Soundcard? (USB)

[Sven Pran]

I have an old (high quality) grammophone record player and want to create CD
music records from my grammophone records.

Apparently I need some kind of an external Soundcard to my Vista laptop
(home premium), but when I search on Google I get many hits which seem to
meet the target of feeding loudspeakers or headphones from PC files, not
create files on the PC from external media.

Can anybody suggest solutions to my need, i.e. "something" (make&model) to
connect my record player to my PC, preferably with suitable software to
process the incoming sound and make file(s) on the PC.

If there is a newsgroup better suited for this enquiry I shall be grateful
for information.

regards Sven

 

[Bob Knowlden]

This may not be the ideal newsgroup for your inquiry, but I can't suggest
another.

I have not attempted to digitize any of my analog recordings. However, it
can be done with an external USB soundcard. An example:

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=668&product=15913&nav=1

(It has a stereo line-level input; you'd need a pre-amplifier after your
turntable's cartridge. Presumably, a line-level output would be available
from your existing audio equipment, if only from a headphone jack.)

If you Google on something like "analog audio digitize usb", you'll get far
too many hits. If you include "audiophile", the number is greatly reduced.
Here's one result:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BBGCCI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Maybe the most convenient way of doing the job is with a USB turntable, such
as one made by Ion:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mp3/90a0/

Let me repeat that I haven't used any of these. I assume that any of them,
combined with the audio CD creation utility included with CD/DVD burning
software (Nero, or the Roxio packages) would meet your needs, unless you're
looking for audiophile quality recordings. You may want better software,
though, if you need to clean the digitized audio of clicks and pops.
Digitizing any significant number of vinyl records looks pretty tedious to
me, though.

HTH.

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Sven.

I'm certainly no expert on this subject. I'm not even a true audiophile.
But about 3 years ago I was able to do what you want to do and have been
enjoying my old music on my CD players since then. ;<) I was using WinXP
then; it should be easier with the tools built into Vista, since all
versions include Windows Media Player 11, and the Home Premium and Ultimate
versions also include the full Media Center. I've never had a laptop, so I
was working with my desktop and a SoundBlaster card. My new rig has modern
onboard audio, so I've retired the SB.

The hardest part for me was finding a turntable (they're nearly obsolete, it
seems) and all the cables and connectors to feed the analog data from the
turntable into my computer. Once there, I used Microsoft's "Plus! Analog
Recorder", part of the small software bundle called "Microsoft Plus! Digital
Media Edition", to convert it to digital and send it through to my hard
drive. Yes, it runs in Vista. ;<) Once that was done, the only remaining
problem was burning it to CD. Nero handled the job then (in 2005); WMP 11
should be able to do it now.

Rather than pursue the topic here in the "general" newsgroup, just click
"newsgroups" and type "media" into the search box. You should see well over
100 NGs, in several languages, including at least a couple dozen in English.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

 

[Sven Pran]

Thanks, this gives me a start at least
regards Sven

 

[Sven Pran]

Thanks, this gives me a start at least
regards Sven

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have an old (high quality) grammophone record player and want to
create CD music records from my grammophone records.

Apparently I need some kind of an external Soundcard to my Vista laptop
(home premium), but when I search on Google I get many hits which seem
to meet the target of feeding loudspeakers or headphones from PC files,
not create files on the PC from external media.

Can anybody suggest solutions to my need, i.e. "something" (make&model)
to connect my record player to my PC, preferably with suitable software
to process the incoming sound and make file(s) on the PC.

If there is a newsgroup better suited for this enquiry I shall be
grateful for information.

regards Sven

If your laptop has the properly jacks for stereo sound input, you may
not need any additional sound card. Be that as it may, here's some info
I found useful when I convert my LP collection to digital:

Regardless of the software you use, or the source of the original
audio, these hardware connection instructions are a useful guide:

http://www.nch.com.au/golden/setup.html

Further useful instructions here:

http://www.dak.com/reviews/Tutorial_LP.cfm

http://www.pcabusers.net/vinyllp/vinyllp.htm

If you do discover that you need a pre-amplifier, this is the one I
use to boost the audio signal from my turntable:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103385&cp

You may also want to be able to clean up the noise (hiss and
rumble, in particular) from the audio signal, as well as break the
single, large resulting *.WAV file into separate tracks. If your
edition of Vista lacks the tools to do this, you might try either Groove
Mechanic (which I eventually purchased) or Golden Records, both of which
have free, downloadable, time-bombed evaluation licenses:

Groove Mechanic
http://www.coyotes.bc.ca/GrooveMechanic.html

Golden Records
http://www.nch.com.au/golden/index.html


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Sven Pran]

Thanks for your comments. No my laptop has no suitable audio input
connectors, only a microphone connector that I haven't even bothered
to consider.

Today I located (after some searching) a local HI-FI center that offers:
NAD Digital Phono/USB Preamp PP3 which looked promising and not
too expensive. It comes together with software "VinylStudio Lite" from
AlpineSoft.

My trials with this was very successful and I have already upgraded the
software to full version. So now I am looking forward to hours with loading
my vinyl records to my PC and shining those recordings that are disfigured
in any way.

Thanks for all comments received.

regards Sven