[NA]Tech help...and age admission[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
20,264
Location
west Texas
Display Name

Display name:
Dave Taylor
I have a bunch of "records" (large flat vinyl discs that old people used to listen to music with) that I want to 'digitize'. Is there software available for this? (freeware? ;)) I have a cord that will plug into both my turntable and my computer. Now what?
Surely WMP doesn't understand what to do with the signal??
 
I have a bunch of "records" (large flat vinyl discs that old people used to listen to music with) that I want to 'digitize'. Is there software available for this? (freeware? ;)) I have a cord that will plug into both my turntable and my computer. Now what?
Surely WMP doesn't understand what to do with the signal??

I thought we had this question before but I can't find the thread.

The port on your PC won't won't work because the signals levels are mismatched. Get a Griffin iMic for around $29 on the street:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/

It comes with the cable. The Final Vinyl Software it comes with is for the Mac. For Windows you could could use the free Audacity digital editor:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
 
I have a friend who has transferred a great many records to the computer, with great success. He used software from M$, which he got for free (his brother is a big cheese there), but which I believe to be very inexpensive.

It not only records the records, but it clean sup the record noise (rumbles and pops), and automatically recognizes most inter-song silences and creates separate tracks for each song.

I'll ask im about name, source, etc.

You can be the guinea pig, because I mus do the same thing!
 
Yeah, I was planning to do that one of these days too. Unfortunately, it will take a LONG time! Think about 100 albums, about 1 hour long, and needing to be flipped half-way through. When I could be flying! (Or Posting! :))
 
Hey....What is a "record"?...:rofl:

OK, kid. :D A typical one (and I've got a bunch) is about 12 inches in diameter, made of vinyl. There is a single groove carved into it that spirals towards the center. The walls of the groove cause an electrical signal in a (typically) magnetic cartridge to be created when a needle connected to the cartridge rides in the groove as the record is rotated under it. 33 1/3 rpm for typical records. 45 rpm for small ones that have a single song per side. Not quite the s/n ratio of a CD-ROM, but they work. :p

Yeah, I'm old. My kids keep telling me the same thing (and my son is 30!).
 
You should have heard me trying to explain to my 17 year nephew about 8 track tapes not long ago. He just looked at me like I just walked out of the stone ages. Records he's heard of... he thought I was kidding about 8 track tapes. :no:
 
OK, kid. :D A typical one (and I've got a bunch) is about 12 inches in diameter, made of vinyl.

12 inches? Vinyl?

I think the correct terms are 10" and lacquer.....
 
And the correct speed is 78RPM, though, of course, it varies with the label, since there was no real standard.

Got a few of those lying around, too. Single sided, too. :D Nothing to play them on, however. My turntable just does 45 and 33 1/3.
 
Got a few of those lying around, too. Single sided, too. :D Nothing to play them on, however. My turntable just does 45 and 33 1/3.

FWIW, if you transfer them to digital using 45 RPM, they result can be resampled using software to restore the original frequencies. Might be worth the effort to do this before there aren't any working turntables at all.
 
Back
Top