Lately I've transferred a few vinyl albums to CD, using my PC and of course some software. This all got hashed over in the last music conference (I should link the item, come to think of it. It's still mostly relevant!) Anyway, in the last couple of months I've had conversions with a couple of people from the "vinyl era" (I'm from the tail end) who are just now realizing that they could burn their precious/rare vinyl to CD using a commodity PC, if only they knew how. I sense a big trend coming here.17 responses total.
((Um, I already linked that as item:7 in music3, so you should retire item:20 which is a duplicate link.))
There it is, across the living room. The new PC totally capable of turning vinyl/tapes or audio sources into CDs. I don't see where I do it, though.
Would I do it, even if I had the equipment right across the living room? Probably not, or not very much of it. The fact is, for as long as I've owned LPs I've had the much simpler & easier to use technology to turn them into reasonably durable and highly portable cassette tapes, and I've never done much of that either.
I didn't want to turn my LPs into tape because of the linear inaccessability. With CDs I can play one tune over and over again, just like I used to, or skip tracks I don't like, just like I used to. Tape technology wasn't as easy. So now I'm ready to turn my LPs into CDs. Many of them I've already found at Borders, but quite a few are limited editions made by favorite folk bands that never were distributed much beyond concert sales directly to me. So direct me to the PC!
Tape wasn't that much less easy, and I'm not one to play one track over and over like that. What tapes and CDs can do, but LPs can't, is get played in a car and on a Walkman. That's a significant enough shared plus over LPs, and tapes are not _that_ much harder to use, that if I'd do the CD-burning route I'd have done the tape-dubbing one.
Somebody used to make a "portable" turntable, which basically looked like a big plastic clamp over part of the record. Can't really imagine taking my LPs to the beach, though. ;) What CDs can do that tapes can't is be copied again and again without generation loss. Also, in the case of out-of-print LPs it's a nice way to archive the stuff for future generations.
Perhaps somebody who's done recording under Windows could post what software they like? I've been using Linux; my recorder is yarec, my subsonic filter is done in ecasound, and I use snd for editing. I've heard of people using Cool Edit Pro for recording and liking it.
Scott 6: For the purpose at hand, which is copying an LP on something you can play portably, CDs lack of generation loss isn't that significant. Unless you're concerned about sound quality, and a generation of people who listen to MP3s certainly aren't. Alas, CDs are not an archival medium. In a few decades, your CDs will decay and become unplayable. As for storing the data in a computer file, the history of storing computer files gives very little hope that "future generations" will be able to make any use of it. By far the best archival medium for storing sound developed to date is an LP in a vault at a cool temperature.
Yeah, but who cares if CD-Rs go bad? If I can do a clean copy every 5-10 years then I don't really have to worry about losing the data. Especially if I'm not the only one preserving a copy of that album. :) Also, doing CDs has basically become easier than doing tapes (doesn't help that both of my cassette decks are dying...), especially when it comes to more than one copy.
I need to digress here and ask about going (digitally) from minidisc to CD. Leslie has 8 minidiscs of concert performances from her summer music program in the Czech Republic, and she's offered to distribute copies to some of her colleagues. So the first step is to get the minidisc tracks into the PC. We are assuming that our laptop soundcard is such that we don't want to go through an analog stage, but would prefer somehow to go digital out from the minidisc and then convert the files on the PC to the CD format.
Hmmm... well, I've done a few MD to CD transfers, all through the analog audio input of a sound card. Still really good sound. I think the standard is some kind of optical digital signal which the higher-end Soundblaster cards have, but you'd have to buy a deck MD player to get the same output.
My portable MD does not have optical out. It does have optical in, and can handle digital dub from DAT to MD, including transfering the index marks). My deck MD does not have an optical out, either. After editing down the music on the MD, it would be nice to just be able to transfer the tracks as individual tracks.
Scott 9: What are you going to make your clean copy of a CD-R _from_? I thought the whole point of transferring your LPs was not to have to worry about your LPs any more. And your turntable, which (I've learned to my cost) will freeze up and go bad if not used regularly. And you said that part of the advantage of electronic storage was to preserve the music for future generations. So yeah, you should care if your CD-Rs go bad.
I make the cleanest copy I can get from the LP. Sorta like the way I used to buy an LP, then make a tape to actually listen to. Most of my vinyl is still in really good shape, but it's a pain in the ass to actually put them on the turntable. Well, compared to throwing a CD in and not having to flip it over halfway through.
Right, but if the CD decays, then you have to do that "pain in the ass" stuff all over again.
Not really. I just have to remember to burn a copy of the CD every few years, which is why I write the "date burned" on each one I do.
A discussion of vinyl-to-CD conversions has come up on the SEMiSLUG mailing list.
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