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RE: Nothing against turntables or Tascam

">>My point being, I think he was shooting for extreme dynamic range by >>keeping the signal low but the result was anemic sounding recordings That doesn't make any sense to me."

By keeping the input signal low he avoided any chance of even the slightest clipping on peaks thinking he had lots of extra headroom for dynamic range. Unfortunately in doing this most of the desired signal was way down resulting in an overall very 'weak sound', even with the playback volume turned up on my end. Doesn't make sense to me either.


"My CDRW recorder is attached to my line out. Wonder if that line out could attach to a ADC that could connect to laptop running Audacity."

You kind of lost me here because I thought we were talking about digitizing vinyl. If you're making a copy of a CD there's no need to use a line-out. No need for an ADC. Just pop the CD in your PC and using something like dbpoweramp software create a perfect digital copy (rip) of the original. This will result in multiple tracks (files) that correspond to the tracks on your CD. Music servers PCs, Macs, and player software on them will know how to handle it.

For digitizing vinyl in my setup I had a separate Phone preamp and ADC. There are products out there that combine both and make it a little easier.

My setup:

TT+Cart -> RCA cables to Phono Preamp with variable output -> RCA cables to ADC -> USB cable to Mac -> Audacity software to capture the digitized signal. If your Phono Preamp lacks variable output (most don't) take the signal off your preamp as the preamp has variable output. IMHO having the variable analog output helps in adjusting the signal level driving the ADC. You can also adjust signal level in Audacity but you first want to ensure that you have a solid analog signal driving the ADC.

I capture one full side of the LP (one huge file) using Audacity then use Audacity to break up each track on that side. Repeat for the other side of the LP. This process is optional. Some people just create one huge file per side and listen with no track breaks. There is specialized software that breaks up the tracks and helps to automate the process. I have no experience with it but one such software is Vinyl Studio

If you can accomplish all of this with a dedicated digital recorder that's great. Either way, it will be fun (for a while) but a royal pain in the butt! ;-) I digitized a dozen or so LP's then gave up. I already had a few hundred CDs that I 'ripped' to the music server. I still play them but it's all also available to me via streaming service Qobuz.

Parasound Z-Phono USB = Phono Pre + ADC + USB Out to your PC for capture:





View YouTube Video

There are other similar units like the Parasound with higher resolution. However, you don't NEED 24-bit unless you're in the studio doing a lot of multitrack edits.

P.S. If you go to YouTube and search on "Digitizing Vinyl Records" you'll find tons of info.





Edits: 05/20/25

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  • RE: Nothing against turntables or Tascam - AbeCollins 19:27:21 05/20/25 (0)


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