Digital Recorder
 

I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a few
more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as lashing up the
computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of having the tracks on
the device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new or
secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm

--
Cheers, Rob

Digital Recorder
 

"RJH" wrote in message
...
I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a few
more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as lashing up the
computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of having the tracks on the
device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new or
secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm

--
Cheers, Rob

Tascam is a very good choice.

But the SD-20M has facilities that you probably
don't need. It is 4 channel, and has XLR mic inputs with
phantom etc etc

I use SS R100 (which has storage on SD CF or USB in
..wav and .mp3 format) as a stand-alone master recorder.
It is a bit more expensive but good used units are to be
found on E-bay.

Take a look at the Denon DN 500R also.

Iain

Digital Recorder
 

"RJH" wrote in message
...
I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a
few more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as
lashing up the computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of
having the tracks on the device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new
or secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm


Have a dig on eBay for a hi-fi type Sony minidisc recorder. Record you
disk, then take the recorder to your PC and record it using something
like Audacity.

Been doing it for years and it works.

Alternatively get a cheap secondhand laptop and record the LP straight
onto that, then cut it up again with Audacity. That also works well,
perhaps better than the minidisc as it gives you the option of the
recording format.




--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

Digital Recorder
 

Woody said:
"RJH" wrote in message
...
I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a
few more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as
lashing up the computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of
having the tracks on the device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new
or secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm

Have a dig on eBay for a hi-fi type Sony minidisc recorder. Record you
disk, then take the recorder to your PC and record it using something
like Audacity.

Minidisc ? It'd still need digitising, no ?

If we're talking 2ndhand from ebay, I'd say a Zoom pocket recorder's a
better idea. I've had a Zoom H2 for a few years now, and it works well
(it's the nicest pocket recorder I've ever had) - choice of formats, from
lowgrade pm3 to better-then-CD wav, plus it records onto SD as the OP said.
And should be well within that price range.

Not a great interface for playing them back, mind, if that's the idea. And
if you wanted separate tracks you'd need to either punch the buttons in real
time or do the inconvenient lashing-up-the-computer thing to split them out.
But I'm not sure there's a way round that. [ being Wrong On Usenet is a very
good way of finding things out ]. It'd be a convenient way of getting vinyl
onto an SD card if you didn't want to fire up a computer. There might be
better devices for playing it back.


--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

Digital Recorder
 

In article ,
Richard Robinson wrote:
Have a dig on eBay for a hi-fi type Sony minidisc recorder. Record you
disk, then take the recorder to your PC and record it using something
like Audacity.

Minidisc ? It'd still need digitising, no ?

MiniDisc is digital. Some have digital out so could transfer to the
computer in the digital domain if you have a soundcard which accepts this.
But the data compression system MiniDisc uses is rather old and may not be
the best.

--
*DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Digital Recorder
 

On 02/06/2017 18:59, Iain Churches wrote:
"RJH" wrote in message
...
I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a few
more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as lashing up the
computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of having the tracks on the
device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new or
secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm

--
Cheers, Rob

Tascam is a very good choice.

But the SD-20M has facilities that you probably
don't need. It is 4 channel, and has XLR mic inputs with
phantom etc etc

I use SS R100 (which has storage on SD CF or USB in
.wav and .mp3 format) as a stand-alone master recorder.
It is a bit more expensive but good used units are to be
found on E-bay.

Take a look at the Denon DN 500R also.


Thanks - they look to be good. I've also seen 'scratch recorders' that
seem to fit the bill - Roland AR3000R and Marantz PMD 560. The obvious
difference is that they're 16 bit (as opposed to 24).

Without wishing to get into too much of a debate, might that matter?

The other things are ease of use, and the reliability of things like the
level meters.


--
Cheers, Rob

Digital Recorder
 

On 02/06/2017 18:59, Woody wrote:
"RJH" wrote in message
...
I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a
few more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as
lashing up the computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of
having the tracks on the device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new
or secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm


Have a dig on eBay for a hi-fi type Sony minidisc recorder. Record you
disk, then take the recorder to your PC and record it using something
like Audacity.

