Transcribing vinyl to CD

My father has decided he wants to transcribe various items he has on vinyl onto CDs.

To do this, he's prepared to buy a few items:

New record deck (currently has a Thorens TD160 (mk 2 maybe?)) inc arm and cart
New phono stage
New soundcard

For the soundcard it looks likely that the M-audio Audiophile 2496 (not the 192) will be the choice because it offers direct RCA connections without breakout cables or mini-jacks.

So, what advice on record decks, cartridges and phono stages. No fixed budget, but I was thinking along the lines of a Rega phono stage and a P3. However, as I know absolutely nothing of turntables I ask the advice of you good gentlemen. This setup will probably go into his main system replacing the thorens once the transcription is done with.

 

By the time its on CD you probably won't notice much difference what deck it has come from . I'd buy a rega from ebay, a cheapy MC, a nice small phono stage which will sit near the PC- maybe a Michel ISO or something then get a copy of Adobe Audition as the 'Click and Pop Reducer' is fantastic.

 

Cool Edit Pro is also fantastic, I use that myself.

I recently purchased one of the Cambridge Audio P500 phono stages from Richer Sounds, this would be great for using with PC quality sound cards and P3 level turntable.

Spending a ton of cash on mid to high-end phono stages and turntable is pointless if you are going to connect it up to a PC via sound card.

My advice is to get a cheap phono stage, connect up the Thorens to the PC and see what type of recordings you get. Then you can analyse your recordings to see whether they are satisfactory or not. If you have an integrated amplifier with a phono input and a tape loop then connect up the Thorens to the phono input on the amp and the PC in/out on the sound card to the relevant play/record on the tape loop, you can then monitor your recordings from the integrated amp. (I bought a Marantz PM 66 SE at my local auction house for £35 complete with box, manual and remote in superb condition and have it set up like this for any copying to PC that I do,...purely back-up of course!!!).

Unless you have a real high-end bespoke built audio grade PC system you really do not need to spend a ton of money.

 

The thorens is not in good shape... it was my grandparent's, and took over main system duties after the Planar 2 got stolen. It's a suspended deck that's been through many house moves without any attention and suffers from rumble. It needs replacing...

 

Well I suppose that stops me asking "what's wrong with the Thorens?"

 

Isaac,

Have you checked the condition of the Thorens' bearing? If it is still ok, a change of oil and quick re-set of the springs might be worth a try before spending on a new TT. Not sure if you can get a replacement bearing for it if its too far gone, but may be an idea to try as that deck, in good condition, ought to be able to realise a decent sound.

Regards,

Stuart.

 

The Thorens TD160 was a good budget deck in its day. I had the TD160BC mkII model with an SME 2009 arm and Ortofon VMS20E cartridge. Shame if your Dad's one has died. Try a little maintenance as Stuart has suggested.

So why is your Dad doing this? Does he want to get rid of the records? Or does he just want the CDs for some other purpose like playing in the car? I'd echo the sentiment that it probably isn't worth spending a ton of cash on this unless your Dad wants a new record deck anyway.

And why do you need a phono stage? Can your Dad not borrow an amp with a phono input?

BTW, I found click reduction software to be pretty music-killing. I used Creative Wave Studio to edit out the clicks. I just replaced them with silence. It generally only needs one cycle to be replaced so the effect is generally inaudible. Takes time to do though.

 

He wants to preserve the content of the records. We have some rarities (such as a recording of Flanders and Swann's At the Drop of a Hat which is not available on CD (the one you can get on CD is of a different performance)). His Rotel RA-1062 has a phono stage, but he doesn't want to pull the main system apart to move those parts closer to the computer to do this, since it will take quite some time to do it.

 

how about a pair of ridiculously long DIY interconnects? - hook the PC to the hifi where it is.

You could just solder phono plugs onto however many metres of bellwire (or similar) you might need. Its only about 30p per metre.

 

That would be a possibility, but the other thing to be avoided is the use of the exisiting system because someone else (ie my mother) might wish to listen to something while the vinyl is being transcribed. Also, over the length that would be required (about 20m) passing near to significant sources of electrical noise (boiler, washing machine, dryer, wireless access point, etc) an unshielded IC is not a good plan.

 

It sounds to me like it could be a job for the Pro-ject Debut deck that has the phono stage built in. I think it's about £170, If it's for archiving it should do perfectly well, there was an interesting article about making DVD-A somewhere, I'll try and find it for you.

 

If that's the 1957 Mono gold Parlophone (X T tax code) PMC1033 version, then I just recently picked up a pretty clean copy for £2 in a charity shop. I could run a copy off on the Gyro-Orbe w/ artemiz and shiraz throught a WAD valve phono to my Tascam CD-RW machine. PM me if you're interested, Isaac.

the reason the CD is different is that the original PMC1033 was recorded in 1957, and I presume in Mono only. When the stereo PCS3001 version was issued they had re-recorded it in 1959, since there was presumably no stereo recording of the 57 performance.

Cheers

Kenny

 

Thats what most click reducers do isn't it? In no time at all. The Cool Edit/Audition one certainly isn't music killing, I've done about 150 LPs so far, all sound excellent.

 

Or a pioneer pdr 609 stand alone audio recorder running from tape-outs or a phonostage. At least you get things like peak VU meters you can rely on. Maybe record them to a CD-RW, then just bang it in the PC to clone the data when you are happy with it.

 

Buy a cheapo (mine is Phillips) CDR - cost about 100 quid in its daywith analogue input. No messing, just like recording a cassette and the copies aren't too bad at all - personally I have no experience of a good PC sound card but IMHE copies made via bog standard cards do a far worse job.

 

With a Thorens TD 320 MK II , Marantz integrated amplifier PM6010OSE and a Philips CD-recorder CDR 880 (the first available) I have transferred many LP's to CD's with very fine results. You save time in this way, provided the pickup doesn't jump in the groove (then you have to start from the beginning, but you can edit the result with your PC afterwards), and the result is probably comparable to the PC approach with processing software, provided your LP's are in good condition. I shall anytime recommend a CD-recorder.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. Everything is on hold now since his computer got blown up by a lightning strike last night, despite being connected to a UPS with $100k connected equipment warranty...

 

I dabble from time to time. In my experience, the biggest pain is the real time transfer. I would suggest investigating a semi/auto TT. I beleive there are a few models which are not too shabby. Luxman, and the better Japanese decks. However, if your father is happy to sit through the process I would go for a secondhand project.

Rod

 

Rodrat,

You just reminded me of a feature my parent's old Luxman turntable has. There is an RCA socket on the back of the TT which allowed connection to a socket on the cassett deck which would trigger the cassette to pause when the record side compleated. Very handy when copying records to cassette. Dunno how you'd go about making this work with the computer...

Regards,

Stuart.

 

Possibly it just makes a connection- like a foot switch does. You could try plugging it into a midi keyboard/controller if you have anything like that and set the software to pause when it gets the footswitch signal.