Converting LP to CD (yet again I suppose!)
 

"Rob" wrote in message
...
Arny Krueger wrote:
"Grumps" wrote in message
...
Hi All

I have decided to convert some of my old LPs onto CD. Yes I could go and
buy these CDs, and yes I could illegally download MP3 versions too. But
I don't want to do either of these.

I have my old RP3 connected (via Nait amp) to the input of my Sony
camcorder. This then allows me to capture the audio via firewire,
possibly better quality than my PC's onboard sound input.

Probably not, but I don't know what your PC's onboard sound is like.


Sort of related, have you got any opinion of the Mac Mini's audio inputs:

http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/

I'm going to use one as a music/video server. I'd also like it to record
analogue things.

I do nothing with Macs. However the basic sound on Macs has been more
predictably better than on contemporaneous PCs. PC on-board sound can range
from very poor to pretty much OK for consumer use.

Converting LP to CD (yet again I suppose!)
 

"Grumps" wrote in message
...
Arny Krueger wrote:
"Grumps" wrote in message
...
Hi All

I have decided to convert some of my old LPs onto CD. Yes I could go
and buy these CDs, and yes I could illegally download MP3 versions
too. But I don't want to do either of these.

I have my old RP3 connected (via Nait amp) to the input of my Sony
camcorder. This then allows me to capture the audio via firewire,
possibly better quality than my PC's onboard sound input.

Probably not, but I don't know what your PC's onboard sound is like.

Onboard sound output is definitely full of noise and 'squeaks'.

That's possible, but not a general rule.

I assumed that onboard sound inputs would be similar.

Not necessarily.

Converting LP to CD (yet again I suppose!)
 

Arny Krueger wrote:
"Grumps" wrote in message
...
Arny Krueger wrote:
"Grumps" wrote in message
...
Hi All

I have decided to convert some of my old LPs onto CD. Yes I could
go and buy these CDs, and yes I could illegally download MP3
versions too. But I don't want to do either of these.

I have my old RP3 connected (via Nait amp) to the input of my Sony
camcorder. This then allows me to capture the audio via firewire,
possibly better quality than my PC's onboard sound input.

Probably not, but I don't know what your PC's onboard sound is like.

Onboard sound output is definitely full of noise and 'squeaks'.

That's possible, but not a general rule.

I assumed that onboard sound inputs would be similar.

Not necessarily.

You're right!
I just did a simple test using my CD player as a signal source (pure single
tone test disk), and ran SpectraPLUS on the captured wav file to see the
spectrum and SNR.
The camcorder manages a mere 53dB, but the line-in (on-board PC sound) gets
to 71dB.
A lot of this (noise; am I wrong to want to get nearer to 90+dB?) is
probably in the CD player (portable), so I'll grab my audio tone generator
from work tomorrow.

Converting LP to CD (yet again I suppose!)
 

"Grumps" wrote in message
...

I just did a simple test using my CD player as a signal source (pure
single tone test disk), and ran SpectraPLUS on the captured wav file to
see the spectrum and SNR.
The camcorder manages a mere 53dB, but the line-in (on-board PC sound)
gets to 71dB.

Good show!

A lot of this (noise; am I wrong to want to get nearer to 90+dB?) is
probably in the CD player (portable),

Try a different CD player, maybe a regular table model.

Portables can be a tad noisy. Even low cost table models can do over 90 dB.

I wouldn't expect much more than 80 dB from an on-board PC sound card.

You can run some of these tests quite nicely with this freewa

http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml

RMA 5.5

so I'll grab my audio tone generator from work tomorrow.

You'll be hard put to find a bench audio tone generator that can beat a $40
DVD player.

Converting LP to CD (yet again I suppose!)
 

Arny Krueger wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
Arny Krueger wrote:
"Grumps" wrote in message
...
Hi All

I have decided to convert some of my old LPs onto CD. Yes I could go and
buy these CDs, and yes I could illegally download MP3 versions too. But
I don't want to do either of these.

I have my old RP3 connected (via Nait amp) to the input of my Sony
camcorder. This then allows me to capture the audio via firewire,
possibly better quality than my PC's onboard sound input.
Probably not, but I don't know what your PC's onboard sound is like.

Sort of related, have you got any opinion of the Mac Mini's audio inputs:

http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/

I'm going to use one as a music/video server. I'd also like it to record
analogue things.

I do nothing with Macs. However the basic sound on Macs has been more
predictably better than on contemporaneous PCs. PC on-board sound can range
from very poor to pretty much OK for consumer use.



Ta - my new Intel iMac sounds pretty good through the built in speakers,
and it's got various audio in/outs but I can't be bothered to lug it
about the house. I find the 'old' Mini's analogue (G4) out to be a
little 'flat' compared to the posh Creative soundcard on the PC. The
newer ones have digital out so I'd use that for playback. IIRC digital
in is a little trickier - my AV amp doesn't do A-D (could have that
wrong). Whatever, when/if I'll let the world know.

Rob

Converting LP to CD (yet again I suppose!)
 

Arny Krueger wrote:
"Grumps" wrote in message
...

I just did a simple test using my CD player as a signal source (pure
single tone test disk), and ran SpectraPLUS on the captured wav file
to see the spectrum and SNR.
The camcorder manages a mere 53dB, but the line-in (on-board PC
sound) gets to 71dB.

Good show!

A lot of this (noise; am I wrong to want to get nearer to 90+dB?) is
probably in the CD player (portable),

Try a different CD player, maybe a regular table model.

Portables can be a tad noisy. Even low cost table models can do over
90 dB.
I wouldn't expect much more than 80 dB from an on-board PC sound card.

You can run some of these tests quite nicely with this freewa

http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml

RMA 5.5

so I'll grab my audio tone generator from work tomorrow.

You'll be hard put to find a bench audio tone generator that can beat
a $40 DVD player.

Final update. My hand-held audio sig gen resulted in 83dB SNR using the on
board sound. Good enough for an LP.