The Best Way To Record Songs From Vinyl Records – A blog about recording songs from vinyl records.
by admin on November 2, 2016 in Uncategorized
Thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Charlie, and I have been a vinyl collector since the 1970s. I love to record my old vinyl collection onto CDs so that I can listen to them in my car or at work. As a hobby, I like to share what I have learned about transferring vinyl albums to CDs with other people who are interested in doing the same thing.
I hope that you enjoy following this blog!
Tips, guidelines and suggestions on the best way to record songs from vinyl records into a computer.
The Best Way to Record Songs from Vinyl Record Albums
(This blog is an adaptation of a post I made on August 29, 2009 at http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.makers.vinyl/browse_thread/thread/2e8a28b7f88ce87c)
Why would anyone want to record songs from vinyl records? Isn’t that old technology? Well, yes it is, but it’s still around and flourishing. For example, there are many online sources for vinyl records and turntables such as Amazon and eBay.
The sound quality of vinyl records is noticeably better than that of compressed digital music files such as MP3s. It’s true that the sound quality of a vinyl recording depends on the quality of the original master recording and the quality of the manufacturing process for the record itself; nevertheless, the sound quality of a well-made vinyl record is generally considered to be superior to that of a digital format such as an MP3. There are many other reasons why people still enjoy collecting and listening to vinyl records, which are discussed in more detail in this excellent article by David Katzma
The Best Way to Record Songs from Vinyl Record Albums
How to record songs from vinyl records onto a computer.
I am a musician who has spent many years recording songs from vinyl record albums to my computer. This experience has given me the opportunity to test out many different methods. Here, I will share with you my preferred method for doing this, which includes using Audacity (a free program) and a cheap USB Turntable (I use the Ion TTUSB05).
Most people have their favorite way of recording songs from vinyl albums into digital form. Some users prefer to use a turntable with a built in USB port, and some like to use a turntable with an audio output that connects to a computer’s sound card. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with both methods.
The advantage of using a turntable with built in USB is that it is easy to use, and the disadvantage is that there can be distortion in the audio files that may be produced by the signal processing done inside the turntable. For example, many turntables with built-in USB ports have software that tries to reduce record noise such as clicks and pops. However, this software may also reduce sound quality by removing high frequency content from the music signal.
Many of us have old vinyl records. We want to record those old songs and save them in a digital format. But the process of recording is a little complicated. If you do it wrong, there will be noise or hiss in the background of your recordings.
This blog documents my personal experience in recording old records. I’ll show you what I did right and what I did wrong. This will help you avoid mistakes and get good results.
What You Need:
computer speakers
software for recording songs from vinyl records (I used Audacity)
record player
stereo amplifier for playing your vinyl records (I used my old Yamaha RX-V620)
This blog is intended to be a concise guide on how to record songs from vinyl records onto your computer. I am assuming that you are using some sort of Windows operating system (XP, Vista), but the principles could probably be applied to another OS like Mac or Linux. I will only discuss the simplest possible method and equipment you can use. There are more advanced methods and more sophisticated electronics, but they are not necessary if you follow these instructions.
What you need:
Computer with a sound card with two inputs (one for left channel and one for right channel)
Turntable (or record player) with an internal amplifier
A stereo RCA cable (red and white connectors) for connecting the turntable to the sound card
Software for recording and editing audio files – Audacity is free software that does this very well.