Home-made USB turntable - would it work?

spookmeister

Hi folks.Could someone help me out with question. I've been trying to work it out.I don't have £100 to spend on a USB turntable.I figure that since a traditional vinyl turntable has left and right channel phono jacks with + and - connections and a ground (five in all) all you have to do is make up a cable (or cut and strip the existing wires) to then connect to a USB connector.Would it work? Does anybody know what the USB pins are for connection.Thanks.S.

mostly

get an mp3 player with a line in - like this much more straight forward.

spookmeister

I am trying to convert my vinyl in to a digital format - I don't see how this is going to help!!

albertross_2

attach the turntable to an amp (or pre-amp, maplin sell them cheaply), then use audacity to record to wav on a pc, or using the gizmo is post 2 to do the same.

Trying to solder a usb plug on the end of a phono lead won't work.

Blacksheep1979

neither of the suggestions in posts 1 or 2 will work as usb is very different to audio in type connections and a turntable needs a pre-amp as albertross said.

mostly

spookmeister wrote: »

I am trying to convert my vinyl in to a digital format - I don't see how this is going to help!!

You plug the mp3 player into your amp, record the album directly to the mp3 player.
You then plug the mp3 player into your pc, transfer the file, edit the tracks & there you go.

Thats how it helps.

Now excuse me while I wire my toaster to a usb cable.

Stompa

mostly wrote: »

Now excuse me while I wire my toaster to a usb cable.

http://store.theonion.com/gotcha-box-usb-toaster-p-71.html

Conor_3

spookmeister wrote: »

Hi folks.Could someone help me out with question. I've been trying to work it out.I don't have £100 to spend on a USB turntable.I figure that since a traditional vinyl turntable has left and right channel phono jacks with + and - connections and a ground (five in all) all you have to do is make up a cable (or cut and strip the existing wires) to then connect to a USB connector.Would it work? Does anybody know what the USB pins are for connection.Thanks.S.

No it won't work. The turntable contains an analogue to digital convertor and then feeds that info to the computer via USB where the drivers convert it to a usable format.

The pins on USB are +ve, 0v, data1, data 2. You can shove the phono down it but it won't do anything.

rygon

could you change the wires from RCA to phono then shove it in the microphone port...dont know how good it would sound but if you are wanting to change that great vinyl sound to a digital format then it seems sound isnt that important to you

(what i have done is buy a m-audio internal soundcard for £60 and plug the RCA cables into that)

Blacksheep1979

rygon wrote: »

could you change the wires from RCA to phono then shove it in the microphone port...

nope, for the same reason that you need a pre-amp for a record deck. The levels will be way too low.

steveeeee

rygon wrote: »

could you change the wires from RCA to phono then shove it in the microphone port...dont know how good it would sound but if you are wanting to change that great vinyl sound to a digital format then it seems sound isnt that important to you

I used to do that ages ago when I was given a turntable but couldn't afford anything with a proper phono pre-amp. The stereo separation was very poor, and there was no bass. For those who don't know, one of the last stages of preparing an audio record for pressing to vinyl is to roll off a lot of the bass basically to enable smaller grooves and to prevent the needle from jumping right out of the grooves. Phono pre-amps are required for two reasons 1) to replace the missing bass using a particular EQ curve, and 2) to make the whole thing louder. This is overly simplistic, but here's an article which explains this technique and its history in more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization. The mic input will do 2 but not 1. Your soundcard may have an EQ setting which you can adjust, but it won't sound right.

Have a look on eBay for phono preamps (check for mention of RIAA EQ). You should be able to pick one up for a lot less than £100 and then be able to plug it into the line input on your computer. Or if you don't mind the look, you could get a cheap DJ mixer and use one of its phono inputs for the turntable.