"Needledrops for Dummies"? :)

? for dummies ?

If you're after "Needledrops for Dummies", you probably can't get much easier than Spin It Again

 

I listened to those before and after samples and I heard artifacts.

My philosophy is different. I do not believe the best way is to go quick, easy, or cheap. I believe if one is going to take any time to put their precious recordings to digital, they should do it right!

 

I agree... but my budget's pretty small and I'm "time poor" (as we now call it in my 9 to 5 job).

I bought a Cakewalk UA-4FX and I use the included Sonar LE 6 sometimes and Spin It Again sometimes too.

Spin It Again is very easy although I fear it can "over clean" sometimes. It also has a very handy and configurable track splitting tool (but that can be a fiddly too).

 

I read these "needle-drop" posts, and think, what kind of (condition) records are people needle-dropping? I have never used any "de-clicking" or "track splitting" software. I only needle-drop VG+, or better, condition vinyl and am very happy with the "warts and all" sound. If your going to go through all that editing fuss, why not just save time and play c.d.s?

 

Valid points but there need not be a lot of "editing fuss." Running some basic auto de-clicking such as ClickRepair or izotope RX need not be difficult. It can just be a matter of opening a file, choosing saved settings from a dropdown, then clicking a button! I know some here get worried about harm to transients from such auto-declicking but personally I've only seen adverse affects on maybe two recordings. For everything else, the declicked version sounded much more enjoyable than the "raw" version.

As for the whole "if you don't want clicks then listen to CDs" argument don't forget that we're not listening to LPs because we want clicks; we listen because we prefer the sound of the music in spite of the clicks, vinyl noise, etc. For that matter why bother with vinyl at all? Because in many cases the best mastering of a given title is on vinyl not CD. The clicks and pops don't add anything to the improvement, they take away from it, so removing them is a plus.

 

It's really nice to know that all the music you could ever want is on pristine vinyl.

Not only that, but there are scads of great music that you can't find on CD.

 

Can I make needledrops with a Xonar Essence soundcard? I have a Cambrdige 640 photo preamp and 2 TT, but no available entries on my pre-amp...

 

You can use any sound card with a line level input.

 

Looks like the Xonar has an 1/4" stereo input so you would need a cable terminating with a set of rca jacks on one end and a 1/4" stereo plug on the other.

 

Somebody has tried its AD converter?

 

Resurrecting this to ask my own newbie question: is there a solution for having my turntable/stereo in one room and my PC in another? I'd like to start digitizing my vinyl but this is the main thing that's preventing me from doing so. They are in adjacent rooms and I guess I could conceivably run an RCA cable from my integrated amp into the other room where my PC is, but do they make RCA cables that long?

EDIT: Hmmm, looks like this may be what I'm looking for?

 

Yes, just run a long enough cable and you'll be fine. If it's cheap cable, there could be some signal loss, so I'd recommend decent quality cable.

 

Sure, you can use a digital flash recorder. Tascam makes a few models. Record your LP's to the digital recorder then transfer the wav files onto your PC.

A_L

 

+1. And the audio quality will most likely be terrific.

 

Does anyone know the least expensive portable digital flash recorder that will record at 24/96? Also, what's the maximum resolution one of these portables can record (price be darned)?

 

I don't know if it's the absolutely the cheapest, but the M-Audio Micro Track 2 is relatively cheap at around $160.

At the higher end of the scale, the Korg MR-1000 1-Bit Professional Mobile Recorder can do PCM at 24/192 or DSD at 5.6448 MHz (1 bit). That's around $1,200. I imagine there are other, higher priced portables out there as well.

 

Thanks muchly, ye of the flora-producing water closet. Er, I mean, Pete.

 

I have a few needledrops on CD-R which I like a lot but have not been able to compare them to the original vinyl. How does an optimum needle drop CD-R compare to the original vinyl assuming you have good playback capability of both CD and vinyl? How does it compare on say, a scale of 1-10 (1 = poorest, 10 = identical sounding to the vinyl)?

 

There are lots of variables, and playback quality is only one factor, but when properly done, a needledrop converted to 16/44.1 using good resampling software and dithered then burned to a CD-R can sound quite close. Perhaps between 8-9/10 in comparison to the original.

Of course, if the original has significant clicks, pops, etc., then a needledrop carefully declicked can sound much better.

 

Huh, hadn't thought of that, thanks for the tip. So to record LPs I'd just plug the single 1/8" end of the RCA cable into the "Mic In" input?
This would also be cool to have as a drummer since I could also use it to record myself practicing!

 

One thing I would not do is go cheap on the ADC. This is a VERY important part of the process. Ideally, one should record at the highest bit depth/sample rate possible with a high SNR chip. If you see that you've gone beyond the resolution of your source, ( and you can tell by looking at the spectrum/stats) then you know you've done the best you can do at this step. There are some VERY good PC sound cards that will do 24/192 for 100$. Namely, EMU products are, and are also EXCELLENT for output as well (great DAC). I've noticed several albums go all the way up to 192khz.. I wouldn't want to lose this by recording straight to 44/16, which is likely truncated above that rather than resampled back down with a good algorithm (like iZotope).

 

Speaking of E-MU, I see they have a new USB audio interface, the 0204, which seems to be midway between their entry-level and 0202 and the 0404, but with the same list price of $129 as the 0202. Specs are good at -117dB and up to 24/192 recording and playback.

 

The reason I mentioned the digital recorder is I am considering this option myself. It's much more convenient to move the digital recorder from stereo to PC than to run cables all over the room, and try to eliminate ground loops in the process.

A_L

 

From what I've read and learned, 1-bit DSD is truly the correct format to archive old recordings before it can be converted to any other format desired at a later time and it preserves the original recording at the highest bit-rate available today.

 

Sure! If you have the money for it! LOL!