We were talking last night about recording (from LP) onto a computer. Here are a couple links to what I was saying. If you don't care too much about quality, there is a cheap solution for the mac: Griffin's iMic ($40.) If you do care about sound, then the Tascam US122 is probably your best bet ($199.) Note that the Tascam also gives you 2 line outs, so it will make playing MP3s from your computer over your stereo sound much better than using the headphone jack.
- jim 1-23-2004 6:39 pm

I use the free version of protools
- steve 1-23-2004 7:00 pm


Thanks. One thing that still confuses me. Tascam is hardware and protools is software. How is it they're doing the same thing? Also, is the Tascam a USB line input/output feeding digital data into/out of the computer such that an interface like Winamp could recognize it/rip from it?

Also, does the computer have to have drivers installed to recognize these devices?
- tom moody 1-23-2004 8:13 pm


Protools would only be of use once you get the data onto your computer.

Your understanding of the Tascam is correct. It does need drivers (it has windows and mac drivers.) Winamp can definitely rip from it, although I've never done it myself. Worst case would be you input from the Tascam to your hard drive, and then rip into mp3 using Winamp from there (but maybe you can go right into Winamp in one step.)

For completeness, you might want to check out m-audio products. They make something similar to the Tascam I pointed to. I don't have enough knowledge to choose between them.

Steve - are you familiar with Soundtrack? I would think that might interest you.
- jim 1-23-2004 8:33 pm


Is that the MobilePre USB? The M-audio page seems to change products on refresh. Initially I got something else.
- tom moody 1-23-2004 8:48 pm


Yes, MobilePre USB. $179.95.
- jim 1-23-2004 8:53 pm


the way this works is that inside the tascam thingy there's a chip that converts analog audio to digital audio... it's a decent chip but not fantastic -- if you digitize an LP it will sound a bit "muffled" in the high end

you need software to access the hardware and create the files. there's software bundled with the Tascam to do that (it's called Cubasis). It will be saving the audio as AIFF or WAV or possibly SDII format -- all equivalent formats for uncompressed audio.

then you'll have to encode the uncompressed audio as MP3, which any ripping thingy like winamp or iTunes will be able to do.

actually, you won't necessarily HAVE to encode as MP3 to play in Itunes -- it will play AIFF files -- but you will want to encode to play on the Ipod, since AIFF makes it skip.

the Tascam has gotten good reviews. M-Audio stuff is pretty poorly built, for what it's worth.

on Protools -- it's software, but it's usually sold with hardware, hence the confusion. there is a "free" version (Protools LE) but it still needs to work with some kind of hardware to do the audio conversion.

there is built-in hardware to do this in the mac (that's what the mic jack accesses) but it is pretty low quality.

another wrinkle: the Tascam is capable of doing 24-bit conversion, which is a lot better than 16-bit conversion -- but the software that comes with it (cubasis) only supports 16 bit conversions. So ideally you'd want different software -- for instance, the free protools (PT LE).

clear as mud, i hope


- big jimmy 1-23-2004 9:58 pm


Thanks, this is helpful. Just out of curiosity, what do you consider a better, non-muffling chip and what does it cost?
- tom moody 1-23-2004 10:18 pm


Not familliar with Soundrack, pretty good. I'm holding out for one called "Plot, Acting,Picture" Or "Lights, Camera, Action" As for protools, I dunno what I'm doing right but I just plug my turntable into a little hub-like-dongle-like usb thing, open protools, start spinning the record and begin recording. It's pretty simple.
- steve 1-24-2004 5:09 am


Is the "hub-like-dongle-like usb thing" hardware external to the computer itself? I only have a headphone jack to plug my mixing board into.

And a USB port that my mixing board can't plug into.
- tom moody 1-24-2004 5:28 am


External, a friend gave it to me so I don' t know what it is really. It accepts RCA jacks and can be set to input or output and plugs into the USB port.
- steve 1-24-2004 5:38 am


Does it look like this thing Jim linked to?
- tom moody 1-24-2004 6:25 am


That's it, sorry for chiming in without really paying attention.
- steve 1-24-2004 9:02 am


vinyl to mp3
- steve 1-24-2004 10:11 am


Thanks for the recommendations, all; here's a report on where I am on LP/cassette conversion to MP3s. I picked up a little box called the Xitel INport at J&R Computer World, with drivers and so-called ripping software called LPRipper. As explained in this report, the initial incoming audio is fine. The problem is converting the 22MB .wav file LPRipper creates to .mp3. (Steve, I would have used that free ProTools but it didn't apply to Windows XP.) Supposedly LPRipper gives you a couple of options. One, output the .wav to your designated ripper (in my case Winamp 5). This didn't work--Winamp took the elements of the command line output from LPRipper (like "infile" and "outfile") and read them as tracks. It basically converted the "infile" from a wav to a wav. Second option: download freeware called Fastencc. This worked, but as the link above explains:

CBF Software [maker of LPRipper] provides a link to download the two encoder engines, but they should be included. Even after installing these encoders, there's no graphical configuration screen for setting bit-rate and other encoding parameters. Instead, you have to hand-edit a config file!
The only reason I would ever want to hand-edit the config file (which I don't know how to do) is that Fastencc defaults to a 128 kbs bitrate. According to the German company that Fastencc was originally pirated from, this is "CD quality" sound. The one track I recorded sounded fine on my computer, but I hate not being able to change the bitrate at this stage, before I start recording who knows how many tracks. Any suggestions on a program that converts .wav files to .mp3s with some kind of easy to use graphic interface?

- tom moody 2-12-2004 10:19 am


OK, I answered my question. Just downloaded LAME (and its graphic interface RazorLAME) and did the conversion from .wav to .mp3 at 192 kbs. (A 2-minute song is 2MB at 128 and 3MB at 192). Fast, too, which almost makes up for the ridiculous number of steps it takes me to do a simple operation like converting vinyl to mp3.

- tom moody 2-12-2004 11:12 am


"simple operation like converting vinyl to mp3"


Alchemy!

- sally mckay 2-12-2004 4:47 pm





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