Thread: Vinyl To Digital

One feature of my McIntosh phono stage is that if has a ADC, in fact it has a AKM ADC. So last night I decided to try it and see what kind of recording it could make. McIntosh suggested Vinyl Studio software so I went with this.

The first album took a couple tries to get the settings correct. I wanted to save in FLAC and the Mc can output resolution up to 24 bit 96 Khz, therefore I wanted the software to record at this level.

The first trial album went pretty well. The only thing that I did not like was that I had recorded at too low of a level. I have figured out how to change this and am going to re-record the album plus a couple others.

I do believe this is going to be very nice. There are several albums that I have that there is no digital version, or the CD is the only version. In each of these cases the vinyl is a better option, but if I want to listen to this album on my portable, for example, this is a great way of doing it. The 24/96 conversation seemed to work great so this should be another way of enjoying my vinyl, in a digital version .

Randy, I made the decision 12 years ago to digitize a large portion of my vinyl collection, primarily for posterity (my daughter and son-in-law were not going to take my very large collection), but also for ease of access. These were all classical albums dating back to the beginnngs of the stereo era. At 192/24 the highest resolution that I could find in those days, the typical album is about 3GB (1 GB = 15minutes). There are also some great software tools that do an excellent job removing clicks and pops without affecting the musical content. When I finished I had about 40TB of files, about 10,000 vinyl albums and 2000 reels of tape. I can carry my entire ripped collection in three 14TB portable hard drives. The major problem with doing the rips is that everything is in real time and it did take six years to do.

Larry

I’ve been eyeing the sweet vinyl products myself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I am not archiving my vinyl at this point, but thought it was a great way of making digital versions to put on the server and to take with me on the portable. On many of the albu,ms it ceates a much better version than is currently available in digital formats.

Originally Posted by Mike

I’ve been eyeing the sweet vinyl products myself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The Sweet Vinyl Sugar Cube products have gotten some favorable reviews and comments. One of the members of my phonogram listserve was a beta tester and he said it made the process very easy to do. The price is also much cheaper than the pro solutions. When I started there were only pro solutions available to do high resolution rips. I had the good fortune of having some top mastering and recording engineers to help me develop my process. It wasn't cheap to get the equipment and software and it took time and teaching from them to learn how to use the tools, but I realized from the beginning that it would take more than 10,000 hours to accomplish what I wanted to do (more like 15,000 hours over six years by the time I was done) so the initial investment of time and money meant I didn't have to do it again. You can see my equipment in my signature under Digital Rip.

Larry

Originally Posted by astrotoy

The Sweet Vinyl Sugar Cube products have gotten some favorable reviews and comments. One of the members of my phonogram listserve was a beta tester and he said it made the process very easy to do. The price is also much cheaper than the pro solutions. When I started there were only pro solutions available to do high resolution rips. I had the good fortune of having some top mastering and recording engineers to help me develop my process. It wasn't cheap to get the equipment and software and it took time and teaching from them to learn how to use the tools, but I realized from the beginning that it would take more than 10,000 hours to accomplish what I wanted to do (more like 15,000 hours over six years by the time I was done) so the initial investment of time and money meant I didn't have to do it again. You can see my equipment in my signature under Digital Rip.

Larry

Thanks Larry. Nice list!

I wouldn’t mind doing a few to preserve them. All my Classic Records, my RL issues, like Led Zep II. Some of my rare Japanese first pressings. That sort of stuff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

It comes down to what your main goals are for sure. For my purpose the McIntosh phono stage's built in ADC with Vinyl Studio software does a pretty good job. It was a nice little added feature on the McIntosh that I thought might be pretty cool. Now that I have done a few albums I definitely think it is something I am going to like and continue using.

I am very happy with the results using my Sweet Vinyl SC-2.

