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New to LP Ripping

Walter R

Walter R

Active Member
I have about 100 LP albums I’ve acquired used over the years, most are spoken word, mostly plays. I’ve just started converting them to MP3 files for easier playback.
I have 2 relatively simple turntables, a Technics SL-D2 and a Pioneer PL-990. The Technics is connected to my stereo system. I bought it maybe 20 years ago, because it won’t die. It’s direct drive and has a manual tone arm, so there’s nothing to go wrong. The Pioneer I bought recently to connect to my Windows 10 computer for the ripping process, because it was cheap and included a preamplifier. I’m using Audacity. So far they’re ripping very well. A few LPs are scratched and skip even after cleaning.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be welcome.
I do have an extensive music collection, but that’s another story.
 
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Only reason to change anything would be to increase quality of sound which shouldn’t matter too much for spoken word imo. For music I use a Tascam DR40 and am happy with the results.
 
A tip:
A lot of times you can use an ordinary toothpick to clear the grooves on the scratched areas to get the record to play through without skipping. I have done it with a few really trashed records. Magnification helps but I've done it without.
 
An article I wrote regarding ripping vinyl to MP3 can be found here. Some of the info is a bit dated, but hopefully it'll prove helpful. I've been ripping vinyl to MP3 for several years now, though I haven't done it in some time due to hardware issues. Sounds like you've pretty much gotten it down, but maybe the article will help with fine-tuning things. Good luck!
-Adam
 
AdamAnt316 said:
An article I wrote regarding ripping vinyl to MP3 can be found here. Some of the info is a bit dated, but hopefully it'll prove helpful. I've been ripping vinyl to MP3 for several years now, though I haven't done it in some time due to hardware issues. Sounds like you've pretty much gotten it down, but maybe the article will help with fine-tuning things. Good luck!
-Adam
Click to expand...
Like your R-392! I have one too!
 
Rip to an external drive, or install a seprate SSDs in your tower specifically for LP Rips. This will help if you ever need to transport or want to have all your music ready to transfer, can cut transfer time in half.
 
jobrewer1983 said:
Rip to an external drive, or install a seprate SSDs in your tower specifically for LP Rips. This will help if you ever need to transport or want to have all your music ready to transfer, can cut transfer time in half.
Click to expand...
I have 67TB of network attached storage that I store my music and videos on. It’s all backed up, twice.
 
One problem I’m having with Audacity is that it seems to have trouble handling the dynamic range of the spoken word LPs. I need to set the input level control fairly high to be able to hear the quiet passages, but when the actor is shouting the audio clips and distorts. You can adjust the input level on the fly, but you don’t know when the actor is going to shout. I know I could edit and re-record passages, but these plays are 3 or 4 LPs long and it would be a big job. Am I missing something with Audacity? Does anyone have suggestions?
 
Also I’m coming across spoken word LPs that are labeled ‘stereo’ but with nothing recorded on the right channel. Strange!
 
Walter R said:
One problem I’m having with Audacity is that it seems to have trouble handling the dynamic range of the spoken word LPs. I need to set the input level control fairly high to be able to hear the quiet passages, but when the actor is shouting the audio clips and distorts. You can adjust the input level on the fly, but you don’t know when the actor is going to shout. I know I could edit and re-record passages, but these plays are 3 or 4 LPs long and it would be a big job. Am I missing something with Audacity? Does anyone have suggestions?
Click to expand...
That's a tough one. I have not ripped anything that would have such a wide variance but I would think this must show up just playing the record itself too so I don't know what Audacity could do other than to set the levels on the fly somehow. I would just set the level so it gets to near clip on the loudest and let the rest be as they were recorded, and then just have to turn it up a bit to hear the quiet, but someone else will have ideas..

Walter R said:
Also I’m coming across spoken word LPs that are labeled ‘stereo’ but with nothing recorded on the right channel. Strange!
Click to expand...

My guess is that the record was pressed for a stereo cartridge but they only choose to record one side. Might be a way to within Audacity to record in mono and have the one channel be mirrored to the other..
 
Walter R said:
I have 67TB of network attached storage that I store my music and videos on. It’s all backed up, twice.
Click to expand...

yes, but if you need to transfer the data to a laptop, or even to a new location it makes the process easier. Maybe you want to listen to some music at a friends... Its quite easy to pull an external drive than it is to have to upload to one. It removes a step...

The amount of storage has nothing to do with it, its the ability to pull a drive and copy to another machine, rather than copy to another drive than transfer.
 
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Alobar said:
My guess is that the record was pressed for a stereo cartridge but they only choose to record one side. Might be a way to within Audacity to record in mono and have the one channel be mirrored to the other..
Click to expand...
If only one channel has audio, you can either just use a y cable and feed the good side into both channels, or you can just record in stereo as you normally do and select either channel to be mirrored. Not related, but if you are doing a normal mono recording, you can sum the channels together with a y cable or the software, it can reduce noise. And, you can also save as a mono file if you want to, and it will play back through both channels equally. I'm not sure if it is true or not, but I have heard that saving a recording as a mono file will allow you to use half the bitrate of a stereo file and get the same quality.
 
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