Ripping Vinyl to 24bit 96khz Flac

[psymonpsyko]

Dear Audioholics

My current setup is:
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Pci-E
Sony STR-DN 1000 AV Receiver connected vis Toslink
Eltax Linear Response B.6 5.1 Surround with a Wharfedale SW-150 Subwoofer
Windows 7 Ultimate


My mother has a collection of old vinyls that I would like to convert into digital 24bit format and was wondering if anyone could give me advice on what turntables and methods needed to rip them onto my pc.

In the past this Sound Card has been a little weird having to connect my microphone to my on board sound mic-jack as the creative drivers do not seem to pick it up when i connect it to the Sound Blaster Flexi-Jack. If anyone could help me with a mini-tutorial / guide of what i need to get and to do that would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Psy.

 

[MDS]

The Flexi-Jack can be configured for mic or line-in. It's probably set to line-in and is why the mic isn't recognized.

You can record directly to the hard disk using an audio editor like Sound Forge or Audacity. You need to configure the flexi-jack for line-in and connect the turntable to it (if it has a built-in phono pre-amp).

If the turntable does not have a built-in phono pre-amp you need an external phono-preamp or can connect it to the receiver if the receiver has a phono input.

Set the recording device to the x-fi and start recording in the audio editor. The result will be a wave file which you can then convert to any format you want. I would recommend recording the whole LP as one file and then go in afterwards and separate it into individual tracks.

 

[cpp]

Here is a few sites that might get you started

how to rip vinyl - Pastebin.com

Ripping Vinyl to FLAC

FileShareFreak

 

[jinjuku]

If you can score a EMU 1616M it has a phono-preamp built in. Also you can record at 24/192 which will allow for much better de-pop and de-hiss removal since you will have a much more granular waveform to edit.

 

[psymonpsyko]

The flexijack line/in / microphone setting has never worked properly, from what ive heard from a few friends these cards just have that problem, I have found a power amplifier downstairs though that has REC In and is all phono so that should be ok, its all Linear PCM instead of SP/DIF so hopefully will work.

The turntable my father has is from the 70's and it doesnt have a built in amp so i shall try that method and get back to you.

Cheers for the advice so far.

 

[psymonpsyko]

(In case my dads old turntable sucks) What would be the best turntable to get to rip directly into 24bit FLAC?

 

[TLS Guy]

(In case my dads old turntable sucks) What would be the best turntable to get to rip directly into 24bit FLAC?

You absolutely do not need to use that much space, as the loss less CD 16/44 is quite sufficient to archive LPs. CDs exceed the dynamic range of any LP except a dbx encoded one. The bass of CD is lower and the only area exceeded by LP is HF, but the CD goes out to 20 kHz. Unless you want to spend an awful lot of money, an LP cartridge will roll off before 20 kHz. The ones that can exceed 20 kHz, run into mechanical resonance issues above 20 kHz and it a good job we can't hear it.

It is nonsense that LP is superior to CD. The only reason this comes about, is that the long haired louts that master most pop and rock CDs don't know how, or are ordered to do it wrong.

In the classical wold, where engineering has been almost universally superb, it is quite evident that CD is a superior format to LP.

What is your Dad's old turntable.

 

[psymonpsyko]

I don't know the exact name but its either a wharfedale or a nakamichi (he had a nakamichi cassette tape deck so possibly)

The music ill be ripping is all drum and bass so 2 or 4 song 12" records.

 

[TLS Guy]

I don't know the exact name but its either a wharfedale or a nakamichi (he had a nakamichi cassette tape deck so possibly)

The music ill be ripping is all drum and bass so 2 or 4 song 12" records.

Wharfedale never made a turntable and I have never heard of or seen a NAK turntable.

Before we go any further we need to know what the turntable is and the cartridge.

 

[psymonpsyko]

Wharfedale never made a turntable and I have never heard of or seen a NAK turntable.

Before we go any further we need to know what the turntable is and the cartridge.

I'll get back to you this evening with the name of it.

 

[psymonpsyko]

Ok Turntable is an
Ariston RD80
Lin Basik OV-x Forearm
Goldring V1000 1012GX Cartridge.

 

[psymonpsyko]

Ok I have been given a Pro-Ject Debut III for my birthday (the turntable i mentioned above Im still pushing my dad to let me borrow it)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CDHQK2/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

It comes with an Ortofon OMB 5E cartridge and was wondering whether it is good enough for doing the high quality 24bit/96khz rips I plan to do or should I buy a different one as a replacement?

