six by six

Tutorial: Ripping Vinyl Records

Few, if any formats, have lasted as long as the humble gramophone record. Even with the entry into mainstream by modern devices such as the iPod, the record has maintained a foothold with disc jockeys and young students, like myself. While compact disc sales have stayed in a steady decline over the past decade, sales of records have grown steadily, with the format refusing to die. The fact is, vinyl records are here to stay.

Personally, vinyl records are my format of choice. I have a large collection of records in my room with my turntable and vintage hi-fi stereo. While I’m out on the go, I’m like everyone else – I use an iPod. With this setup, I have the experience of vinyl at home, and out on the go I have my library with me in a totally accessible format. The trend recently when purchasing new vinyl records is that they usually come with a free MP3 download of the same album – there are a few catches though.

Of all of the bundled MP3 offers I have seen with records, the offer is only available in the United States, even if the same record was sold in another country, such as Australia or the United Kingdom. If you can redeem the offer, the downloads are usually only of 256 Kbit/s quality – good enough for most people, yet not for all. And if you buy a second-hand record, or a new record without a MP3 copy bundled, you don’t have a digital copy for your iPod. Yes, you can quickly download a copy off a BitTorrent site (not that I condone that), or legally, you can download it off iTunes, but some bands only release a vinyl copy, or it may be a rare record. In these cases, you’ll have to digitize it, and luckily, it’s not hard.

Preparing to Rip

To digitize a record, you’re going to need a few things at your disposal. You’ll need a vinyl record, a decent turntable, a preamplifier or an amplifier with an internal preamplifier, a computer with a line-in input and some software. I’ve split these up into miniature guides below. Hopefully they are helpful.

Turntables

It’s actually quite hard to find a decent turntable for a good price these days. New models at low price points are of low quality, so the best way to buy is vintage. There are two distinct types of turntables – belt drive and direct drive. Yes, there are other types available, but these two are the most popular and easily found. I personally recommend the Japanese-made 1970’s gear. It’s easily found on places like eBay, and the local market, and it is of good quality. You’ll be able to tell it’s 1970’s-era gear in a few ways – you can check the serial number/model number against a database, or you can look at the item and use it’s features to determine the era. If it is a black plastic, it is a 1980’s-era device. 1970’s-era gear is usually a combination of vinyl veneer or wood, and metal fronts, usually made of stainless steel or aluminum. Most of this gear is reasonably priced, and can be repaired or serviced by a local hi-fi specialist.

Phonograph Cartridge & Stylus

There is a lot of personal preference involved in selecting a phonograph cartridge. Some cartridges sound ‘warm’, some sound ‘analytic’, and some sound ‘flat’. The best way to choose a cartridge is by doing research – read reviews and opinions. A good place to start for reviews is Amazon. I personally use an Audio Technica AT95E, an entry-level cartridge that sounds flat. I’ll be upgrading this to a ‘warm’ Grado cartridge in the near future.

Amplifier/Receiver

Like purchasing a turntable, buy vintage. You may already have an old amplifier in your shed. Make sure it’s in good nick, and that it has a preamplifier built-in. If there’s no preamplifier built in, you’ll have to purchase an external one.

Computer and Cables

You will need a computer with decent specifications, and a line-in input. This input may also be denoted with a microphone, as it is usually also the microphone input. Other than this, you will need the appropriate cables to connect up the amplifier to your computer. In most cases you will need a Stereo RCA (red/white) to 3.5mm cable.

Record Preparation

To achieve a good rip, your record has to be in good condition. If it’s covered in dust, you will need to clean it. If it’s covered in scratches, there’s not a lot you can do. You cannot clean records in a general way; care needs to be taken. There are numerous methods, but the most accessible method is to make a mixture of 50% isopropyl alcohol (available from your local chemist, hardware store or electronics retailer) and 50% distilled water (available from your local supermarket). Wash in one direction with a microfiber cloth, and then allow to dry completely. Do not wet-play your records, as this can damage your records by embedding dust in the base of your record’s grooves. Once dry, place in a clean polypropylene/paper sleeve. Your record is now ready to rip.

Turntable Preparation

Make sure the dust mat on the platter is clean, and make sure your turntable is tuned correctly. You can search the Internet on how to do this, or you can pay a visit to your local hi-fi specialist. Once you have confirmed these two requirements, connect your turntable to your ‘Phono’ input, and using the RCA to 3.5mm cable, connect the RCA side to ‘Tape Monitor’ and 3.5mm side to your computer’s ‘Line In’ or ‘Microphone’ input. Your turntable is now setup to rip.

The Recording Process

Throughout this process, I’ll be using a Mac, but this will also work on Windows and Linux. I personally use Adobe Soundbooth as I have a copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite handy due to my university enrollment, but in this guide I will be using Audacity, a free cross-platform audio editor that is more than capable for the job.

Software Configuration

Mac:

1. Open Audacity and go to ‘Preferences’.
2. Go to the ‘Devices’ tab, then in the ‘Recording’ pane make sure the correct device is selected, and ‘Channels’ is set to ‘2’.
3. Now go to the ‘Quality’ tab, and under the ‘Sampling’ pane, set the ‘Default Sample Format’ to 44100Hz, and the ‘Default Sample Format’ to ’32-bit float’.
4. Under the ‘Real-time Conversion’ pane, set the ‘Sample Rate Converter’ to ‘Fast Sinc Interpolation’ and ‘Dither’ to ‘None’.
5. Under the ‘High-quality Conversion’ pane, set the ‘Sample Rate Converter’ to ‘High-quality Sinc Interpolation’ and ‘Dither’ to ‘Triangle’.
6. Restart Audacity to apply the settings.

