Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

How to: convert your vinyl to digital

A reader asked about digitizing his phonograph collection

A reader asked about re-recording his phonograph collection in digital form

You can digitize your analog music collection in a number of ways, but however you do it, it's a hassle. And it always results in disappointing sound quality.

That's why I prefer to buy the music again in digital form, either as easy-to-rip CDs (a bargain if you can find them used) or as downloads. If you go the download route, I strongly recommend you buy from a site that sells unprotected .mp3s, such as Amazon and Napster. That way, there's never a question about your right to play what you bought.

About audio quality: Many people prefer the sound of LPs to digital, but that's irrelevant here. By the time you've digitized the audio, it's no longer an LP; it is digital. And an analog-to-digital transfer done from an LP in your home is almost certainly inferior to one done from the master tape in a studio.

If you have a large vinyl collection (Dr. Hutterer estimates that he owns more than 2500 discs), purchasing them all over again would be prohibitively expensive. On the other hand, transferring them all is prohibitively time-consuming. Not only do you have to set up and play each side, but you have to enter all the information (album title, artist, genre, song title, and so on) that's already there when you download music and automatically added when you rip a CD. So it becomes a matter of what's more valuable; your money or your time.

Of course, if you have any songs that are currently out of print, transferring them may be your only option.

The easiest way to transfer songs is with a USB turntable. You just set up the turntable, plug it into your computer, install the bundled software, and you're ready to rip.

With caveats, of course.

For this article, I looked at the Ion Profile LP Vinyl Conversion Turntable. It's simple, plays 33s and 45s (but not 78s), and at US$100 list, is reasonably priced. I had no trouble setting up the hardware.

The Profile LP comes with two programs on a CD, but Ion Audio recommends you download more up-to-date versions.

The simplest of the programs, by a long shot, is MixMeister's EZ Vinyl/Tape Converter. Once you've bought the turntable, you can download the current version from Ion Audio's Web site].

This program is as close to start-it-and-rip as any analog-recording software I've tried. But with that simplicity comes problems. For instance, it guesses where the tracks begin and end, but if it guesses wrong (which happened to me on one side out of five LPs), there's no way to fix it.

EZ digitizes your music, then uses iTunes to convert it to 160kbps .mp3s. That means if you don't already have iTunes, you have to install it--bad news if you're one of those people who really hates iTunes.

Another iTunes issue: EZ works better if you launch iTunes first.

The other program is the free, open-source Audacity. This is a much more versatile and powerful program. But it also comes with a very steep learning curve.

Add your comments to this article below. If you have other tech questions, email them to me at answer@pcworld.com, or post them to a community of helpful folks on the PCW Answer Line forum.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Amazon, Napster
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: audio, consumer electronics, music files
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Government Communications 2.0
    The problem with data is that it’s only useful if you share and use it. Equally, the more data we share electronically, the greater the risk of it falling into the wrong hands. Public sector organisations can’t function without legitimately gathering and using personal information about the citizens they are mandated to serve. Technology has made a significant contribution to that process, but has also brought new risks. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • No Bull - What Customers Should Expect from Cloud Services
    This paper describes how a cloud Services User achieves the true benefits of cloud services and sends warning messages to the providers, hosting companies and telecommunications firms. It also provides clues on how a customer can gain better value from services offered by the new cloud companies and Hosting businesses.
    Learn more »
  • How will CIOs meet growing Security Threats?
    The growing complexity and prevalence of security threats, enabled by consumer IT and mobility, sets the stage for ever more sophisticated attacks. Security must be proactively front and center in all IT deliverables, but CIOs and CSOs must work in concert to succeed in these efforts. In this interactive white paper from CIO Magazine and EMC, learn how tightening the relationship between CIOs and CSOs will help create trust, the foundation of business relationships today. Embedded videos feature Art Coviello, Sanjay Mirchandani, and Dave Martin, and a quick survey provides benchmarking between CIO peers.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments