Questions about recording vimyl to computer?

Artemus, I understand where you are coming from .... a few thoughts.

I have been repairing pro music gear for many years and have my doubts about the Peavey board. Not that it wasn't good for it's intended purpose, but is it a good option for this purpose given what is currently available? The 2 channel Focusrite I mentioned above can be had for $150 or less. You can go up from there. It will digitize at 24/192 or whatever you want, but  disc space is so cheap why go any lower? It has analog in you can feed from your phono stage or use the built in mic inputs to feed your turntable directly, and has USB to send data to your computer. You have a choice of software but Pure Vinyl is almost a no brainer since it has been developed specifically for what you want to do, has many features that make it much easier to use than the alternatives mentioned, and really is a bargain. It even breaks the file into the song files like a CD is and automatically generates file names unless it is something extremely obscure. It is a royal pain to do this song by song using lesser software. They have a discount coupon on their website (no affiliation other than being an early adopter and satisfied user for many years)

I guess my overarching advice is this. The process no matter how you go about it is time consuming and at least for me, a pain the ass. If you are going to do it don't half step with software not designed for the task and hardware that can be easily bested for a small sum. Go to the Pure Vinyl website and at least read up on it.

http://www.channld.com/purevinyl/

and here is another side of it... how many vinyl records do you have that aren't available to stream form Tidal or Qobuz or Amazon or Spotify or Apple or whatever else is out there?

@herman 


Thanks for the info. I'll check out the Focusrite. Funny thing is that as I traverse the digital terrain, it seems to be more work to get there than the old fashioned way of vinyl. I remember recording to cassette and how time consuming it was. I was 20's & 30's then. At this age transferring to digital may seem unbearable since a 1/2 hr job now takes 2 1/2 hrs. Kinda makes the streaming services look inviting. 

For me, streaming is a no brainer. People complain because a service costs $15-20 a month. Are you kidding me? I used to spend sometimes hundreds a month on discs and vinyl for a few titles. Now for less than I paid for a single CD 30 years go I have access to millions of songs in high resolution. 

the convenience and selection is unbelievable. Last night I sat down with the latest copies of Absolute Sound and Stereophile (also a ridiculous bargain at a dollar a month or so each)  and went through the music reviews, Everything I was interested in was instantly available on a streaming service for me to listen to while I read about it. Or as you read a hardware review and the reviewer discusses the songs he used to evaluate it, you have instant access  to listen to what he is talking about. Amazing. Something we didn't even dream of a few years ago.

@herman 

People complain because a service costs $15-20 a month. Are you kidding me? I used to spend sometimes hundreds a month on discs and vinyl for a few titles.

Good point. One difference is that you get to own the disks on tangible media. I think this is partly the reason for the vinyl resurgence. Back in the day, the cover art was considered important. But the times, they are a'changin'. And then there's hat vast library to choose from. Even I go to Amazon or Pandora occasionally to hear some obscure blues, mostly. 

herman

... recording vinyl is not like copying a CD. It is done in real time and requires your attention. It takes a lot of time .... Last thing you want is to put in a lot of hours only to discover there was a better, easier way.

Agreed! For all the effort it takes to record vinyl, I want the absolute best copy that I can make. This is the last place to cut corners.

... why do you want to do this? I thought it sounded like a great idea but after doing it for a while decided why not just spin the record when i wanted to hear those songs? What was I going to do with the digital file anyway that it made it worth the expense and hassle required to get the file?

Great question. A properly stored and handled LP is an archival medium - more so than tape. I have some LPs that were bought used and are more than 50 years old, yet still sound like new even after many plays. They don’t need digital "preservation."

But in addition to listening to LPs, I also play digital files. As we all know, not everything released on LP has been released on CD so in the case of some rare favorites, I’ve made my own digital copies. Then the track can be put in a playlist for digital playback.

There are also some instances where a digital release is so sonically inferior to its LP counterpart as to be unlistenable. So I sometimes will digitize an LP so that I can hear the preferred version when I’m listening to my digital playlists.

Without drifting OT, this is all why I see the analog/digital debate so absurd. They can both sound great and they coexist quite nicely.