[ale] vinyl records

[Geoffrey Myers]

Ron Frazier wrote:
> HI Geoffrey,
> 
> That's interesting info to know.  I can imagine the "younglings" in our 
> readership saying isn't a turntable what you put a car on at an auto 
> show, and isn't vinyl what the seats are made of?
> 
> It's kind of amusing (in a bad way) that some vinyl records have better 
> longevity than some DIY CD's and DVD's.  Organic Dye failures and all that.
> 
> I still have a decent Technics turntable that I bought from Best Buy or 
> Hi Fi Buys years ago just because it was clear that they were 
> disappearing.  This comment won't apply to anyone without a turntable.  
> I haven't given this any thought previously, but couldn't I simply get 
> an adapter cord at Radio Shack and plug the output of the turntable into 
> the mic input of the computer and run some capture software on it?  
> Could I do the same thing with cassette tapes?

I suppose mic would do, but I plug mine into the 'line in' on my sound 
card.  Other then that, yes, that's my approach.  I use audacity for 
capture.

> 
> Just out of curiosity, what audio file format do you use for 
> conversion?  What kind of compression do you get?  I've got about 60 
> CD's I captured to 56 KBps MP3 years ago.  I can actually hear the 
> compression artifacts in them if I listen closely.  Some I've converted 
> to 128 KBps.  That's much better.  I've thought about bumping them up to 
> 256 or 320 (I think that's the max).  Of course, you lose compression 
> and increase size when you bump that up.  If you're trying to stuff 600 
> songs on a portable MP3 player, that can become an issue.  According to 
> the technical podcasts I listen to, apparently most people cannot hear 
> the difference between a CD and a 192 KBps MP3.  I know OGG is also an 
> option, but I don't know much about it.  My Sansa Fuze+ player can play OGG.

To be honest with you, I've not revisited my effort of late, so I can't 
tell you which format I was using.  I started shuffling stuff around in 
my office and did not get my sound system back together yet.

Maybe this discussion will prompt me to get it back together so I can 
finish my vinyl conversions.


> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Ron
> 
> On 10/4/2011 8:33 AM, Geoffrey Myers wrote:
>> I still have my old Kenwood turntable.  I've got 400+ vinyls.  For those
>> that I can find either cd or other digital technology, I've figured it
>> was worth my time to simply repurchase them in the new format.  I do
>> have a good number of albums from small local bands that never made it
>> beyond the vinyl.  Those I am in the process of converting.
>>
>> The usb turntables I've seen have not gotten very good reviews.
>>    
> 


-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

"I predict future happiness for America if they can prevent
the government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson