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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Recording Corner »

Permalink recording vinyl to cd on a mac

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i've got tons of albums i'd like to put on cd but everything i find is for the sound card on a PC. any ideas for a mac user?

www.surfintheeye.com

I haven't used it, but I have a couple of friends who have used Roxio's CD Spin Doctor for this and rave about it:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/spindoctor/overview.html

Depending on which Mac you have, you might want to get an external audio interface, too. Even the little iMic from Griffin would work:

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/

Those two together would cost less than $80, then all you would need is a turntable and a cable to connect the turntable (probably RCA outputs) to the iMic (1/8" stereo).

A higher quality USB (or even FireWire) audio interface would probably get better sound quality, but would be more expensive ($130 to however much you care to spend).

Make sure you get a new needle for your turntable, too, as that will greatly help with the sound quality.

Hope that helps!

Steven

thanks, i'll check it out

www.surfintheeye.com

There are some nice, new turntables out there with USB ports. That means they have the phono preamp built in as well as do the A-D conversion. Just connect directly to the Mac USB port. And several freeware recording programs are available. A quick web search should discover what you need.

Rev.

www.revwillis.com
www.willisclow.com
www.slajo.com

i've already got a really nice turntable so i bought spin doctor and ordered the imic. when i get it all set up and running i'll post a review....thanks

www.surfintheeye.com

This is a little off the subject, but have any of you seen the digital laser turntable? It's crazy expensive, but damn it's cool!

Check it out: http://www.elpj.com/

I use a Griffin iMic to record from my Sony turntable.
It came with "Final Vinyl" recording software, which you can download for free - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9439 . It's simple to use, but doesn't have many editing features.

I prefer to use the freeware multi-platform Audacity v 1.3.3(beta) for the additional features. - see http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

If I want to turn it into a music CD, I just make an iTunes playlist with those songs and burn it from there.

Whatever recording software you use, it must be able to apply an RIAA equalization, or else it comes out with little bass and over-emphasized high frequencies. Final Vinyl can do that. Audacity has a dozen or so ready-made EQ filters (including RIAA) in the "Effects" menu intended for the EQ curves used by a number of record publishers, including some of the much older ones. RIAA is pretty standard though.

image
For one thing, the bass needs to be boosted on playback because it's impractical to cut the groove in the disc with the wide excursions it would need to have for a flat response.
Typical turntable preamp stages in a modern stereo system have this filter built in.

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

OK, I don't have a blonde Showman or a vintage Jag, but I do have some great recording gear. I've been transferring vinyl to CD this way:

Turntable: Thorens TD125 w/SME arm and Shure V15 cartridge
Preamp: Dynaco PAS3 tube preamp with Van Alstine mods
Alternate: Hagerman Bugle phono preamp kit
Interface: Apogee Duet Firewire
Computer: Mac G4 Powerbook
Software: Peak 5

Quality LP playback requires a great turntable/cartidge, otherwise you are using a plow. And you need a good phono preamp, with accurate RIAA curve. The Duet interface has high quality A/D converters (as well as great portability and fine mic preamps for location recording).

I use Peak for recording/editing. This way I can edit out the worst of clicks and pops on old records. I also have the SoundSoap plugin for further cleanup of LP transfers.

Yeah, expensive and over the top, but all this gear is useful for other purposes as well.

Rev.

www.revwillis.com
www.willisclow.com
www.slajo.com

I use the Griffin iMic and the Final Vinyl free software. Cheap and easy.

planish
Typical turntable preamp stages in a modern stereo system have this filter built in.

My brother-in-law just got a USB turntable, and it had the EQ built-in. It also had a handy 1/8" stereo jack, bypassing the EQ, so you could also record line-level portable devices through it. No dust cover though.

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

mom_surfing
i've already got a really nice turntable so i bought spin doctor and ordered the imic. when i get it all set up and running i'll post a review....thanks

i've had good luck with this set up. it's a bit time consuming but the end product sounds good, at least to my ears.

www.surfintheeye.com

Hi,
I got a stereo to stereo lead (i think that's what they are called) put it into the head phone jack of my old turntable and the other end into my mac, select external mic and recorded straight into garageband. A new track for each tune. A bit of mucking around but worked fine. Then you can burn as a cd.
Cheers
Waxhead

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