Questions Digitizing / MP3'ing your collection

[JACKG]

Iv just ordered my first every CD deck... however Iv only got about 12 or so full MP3s :|

Iv never really had any interest in collecting MP3s/Wav files cos I love my vinyl and thought I would never listen to them... only time I used to download em was for ID'in purposes. Im regretting not d/ling em now - Iv never even been on that Soulseek site

But now Im gonna be faced with the fact that Iv got around 2000+ tunes on vinyl that need to be digitized so I can play em of my CD deck.

So Iv got a big challenge in front of me and would appreciate it if those who faced the same task could give me some help/advise and tell me of how they are doing theirs. Im not the most knowledgable in this area.

Questions.

1. What Software do you use, and does this make much difference to the quality of the 'rip'.

2. What Format do you use Wav or MP3?

3. Is there much diffence in quality between a Wav and a 192 MP3 thingy (Is it bit rate?)

4. When ripping a vinyl do you do all the mixes, just the main ones you already play.

5. Do you bother to rip stuff that you cant see yourself ever playing but cant bare to get rid of.

6. At present my PC is in a seperate room to my decks... if I record to minidisc first, then to my PC will this reduce the quality

And Finally, gotta ask :$

Is anyone is prepared to be very generous and help me quicky aquire a digital collection? I'd be willing to pay if someone could say burn me a few DVDs... and Id be more than happy to return the favour when I get a load ripped.

Cheers peeps

Jack

 

[Francis]

Questions.

1. What Software do you use, and does this make much difference to the quality of the 'rip'.

Sonic Foundry Soundforge, but there are plenty around which will do the Job

2. What Format do you use Wav or MP3?

Both, Record to WAV, then Convert to MP3

3. Is there much diffence in quality between a Wav and a 192 MP3 thingy (Is it bit rate?)
Yes, Loads of Difference, but you really wouldn't be able to tell, A WAV file will be about 70mb for a 7Min Tune, and an MP3 will be about 7mb, The compression takes out some of the frequencies, hence the smaller file size.

4. When ripping a vinyl do you do all the mixes, just the main ones you already play.
Just the Main ones for me.

5. Do you bother to rip stuff that you cant see yourself ever playing but cant bare to get rid of.
Sometimes, depending what it is

6. At present my PC is in a seperate room to my decks... if I record to minidisc first, then to my PC will this reduce the quality.
It shouldn't Do, AFAIK the file recorded on2 the Mini-disc will be a true copy of what you're listening to on your Record Deck.

Hope thats of some help to you

 

[Mojo]

2. What Format do you use Wav or MP3?

Both, Record to WAV, then Convert to MP3

I converted all my WAV files to mp3 then deleted em, do Wav files sound better, if so would it make a difference if i converted them all back.???

 

[ilovepiano]

6. At present my PC is in a seperate room to my decks... if I record to minidisc first, then to my PC will this reduce the quality.

It shouldn't Do, AFAIK the file recorded on2 the Mini-disc will be a true copy of what you're listening to on your Record Deck


No, your mini disc record won't be the same as what you're listening to on your record deck. It depends how fussy you are. You probably won't be able to hear the ATRAC mini disc compression, but going straight from your mixer to your pc would be your best option. Just buy a really long cable!

 

[ilovepiano]

I converted all my WAV files to mp3 then deleted em, do Wav files sound better, if so would it make a difference if i converted them all back.???

Again, no. MP3 encoding is what is known as "lossy compression". Meaning that the encoding process actually chucks away loads of the original data, and there's no way to get it back.

There are a few different types of "lossless compression" which dramatically reduces file size with a zero loss of sound quality. ".shn" is one that I've used before. There are others, but I forget what they're called now.

 

[sirius]

For a start, Id move your decks or computer or get a long lead, as you sound to be doing it twice. Ive got over 5,000 tunes, and I record every mix (when I rarely do ripping), the thought of doing every record to minidisk and then MD to PC makes me .

