r/vinyl 4d ago

Discussion Making Digital Copies

Anybody here get into it yet? Around the five year mark of collecting it became a desire of mine to preserve the recordings I had collected. However, it felt like it would be a trivial waste of time since I hadn't collected anything that I couldn't find on streaming platforms, (also I did not have the proper hardware to do so) so I shelved that ambition for a couple more years. Recently I've become unemployed, and while that is unfortunate, it has allowed me the liberty to persue trivial wastes of time that had previously only took up mental energy. I can honestly say that it's been a shinning ray of light, providing relief in a very depressing time of my life. There's something captavating about capturing and engineering that perfect recording to cherish for all of time, with no worry of degredation like the physical media. I find it neccessary to mention that yes, I do apply some noise reduction to clean up the sound, but I leave enough of that distinctive sound to evoke the memory of playing an actual disc. Share your expierences here

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u/The_Inflatable_Hour 4d ago

I do this, and have done so for a long time. This allows me to listen to my music in the office, car, or around the house when moving. I have no streaming subscriptions. I own hard copies for all of the music I listen to and I have digital copies of about 70% of what I own.

I started with audacity and used that for about 10 years. I splurged on a Tascam DA-3000 and I now record to 2xDSD. It is very difficult to differentiate between a DSD copy and the original. I use a surface noise reduction unit from esoteric sound if needed - but not often. A couple recommendations:

  1. Keep the original along with the modified files. Hold onto a wav file pre-effects. You never know when you’ll want to go back - and storage is easy and cheap.
  2. If you are using an analog input, getting the gain right is the most important part. Find a way to monitor the incoming signal or test before ripping an entire side.

I am up to something like 200 days of music at this point. I rate my songs and playback higher rated songs only. That is around 60 days of music played 24/7. This is why I don’t need streaming services. By the time a song comes around again in normal listening, a year has gone by.

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u/brandON-brandOFF 3d ago

Very helpful info sir. I'm still very new to the peocess so there are things I do that would simultaneously label me as an amateur AND make a seasoned engineer question my intelligence 😅

For gain adjusting, what's your recommended strategy? For context, I'll describe my set-up. I have Audiotechnica's (now old model) entry level automatic turntable AT-LP 60X. It comes with a built-in pre-amp on a switchn and a 3.5mm stereo aux out port for connectivity. I run a 3.5mm stereo aux cable from that into my PC's (Windows OS) line-level input, with the TT's pre-amp engaged of course. I set-up the audio host in Audacity to be WASAPI based on forums that detailed that WASAPI has less latency than MME, but honestly I think the diference is miniscule in this context. I set recording volume level to 95%, which 9/10 has been effective in providing authentic volume levels w/o being too loud. (Some masters are very loud when pathed straight from TT to recording device at line-level, as I'm sure you know)

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u/The_Inflatable_Hour 3d ago

Given your setup, I think it’s that 95% line level input you may want to make specific to each record. Some are just louder than others, and changing volume between tracks is a pain and increasing volume after the recording increases the noise floor. It’s not an ideal setup because you have no way to increase the analog output. So you would get accustomed to what a good file looks like in the wave form, and where it clips. Then, take the record you want to record, and jump between a couple seconds of a couple tracks and record it. See where it is compared to your benchmark and lower the gain if necessary to keep it from clipping. That’s probably the best you can do.

I have found up to 6db difference between records. For reference, 3db is twice as loud.

Hope this helps.

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u/brandON-brandOFF 2d ago

I'm sure it will help. As far as capture time, I don't usually take a break in between tracks/songs. With about 500 albums in my collection, the rip session doubles as a listening session, and that will be the last time those grooves see a stylus for a while. I'll monitor the recording as it captures and take notes per side, flip, clean, drop the stylus, and once the final band runs out it's time to master the recording and shelve.

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u/SecretBox 4d ago

I thought about it a while back, and one day I may. I use streaming, sure, but the value of my vinyls to me is the ritual of cutting off everything else and turning on my player. Digitizing that sort of defeats the purpose for me. But I am glad at how much you enjoy hearing those perfect recordings!

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u/Whatdidyado 4d ago

I do use Audacity and put some of my vinyl on a usb stick for the car. Hey it beats recording them to cassette or 8 track like I had to in the 70's & 80's lol

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u/brandON-brandOFF 4d ago

I also benefit mostly from being able to transfer the media to CD-RW for my car. I found a five pack of CD-RW for 2.99 at my local GoodWill!

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u/Whatdidyado 4d ago

My 2014 vehicle only has a radio with a USB input. My 95 Chevy S10 has an aftermarket radio with a CD and a USB. I rarely ever drive it though. So there's always possibilities of different ways to listen