Recording Vinyl to a MAC

[chuckciao]

I would like to transfer my vinyl Jazz collection to my MAC computer. I am using the MAC OS 10.3.9. Can anyone give me some ideas on what I would need to do this?

[Damien Taylor]

Check your amplifier for a 'Tape Out' output on the back, if it has one, go to Radio Shack or equivalent and purchase an RCA to 3.5mm stereo cable. Plug the 3.5 stereo jack into the macs microphone/line in port if they are shared on your particular model, they are on my macbook. Download and run Audacity, a free audio editor. Open System Preferences/Audio/Input and choose Line-in from the list, now play a record and check that there is sound coming through using the meter. In audacity make a new file and press record. This should start recording immediately.

You could also use GarageBand and this worked quite well for me, but YMMV and Audacity is really a great program.

[Shakey]

I have used several programs in the past and the one I have personally settled on is called "Audio Hijack Pro" from Rogue Amoeba:

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/

It is easy to use and I'm happy with the results. There is an accompanying piece of software called "Fission" that is great for splitting and naming tracks. I thought I'd mention these progs as you say you're a Mac user and these are Mac only programs.

Oh yeah, Audio Hijack lets you record from the Internet as well which is pretty cool for recording radio.

Seconded on Audacity though, it is a great program especially considering it's free!

[Babak]

Hi

I am using a MacBook with Leopard OS and Amadeus Pro (http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html)

Just get an adapter cable (RCA to 3,5 mm) and connect the Tape in from your Amp to your Mac.

You can also connect the turntable directly, as Amadeus Pro offers the RIAA-curves as filters

Amadeus also offer declicking/denoising and also splitting tracks, including transfer to MP3.

A great Software for $25,-

Cheers

Babak

[KurtW]

Garage band and Hijack pro limit you to 44.1/16bit. If this is not an issue for you they should work fine. Some people feel that if you go to all the trouble to digitize your LPs, why not use a little higher bit rate at least, to give you some margin for setting levels to avoiding clipping, etc. I find that using at least 48KHz/24bit gives me some extra peace of mind that I'm capturing all of the info from the LP. Of course a good ADC (sound card), clean records, well adjusted turntable, etc. all help.

[NeilP]

I have just setting out on the vinyl ripping on the Mac

Currently trying out various hook up methods and software.

Ripping at 96khz and 24 bit (32bit float) then converting to FLAC for the FreeNAS box archive and ALAC for iTunes


Software I am trying is:
Sound Studio
Audacity
Amadeus Pro
JClickRepair

SS has the best level meter of the lot, so I run that just with the Level Meter input showing...using that controls the Soundcard in put ...so adjusting levels there also adjusts levels for any other software 'receiving' the Line In

Audacity is good...but the waveform zoom function is a pain...you cant use the mouse it is all keyboard and slow...also track splitting is very poor

Amadeus Pro has easy Apple mouse scroll ball zoom of the waveform, plus the ability to insert track markers and then split and save them with the names automatically is quick.

JClick repair is good...but I only use occasionally if at all before back to Amadeus for track splitting.

TAG for adding tags

Just my 'current' way of doing it but only been playing with this for a week or so...still need to get the TT sorted before the real work starts

[ultrason]

Hi,

I'm using a great software called VinylStudio. It's quite easy to use and is combined with the NAD PP3 preamplifier.
You can find the NAD PP3 everywhere and it's a variation of the PP2.
This preamplifier allows you to use MC or MM (with a swith) and a USB plug allows you to transfer directly your records to your computer (WAV, MP3...).
You just need a turntable, a mac and the Nad PP3.

I don't think the NAd pp3 is the best preamplifer for a turntable but it's doing the job quite correctly.
If you want to use a MC cartridge, you'd better buy a better preamplifer, anyway, for ripping records, that's perfect.
Price is about 250$but you'll find a second hand one for about 100$

++

[NeilP]

Does vinylStudio allow you to choose sample rates and depth?

I like to record at 96 or 128khz and 32 bit float, and save a s wav for processing/declicking, and then sore as FLAC or ALAC.

Does Vinyl Sudio allow saving iin FLAC/ALAC?

Thanks

Neil

[Knowzy]

VinylStudio can do sample rates up to 192kHz at up to 32-bit float.

At this point it only does WAV, MP3 and AAC (Mac only for AAC).

Paul Sanders (author of VinylStudio) has mentioned to me in private conversations that he's looking at FLAC and Apple Lossless for an upcoming release.

I hope he doesn't mind me sharing that with the rest of you!

[NeilP]

Well that is OK, if it does wav, then conversion using Max or similar would be no problem

I used to use ( on Windows) a prog called Spin It Again.

It would access an online database, once you had entered Artist and Album, and pull up the song titles and track lengths. It would use the track lengths to aid in the auto track splitting, and then it would auto tag the ID3 tags.

may be in your next conversation with paul , you could put these options forward as well, I would be v.interested if that occurred

Thanks

Neil

[Knowzy]

I used to use ( on Windows) a prog called Spin It Again.

Spin It Again and VinylStudio occupy the top two positions in my Vinyl Ripping Software list. The list is ordered by the number of vinyl ripping features the software supports.

It would access an online database, once you had entered Artist and Album, and pull up the song titles and track lengths. It would use the track lengths to aid in the auto track splitting, and then it would auto tag the ID3 tags.

Not only does [url=/VinylStudio/lookup_screen.aspx]VinylStudio do this[/url] but it also pulls down high-resolution album cover art. Spin It Again doesn't do album art.

[NeilP]

looks like I'll have to d/load it and give it a Spin

Cheers

Neil

[bobellis75]

If I were to rip to my macbook...how would the sound be in regards to the laptop's sound card, etc? Or will it make a huge difference on that end?

[NeilP]

Sorry Bob, i cant help you there, i only have a mac Pro, tower, never used a mac laptop.

Maybe someone else can chime in...or contact Vinyl Studio author direct, he was always very helpful..maybe he has some insight in ot the different sound cards....maybe you could get an external DAC and run it that way, then sound card would be irrelevant. have not done any vinyl ripping in a long while now, so cnat even remember how VS accepts the input...assume you can feed it a digitised signal...