For years now i have been digitising my vinyl ocllection to my pc.
I have not yet been 100% satisfied with the way the sound comes out…
I don’t know if the vinyls are a bad press…
I’ve often wondered if the soundcard would matter but people have said not…
What i mean by that is, would the soundcard make a diffference to the recording itself?
Anyway for 2 years i have been using a Belt driven Numark TT-USB with a Concrode Elektro Ortofon Stylus going direct into my USB.
One of my old mates ripped his collection also and he had some tunes i also had.
His rips of them sounded a lot better! It’s hard to explain but mine sounded like more of an ‘outdoor’ kind of sound… too trebly… Not very much bass in them.
I asked him if he had adjusted anything and he said no, all my levels were set to ‘0’ as he was using an Ecler Nuo II mixer and a Technics MK5 Turntable.
Unfortunately that mate now lives 10,000 miles away (in the UK)…
I’m getting really fussy now and want the best in my rips. I just dont know what i’m doing wrong…
I am stuck because i don’t know if it’s an issue with my turntable, whether usb turntables are not the thing to use?, or even belt driven ones? Or even a completely different problem…
Would the earthing affect it at all?
He also told me he was using Monster RCA cables.
I have got my eye on a technics but i dont wanna wanna be spending up to 2 grand on equipment which MIGHT solve the problem…
That depends on how you are getting the sound into the computer. If you use a USB turntable then the sound card makes no difference at all, but if you use an ordinary (non-USB) turntable and feed the output into a sound card via a phono pre-amp then the sound card (and pre-amp, and stylus, and cartridge…) make a very big difference.
Clean, good quality vinyl obviously also makes a big difference.
No need to spend 2 grands its a simple issue. Records are made with a certain EQ curve to cut bass and boost treble to allow more music fit on each side. When the music is played back, it is EQ’d to reverse this, so the sound comes out as recorded. A stereo amplifier’s phono jack has this EQ built into a special pre-amp to correct the EQ curve, while the other inputs (CD/DVD, Aux, etc) don’t have this.
Two things you can do:
Using your already imported music, select it, and at the top select “Effect”, and down the menu select “Equalization”. A box comes up with a number of selections available. Click the 3rd one down on the left called “RIAA”, and the hit the button “Load Pre-defined curve”. You music should sound right now.
A second thing is if your amp has a “tape out” feature, is play the album you want to record and hook up the “tape out” to your computer. Since the phono input on the amplifier accounts for the RIAA curve, it will come out sounding right.
Also, if you even come back to read this, I suggest, if your hardware (sound card) allows it, to record the albums at 24 bit/ 96hkz, or better yet 192hkz and burn them to DVDs. They will sound glorious and blow your cds out of the water, which are recorded at a much inferior quality of 16 bit/ 44.1 khz.
MarbleGarden:
Read the OP’s post again. He’s using a USB turntable, which has a built-in RIAA-equalized pre-amp, A/D converter and USB interface. His problem is not the lack of RIAA equalization.
It may be a poor-quality pre-amp in the turntable, or a poor-quality A/D converter. Or something else entirely.
To MartyK:
Don’t waste your money on Monster cables.
“People say” that USB turntables are to be avoided if you want the best possible transfer of vinyl to digital. I don’t know this from personal experience.
No need to buy a new Technics 1200 and DJ mixer. Look around for a good used audiophile turntable, with a good cartridge, and then find a good used pre-amp or receiver. Ask your audiophile friends. Belt drive is fine (as long as you can get a replacement belt). Cheap plastic platters are bad. No-name cartridges are bad.
I’ve been working on the same project, and I’m using a Thorens TD-160 with a Stanton 681EE cartridge through a Dynaco PAT-4 pre-amp straight into my Mac’s sound input. Sounds fine to me.
<<<I’ve been working on the same project, and I’m using a Thorens TD-160 with a Stanton 681EE cartridge through a Dynaco PAT-4 pre-amp straight into my Mac’s sound input. Sounds fine to me.>>>
Empire belt drive turntable, Shure SME arm (the one with the ropes), Grado Gold, Hafler DH101 into the Line-In on any one of three Macs.
I think I have all of the modification and upgrade documents for a PAT5. How old is the PAT4? You can use scientific notation if you run out of numbers.
Technics SL2100 DD/SME arm rescued from the attic and treated to a new cartridge and a home service => ART DJPRE-II phono preamp => Edirol UA-1EX USB soundcard => PC - also great sound (and nowhere near 2 grand outlay).
I do have personal experience of USB TTs - I started out with an ION ITT-USB and junked it, as the lightweight plastic platter gave me far too much wow and flutter. The platter alone on my Technics is heavier than the whole ION kit! The electronics seemed good though. However, I had to start the project over again …
Koz:
The PAT-4 was purchased in 1974. The front panel switches wore out (intermittent in any position), but soldering across the terminals cured that. Treatment of the input switch with DeOxit-D5 plus cleaning the input RCAs and it sounds fine again. Not sure if I’m up to modding it to PAT-5 status, but thanks for the offer.
MartyK:
Are you still there? Any comments or progress to report?
I use a Stanton STR8-80 turntable with Stanton 520 catridge.
I had it connected to a 2-channel mixer (Numark DM-1001X) then running through my sound processor components (compressor > EQ > Expander), then feeding it to my PC running Audacity in XP SP3. Sounds pretty good.
What I’m not sure about is the Normalize feature in the Effects Menu (still working on that).
I also have Audacity in another machine running Ubuntu 8.04. My DJ mixes will be fed to that machine.
<<<His rips of them sounded a lot better! It’s hard to explain but mine sounded like more of an ‘outdoor’ kind of sound… too trebly… Not very much bass in them.<<<
If you’re still there, can you post a short chunk of sound you think has bad or weak bass? You can’t do it on the forum, but there are free posting services out there.
Don’t convert it to MP3. We’ll get the best clues if we have the original capture WAV file. Don’t try to send an Audacity Project.
