Turntable recording to a desktop

http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm

I don't have any experience with that particular device. But for the price, why not buy it and try it?

For desktop you can get something like Asus Xonar STX sound card. Then use any audio processing software from expensive Adobe Auditio to free Audacity for racording and post-processing. Record and process in 24/96 mode.

I don't think this advice considers the fact that a phono preamp seems to be needed.

The Asus STX is indeed a fine audio interface as far as it goes. It is a premium card running in the $180+

To work with a typical turntable it also needs a phono preamp.

It will probably provide any sound quality advantage over the

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UFO202-Audio-Interface/dp/B002GHBYZ0



If you want to move somewhat upscale and keep the same features consider this:

http://www.amazon.com/ART-USB-Phono-Plus/dp/B000BBGCCI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355957351

Since the OP already has TT, I assumed that he has phono preamp too. Otherwise he won't be able to listen records at all. Sonar STX is still cheaper than any comparable in quality USB interfaces, and probably priced lower than any other high quality cards.

When one records from vinyl, it is reasonable to use the best A/D converter as possible. That was the base of my suggestion. If you do some research, you will find that vinyl transcription is commonly done using much more expensive professional interfaces like Lynx. That Asus is as close to them as possible while staying within a reasonable price limit.

That's probably all true, but for some reason he came here asking questions about an add-on for his computer that would record LPs without using a separate preamp

That depends on how you judge quality. What you are really saying that as you judge quality, this is all true. My point is that there are a number of effective solutions that are more complete, better address the OP, and oh by the way cost only a fraction as much.

Again you are applying your values. Technically speaking the use of the best A/D converters possible is a complete and total overkill for digitizing vinyl because vinyl, as a legacy analog source, has only modest technical performance. For example have you ever digitized any of the great legacy or modern SOTA test LP's and analyzed the results to see what kind of technical performance is possible? I have digitized many of them and done my homework.

You may not be aware of the technical limitations of vinyl, but I've been digitizing it for over a decade and I'm acutely aware of them. Remember, I'm an EE who was an audiophile back in the days when vinyl was all we had. I have long used audio interfaces of the same or better quality as the Xonar STX.

For example I have long owned a LynxTwo (obtained shortly after introduction) and a LynxOne before that. Yes, I've digitized vinyl with a LynxTWO, and it gives great results, but the resulting transcriptions do not reflect the great performance of the LynxTWO. They reflect the modest performance of vinyl as a medium.

In fact the performance of audio interfaces has undergone considerable price/performance improvements. Today relatively reasonably priced hardware can fully exploit the performance of the LP as an audio medium.

Being lectured about my need to do research about Lynx professional audio interfaces is ironic bordering on surreal! ;-)

I was an early adopter of the LynxTWO (introduced in Y2K). I've been doing vinyl transcription with the best available computer audio interfaces for well over a decade.

..........wow, arnyk , that link you posted for transferring LPs was a flashback - I probably saw this 10 or 11 years ago when I first started digitizing vinyl.

OP: This really can be as easy or as hard as you wish - meaning if you just record , split and remove extraneous material from your tracks then it's pretty straight forward.

Against others' advice I recommend a thorough cleaning then "wet playing" of the record; I found this to reduce surface noise and soften tics/ pops. Depending on your recording method you'll have either one long wav file or two shorter ones which you may want to split into individual tracks. An audio editor is required for this, you may already have one or can use the freeware Audacity (which I believe can be used as a recording medium as well); I started with CoolEdit 2K then purchased CoolEdit Pro and ClickFix which I still use. For me clicks have always been dealt with by hand (and ear), while I now use ClickRepair (fully functional 30 day evaluation) for light decrackling if I choose.

Using these steps can easily consume my afternoon so you can see this can become a labor of love when brought to this level.
Edited by citizen arcane - 12/20/12 at 5:18pm