Convert vinyl LP to MP3

[ianh68]

Does anyone know where I can get this done? I drew a blank at Fortune Town. Thanks.

[Daffy D]

Depending on your situation and how many LP's you have:-

 

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/gadgets/audio-technica/at-lp60-usb-fully-automatic-belt-drive-stereo-turntable-usb-analog-gun-metal-p035486/

 

 

[keeniau96]

That device looks very fine by good company. I have done such conversions ripping the analog then converting, buttpain.

[ianh68]

I should have explained. I just have one vinyl record, a very special one I have manged to track down after many years. I have no machine to play it on. I am looking for a dealer who can convert for me.

[sanemax]

48 minutes ago, ianh68 said:

I should have explained. I just have one vinyl record, a very special one I have manged to track down after many years. I have no machine to play it on. I am looking for a dealer who can convert for me.

Dont leave us guessing , which vinyl record is it ?

[Daffy D]

43 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Dont leave us guessing , which vinyl record is it ?

Pant! Pant! Pant! Yea! Yea!  -  Me too...……………..

[Peterw42]

Unless its a very rare record, surely it would be available as a download, no need to convert etc.

Let us know the album, I have lots of music on a hard drive, can probably send it to you.

[rwdrwdrwd]

Yeah, definitely worth checking Soulseek first. What record is it?

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 4:01 PM, ianh68 said:

I should have explained. I just have one vinyl record, a very special one I have manged to track down after many years. I have no machine to play it on. I am looking for a dealer who can convert for me.

I don't recall ever seeing vinyl LPs in LOS. I know that there is a shop in Pantip Chiang Mai that converts VHS tape to digital, but doubt the record to digital would have enough demand.

 

Might have to wait till you go home next time.

 

I have one of those players that automatically converts, and it's brilliant, but I have hundreds of records.

[OneMoreFarang]

Just go to one of those shops with good quality record players and make a deal with them.

Play your record and record it - any computer with line audio input should do the job.

 

Maybe you can even record it on a mobile phone. But I would double check that because the normal mic input is not good for that job.

[ianh68]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I don't recall ever seeing vinyl LPs in LOS. I know that there is a shop in Pantip Chiang Mai that converts VHS tape to digital, but doubt the record to digital would have enough demand.

 

Might have to wait till you go home next time.

 

I have one of those players that automatically converts, and it's brilliant, but I have hundreds of records.

There are several shops in Fortune Town with pretty cool collections of vinyl LPs - Hendrix, Beatles, Blind Faith etc

[ianh68]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Just go to one of those shops with good quality record players and make a deal with them.

Play your record and record it - any computer with line audio input should do the job.

 

Maybe you can even record it on a mobile phone. But I would double check that because the normal mic input is not good for that job.

Good idea, thanks, I never thought of that - go to a shop with record players rather than records - I'll try it.

[ianh68]

On 8/12/2018 at 1:59 PM, rwdrwdrwd said:

Yeah, definitely worth checking Soulseek first. What record is it?

You learn something new every day. I never heard of Soulseek, thanks. This is the record https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMRADES-COME-RALLY-Songs-of-The-European-Workers-Movement-GATEFOLD-/160843093192

[ianh68]

On 8/12/2018 at 1:38 PM, Peterw42 said:

Unless its a very rare record, surely it would be available as a download, no need to convert etc.

Let us know the album, I have lots of music on a hard drive, can probably send it to you.

I can't find any options to download the title. Thanks for your help - here is the record https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMRADES-COME-RALLY-Songs-of-The-European-Workers-Movement-GATEFOLD-/160843093192

[Daffy D]

 

5 hours ago, ianh68 said:

here is the record https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMRADES-COME-RALLY-Songs-of-The-European-Workers-Movement-GATEFOLD-/160843093192

Ooooo! A bit heavy for me.

 A bit late now but YouTube can get some interesting results.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=COMRADES+COME+RALLY+Songs+of+The+European+Workers+Movement+GATEFOLD

 

 

[gentlemanjackdarby]

As a music lover and audiophile that understands the frustration of the search as well as the triumph of the find, let me offer you one piece of important advice:

 

WHEN you find someone to convert your LP to digital, DO NOT ruin your effort and your subsequent enjoyment of the music by compressing the conversion to MP3.