Been doing it for years and it works.


Yep, could do - as mentioned down-thread, I'm not that sure about how
the compression works and whether it's lossless. But in any event
lugging the machine about would add to the inertia . . .

Alternatively get a cheap secondhand laptop and record the LP straight
onto that, then cut it up again with Audacity. That also works well,
perhaps better than the minidisc as it gives you the option of the
recording format.


Yes, I have a netbook that might do, and a USB soundcard - but I'd
rather go for a purpose built solution.

Thanks for suggestions though


--
Cheers, Rob

Digital Recorder
 

On 02/06/2017 20:51, Richard Robinson wrote:
Woody said:
"RJH" wrote in message
...
I'd like to digitise a couple of LPs, and have the facility to do a
few more as and when. I'm looking to get a standalone unit as
lashing up the computer is inconvenient, plus I like the idea of
having the tracks on the device or portable media like an SD card.

Any recommendations please? I was thinking of maybe up to £200 new
or secondhand. This looks to be OK, but does more than I need:

http://www.solidstatesound.co.uk/tascam_sd-20m.htm

Have a dig on eBay for a hi-fi type Sony minidisc recorder. Record you
disk, then take the recorder to your PC and record it using something
like Audacity.

Minidisc ? It'd still need digitising, no ?

If we're talking 2ndhand from ebay, I'd say a Zoom pocket recorder's a
better idea. I've had a Zoom H2 for a few years now, and it works well
(it's the nicest pocket recorder I've ever had) - choice of formats, from
lowgrade pm3 to better-then-CD wav, plus it records onto SD as the OP said.
And should be well within that price range.


I had thought of a portable. I would be looking to get as good a
recording as possible - so would need to be sure that the A-D conversion
was as good as can be.

Not a great interface for playing them back, mind, if that's the idea. And
if you wanted separate tracks you'd need to either punch the buttons in real
time or do the inconvenient lashing-up-the-computer thing to split them out.
But I'm not sure there's a way round that. [ being Wrong On Usenet is a very
good way of finding things out ]. It'd be a convenient way of getting vinyl
onto an SD card if you didn't want to fire up a computer. There might be
better devices for playing it back.


Playing back would not be the main use, and I'd edit the files on a
desktop computer.


--
Cheers, Rob

Digital Recorder
 

In terms of cutting up a recording of a whole LP side, try getting a
copy of Steinberg Clean - I have V4 - which can be bought on eBay for
a fiver or so.

The easy bit is the cutting. It shows a wave trace with moving marker
so it is easy to find the track gaps, click on the gap, and when all
have been done tell it to cut. It retains an uncut copy and adds each
of the cut tracks below it in a list. You can then retitle each track
and anti-click them if you wish, either manually or automatically (at
which it is surprisingly effective.) You can also fade in and fade out
a track with the simple moving of a marker with your mouse. Its a long
time since I last used it but ISTR it also has a normalising feature
but I may be wrong.

Audacity (which is free) is another sound programme which is very easy
to use and works extremely well. It too has a sound trace but you have
to mark, cut, and export each track to save it in any universal
format. Click reduction/removal, level correction (frequency selective
or wideband) etc is very simple.



--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

Digital Recorder
 

In article ,
says...
Minidisc ? It'd still need digitising, no ?

Only if you're using one of the early analogue MD recorders:-)

On the Sony MD recorders I've used, ejecting the disc and pressing
record puts the machine into what Sony refers to as "Monitor mode";
The analogue input is digitised and a straight copy of this stream
(which has not undergone any data reduction processing) is available
from the digital outputs and a decoded version of this is available at
the analogue outputs.
Plus, of course the MD recorder will decode signals input via the
Digital connections and output them via analogue.

£30 or thereabouts will buy one with a faulty disc mechanism and or
lost remote ETC on eBay.
Not bad for a pretty fair combined ADC and DAC.