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Recording Vinyl to iMac questions..

I want to digitise some of my LP's. I have had a brief look around of what to
do and software/hardware i will need.

VPI TT (got)

iMac running Audacity.

24bit Apogee or Lynx A-D converter at 96 khz

CEDAR CT15 de-click or Izotope RXA software.

I think that lot will do the trick and the way I see setting it up and running it is this?

Connect TT to the A-D converter then that too the PC?

Run the de-click program first. On doing that though do I need to give myself headroom for dynamic peaks or will the software take care of it and i run at -1 dbfs?
Do I need to do a second pass on the Audacity software after the de-click software?
Please let me know if i'm going down the right path!
Regards.
BB
barnaclebill
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
You'll need a phono preamp and a way to control the signal level going into the A/D converter. Then you'll need a digital pathway into the iMac. Run the declick program and then normalize (leave -.5dB headroom).

If you're only doing a few records a simple device such as this might be a better option.
jylee
306 posts
 
I use Apogee Duet and Audacity on MacBook Pro to record vinyl. You do need to run two passes, first time to make sure there is no clipping, and second time for recording. ADC has level control, so you can connect ADC to the phonostage directly.
barnaclebill OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for the input guy's..

Jylee, i was going to copy at 24 bit 96 khz. Is this okay or should i raise the resolution?

Also do you remove surface noise, if so what programme do you find to be good..

Kind regards.
bjbcab
131 posts
 
Thanks for starting this thread barnacebill. I am new to vinyl and I too was looking at recording to macbook pro. My desire is to listen to my LP only recordings in the car and to see if my LP recordings sound better than some of my CD's

I will look into Duet and Furutech.

Questions:

1) Wouldn't declicking software degrade sound?

2) Are there any other ways of going about this that do not cost a fortune?
jylee
306 posts
 
24/96 resolution is more than enough. Noise floor of most high end DACs is 20-22 bits. I'd imagine the recording resolution of Duet is probably between 18-20 bits. Also 24/192 will take up way too much space to be practical.

I don't perform any processing other than RIAA equalization from the phono stage. I did try Adobe Audition to reduce persistent clicks and pop, and it works quite well. But normally I don't do any processing on the recording.
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