 

The initial conversion file will be a digital file with the extension WAV - that is a (relatively) uncompressed file that can be converted into a (if you really insist) 'lossy' format such as MP3 or, better yet,  a 'lossless' format such as FLAC or ALAC (Apple's lossless format) down the road.

 

Keep the WAV file forever - it can always be converted to another format if you become dissatisfied with your first choice.

 

Judging by the information I could find on that LP, it appears to be a single disc so, depending on the total time of all songs, the WAV files (there should be one for each track on the LP NOT one big one with no breaks between tracks) will total less than 650MB. That's small enough, with patience, to upload to Cloud storage, such as Google Drive, Amdazon Drive, etc.

 

The WAV format is the same format in which music is stored on audio CDs, so that file can be played on the billions of existing devices that are capable of playing CDs, most portable MP3 players, and smartphones with, in the case of a rough LP conversion with no effort to tame imperfections, the same sound as the LP, including the clicks, pops, scratches, etc.

 

If you are unable to find someone to convert your LP, that LP is available on CD from Amazon.de (Amazon Germany) for EUR 17.20 and also as unlimited streaming if you have an Amazon Music streaming account. Ripping CDs is child's play and shouldn't be a problem if it comes to that.

 

The ASIN (Amazon System Information Number) for the CD is B00000AV2E

 

Amazon ASINs are the same across all Amazon sites, so it may well be that the item is available from other Amazon sites for less; on the U.S. site it's USD 50 and not available for streaming, probably due to copyright reasons.

 

 

 

[dddave]

11 hours ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

As a music lover and audiophile that understands the frustration of the search as well as the triumph of the find, let me offer you one piece of important advice:

 

WHEN you find someone to convert your LP to digital, DO NOT ruin your effort and your subsequent enjoyment of the music by compressing the conversion to MP3.

 

The initial conversion file will be a digital file with the extension WAV - that is a (relatively) uncompressed file that can be converted into a (if you really insist) 'lossy' format such as MP3 or, better yet,  a 'lossless' format such as FLAC or ALAC (Apple's lossless format) down the road.

 

Keep the WAV file forever - it can always be converted to another format if you become dissatisfied with your first choice.

 

Judging by the information I could find on that LP, it appears to be a single disc so, depending on the total time of all songs, the WAV files (there should be one for each track on the LP NOT one big one with no breaks between tracks) will total less than 650MB. That's small enough, with patience, to upload to Cloud storage, such as Google Drive, Amdazon Drive, etc.

 

The WAV format is the same format in which music is stored on audio CDs, so that file can be played on the billions of existing devices that are capable of playing CDs, most portable MP3 players, and smartphones with, in the case of a rough LP conversion with no effort to tame imperfections, the same sound as the LP, including the clicks, pops, scratches, etc.

 

If you are unable to find someone to convert your LP, that LP is available on CD from Amazon.de (Amazon Germany) for EUR 17.20 and also as unlimited streaming if you have an Amazon Music streaming account. Ripping CDs is child's play and shouldn't be a problem if it comes to that.

 

The ASIN (Amazon System Information Number) for the CD is B00000AV2E

 

Amazon ASINs are the same across all Amazon sites, so it may well be that the item is available from other Amazon sites for less; on the U.S. site it's USD 50 and not available for streaming, probably due to copyright reasons.

 

 

 

A very useful and informative post.  Much appreciated.

[ianh68]

On 8/14/2018 at 5:10 PM, Daffy D said:

 

Ooooo! A bit heavy for me.

 A bit late now but YouTube can get some interesting results.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=COMRADES+COME+RALLY+Songs+of+The+European+Workers+Movement+GATEFOLD

 

 

That's opened up some new avenues. Thanks a lot Daffy.

[ianh68]

22 hours ago, dddave said:

A very useful and informative post.  Much appreciated.

