Which Sound Card -- vinyl to CD-R's

  • Thread starter Thread starter dongreen
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dongreen

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I want to rip from my old vinyl and burn it onto music CDs. (I hope I've got this jargon right. Actually, what I want is to copy my old records onto CD's that I can play on my stereo.) I've a SoundBlaster Pro card, which has worked fine, but it's old and doesn't seem to even have a stereo input.
I'm a general user, who insists on trying to do everything with one computer (games, MS Office 2000, Internet, & now some music stuff), so of course I get conflicts but I'm not in a position to buy dedicated computers.
So, anyway, I'm prepared to buy a new sound card which will do a pretty good job of all this stuff (games, general sound, potentially voice recognition, and inputting from my records). I'd like to spend $90 and feel good about the value I got. I could spend $200, but would really need to be clear about why I'm spending so much money. (OK, I read on this forum about people spending $3000, so nobody here is going to think I'm a big spender.) My plan is to move my current stereo next to use my computer, and use is as a preamplifier (line out, not speaker out!) between my turntable and the sound card.
I'm not a super-critical audiophile. Just recently I got a little Aiwa mini-stereo for my office, and have really enjoyed listening to CDs on it. (True audio buffs may now need to re-boot to recover from their nausea.) So, the CDs I make don't need to be anywhere state of the art, but I would prefer that they not be so bad that even I can notice the difference (e.g. static, flat sound).
I did spend time reading around the site & associated links to try to answer my questions, but so far haven't found an answer to this one. I have a HP CD burner, and have just ordered the latest Adaptec software which will included something to clean up the vinyl files once I get them into my computer.
Thanks for any recommendations.

***Bonus question -- are WAV files stereo? My records are stereo. My CDs will be stereo. Mostly I read about ripping into WAV files. My impression is that WAV files are mono. In copying my records to CDs, will I lose the stereo and end up with mono?
 
Hi dongreen,

Let me answer your last question first.

WAV / wave files can be either mono or stereo.

If you truely have a Sound Blaster audio card Then it must be stereo. Check the plug that you currently have plugged into it. If it looks like a miniture headphone plug it's stereo. You should check the settings in your Wave player and mixer. There are two sides to the SB mixer record and playback. You will need a cable to connect the tape monitor output to your line in on your sound card. Your can aquire one from Radio Shack. The one thing that you neglected, Your computer hard disk. What capacity is it? 4 to 10 gigabytes would be adequate. Generally speaking a wave file for one 3.5 minute album cut will eat about 40 meg of hard drive space.

I hope that helps you.
 
Grizzly -- thanks for the help. I'll double-check my sound card. It does have stereo output, I just wasn't able to tell where it has external stereo inputs. (It has an internal stereo input, for that funny little plug that goes directly from the CD-ROM). Back when I bought it, I don't think people were thinking about stereo input.

Thanks for clearing up the WAV issue.

Thanks, also, for the tip on size. I am pretty sure I'll have enough, but will double-check.

Don
 
I'm in the middle of exactly the same project. Any decent off-the shelf card will do a fine job for you as long as it's got a 1/8" or 1/4" or standard RCA stereo line-in jacks. I use the SB PCI128 card. Down here in Oz that costs about $A75 -$A100 depending if you go OEM or fully boxed. The newer SB !Live sells for less than that here and that's supposed to be a far better card than the PCI128. For what we are doing I don't think there is any need to spend any more.

I plug the PRE-amp out on my stereo amp straight into the line-in of the sound card using an RCA to 1/8" cord.
If there is no PRE-amp out you can use a line-out or AUX out.

I'm fussy so I use a fairly expensive cable from Fidelity Research but you can use a standard cable from Tandy (Radio Shack I think it's called in the US.)

Start with clean records, but you knew that already...

Also experiment with the volume control on the stereo amp, if this is too high it will distort the recording.

Also turn off any EQ on the stereo amp and flatten the bass and treble and turn off any filters. Basically you want the signal from the stereo amp as flat as a witches tit going into the sound card. Once you got the WAV file, then you can add some EQ to it if it needs it.

Also here's a couple of tools I use to clean up the vinyl recording.

1) GrooveMechanic from BadgerBytes. This is designed from the ground up to record one side of an LP at a time, break up the side into the seperate tracks, de-hiss, de-rumble and de-pop the recording. Great Tool ! Needs a CPU with some grunt though.

2) Then I pass the resulting WAV files though Anwida's ParaEQ to brighten up the recording if it needs it. This is a nice small tool, easy to use, but don't go silly 'cos you'll ruin the .WAV by too much EQ

and 3) I use Sound Forge to remove any residual DC offset (noise) and tidy up the start and end of eack track.

The end result can be quite amazing if you take the time to get the right amount of EQ.

Finally ensure you use 16bit/44.1khz settings on your sound card.

Anyway hope this helps a bit.

P.S. Don't ask me about the CD recording bit, I havent got a clue, I send my WAVs on ZIP disks to my son who does that for me !
 
Hay,
For very good (not state of the art but very solid) sound you can't go past DMAN PCI you can probobly find one for about US$100 and they throw in some PRG's if you ask nicely.
The PCI has midi in out, built in synth, stereo I/O and is very compatible
IT's made by MIdiMAN

HAWLK
 
OK, HAWLK, I give up. What's a PRG? Are they good with catsup?

Also, you recommended the DMAN PCI by MIdiMAN. Where can I get specs for it. Does
have a website?

Your post mentions a lot about MIDI stuff, but for those of us who just want good sound in & out (e.g. copying off a record & putting on a CD) does MIDI matter at all? As far as I can tell, MIDI is primarily for musicians who are producing and/or mixing their own music.

Thanks for your post.
 
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