Recording from Turntable to Apple MacBook Pro

[26gary26]

I would like to record my vinyl albums to my Apple MacBook Pro. I would like so advice on the best way to do this. I have a Pioneer Turntable with a Shure Audiophile Cartridge. The turntable does not have a USB connection.

I have recently purchased Emotiva XPA2-Gen 3, XPS-1 Gen2, ERC3,

If someone could guide me as to what I need I would be grateful.
Thankyou Gary

[Loop 7]

I believe you'll need an A/D converter with a USB output and software (some people just use Audacity which is free).

A/D converters range in price from very inexpensive to staggering.

There are myriad tutorials on YouTube.

[26gary26]

Thank you for your comments. I was hoping that Emotiva would have something that I could use.

[DYohn]

You’ll need a phono preamp plus an A to D converter. An inexpensive solution is a Rega Fono

www.rega.co.uk/fono-mini-a2d.html

[Gary Cook]

I used an Behringer UCA-202, but I already had an RIAA phono preamp which is also needed. Sticking with the brand, Behringer also make the PP-400 Phono preamp, that you could use before the UCA-202. There are some ADC's that will apply RIAA correction internally whilst recording, like the Behringer UFO-202.

The above are all relatively inexpensive and give good results, of course it's easy to spend many multiples of that with no sound benefit.

Cheers
Gary

[26gary26]

Thank you to all of those who have replied. I do appreciate what I am learning here.

[creimes]

I would have thought for the outrageous price of a macbook it would have a built in turntable

[drtrey3]

My rig is a Rega turntable being preamplified by a Bellari tubed preamp, then I take that signal and feed it into my sound card, a Julie@ if I remember correctly. I use Audacity to rip 24 bit 48K files, unless the pressing is bad or the record is just compressed beyond hope. Then I rip it at 16 bits. I use the 48K so the files are easy to distinguish between cd rips. It works, and works quite nicely!


Trey

[26gary26]

Thanks for your comments drtrey3.

[thrillcat]

I have a ProJect RM1.3, running into their preamp, and the aforementioned Behringer DAC connected via USB. I hate Audacity. I use Logic Pro, because I own it for multi tracking and mixing music. For recording your albums, Garageband should be suffice, and included at no additional charge.

[drtrey3]

I cannot say that I love Audacity either! I previously used a different recording package, paid for it and everything, but they "updated and improved" it by taking out the features I used regularly. I would try another package, but I have Audacity figured out enough, so I limp along for now.

Trey

[KeithL]

Audacity works.... and it works well (it produces perfectly good quality recordings).
And it is free.
However, it is quite clunky and unpleasant to use.
(I personally prefer Adobe Audition for recording.)

Note that most of the "better" products, like Adobe Audition, are a lot more pleasant to use once you become familiar with them.
They also usually offer far more options.
But, for basic recording, they won't give you a better-sounding result than Audacity, and they still carry a very steep learning curve.
(And, no, there is no product out there, at any price, that will "guarantee you a great recording even if you do it all wrong".....  )

I would suggest that, if you plan to do a lot of recording, or use any advanced features, it's worth it to pay for and learn one of the higher-end products.
But, for recording just a few albums, Audacity will do the job adequately.
I should also note that most commercial products, including Adobe Audition, do offer a free trial period.

And, if you want to do serious editing, check out the Izotope Ozone set of plugins...
And, if you want to do sophisticated clean-up on scratched albums or old low-quality recordings, check out Izotope RX...
(And, yes, you can get a free trial on both of them.)

For those who want to do really serious restoration, and have a bit more of the gear-head mentality....
(which is a nice way of saying you want a program that lets you tweak all the nuts and bolts - but might be really complicated to figure out....)
Check out Diamond Cut Audio Lab 10 (and that company's MUCH more comprehensive, and expensive, restoration and analysis product - Diamond Cut Forensics 10).

Mar 20, 2018 8:57:53 GMT -5 drtrey3 said:

I cannot say that I love Audacity either! I previously used a different recording package, paid for it and everything, but they "updated and improved" it by taking out the features I used regularly. I would try another package, but I have Audacity figured out enough, so I limp along for now.

Trey

[26gary26]

Thank you Keith and everyone who has replied. I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a great group of people here at the Emotiva Lounge. I'm enjoying the quality of my Emotiva equipment and to have access to the Lounge is just an extra bonus.
Thanks Gary

[wsr]

Hello from Ottawa. Waiting to thaw out and welcome spring.
Some time ago I moved all of my CDs into my Bluesound Vault and they are now available to me in FLAC. By the way, I hear things that I never heard before on my strait CD playback through my old Rotel player!

A second project is ready to go, which will digitize my LPs into FLAC. I will also move them into my Vault. I would suggest that you take a look at blog.birdhouse.org where you will find "The Compleat Guide to Digitizing Your LP Collection". I have my AR Turntable connected to my MAC through a NAD PP4. I downloaded and paid for Vinyl Studio (they have a free version if you want, but misses bells and whistles). I've just done some tests but haven't yet started the project in earnest.

Just a word of caution as you go about this. Unlike the ease of converting CDs to a Vault in FLAC, the timing issues for each track are not as straightforward. Take some time to explore this and understand that it takes a bit more nerdy finessing.

[vcautokid]

Also last time I checked Audacity was free. Everything else not so much, so while sure you can with allot more capability, will he need more than just Audacity? Give it a try and see what he thinks. Plenty of audio editor suites and programs to chose from depending on what he wants, and his workflow.

[bootman]

You need something like this as far as hardware.




www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/844849-REG/ART_USBPHONOPLUS_PS_USB_Phono_Plus_Phono.html

[thrillcat]

For me, the most infuriating part of the process was always the dividing up after the recordings were made. Audacity, ProTools, Logic, Garageband, QT Player, whatever, it was always a matter of having to chop the longer files up into several smaller files, exporting each one separately.

So I found Toast. It was so convenient, to take your long files, add track markers, name the tracks, etc., except you had to burn a CD, then rip that to files. What a WASTE!

So, to me, THAT's the value of something like Vinyl Studio, is being able to EASILY add your track markers and export directly to the file format of your choosing, while creating a separate file for each track, with the same timing and sequencing as the original album.

As far as hardware, something like what bootman listed above is surely nice, and I use something similar, but it's by no means necessary, unless your Mac is new enough that it doesn't have a line input. It will give you higher quality files, but if you just want a quick and dirty way to get a few albums in, and you have that line input, just grab a stereo RCA to 1/8" mini plug adapter cable, connect it to the line in and your phono preamp, and open up Quick Time player.

The latest versions of QT player allow you to record as well, and will do what you need. Plus it's more stable than Audacity.

Garageband, which is also free, will do everything Audacity will do and more, plus it's also more stable, but there's a slight learning curve if you've not used it before.

[audiobill]

Mar 30, 2018 8:11:39 GMT -5 bootman said:

You need something like this as far as hardware.




www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/844849-REG/ART_USBPHONOPLUS_PS_USB_Phono_Plus_Phono.html

I've used this, works well...and only $79.

[26gary26]

Wow ! Thank you all for you input. Thats why I really enjoy this site. Reminds me of the old days in meetings where people actually brain storm with various opinions.

[26gary26]

Okay guys so one more question about recording vinyl to MacBook Pro. Can I use My Pioneer Turntable connected to the XPS-1 Gen 2 Phono Amp section, then use my Processor Loop connection to connect to my MacBook Pro. New at this so if this is not the right way to go please tell me. If so I will have to purchase an A/D converter then. Thanks for the help.