[sclug] Vinyl to digital

[Alex Butcher]

On Sat, 22 Oct 2011, Neil Haughton wrote:

> I have a Debian Squeeze box fitted with a soundcard with audio line input,
> and all the software toys (Audacity, LAME etc) installed but I have also
> been put off using my existing (cheap) soundcard for the A-D function, on
> the grounds of audio quality. A-D is probably the critical bit for this
> exercise if I want good results.

I'd be surprised if you could tell the difference, unless you were also
prepared to spend the time necessary to do a full digital remaster (i.e.
manually cleaning up the recording, etc). And even if you were, I'd expect
one would get more economic, and better, results by simply buying a
professional commercial remaster on CD, SACD, DVD-A or whatever.

> So the missing link seems to be the A-D bit. My research shows a number of
> analogue -> USB devices out there, many at modest prices, for 'studio and
> DJ' use. You basically plug an analogue line input into one side, and it
> appears as a digital signal at a USB socket on the other side. Several claim
> not to need drivers or separate power supply, so they appear to offer the
> perfect solution for me, ie:
>
> [Turntable] -> [amplifier phono input -> amplifier line output] ->
> [analogue-USB device] -> [USB port on Debian box] and hence to digital file
> for further processing by Audacity or whatever.

I'd be amazed if any such gadget available at "modest" prices was capable of
meeting pro or "audiophile" quality.  I can't imagine a shared USB will help
with minimising jitter, either (unless the device includes a decently-sized
buffer).  They'll probably have the same ADCs as you'll find in bog-standard
consumer PCI and motherboard solutions, and probably won't have an
especially carefully-designed analogue side either.

If you're intent on doing this, then you're probably best looking at devices
from the likes of M-Audio, RME and so on in order to obtain 24bit/96kHz
ADCs.  AFAIK, the fancier models also do the A2D in an outboard box to
reduce noise (and improve ergonomics).

> Neil.

HTH,
Alex