Convert vinyl LP to MP3

[Number 6]

Ridiculous. Just torrent the files. Once converted to MP4 the files won't sound the same as vinyl anyway

[wgdanson]

I read about audiophiles who are reverting back to VINYL (not VYNIL as most people say). Surely there is no way a piece of plasic physically in contact with a bit of glass/diamond, can sound better than digital. And if a record/LP is converted to digital via a DA converter, will it not sound exactly the same as the original., clicks, scratches, wow & flutter, surface noise, rumble etc. Who needs that?

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, wgdanson said:

Surely there is no way a piece of plasic physically in contact with a bit of glass/diamond, can sound better than digital.

"Better" is subjective. I think that those who like the vinyl sound really just like the reduced high-frequency response and the warm mid-range that vinyl provides, plus perhaps the harmonics that vinyl can add also. Anyone with knobs on their amplifier can probably reproduce the first two "features" very easily (some amps even have a DSP setting specifically for providing the vinyl sound), and I doubt that the harmonics are really desirable anyway.

 

Another difference with CD releases is that they are often digitally remastered, and sometimes remixed. That can significantly change the perceived sound, and not everyone likes that (and the remastering/remixing job done isn't always very good anyway).

 

 

1 hour ago, wgdanson said:

And if a record/LP is converted to digital via a DA converter, will it not sound exactly the same as the original., clicks, scratches, wow & flutter, surface noise, rumble etc. Who needs that?

Not all old recordings are available on CD. So anyone who wants the convenience and longevity of a digital recording is obliged to start from a vinyl disk, complete with the clicks and pops and hiss etc. Decent software like Audacity includes filters that do a fair job of removing the bits no one wants, and once that is done the result sounds pretty good and should last forever.

 

I have a few digital transfers that I did from my original LPs from the 70s that never made it to CD, and they sound great.

[KittenKong]

On 8/16/2018 at 8:56 PM, gentlemanjackdarby said:

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.

This is true, but some motherboards/sound cards also have RCA connections for S/PDIF digital inputs/outputs. The sockets are the same but are not interchangeable.

 

That said, any shop that has a working turntable will surely have an amplifier connected to it, and that amp will surely have either tape monitor outputs or a headphone output, both of which can be used with the standard line-in sockets on any PC. So it should not be hard to find somewhere that can transfer the OPs disks to digital format.

 

As mentioned, ALWAYS record to WAV or FLAC so as to retain the maximum audio quality, and for ease of future processing/editing. Never record to MP3.

[wgdanson]

26 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

just like the reduced high-frequency respons

When you get to my age, you cannot hear above about 11kHz so everything sounds like it did 'back then' ! I burned my Paradigm tweeters out by trying to get more top out of them, boosting the treble. Ah well.

[S0S]

I believe this excellent record shop still exists (not far - but not walking distance) from the Saphan Kwai BTS.

 

Bangkok HiFi

Thanon Padhiphad between soi 12/14 - behind the coffee shop.

081 875 5888

 

They can and will do it professionally. I believe their charge is under 500 B. The default conversion will be to "wav" format.

 

You will need to decide if you want one big file of the whole LP - or if you want the tracks split into individual music files.

 

The correct way to do this is to have one big .wav file - with the necessary information of track splitting in a .cue file.

Total .wav file size(s) will be less than 600 KB.

 

I am sure for a very little more charge, they can provide additional conversions.

I suggest you to ask them to make these 3 file conversions as well - of the split individual tracks:

 

1. ".mp3" at 320kbps - high quality mp3 (< 130 KB) for listening from your laptop
2. ".mp3" at 192kbps - for listening on your phone through earphones (< 80 KB)
3. ".flac" format if you use Microsoft OR "alac" format if you Apple - this is lossless & half the size (< 300 KB) of a wav and easier to store.

Option 3 is not so important.

[KittenKong]

9 hours ago, S0S said:

They can and will do it professionally. I believe their charge is under 500 B.

500B sounds like a lot to me, given that it doesn't require any effort or skill.

[OneMoreFarang]

7 hours ago, KittenKong said:

500B sounds like a lot to me, given that it doesn't require any effort or skill.