I may be wrong on this, but as far as I was instructed, a 128/44.1/stereo wav file is the same quality as youd find on a commercial CD. Its only when you convert the wav file that you need to set it to 192. 192 sounds a bit high (for me) and Ive found I can do one notch down with no difference - although thats upto you. It makes sense to do it as high as possible, but if only dogs and bats can hear whats missing I dont see the point of going to ridiculously high rates. As I say, I have over 5,000 tunes and say an average of 3 tracks a record, thats 15,000 mixes, 15,000 mixes at say 6 minutes a track and 3 minutes trim and conversion time gives us 135,000 minutes or 2,250 hours, thats 94 days, which is over three months SOLID pure recording time with no piss breaks. To hold over 15,000 mixes at 11mb high bitrate will be 165,000mb - but 15,000 mixes at 6 or 7mb is only gonna take 97,500 mb, which is just over half.

I use Adobe Audition, and I record a heap of wav files, then say on a saturday morning/afternoon before I go out for a few hours, I make sure I have enough hard drive room and run the batch processor on say 30 tracks. I come home and its all done and the original wav's automatically deleted.

If you havent any audio software, I think "Audacity" is still freeware. For free, its a godsend. Dont know if it batches though, but there are stand alone tools for mass conversion. I used to sit and wait whilst it processed, but that eat into my recording time, so I learnt to batch.

See ya

Sirius.

 

[JACKG]

Cheers for the replies already Frances & ILP

What do you reckon the best thing to do then? ie what would you do?

Im not planning to sell my collection or out, but Im only gonna be rippin my collection once!

Iv using Soundforge... and it says summat like 192 CD quality when you save what you have recorded as in MP3 format - I thought that would be pretty much perfect?

At the end of the day I would want the same quality of sound from the tune Im playing on my CD deck although its been ripped from a vinyl phones:

Be interesting to know how Sully did his cos hasn't he sold most of his older stuff now after digitising it?

 

[JACKG]

For a start, Id move your decks or computer or get a long lead, as you sound to be doing it twice. Ive got over 5,000 tunes, and I record every mix (when I rarely do ripping), the thought of doing every record to minidisk and then MD to PC makes me .

Just posted my last reply before you did yours.... and your right - At present every time i wanna rip something that I do on my decks I have to do ti twice

Thats the main reason why i never record myself, just cant be assed with the effort and pluggin cables into each piece of equipment.

Im thinking of getting a laptop to rig up to my set up - Its gettin damn expensive my love for old skool ..just have the usual constraints that we all have - Lack iof Time, Money & Space :|

Plenty of food for thought in what you have said there Sirius

 

[Mojo]

Again, no. MP3 encoding is what is known as "lossy compression". Meaning that the encoding process actually chucks away loads of the original data, and there's no way to get it back.

Bugger............

 

[Tim Acid]

1. Move your decks near to your computer
2. Buy a Huge External Hard Disk at least 300GB
3. Rip vinyl to wav*
4. Save a back up as a decent quality MP3 - 192KPS or above

wav* files will be considered small files in years to come as technology moves forward with HD sizes etc.......So I reckon you are best of keeping the wav* file so you know you have the best quality you have recorded. Also means you can manipulate them easier in editing software...ie. cleaning crackles and hiss of them, or using samples from them to make you own dodgy CD bootlegs etc...

Ripping is a pain in the arse and time consuming....... I would employ someone to rip my collection if I had the cash.

 

[Mojo]

Im that sad ive got all my tunes out and copying em all again into WAV:$

It`ll take me a couple of weeks but fook it

 

[JACKG]

1. Move your decks near to your computer
2. Buy a Huge External Hard Disk at least 300GB
3. Rip vinyl to wav*
4. Save a back up as a decent quality MP3 - 192KPS or above

wav* files will be considered small files in years to come as technology moves forward with HD sizes etc.......So I reckon you are best of keeping the wav* file so you know you have the best quality you have recorded. Also means you can manipulate them easier in editing software...ie. cleaning crackles and hiss of them, or using samples from them to make you own dodgy CD bootlegs etc...

Ripping is a pain in the arse and time consuming....... I would employ someone to rip my collection if I had the cash.

Yeah I think thats the best thing to do then

Gonna be time consuming but probably worth it in the long term...

Cant afford someone to Rip My collection after shelling out for a CD deck - I ended up going for the Denon DNS 5000 which is due to be delivered any time now

 

[Tim Acid]

Yeah I think thats the best thing to do then

Gonna be time consuming but probably worth it in the long term...

Cant afford someone to Rip My collection after shelling out for a CD deck - I ended up going for the Denon DNS 5000 which is due to be delivered any time now

Good choice of CD Deck

you can come round and rip my when you have finished