Originally Posted by astrotoy

Randy, I made the decision 12 years ago to digitize a large portion of my vinyl collection, primarily for posterity (my daughter and son-in-law were not going to take my very large collection), but also for ease of access. These were all classical albums dating back to the beginnngs of the stereo era. At 192/24 the highest resolution that I could find in those days, the typical album is about 3GB (1 GB = 15minutes). There are also some great software tools that do an excellent job removing clicks and pops without affecting the musical content. When I finished I had about 40TB of files, about 10,000 vinyl albums and 2000 reels of tape. I can carry my entire ripped collection in three 14TB portable hard drives. The major problem with doing the rips is that everything is in real time and it did take six years to do.

Larry

I envy your patience and admire your resolve! Admittedly, I tried (24/96) and gave up very quickly and I only have around 2500 LPs!

Originally Posted by nicoff

Randy, since you already have a ADC built into your phono preamp, you might want to explore feeding your computer running HQP with that signal. If you are running the latest version of HQP, you might be able to feed that signal to HQP and HQP can do upsampling to your digitized LPs for you to listen to in real time. Imagine listening to LPs in 512DSD…

The main reason for me to do any ripping is to be able to put them on the server for convivence, but also, and mainly to be able to listen to these albums on my portable or in the car. So far I have done only a few. Just a starter. I actually have picked out another 30+ albums to eventually rip. I decided to rip them in the resolution that the McIntosh converts them which is 24/96.

If I play them back from the server, if I am not in the mood to flip albums, they do indeed run through HQPlayer and are then listened to at DSD512. I have no interest in recording them at that level. Storage space would quickly become an issue, but more importantly in storage on the portable. The A&K portable can do DSD256, but would rather keep them at the level that McIntosh's AKM ADC chips sends them to the Vinyl Studio. As it stands now I have a couple hundred albums on the A&K, a few even at DSD256.

I also have some albums that CD level resolution was the highest I could find in digital. I have the vinyl so I wanted to compare the vinyl rip versus the CD as an example. One example is an Alan Parson album that I have the CD and a nice vinyl remastered copy. I want to compare the rips of both (soon, have not done it yet ).

I have not sat down and compared back and forth. The few rips I have done do sound pretty darn good. My buddy was over and we played an album we were both familiar with (and own). He was impressed with the rip.

I have listened to them on my portable and they sound very good! I would say comparable to most 96Khz downloads that I own. In other words, very acceptable and certainly as good as I was hoping it would do. Vinyl Studio is fairly easy to use also, after getting used to it!

Originally Posted by nicoff

Randy, I recently digitized my collection of 45rpm LPs (not a large collection mind you).
I did so for convenience and to preserve the original LPs.
It was a fun project. Now I can listen to the entire LP without having to get up from my chair to flip the album!

I do this as well with my 45 RPM LP’s but record them to open reel tape..

Originally Posted by Audiophilehi

I do this as well with my 45 RPM LP’s but record them to open reel tape..

Nice... I am not 100% sure where I will go with this but I thought it was great to have the option. My original plan was to be able to take those that I only have in vinyl with me but you guys are giving me ideas.

Originally Posted by nicoff

Randy, I recently digitized my collection of 45rpm LPs (not a large collection mind you).
I did so for convenience and to preserve the original LPs.
It was a fun project. Now I can listen to the entire LP without having to get up from my chair to flip the album!

fyi; i have about 1000 2xdsd vinyl rips, of which at least half are from 45's. they do sound quite good, although not close to the 45's themselves played on my turntables.

the thing is that a quality high rez direct tape transfer from the master tape is quite a bit better than the 45rpm rips. so objectively using 45's for your digital source is not the best path. just wanting to point out that distinction.

OTOH if you already own the 45's then it is essentially free (if your time and effort is not figured in) to digitize them......so there is that. and it's possible to prefer your vinyl playback signature on your ripped files to a tape transfer, but i've not had that experience.

as far as preserving your 45's, i'd question that logic. theoretically playing 45's does cause wear. but i own almost 100% of all (12") 45's ever pressed, play them all the time, some over 1000 times, and have experienced zero perceived wear. they love to be played!!!

Yea, I don't worry about my 45's and playing them. I figure if I take good care of them the chances are I will not wear them out. Digitizing them is for using with my portable and to listen through the server if I am not feeling like flipping albums.

So far I am impressed with how the digital comes out. They sound every bit as good as any downloads I have purchased and maybe even better .