my opinion) sound, but what about you who have done some of these, do they sound like records or CDs?
 
Last edited:
If you use no software designed to clean up noise and pops, you'll get a bit more surface noise and anomalies that are reminicent of the vinyl experience. If you use the software (Audacity) be sure you use a light setting or you'll have no dynamic range and the tone will be sucked out on your transfers. Just saying, use caution and experiment to achieve best results.
 
I don't know what equipment you already have, so I'm assuming you're starting from nothing.

Get yourself a decent vintage turntable, Craigslist in your area should be able to throw up something. Run this into the phono input of an old receiver or amplifier, alternatively you could use a mixer which will give you greater control of the levels. Connect the tape output of the receiver, amp or mixer into the line input of your PCs soundcard, don't use the microphone input as it has the wrong equalization. Get yourself a copy of Goldwave, and start recording.

If you are making CDs from vinyl, the sampling rate you use is 44.1khz, 16 bit stereo. I've been doing this ever since computer CD recorders were invented, it works with little effort and expense.

Lee.
 
ConradH said:
I use an EMU-0202, old but it works well. The key is to use a great cartridge and tt setup combined with a great preamp. The rest is just computer skill at removing clicks and such. Any "magic" on an LP I've been able to capture for CD, and overall the results are probably better than the LP experience since most of the flaws can be removed. A giant once-per-rev scratch is usually easy to make disappear completely. Hash due to groove damage, unfortunately is almost impossible to completely remove.
Click to expand...

I have a lot of vinyl rips that use this ADC and I recommend the results it gives. If you are going to be adamant about the results than you need to invest in some record cleaning gear. More than just a little brush or something. In my opinion that is very important. The software you use to capture the digital signal is also very important. Wavlab is commonly used, Adobe Audition is also a good one. I do not recommend Audacity on Windows. There is something wrong with the Windows version of Audacity that does not allow true 24/96 to be captured even though it will display it as 24/96. There is a way to circumvent it but I don't know what it is and it is possible that it has been fixed in newer versions. But I have Adobe Audition which is a much better program overall so I just use that.
 
AU20K said:
On a side note: When you do your LPs, I've seen where some think the "vinyl sound" transfers to the digitized version. I do not doubt that vinyl has its own (better in my opinion) sound, but what about you who have done some of these, do they sound like records or CDs?
Click to expand...
When I used a dirt cheap method [1] I couldn't tell the difference between the LP and the CD I made from the digitization process.

[1] $8 audio Y-cable, free software, an old PC sound card, and existing audio equipment, see Vinyl to Digital Transfer- The aabottom method
 
If you want quality results, I would take both Goldenear and js 1138's advice, although there are others that have made good suggestions as well.
Just remember that the old saw about "Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO)" hasn't become obsolete by any means.

There's a lot to this stuff and it pays to study up on it a bit, but I'd say that, in general, you should use the best gear you can find (barrow or afford), as the final results will reflect the care and quality of the processing taken. Even the CD-R's that you use makes a difference, at least when it comes to longevity and possibly sound quality.

Best Regards,
TerryO
 
Last edited:
I'm actually about to start getting into this.

It's the Neutral Milk Hotel box set that got me going on this idea, because it's a vinyl only set and I must have the unreleased songs in portable form.

I'm going to take the information in this thread and put it to use. Thanks for the help, I'll post back when I complete some rips.
 
The most important element is the audio card used. The performance of the ADC stage is very different between them and recording at "24/96" means absolutelly nothing if the card fills those 24 bit with noise and distortion...
By no means an old generic sound card or the one integrated on PC (or Mac) are a proper way to record quality LP.
 
I been using a turntable connected up to a receiver. Then I use an old computer as my music server that is connected to the tape monitor circuit of the receiver. Been doing it this way since 1998. The quality of the recording is very dependent on the sound card that is used. The cheaper ones do have noise problems. I use an Audio M sound card which works great. The hard drives I have are not too large only 40 GB each. The nice thing about recording audio that it does not take too much memory or processing power to record audio. The software I use Roxio CD Creator software along with Audacity software. I also have DC Art 6 software to take out any clicks or pops in the recording.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom