converting vinyl to mp3?

If like me you are tech challenged,try the ADS TECH Instant music,its just a box and you plug one end into your stereo and the other into your computer,comes with all the leads and software.I got mine off QVC but they have them at Amazon,bit more expensive (£32) but theres no hassle setting up,and it works great.




Dave

I got one of these yesterday!  They have them in PC World for £19.99 at the moment (in a sale... dont know how long it's on for...).

Really! That's something to look into!! Thanks for the FYI!!

I got one of these yesterday!  They have them in PC World for £19.99 at the moment (in a sale... dont know how long it's on for...).

Thats a really good price,think I paid about £25,only thing you have to watch is PC world are really mean with leads.A tip here if you're not a purist,our stereo is in the living room and the PC was in the spare bedroom at the time,so I recorded the vinyl onto cassette then played it through a portable cassette player onto the PC using the headphone socket to the box then box to mic socket on the PC,sounds fine to me.
Dave

Yeah, the leads are nowhere near long enough... i was thinking about getting some extension leads, but i might try your suggestion first, Dave.

Yeah, the leads are nowhere near long enough... i was thinking about getting some extension leads, but i might try your suggestion first, Dave.

One minor point thats a bit difficult to explain,if you use the proper leads and connections then you can hear the tracks as they are recording,if you use my method you cant,not impotant to me because I put all the tracks I wanted onto the tape,but if you want to pick out certain tracks it could be awkward.

Dave

Thanks for this!  Now I know what I'm doing this summer while I'm in Canada.  We have several boxes of LPs in my parents basement. DH would love that. 

I recorded the vinyl onto cassette then played it through a portable cassette player onto the PC using the headphone socket to the box then box to mic socket on the PC,sounds fine to me.

Do you really mean the microphone jack?    The mic input is designed to take the very low-level signal (just a few millivolts) from a moving-coil or condenser microphone.    If you try to use that with line-level or headphone outputs it will be much more difficult to adjust the output  to a sufficiently low level to avoid distortion due to overloading the input.  If you're coupling directly into a PC's sound card, you want to use the "line" or "aux" input.

One minor point thats a bit difficult to explain,if you use the proper leads and connections then you can hear the tracks as they are recording,if you use my method you cant,not impotant to me because I put all the tracks I wanted onto the tape,but if you want to pick out certain tracks it could be awkward.

If you're feeding into your PC's sound card, you should be able to monitor the signal via your PC's speakers.  If using something like the box linked to above, you could still use a Y-adapter so that you can feed the signal to the box and your headphones simultaneously.

Do you really mean the microphone jack?

Yep,I had to check with the bride as its been a while and my short term memory is pathetic,the bride agrees thats what we did and it worked fine.We're also pretty certain that the program that comes with the box,actually shows that you are inputting through the mic socket.

Dave

Maybe the supplied connection lead incorporates attenuation or something then.  It seems a strange way to go about it, but it would work. 

I'm going to earmark this thread. We will be carting a few boxes of vinyls with us when we move. While we're here, has anyone bought an LP player lately? Are they still easy to find?

There is also a new record player that will convert to digital....

I just can't remember where I saw the dang thing....

It's called:    

ION ITT USB TURNTABLE WITH USB OUTPUT

Just Google it!

ION ITT USB TURNTABLE WITH USB OUTPUT

Try http://www.djstore.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.pl?item=ionittusb&t=d

To be honest though, I'm not impressed.  There's been something of a jump-on-the-bandwagon approach to the renewed interest in old records in recent years, and I've yet to see any of these latest domestic "Revive your old vinyl!" type decks in which the turntable isn't the cheapest plastic garbage they can get away with.     

Some specific points I noticed from that page:

1.  The instructions given in the manual for setting the bias compensation (what they call "anti-skate" control) are complete nonsense.  Although if the quality of the deck is as poor as I suspect, it probably makes little difference.

2.  There is mention of being able to transfer 78 r.p.m. records by playing at 33-1/3 or 45 and then adjusting in software, but they don't seem to say anything about the fact that you need to use a different stylus for 78s.   LPs and 45s use a much smaller groove than the old 78s (in fact it was called "microgroove" when LPs first appeared to distinguish it).  An LP/45 stylus needs to be around 0.5 to 1 mil radius (and toward the lower end of that for stereo records).  A 78 stylus is typically 2.5 to 3 mils.

3.  I notice that one of the reviewers comments about the poor bass response, That could be due to limitations of his other equipment of course, but I've noticed a similar problem on a unit that a friend acquired (before I had the chance to warn him off!).   I do wonder whether the manufacturers of these things understand about proper frequency compensation for cartridges anymore. 

So overall, I can't say that what I can see/read of that particular unit inspires me with confidence.