What do you expect? That a place which sells Hi End turntables, amps with valves and gold plates cables for a couple of thousand THB work for cheap?

Those are not cheap Charlie places ...

 

[KittenKong]

3 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

What do you expect? That a place which sells Hi End turntables, amps with valves and gold plates cables for a couple of thousand THB work for cheap?

Those are not cheap Charlie places ...

I dont expect to pay 500B for something that simple. Even in the UK it would probably be less than that. Apart from flipping the disk half way through the job does not even require anyone to watch it.

[OneMoreFarang]

26 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

I dont expect to pay 500B for something that simple. Even in the UK it would probably be less than that. Apart from flipping the disk half way through the job does not even require anyone to watch it.

I get your point. But I guess it's also a question of supply and demand. There won't be too many places where you can do that (anymore). And if someone really want's to convert a LP to a digital file in 2018 then I am pretty sure such a person would be willing to pay - because he really want's it...

[blackcab]

Moved to the A/V forum for High Fidelity answers.

[wgdanson]

7 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Even in the UK it would probably be less than that.

You'd get nowt for a tenner in England.

[wgdanson]

On 8/18/2018 at 1:08 PM, S0S said:

I believe this excellent record shop still exists (not far - but not walking distance) from the Saphan Kwai BTS.

 

Bangkok HiFi

Thanon Padhiphad between soi 12/14 - behind the coffee shop.

081 875 5888

 

They can and will do it professionally. I believe their charge is under 500 B. The default conversion will be to "wav" format.

 

You will need to decide if you want one big file of the whole LP - or if you want the tracks split into individual music files.

 

The correct way to do this is to have one big .wav file - with the necessary information of track splitting in a .cue file.

Total .wav file size(s) will be less than 600 KB.

 

I am sure for a very little more charge, they can provide additional conversions.

I suggest you to ask them to make these 3 file conversions as well - of the split individual tracks:

 

1. ".mp3" at 320kbps - high quality mp3 (< 130 KB) for listening from your laptop
2. ".mp3" at 192kbps - for listening on your phone through earphones (< 80 KB)
3. ".flac" format if you use Microsoft OR "alac" format if you Apple - this is lossless & half the size (< 300 KB) of a wav and easier to store.

Option 3 is not so important.

Get VLC Player, FREE, and do it yourself. It will convert anything to anything.

 

[The Deerhunter]

On 8/14/2018 at 11:13 AM, ianh68 said:

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

I was on bated breath but now a little let down.  And here was me expecting something obscure by Zoot, Arthur Brown or The Knack.  555.   By the way.  I have one of those machines sitting back home that only an ex Mate has used, not me!!!.  It plugs into a PC and plays vinyl, converts it to MP3's and stores them wherever you want them.  It was on my to do list before I came over here but there was not enough time. I barely ripped all by CD's before I ran out of time. That was a big enough job. I have about 200KG of vinyl back home..............................

Edited August 19, 2018 by The Deerhunter

[gentlemanjackdarby]

18 hours ago, KittenKong said:

500B sounds like a lot to me, given that it doesn't require any effort or skill.

I'm certainly not disputing your 'value for money' proposition, but properly converting an LP to digital to get pleasing results requires a lot of expertise that only comes from study and experience.

 

And of course, the person or shop performing the conversion needs to have a fair amount of money sunk into their equipment and software, not to mention their overhead.

 

Hell, I've heard CD rips made by regular folks and while that should be child's play, they managed to screw it up by making poor choices - and I'm not talking about just choosing MP3

 

It's been my experience that outside of the classical music arena, folks who want recorded sound as close to the original, whether that be the studio master tape when buying a commercial release or an LP conversion for something not commercially released in the digital domain, one has got to pay for it.

 

I pause and think long and hard before paying USD 30 and upwards for some Mobile Fidelity SA-CD releases and nearly choke when paying around USD 50 for some Japanese SHM (Super High Materials) SA-CD releases, but when I play the discs, in all but one case, I've been incredibly happy and in a few cases absolutely stunned and I forget all about the cost. I love the music!

