USB Turntable recording quality Not Great. Help

Audacity Help Forum Windows
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Hello all,

firstly I apologise if i sound dumb. I’m fairly intelligent…but not with computers. I recently purchased an Ion USB turntable to rip my vinyl but the quality isn’t great. Every single time (and here’s where my knowledge really shows) it ‘bottoms out’. As I know this jargon will be too much for most, I’ve attached an image. Nothing I do seems to correct it. Any ideas on how to correct this? Cheers
audacity.png

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:open_mouth: WOW! …I’d call that an asymmetrical waveform. I think there’s something wrong with the turntable! I’m thinking it’s an electro-mechanical problem with the cartridge/stylus… I don’t think it’s an electronic or digital problem.

What model is it? If there’s a stylus-force setting, maybe the stylus force is heavy and the stylus is actually “bottoming-out” so it’s not moving freely in both directions, or so the magnet & coil are off-center and not putting-out equal signal in both directions.

How bad does it sound? Is it too late to return the thing? [u]Knowzy.com[/u] has lots of USB turntable reviews and recommendations.

With a 20-30Hz high-pass filter you could probably make the waveform look a little better and if you can get the waveform more-centered you could get a little more volume. But, that won’t improve the sound.


BTW - We usually say “rip” when digitally copying the data from a CD. With analog records or tapes, we usually say “digitize” or simply “record”.


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Off topic - [u]This page[/u] has software recommendations for cleaning-up vinyl “snap”, “crackle”, and “pop”. (You can try Audacity’s Click Removal effect first.) I use a program called Wave Repair ($30 USD) by the author of that page. In the manual mode it only “touches” the audio where you identif a defect and it does an audibly perfect job on most defects. But, it usually takes me a full-weekend to clean-up a digitized record and I’m going to try something more automated whenever I do this again. There are a couple of highly-recommend automatic de-clickers in the same price range as Wave Repair.

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Hello, thanks for the reply and the correction of my dodgy jargon!

The turntable is an Ion Audio Max LP. I got it on Amazon;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ion-Max-LP-Conversion-Turntable/dp/B00COC61LO

I may return it, they’re pretty good with returns

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Question: do you already have a decent record deck? If so why not use that and buy yourself an external USB souncard.

If you have a preamp already that takes phon inputs you only need a ESB soundcard like the Behrimger UCA-202 - if you don’t then Behringer do the UFO-202 which is an integrated phono pre-amp and USB soundcard - or there is the ARTcessories USB Phono Plus http://artproaudio.com/artcessories/turntable_preamps/product/usb_phono_plus-ps/

When I converted my vinyl I started out with an ION ITT-USB deck but soon junked at as it gave far too much noticeable wow&flutter. Instead I bought a USB soundcard (Edirol UA-1EX no longer available) and plumbed that to my existinh Technics deck with SME arm through my wife’s old Technics pre-amp. Whe the Technics pre-am quietly I died I went out and bought the ART cessories DJ-Pre11 phon preamp an excellent pice of jit (and one half of the integrated USB Phono Plus.

WC

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The turntable is an Ion Audio Max LP.

I don’t see a Knowzy review for that one. It is on the low-price end. But it sure LOOKS attractive!