 

On 8/15/2018 at 12:50 AM, gentlemanjackdarby said:

As a music lover and audiophile that understands the frustration of the search as well as the triumph of the find, let me offer you one piece of important advice:

 

WHEN you find someone to convert your LP to digital, DO NOT ruin your effort and your subsequent enjoyment of the music by compressing the conversion to MP3.

 

The initial conversion file will be a digital file with the extension WAV - that is a (relatively) uncompressed file that can be converted into a (if you really insist) 'lossy' format such as MP3 or, better yet,  a 'lossless' format such as FLAC or ALAC (Apple's lossless format) down the road.

 

Keep the WAV file forever - it can always be converted to another format if you become dissatisfied with your first choice.

 

Judging by the information I could find on that LP, it appears to be a single disc so, depending on the total time of all songs, the WAV files (there should be one for each track on the LP NOT one big one with no breaks between tracks) will total less than 650MB. That's small enough, with patience, to upload to Cloud storage, such as Google Drive, Amdazon Drive, etc.

 

The WAV format is the same format in which music is stored on audio CDs, so that file can be played on the billions of existing devices that are capable of playing CDs, most portable MP3 players, and smartphones with, in the case of a rough LP conversion with no effort to tame imperfections, the same sound as the LP, including the clicks, pops, scratches, etc.

 

If you are unable to find someone to convert your LP, that LP is available on CD from Amazon.de (Amazon Germany) for EUR 17.20 and also as unlimited streaming if you have an Amazon Music streaming account. Ripping CDs is child's play and shouldn't be a problem if it comes to that.

 

The ASIN (Amazon System Information Number) for the CD is B00000AV2E

 

Amazon ASINs are the same across all Amazon sites, so it may well be that the item is available from other Amazon sites for less; on the U.S. site it's USD 50 and not available for streaming, probably due to copyright reasons.

 

 

 

I second the appreciation of this post expressed by dddave. Now for another amateur's question. The file size is not large. Would the person converting be able to store the WAV file on a flash drive? My idea is to take the flash drive home, load the file on to my laptop and copy from there to my smartphone. Does that make sense?

[janclaes47]

On 8/14/2018 at 9:17 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

 

Play your record and record it - any computer with line audio input should do the job.

You need one of these also

 

[OneMoreFarang]

4 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

You need one of these also

 

No, you don't need one of those if you have Audio LINE input on your PC - most PCs have it.

Here is a sample from my ASUS Motherboard.

Important: Use LINE input, not Microphone!

[gentlemanjackdarby]

6 hours ago, ianh68 said:

 

I second the appreciation of this post expressed by dddave. Now for another amateur's question. The file size is not large. Would the person converting be able to store the WAV file on a flash drive? My idea is to take the flash drive home, load the file on to my laptop and copy from there to my smartphone. Does that make sense?

Sure, unless the flash drive you're considering is very, very old and very, very small.

 

Due to the physical limitations of how much music could be 'stored' on an LP, almost all single LPs, when converted to digital, use less than 650 MB, which was the original size limit of audio CDs.

 

1 GB (gigabyte), the size in which flash drives are measured, simply speaking is 1,000 MB - I'd expect that the converted LP music tracks, in total, will be less than 650 MB or 0.65 GB or roughly 2/3 GB

 

Most inexpensive commonly available flash drives are now in the 8 -16 GB range which means your conversion won't take up much of the space on a flash drive and will leave room for other files.

 

Copying the music files from the flash drive to your computer and then to your phone will work fine, but something you might want to consider is after copying the files to your laptop is to then upload them to Cloud storage, such as Google Drive, Amazon Drive, DropBox, etc. and then download them to your phone. That gives you the insurance that if something happens to your laptop, the music is safely stored in the Cloud forever and accessible to any of your devices anywhere you happen to be.

 

One more important suggestion - because you are going to plug a flash drive into your laptop that has been used on someone else's computer over which you have no control, it's a good idea, if you're using a Windows laptop, to make sure you have anti-virus installed on your laptop, an active update subscription, and the anti-virus is configured to automatically scan flash drives (USB storage) when those devices are plugged in. Don't want your machine to get a 'bonus' in addition to the music. 

[gentlemanjackdarby]

On 8/13/2018 at 10:17 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

Just go to one of those shops with good quality record players and make a deal with them.