 

Oh, and for anyone that doesn't believe that it takes expertise, experience, good ears, and attention to detail to make a good digital conversion, there's a so-called 'audiophile' label out there called Culture Factory USA, Inc. that 'specializes in quality reissues' that seems to exist solely to show how badly conversions can be done or is perhaps vying to prove that a company CAN turn every release into an 'earbleeder'. I bought several of their releases for albums that had never been released on CD or for CD releases that were extravagantly priced in the used market and grand disappointment doesn't begin to describe it. 

[jvs]

OP,if you will be listening on your phone there is no need to use flac,

downloading from Youtube will be just fine.

If you have very high-end equipment it may make a difference but most people can not hear that anyways.

[gentlemanjackdarby]

10 minutes ago, The Deerhunter said:

I was on bated breath but now a little let down.  And here was me expecting something obscure by Zoot, Arthur Brown or The Knack.  555.   By the way.  I have one of those machines sitting back home that only an ex Mate has used, not me!!!.  It plugs into a PC and plays vinyl, converts it to MP3's and stores them wherever you want them.  It was on my to do list before I came over here but there was not enough time. I barely ripped all by CD's before I ran out of time. That was a big enough job. I have about 200KG of vinyl back home..............................

Thanks for a great bit of trivia!

 

Well, I wouldn't classify Arthur Brown or The Knack as obscure but I have to admit, I had to look up Zoot since I'd never heard of them.

 

Of course I'd heard of Little River Band and although I knew that Rick Springfield was a 'rock star' before his stint on General Hospital (along with Demi Moore Janine Turner, who I always thought was hotter than Demi) and 'Jessie's Girl', I didn't know where he got his start.

[The Deerhunter]

4 minutes ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

Thanks for a great bit of trivia!

 

Well, I wouldn't classify Arthur Brown or The Knack as obscure but I have to admit, I had to look up Zoot since I'd never heard of them.

 

Of course I'd heard of Little River Band and although I knew that Rick Springfield was a 'rock star' before his stint on General Hospital (along with Demi Moore Janine Turner, who I always thought was hotter than Demi) and 'Jessie's Girl', I didn't know where he got his start.

Zoot did a great and totally different version of Eleanor Rigby.  They are/were an Australian group.  I have "The Crazy world of Arthur Brown on vinyl and C.D (and on my HD of course.)  It includes my favourite verion of "I put a spell on you." originally by Screaming Jay Hawkins.  I have about 6 verions of it somewhere by different artists.

[gentlemanjackdarby]

23 minutes ago, jvs said:

OP,if you will be listening on your phone there is no need to use flac,

downloading from Youtube will be just fine.

If you have very high-end equipment it may make a difference but most people can not hear that anyways.

Most people who pay attention CAN hear the difference between 'good sound' and 'bad sound' even if listening on a computer, car radio, and especially on a good phone with a good music player - some Android players will even support FLAC.

 

If you don't believe me, take the following test:

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, wgdanson said:

Get VLC Player, FREE, and do it yourself. It will convert anything to anything.

 

Please explain to us how you intend to covert a LP with VLC player.

If you don't know what a LP is maybe google it...

[wgdanson]

18 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Please explain to us how you intend to covert a LP with VLC player.

If you don't know what a LP is maybe google it...

Ooooh we are getting nasty. I was meaning converting the wav file to mp3 or flac. Use this to rip the LONG PLAYER in the first instance.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/numark-pt01-usb-portable-vinyl-archiving-turntable-i105828769-s106494676.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0IWErYn53AIViR0rCh0bag3lEAQYASABEgK6y_D_BwE&amp;s_kwcid=AL!3152!3!286179630377!!!u!!&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=sem_non_brand&amp;utm_content=294680686006_106494676_120287216&amp;utm_campaign=[SUS-000000000000-00000-00000-0]: Universal Shopping Campaign&amp;utm_term=[SUS-000000000000-00000-00000-0]: Universal Shopping Campaign_xxto0000000at0000_c_pla-294680686006&amp;adjust_tracker=t2v78t_5n20iw&amp;adjust_campaign=1498579383&amp;adjust_adgroup=58089999096_c_pla-294680686006&amp;adjust_creative=294680686006_106494676_120287216&amp;tracker_limit=1000000&amp;ef_id=W2w__wAAAJd4D2vT:20180819120354:s

18 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Please explain to us how you intend to covert a LP with VLC player.