Optional: If you are using headphones, and wish to monitor the recording, tick the box for ‘Software Play-through’ under the ‘Recording’ tab, and ‘Play-through’ pane.

Important: If you are using a Mac, file format settings are configured after you have recorded the song, and are saving it. You will want to use a lossless format, such as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or WAV (16-bit or 32-bit PCM). You can convert it to a lossy format (e.g. MP3/AAC) later.

Windows/Linux:

Note: May not be up to date, as I do not own a Windows computer anymore, and I don’t run a virtual machine. The Linux version of Audacity is designed the same way as the Windows version.

1. Open Audacity, and navigate to the ‘Edit’ menu, then click on ‘Preferences’.
2. Go to the ‘Audio’ tab, and make sure the correct audio device is selected under ‘Recording’.
3. Now go to the ‘Quality’ tab, and use the settings supplied in the Mac instructions.
4. Next, go to the ‘File Formats’ tab, and select the format you would like to export the resulting recording to. I suggest exporting to FLAC or WAV (16-bit or 24-bit PCM). You can convert to an iPod-friendly lossy format (e.g. MP3/AAC) later.
5. Restart Audacity to apply the settings.

Starting the Recording Process

Once you have cleaned the record you want to rip, setup the turntable and computer, and setup the software, you are now ready to begin the recording process. Before you can start recording, you will need to verify the input levels.

1. Place your clean record on your turntable, turn the amplifier on, and place the stylus down on to the record.
2. In Audacity, press the ‘Record’ button, denoted by the red circle.
3. Watch the window fill with the waveform of the recording. If you are monitoring with headphones, you should be able to hear the recording playing. If not, something is not setup right, or the volume is at zero on your amplifier.
4. Whilst the waveform is generating, you will see two bars at the top of the screen moving rapidly. These are your VU meters, and denote the input level. Turn the volume down on your amplifier until the maximum level reached at the peak (loudest point) of the recording is at 75% of the VU meter. This may take a while to achieve, but it is essential to avoid ‘clipping’.
5. Stop the recording, clear the waveform (Edit, then ‘Clear All’) and click ‘Record’ again. Wait a minute, then stop the recording, and lift the stylus off the record. Listen over the recording to make sure it’s good. If it is, you’re ready to record.

Record

Create a new Audacity project, and discard the test recording. Place the clean record on your turntable, without placing the stylus down, and click the ‘Record’ button. Now place the stylus down on to the start of the record on ‘Side A’. Play the record through, and then stop the recording. Repeat for ‘Side B’.

Note: If you are monitoring with the ‘Software Play-through’ setting, please use headphones. If you use speakers, you may introduce vibrations into the recording.

Post Processing

Once each side has completed recording, you will have to split the resulting waveform into individual tracks. You cannot do this automatically in Audacity, so you will have to do it manually.

1. Navigate to the beginning of the track, and start playing it. When you reach the gap between tracks, stop playback, and add a label (Go to the ‘Project’ menu, then select ‘Add Label to Selection’).
2. Name the label the name of the next track (e.g. on the gap at the end of the first track, name it the name of the second; we will be naming the first track later).
3. Repeat for following tracks.

After you have named all of the tracks, you will have to amplify the recording to a normal listening level.

1. Select the entire recording (Cmd+A or Ctrl+A).
2. Go to the ‘Effect’ menu, and select ‘Amplify’.
3. Audacity will automatically select 0dB maximum output, which is a normal listening level. If the ‘Amplification (dB)’ box shows 0.0, you have clipped the recording (the VU input levels were set above 75% maximum) and you will have to rip the record again – treat it as a learning experience.
4. Type ‘0.1’ into the ‘New Peak Amplitude’ box, and click ‘OK’.

It’s now time to export the processed recording.

1. Go to the ‘File’ menu, and then click ‘Export Multiple’.
2. Select the format you want to export to, and select where you wish to export the files to.
3. Under the ‘Split files based on’ pane, select ‘Labels’, and tick the box for ‘Include Audio Before First Label’ and use the name of the first track.

Conclusion

You now have a high quality, digital copy of your vinyl record. If you exported it to a Lossless format (e.g. FLAC/WAV), you can convert this to an ALAC (Apple Lossless) format if you want to keep it lossless, or to a MP3 or AAC. You can now enjoy your vinyl record on the go with your iPod!

The Personal Page

Earlier this week I stumbled upon an article, detailing an “open source personal page”, created by San Francisco-based web designer Naz Hamid. I investigated a little further, and became interested in the concept. Most people who own a personal domain name will not actually link it to something like this - the usual redirection is to a blog or something similar, such as their Facebook profile. In my eyes, this concept is a great one - you can visit a person’s personal page, read a brief about them, and continue browsing through that person’s social stream.

I was so interested in the concept, that I created my own personal page. Previously, I have to admit I was one of the majority of people who redirect their personal domain name to some social profile - in my case it was my Flickr photostream. Now I have a personal page, where people can quickly learn about you, and then find you on social networking sites.

Because Naz has kindly released his template under the GPL/MIT open-source license, anyone is welcome to use the code to create there own personal webpage. If you’re interested, you can find the files on Github, and find Naz’s announcement article here.

Happy Coding.

Starting Afresh

Welcome to Six by Six!

I’m Tim Howard, an 18 year old photographer from Melbourne, Australia, and this is my personal blog where I’ll be posting my thoughts, commenting on topics close to my heart, and discussing my favorite pastime, Photography. Six by Six is the name of my blog, named after the square medium format used in my favorite camera, my Rolleicord V. If your interested in photography, audio and politics, sit back, bookmark this page, and check it regularly for interesting articles and beautiful photography. Hopefully you can find something interesting on here.