 

[TLS Guy]

Ok I have been given a Pro-Ject Debut III for my birthday (the turntable i mentioned above Im still pushing my dad to let me borrow it)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CDHQK2/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

It comes with an Ortofon OMB 5E cartridge and was wondering whether it is good enough for doing the high quality 24bit/96khz rips I plan to do or should I buy a different one as a replacement?

You absolutely do not need to archive LPs at 24/96. It is a total waste of space! All the higher bit rates give you is wider dynamic range. The frequency response will not be extended. The CD 16/44 has more than enough dynamic range for any LP ever pressed, and the some. Any LP will only use a fraction of the dynamic range of a 24/96. LP has bout 70 t0 75 db dynamic range, CD around 98db, and 24/96 around 135 db. Anybody who tells you to archive LPs at 24/96 is a fool and idiot and has limited or no understanding of the principles involved.

That is a good starter turntable and cartridge. Now you need a phono preamp and a DAC, plus computer and drives.

 

[psymonpsyko]

You absolutely do not need to archive LPs at 24/96. It is a total waste of space! All the higher bit rates give you is wider dynamic range. The frequency response will not be extended. The CD 16/44 has more than enough dynamic range for any LP ever pressed, and the some. Any LP will only use a fraction of the dynamic range of a 24/96. LP has bout 70 t0 75 db dynamic range, CD around 98db, and 24/96 around 135 db. Anybody who tells you to archive LPs at 24/96 is a fool and idiot and has limited or no understanding of the principles involved.

That is a good starter turntable and cartridge. Now you need a phono preamp and a DAC, plus computer and drives.

The DAC im using is my Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium in Audio Creation Mode.
the amplifier i have is a LaSonic AU-X550 which i changed the capacitors on to some Panasonic ones (can't remember the model name for the life of me)

Luckily my mate has a Funktion One sound system (he runs a night club) so I can test my rips there

On the upside I have my test records:
New

and Old

 

[RiboTone]

hmmm -

cd quality might be adequate to ARCHIVE vinyl...
but why not try both archiving rates on 1 song, listen side by side, and decide then?

just a thought!

 

[TLS Guy]

hmmm -

cd quality might be adequate to ARCHIVE vinyl...
but why not try both archiving rates on 1 song, listen side by side, and decide then?

just a thought!

Never mind about listening, you can convince yourself of anything you want.

Now the facts again. 16/44 has greater dynamic range than LP, lower distortion by far and frequency response on the upper end to the limit of hearing and a deeper bass response than LP.

So the onus is on you to explain how 16/44 will come up short when digitally archiving an LP.

I don't want subjective platitudes from you but science.

 

[mtrycrafts]

hmmm -

cd quality might be adequate to ARCHIVE vinyl...
but why not try both archiving rates on 1 song, listen side by side, and decide then?

just a thought!

I doubt most would not have the capability to do such a comparison unbiased and have the statistical strength to be of value.
Anything less, is just wishfull dreamsing.

 

[psymonpsyko]

So this is what I got from my first rip:

There is minor wobble when running through DJ Software just to check BPM, about 0.05 - 0.10 Bpm change per minute or so, and yeah i recorded at the 24 bit / 96 Khz through my sound card then mixed down to 16 bit / 44.1 Khz for CD playback.

 

[Grador]

i recorded at the 24 bit / 96 Khz through my sound card then mixed down to 16 bit / 44.1 Khz for CD playback.

I have a feeling you probably know this, but just to be sure: Downsampling [or upsampling for that matter] usually results in quality loss.

 

[psymonpsyko]

I have a feeling you probably know this, but just to be sure: Downsampling [or upsampling for that matter] usually results in quality loss.

Playing back it's sounding pretty damn good, either the DAC on this Sound Blaster does the job, or my cartridge on my turntable hasn't picked up enough information.

New LP's ive been recording have sounded fantastic but some of the older ones from the 70's or 80's (whilst in pretty good condition mind) have a lot of crackling, gonna give them a once over with some anti-static spray and a microfibre cloth but if no improvement ill take them to this shop that has a cleaning machine.

Next step mind is to upgrade the cartridge any ways, this one doesn't pick the bass up well enough for the records i rip.