Play your record and record it - any computer with line audio input should do the job.

 

Maybe you can even record it on a mobile phone. But I would double check that because the normal mic input is not good for that job.

It won't work to simply plug the turntable stereo outputs into the line input of the (soundcard) computer.

 

The stereo outputs of (good) turntables are not at line level - they need to be amplified by pre-amplifier circuitry, as done in the old day by a pre-amp or, in the case of an integrated amp, by circuitry built into the integrated amp.

 

As well, turntables alone don't have the circuitry to 'decode' or 'uncompress' the RIAA equalization curve, which was a method used during the mastering the audio tapes for LP pressing to 'compress' bass response to save vinyl to keep the groove relatively consistent throughout the LP,  which was built into phono pre-amplifiers or the pre-amp section of integrated amps.

 

Without 'decoding' the RIAA curve to restore the bass response of the music, any digital conversion done straight from a turntable will have very compressed and unnatural bass or low level sound.

[OneMoreFarang]

59 minutes ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

It won't work to simply plug the turntable stereo outputs into the line input of the (soundcard) computer.

 

The stereo outputs of (good) turntables are not at line level - they need to be amplified by pre-amplifier circuitry, as done in the old day by a pre-amp or, in the case of an integrated amp, by circuitry built into the integrated amp.

 

As well, turntables alone don't have the circuitry to 'decode' or 'uncompress' the RIAA equalization curve, which was a method used during the mastering the audio tapes for LP pressing to 'compress' bass response to save vinyl to keep the groove relatively consistent throughout the LP,  which was built into phono pre-amplifiers or the pre-amp section of integrated amps.

 

Without 'decoding' the RIAA curve to restore the bass response of the music, any digital conversion done straight from a turntable will have very compressed and unnatural bass or low level sound.

I am sure in most of the shops the turn tables will be connected to a (pre)amplifier and likely that has a LINE output (which would normally be used i.e. by a tape recorder).

And I am also sure that in many of those shops people converted LPs already to digital files - it's not exactly unusual or rocket science.

[janclaes47]

3 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

No, you don't need one of those if you have Audio LINE input on your PC - most PCs have it.

Here is a sample from my ASUS Motherboard.

Important: Use LINE input, not Microphone!

 

7 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am sure in most of the shops the turn tables will be connected to a (pre)amplifier and likely that has a LINE output (which would normally be used i.e. by a tape recorder).

And I am also sure that in many of those shops people converted LPs already to digital files - it's not exactly unusual or rocket science.

You are contradicting yourself, or do you intent to take your PC to the shop that has the turntable?

 

The line in on your PC detects digital audio only.

A turntable is analog audio

[OneMoreFarang]

3 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

You are contradicting yourself, or do you intent to take your PC to the shop that has the turntable?

 

The line in on your PC detects digital audio only.

A turntable is analog audio

The LINE input on the motherboard (see picture above) is analogue! Please look it up in the manual if you don't believe me.

If someone wants to convert a LP then he needs obviously turntables and a "computer" which is connected to those turntables (through the (pre)amplifier).

Likely some of these shops have PCs and PCs setup to do this so you don't have to bring anything.

If they don't have it then the OP should bring a notebook or a PC.

Maybe there are also applications for mobile phones to do that but likely they require extra hardware.

If I would do it I would do it with a PC. I did that a long time ago but now I don't have access to turntables anymore.

[gentlemanjackdarby]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am sure in most of the shops the turn tables will be connected to a (pre)amplifier and likely that has a LINE output (which would normally be used i.e. by a tape recorder).

And I am also sure that in many of those shops people converted LPs already to digital files - it's not exactly unusual or rocket science.

I'd certainly agree that in a 'good' shop selling 'better' equipment, that's the case; however, I wasn't presuming that anyone reading my post would necessarily be able to find a 'good' shop (or know it when they see it) or that they might simply buy a turntable and a couple of bits and bobs and try to do it themselves.