If you don't know what a LP is maybe google it...

 

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

I'm certainly not disputing your 'value for money' proposition, but properly converting an LP to digital to get pleasing results requires a lot of expertise that only comes from study and experience.

 

And of course, the person or shop performing the conversion needs to have a fair amount of money sunk into their equipment and software, not to mention their overhead.

 

Hell, I've heard CD rips made by regular folks and while that should be child's play, they managed to screw it up by making poor choices - and I'm not talking about just choosing MP3

 

It's been my experience that outside of the classical music arena, folks who want recorded sound as close to the original, whether that be the studio master tape when buying a commercial release or an LP conversion for something not commercially released in the digital domain, one has got to pay for it.

 

 

If you are talking about remastering, I agree. But that isnt what the OP is looking for. He just want to digitise the analogue output obtained by playing back his LPs on a turntable. This requires no intervention and no skill at all apart from clicking on the "record" button in the software once the stylus is in the groove.

 

Assuming that the equipment is reasonable the recording will be an accurate copy of the amplifier output, and it requires no adjustment at all: an accurate copy is what is desired. Of course, if someone wants to (and I always do it to the LPs I digitise) they can use software filters to remove tape hiss and vinyl surface noises, but it isnt obligatory and can be done later. In all cases one should retain a FLAC version of the original rip, prior to any modifications or transcoding being made, and all modifications should be made on a copy and not on the original file.

[gentlemanjackdarby]

12 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

If you are talking about remastering, I agree. But that isnt what the OP is looking for. He just want to digitise the analogue output obtained by playing back his LPs on a turntable. This requires no intervention and no skill at all apart from clicking on the "record" button in the software once the stylus is in the groove.

 

Assuming that the equipment is reasonable the recording will be an accurate copy of the amplifier output, and it requires no adjustment at all: an accurate copy is what is desired. Of course, if someone wants to (and I always do it to the LPs I digitise) they can use software filters to remove tape hiss and vinyl surface noises, but it isnt obligatory and can be done later. In all cases one should retain a FLAC version of the original rip, prior to any modifications or transcoding being made, and all modifications should be made on a copy and not on the original file.

No, I wasn't talking about remastering; I was talking about making a copy of an LP.

 

In my prior posts, I mentioned some of the many details that go into getting a pleasing digital copy of an LP; if all one cares about is just getting a copy, then I agree it's as simple as you say.

 

However, I think most people that go to the trouble and expense of tracking down and buying a somewhat difficult-to-find LP and who will, consciously or not, compare their digital copy to their memory of the LP back in day after having listened to years of music on CD, which eliminates a lot of the sonic imperfections of most LPs, will be disappointed with just any old LP-to-digital copy.

 

Although I haven't listened to many LPs since the late 90s and firmly believe that CD, and especially SA-CD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-A (DVD-Audio), are vastly superior to LPs, I will say that if one has a physically great LP (pressed on heavyweight virgin vinyl, no major warping, no major scratches, minimal ticks and pops, etc.) and plays it on good equipment properly set up, the listening can be a stunning experience; that's what folks are looking for when they try to convert an LP to digital.

 

I've mostly listened to classical music in the last 15 years or so and I have quite a few MP3s, made from obscure, long out-of-print, difficult-to-find albums that have never been released by a record company on any digital medium, by a group of purists at a website called ReDiscovery -  some of their LP-to-MP3 transfers, at first listen, sound as if they are CDs; that's not surprising when one reads about the equipment they use, the extent to which they go to find physically fine LPs, their very judicious use of software to eliminate sonic imperfections and, like me, they've been around awhile. Clearly no 'set-and-forget' conversions done by whomever happens to be in that day.

