Any good hardware to convert vinyl to mp3?

Wally75

Evening all

Has anybody had any experience of converting old vinyl LPs to MP3? Are the turntables advertised on gadget websites any good? If so, could anyone recommend one?

Also, if anyone has gone to the effort of convereting old LPs to MP3 is the general quality of converted LPs versus CDs so poor that you don't listen to them?

For info, I have a Sony MP3 I would like to convert to. Plus, I quite fancy a turntable I saw on ebay that had a bulit in memory card slot and speaker, so it could be used without need for a PC.

Thanks

Wally

superscaper

Do you already have a turntable? You could always simply just use the line-in of the PC from your amp. Saves having to buy specific hardware if you can do it yourself with your existing equipment.

Wally75

Thanks superscaper

I think my dad may have one stashed at his house. Would I need some special software to convert the input to mp3?

Wally

geekgirl

I have used one and if your vinyl is hissy and scratchy your mp3 sounds the same. I am a bit old skool and quite enjoyed a bit of hissyness after all the clean CD sound.
I used to record it using the line in but the old man wanted a usb deck so I had a go on that. It is really straight forward and easy to do. But as they record in real time you have to have some spare time to dedicate to it. I got bored of doing it and now only occasionally record something I haven't listened to in a while.

superscaper

You could just use something like audacity (free) to record the line in. It won't save as MP3 but you can always convert the WAV files later, e.g. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/exportmp3.html (MP3 itself is a pretty poor format anyway in terms of compression and quality).

geekgirl

Wally75 wrote: »

Thanks superscaper

I think my dad may have one stashed at his house. Would I need some special software to convert the input to mp3?

Wally

You can use audacity which is a free download. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

geekgirl

Ha I will shut up, we are posting at the same time.

geekgirl

OK I wont shut up just yet, you can download lamelib (think you spell it like that) that works alongside audacity and you can then save audacity files as mp3 if you wanted to.

superscaper

geekgirl wrote: »

Ha I will shut up, we are posting at the same time.

At least it shows great minds think alike. :beer:

Wally75

Thanks SS and GG!

I think I am showing my inexperience when I say 'convert to MP3' I think what I mean is 'convert to a digital format' (but obviously one compatible with my sony player)!

Wally

superscaper

Wally75 wrote: »

Thanks SS and GG!

I think I am showing my inexperience when I say 'convert to MP3' I think what I mean is 'convert to a digital format' (but obviously one compatible with my sony player)!

Wally

Well wav should be sufficient to start playing around with and converting into the most appropriate format (I think most sony players play mp3 and atrac and possibly in some cases wma files). But you can worry about conversion later, you just need some kind of raw digital form to save to and the bog standard wav recording in audacity should fit the bill.