 

And, with all due respect, I'm 'old' (mid-50s) and grew up with 'hi-fi' equipment as well as spending most of my career in IT, so I agree that it certainly isn't 'rocket science' for folks like me but, even though I'm 'old', I've been around long enough and have enough awareness of others to realize that what is simple and second nature to me is likely not so for other folks. After all, records have been out of the mainstream for probably 25 years or so.

 

And to prove it and to lighten the mood, it's good fun to watch some of the YouTube videos in which kids and 'younger' folks are presented with things like rotary dial telephones, old TVs with knobs to change channels, 'rabbit ear' antennas, vertical and horizontal hold knobs, and yes, 'record players' and 'records', reel-to-reel tape decks, etc. and are asked to 'make calls', watch TV and listen to music with them - reminds me how old I really am.

 

I was just trying to point out that once one goes beyond the simple task of paying someone else to convert an LP on a 'one-shot' basis, which is what I understand I understand the OP wants to do for one LP, getting good results, or even getting it done, is not as simple or pitfall-free as some folks have made it appear.

[gentlemanjackdarby]

1 hour ago, janclaes47 said:

 

You are contradicting yourself, or do you intent to take your PC to the shop that has the turntable?

 

The line in on your PC detects digital audio only.

A turntable is analog audio

Just to clarify a bit, the line-in RCA (round) connector(s) (sometimes one STEREO or possibly a LEFT and RIGHT for stereo) on a computer sound card is designed for analog devices with line-level output, the simplest of which have one stereo input.

 

In order to connect a turntable, which has two RCA (analog) outputs (left and right channel) to a computer, the sound card would need (should have) two RCA audio inputs (marked PHONO) designed to handle the turntable's lower output voltage (NOT at LINE-Level), internal circuitry to boost the PHONO input to LINE level, circuitry to reproduce the RIAA equalization curve and, of course, an analog-to-digital converter.

 

Any sound card that has analog line-level inputs will have an analog-to-digital converter so that the output from the analog device connected can be used by the computer - for example, to create a digital copy of the analog source and edit it using sound or video editing software.

 

As well, one is unlikely to run into a sound card that doesn't have a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) (or one that can be shut off if using an external DAC) so that one can listen to music through headphones or computer speakers

[OneMoreFarang]

59 minutes ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

I'd certainly agree that in a 'good' shop selling 'better' equipment, that's the case; however, I wasn't presuming that anyone reading my post would necessarily be able to find a 'good' shop (or know it when they see it) or that they might simply buy a turntable and a couple of bits and bobs and try to do it themselves.

 

And, with all due respect, I'm 'old' (mid-50s) and grew up with 'hi-fi' equipment as well as spending most of my career in IT, so I agree that it certainly isn't 'rocket science' for folks like me but, even though I'm 'old', I've been around long enough and have enough awareness of others to realize that what is simple and second nature to me is likely not so for other folks. After all, records have been out of the mainstream for probably 25 years or so.

I am also mid-50s and work in IT. Maybe that explains why I think it's not rocket science...

The OP mentioned Fortune Town. That place has a couple of shops with high end turntables (similar to the picture).

The people in those shops are likely experts and they should know what they are doing.

I only walked along those shops. The last time I played a LP was probably about 1985...

 

[gentlemanjackdarby]

37 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am also mid-50s and work in IT. Maybe that explains why I think it's not rocket science...

The OP mentioned Fortune Town. That place has a couple of shops with high end turntables (similar to the picture).

The people in those shops are likely experts and they should know what they are doing.

I only walked along those shops. The last time I played a LP was probably about 1985...

 

Nice pic - gorgeous piece of hardware bordering on art and definitely marketer inspired aimed at someone with more money than brains wanting to show off.

 

It's always amazed me that marketers could find (and still do) so many ways to take something as conceptually simple as rotating a piece of plastic at a constant velocity while keeping a cartridge's stylus fairly well aligned in a groove from start to finish and turn it into an endless number of ways to part fools from their money.

 

Especially considering that Technics came up with an affordable turntable (SL-1200 line) that did an outstanding job of meeting those criteria that lasted over 40 years.

 

Was lucky enough to buy a brand new 1210 MK2 about 10 years right as Panasonic was ceasing production - never used it or even mounted a cartridge to it, but someday, who knows?