 

And I also have a lot of classical CDs of historical interest released by major record companies, who have the shellac masters, evaluation vinyl pressings, LP stamping masters, etc. that sound like s**t because the folks doing the transfers and, in some cases so-called 'remastering', overused the noise suppression software or, in a few cases, seem to have been born with cloth ears.

 

And I would recommend saving the actual WAV file made by the LP-to-digital conversion;  it does use more storage space than the FLAC conversion, but storage is dirt cheap these days and it's the absolute original.

 

[KittenKong]

9 hours ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

In my prior posts, I mentioned some of the many details that go into getting a pleasing digital copy of an LP; if all one cares about is just getting a copy, then I agree it's as simple as you say.

The point is that you always start with an accurate copy, and that is what the OP is trying to get.

 

Once you have that accurate copy then you can modify it later if you want to, and the shop that does the transfer is unlikely to do these modifications properly without charging extra for it, as it will probably require much more time and attention than the initial transfer did. The modifications should never be done simultaneously with the transfer.

 

The two procedures (transfer and modification) are not related and should not be confused with each other.

 

 

9 hours ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

And I would recommend saving the actual WAV file made by the LP-to-digital conversion;  it does use more storage space than the FLAC conversion, but storage is dirt cheap these days and it's the absolute original.

Saving as WAV wont hurt, but I doubt that anyone anywhere could hear a difference between WAV and FLAC. I certainly cant. So WAV or FLAC are both fine for me.

[OneMoreFarang]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 7:06 PM, wgdanson said:

Ooooh we are getting nasty. I was meaning converting the wav file to mp3 or flac. Use this to rip the LONG PLAYER in the first instance.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/numark-pt01-usb-portable-vinyl-archiving-turntable-i105828769-s106494676.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0IWErYn53AIViR0rCh0bag3lEAQYASABEgK6y_D_BwE&amp;s_kwcid=AL!3152!3!286179630377!!!u!!&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=sem_non_brand&amp;utm_content=294680686006_106494676_120287216&amp;utm_campaign=[SUS-000000000000-00000-00000-0]: Universal Shopping Campaign&amp;utm_term=[SUS-000000000000-00000-00000-0]: Universal Shopping Campaign_xxto0000000at0000_c_pla-294680686006&amp;adjust_tracker=t2v78t_5n20iw&amp;adjust_campaign=1498579383&amp;adjust_adgroup=58089999096_c_pla-294680686006&amp;adjust_creative=294680686006_106494676_120287216&amp;tracker_limit=1000000&amp;ef_id=W2w__wAAAJd4D2vT:20180819120354:s

 

There must be about a thousand programs and apps to convert wav files to something else. No, we don't need instruction #150,000 how to do that.

The important and difficult-to-get part is the first step to record the LP because there are not so many turntables around anymore.

No, we are not getting nasty, we are just pointing out the obvious.

[OneMoreFarang]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 7:06 PM, wgdanson said:

Ooooh we are getting nasty. I was meaning converting the wav file to mp3 or flac. Use this to rip the LONG PLAYER in the first instance.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/numark-pt01-usb-portable-vinyl-archiving-turntable-i105828769-s106494676.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0IWErYn53AIViR0rCh0bag3lEAQYASABEgK6y_D_BwE&amp;s_kwcid=AL!3152!3!286179630377!!!u!!&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=sem_non_brand&amp;utm_content=294680686006_106494676_120287216&amp;utm_campaign=[SUS-000000000000-00000-00000-0]: Universal Shopping Campaign&amp;utm_term=[SUS-000000000000-00000-00000-0]: Universal Shopping Campaign_xxto0000000at0000_c_pla-294680686006&amp;adjust_tracker=t2v78t_5n20iw&amp;adjust_campaign=1498579383&amp;adjust_adgroup=58089999096_c_pla-294680686006&amp;adjust_creative=294680686006_106494676_120287216&amp;tracker_limit=1000000&amp;ef_id=W2w__wAAAJd4D2vT:20180819120354:s

 

And next time you post a link just delete everything behind and including the question mark. Then you end up with a shorter link and you don't inform us all about your browsing history...

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/numark-pt01-usb-portable-vinyl-archiving-turntable-i105828769-s106494676.html

works just fine without all the rest ?