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Posted to rec.audio.pro
Mike Rivers
 
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Default Ripping Vinyl to the computer?


CyberSurfer wrote:
I've got a bunch of old LP's that I want to rip into either MP3, or WAV
format on my computer. I'm using XP pro, and an onboard sound card. No sound
editing software other than MS sound recorder, which sucks...
What software would be good for doing what I want to do?


Well, first of all, the term "rip" suggests file transfer, and there
are no files to transfer on an LP. You have to play the record and
record it in real time. To answer your actual question, I'd recommend
Audacity. It's free for the downloading and it works well. Let your
fingers do the walking.

Now, you need a way to play the records, and you need a way to get a
line level signal into your sound card. This requires a turntable and
some sort of amplifier with RIAA equalization. The cheap solution, if
you don't have any of that, is to buy a turntable and a receiver cheap
at a thrift shop or yard sale. A better solution is to get a high
quality turntable and RIAA preamplifer. The quality of your vinyl
playback will be the most significant link in the chain. Unless you're
willing to spend several hundred dollars it won't be better than
whatever sound card you have so you don't have to worry about replacing
your computer's audio hardware yet.

I will warn you, though, that it's a very time consuming process.
Figure on at least two hours per disk unless you want to do a real
slapdash job. Will you live long eough to transfer your collection? Is
it really worth the time? Or are you just looking at picking out a few
favorite albums?