How to digitise your vinyl – Tone’s 6-step programme!

Gary Pearce can feel your pain. He knows what it’s like to have stacks of lovely old vinyl waiting patiently for conversion to the digital realm. So do you. That’s why we asked him to put together this easy guide.

Perhaps you’ve got an old turntable that’s fallen out of regular use. Or maybe you’ve bitten the bullet, gone retro and purchased a new record player. Whatever the situation, chances are you’ll want to preserve your precious vinyl from bumps and bruises, minimise wear and tear and allow your music to go mobile. Which, of course, means converting from that lovely old analogue source to a digital file.

Quite clearly, the vinyl record was never designed as a portable medium (although Sharp’s VZ2500H ghetto blaster had a record player built in back in the early 1980s). But if you’ve gone to the trouble of buying or retaining a load of LPs, instead of buying the CD or purchasing downloads, why not take the time to preserve the magic in digital form?

A computer’s USB input is limited to CD quality 16-bit/44.1 or 48 kHz, so and LP’s 24/96 resolution is unobtainable. However, the crackles, pops and surface noise that make vinyl such an audio aphrodisiac will still be captured for posterity.

There are a growing number of devices on the market designed specifically for importing analogue audio signals into a computer. These vary in sophistication and price, but for this article I’ll be using the Pro-ject Phonobox USB.
The Phonobox USB is a quality MM/MC outboard phono stage with a mini USB connection and full RIAA equalisation – the industry-acknowledged standard for the reproduction of vinyl records. No software ships with the Pro-ject, but there are plenty of freeware programs available over the internet to allow easy transfer and processing of analogue source music.

One such program is Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net), a fully featured audio recording and editing program that seems almost too comprehensive to be offered for nix. Not only can you record with Audacity, it’s also possible to change pitch, speed, and tempo and add effects if you so desire.

What you’ll need

You don’t need a lot of gear to do the job. In fact, once you’ve downloaded the software, you can do it all with just three basic pieces of equipment:
1) a computer with USB inputs
2) a mini-USB to USB cable
3) a turntable.
Make sure the USB to USB cable is of reasonable length if you’re using a desktop PC or Mac, and ensure that your turntable is level and has been adjusted properly for anti-skate and has a nice clean stylus.

That’s all you need, and you’ll be able to monitor progress of the recording using the built-in soundcard on your computer.

The basics

First connect the RCA output cable from your turntable into the corresponding input on the Phonobox USB; you’ll also have to connect the ‘ground’ cable from your turntable to the Phonobox. This is important because static discharge can build up on the cartridge/arm can create ground loop hum at the least, or, at worst, possibly cause damage to sensitive phono cartridges. Connecting the ground will also reduce the amount of radio frequency interference from neighbouring equipment or TV and radio broadcasts.

Because the Phonobox USB is switchable between moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) cartridges, ensure the button on the rear panel of the Pro-ject is in the appropriate position. Moving magnet cartridges played on the MC setting will be distorted and unlistenable, while MC cartridges played on the MM setting will be quiet to the point of being inaudible. It’s important to get it right. Luckily, Pro-ject has made it a piece of cake with a simple push-button on or off.

Once connected, it’s time to get cracking and record those tunes.

Step 1: Setup

Before recording it’s important to set the playback and recording device preferences within Audacity, and these must match the output of the Phonobox USB. Fortunately, Windows and Mac OS are easy to set up. Your PC or Mac should automatically recognise the Phonobox USB and install it on your desktop – it’s then up to you to instruct your PC what to do with it.

In general, you’ll have to select your built-in or third-party sound card as the sound playback device, and choose ‘USB Audio Codec’ as the recorder (under Windows XP, for example).

With this important step completed, you’re ready to set up Audacity.

Step 2: More setup

To begin, start the program and open the audio I/O tab under Audacity preferences – select ‘USB Audio Codec’ as the recording device and select your sound card as the playback device. If you want to monitor the recording through your computer speakers, select ‘software playthrough’, and set the recording channels to ’2′ for stereo (’1′ for mono recordings). USB devices such as USB turntables and USB phono stages present a fixed recording level into Audacity; however, you’ll be able to raise the volume level while listening by using the left-hand input slider from the main toolbar.

Step 3: Create a new Project/Selecting recording format

You’ll need to create a new recording project by clicking ‘File-Save Project As’, and then you’ll need to select the format Audacity will write the recorded data as. It is possible to record at higher frequencies (24/96kHz), but audio CDs are recorded at 16/44.1khz; make sure your recording quality setting reflects the settings on the device you’ll be using to play back your. Uncompressed formats such as WAV and AIFF will preserve the data without losing any ‘bits’, and of these AIFF is the format used on audio CDs and as such represents the most commonly used and practical format. Once your recording is made you’ll then be able to export it as either OGG or MP3, but these compressed formats do not offer the higher fidelity of WAV and AIFF.

Step 4: Start recording

And that’s basically it – carefully select your vinyl album of choice (don’t forget to make sure it’s clean and free from warps or accumulated dust), place it carefully onto your turntable and start the motor running. Be sure to select the correct speed, and once satisfied lower the tonearm/cartridge onto the lead-in groove and then press the red ‘Record’ button in Audacity to start your recording.

Step 5: Splitting the recording into different tracks

Unless you’re recording 45rpm singles, you’ll need to split the recorded album into different tracks. To do this you’ll be using the waveform screen under the main Audacity menu. Simply click in the recorded audio track at the beginning of your recording, and then click ‘Project-Add Label At Selection’; that will create a single track consisting of the entire album. Then move the cursor to the point where the second album track starts, which you’ll be able to identify by the waveform in Audacity, and repeat the process. Continue until you’ve split the recording into all the tracks. You’ll also be able to name the freshly split recording if you like – very handy when it comes to exporting to iTunes or converting to MP3, for instance.

Step 6: Removing noise

Audacity also enables the user to reduce pops, clicks and hiss from records. This is done manually using the ‘threshold slider’ on the main waveform screen. Explaining this function would probably bore you to tears and take up a whole article in itself, but luckily the Audacity wiki page has a good run-down on how to tart up your worn and abused vinyl. Although it’s a very good feature, nothing beats the sound of well-looked-after clean vinyl. Look after your records, for goodness’ sake!

Other USB phono devices

There are alternatives to the Phonobox, and these range in sophistication from Citronic’s budget AC-1USB outboard audio capture device (you’ll find it at Surplustronics), the well-known Griffin iMic from all decent Mac stores nationwide, and Pro-ject’s own Debut USB turntable, which has a built-in phono preamp and A/D converter/USB output.

Look outside our fair shores and you may encounter a product called the Terratec Phono Studio USB, which is essentially a plastic-cased budget competitor for the Pro-ject Phono USB, possibly without the same quality in terms of sound.

Move further up the food chain and you’ll eventually find studio-quality gear such as Apogee’s Mini-Me, a fully featured two-channel A/D converter complete with balanced, USB and SPDIF coaxial digital outputs. At around $3300 it isn’t exactly cheap, but it looks practically bombproof and has enough bells and whistles to justify its price – to a studio engineer at least.

Of course, we couldn’t overlook Lenco’s L-78USB turntable, which Tone reviewed last year. It’s a decent performer but doesn’t offer the flexibility or ultimate sound quality that a ‘real’ turntable can in partnership with the Phonobox USB.

Words: Gary Pearce

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