Vinyl to MP3

I tried recording some of my old vinyl the other day from my 1200 to my PC via my mixer. When I brought the tunes into Traktor, it was impossible to set an accurate grid on them which I'm guessing is probably due to the turntable which hasn't been used in ages. Or could it be down to the tunes themselves which were all from pre-2000? Or could it be the software I used to record (WavePad Sound Editor)?

Aside from the beat grid problems, there were a couple that skipped, which I didn't realise until later when I was trying to mix them and also the problem of hissing and popping noise from the needle.

So I'm after some tips on how to get good quality vinyl to MP3 conversion without having to spend too much. I'm not really that desperate to convert everything to digital, there's just one mix I'd like to do and don't want to have to drag out all the old gear just to do it.

 

I recommend using audacity to record (it's free). Normalize the tracks before exporting to MP3.

I've digitalized tons of MP3s. While occasionally there can be some slight drift, most tracks beatgrid just fine. Make sure you set the quartz lock (if the 1200 has it--i'm embarrassed idk). also, it's worth cleaning up your records prior to recording. i use "gruv glide ii" which is totally worth it.

 

Hmm, maybe there's something wrong with the way I'm beatgridding then. I've watched a couple of video tuts. After watching the first one I went through and beatgridded all the tunes I'd downloaded from Beatport and had no problems, only took a few seconds to do each one.

But with the tunes I've recorded from vinyl, if I get things right at the beginning of the tune, it's out of whack by the end and if I get it right for the end of the tune, it's out of whack at the start.

And yes, the 1200s do have a quarz lock.

 

anything i am struggling with i am warping in ableton, most of my stuff is 1990 - 93 oldskool rave / acid house stuff.

i got my decks recently serviced too and was told the 1210's are practically bullet proof, so prob the tune rather than the turntable mate..

if you find a better way of beat gridding pleasepost, there is a good one and the bible mentioned previously does help too.

can't find links ruching at work sorry dude

 

What's the minimum version of Ableton you need to be able to do that?

 

pianojunkie is certainly right that it might just be that the records you're trying to digitalize are so old that the beats are off due to technological issues in the old days.

warping in ableton has been around for quite a while. you can d/l a 30-day trial of the latest version to warp your stuff.

 

you can send me a track that you dont get beatgridded and i will tell you if it's your gridding or the track.

 

using vinyl AND old tracks?
well you can guarantee some will need a little beat warping, and it does seem ableton is the best thing for it.
a few suggestions:
- rip into WAV and (if necessary) warp in ableton in WAV before bouncing to MP3 to maintain quality
- listen to track all the way through before doing any processing, I got bit by skipping vinyl rips too....
- normalising your rips to 0dB will NOT make them as loud as CD rips or bought MP3's, to do that you'll need to use compression and/or limiting, or simply use traktors auto gain function which uses the percieved volume (rms) as opposed to the max pressure.
- if you have the space, save a copy in WAV, always good to have a master "CD quality" copy. (something I regret not doing now)
- if exporting as an MP3 for traktor, use the highest quality encoding available, 320Kbs and 44.100kHz should suffice to avoid poor clarity on big sound systems.
- if the option is available, find a source for such tracks that isn't from an analogue medium. no doubt most will be but it's always worth looking for an actual digital encoded version, as opposed to using a well played (possibly worn) vinyl on an unprecisely sped turntable and ripping the audio yourself, unless nostalgia outweighs audio quality!
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another thing I noticed when using TT's yonks ago, the track plays slightly faster towards the end of the vinyl, because your needle has less distance to travel per revolution, = less resistance per cycle, = faster track at end compared with needle having greater effect on resistance at the start of the track, as it has much further to travel, so has to move faster over the distance of vinyl per revolution.
only affects lower quality decks, but not all of us could afford 1210's once...

 

Yep, tried that already and didn't turn up anything. I've tried Beatport, Trackitdown, and Juno Downloads. Any others out there that I don't know about that I could try?

Mine are 1200 MkIIs, so I guess that's not an issue?

 

7digital or soulseek perhaps.

shouldn't be, no.

 

Tried Soulseek to see if it was just me having trouble recording tracks from vinyl properly, but the first one I downloaded had the same problem as the one I'd done :/

Thanks for the suggestion about 7digital but they don't have what I'm looking for either.

 

the track you sent me is definitely not stable... somewhere after the break it is drifting!

you could mix only til the break... or, measure the bpm of a loop after the break and mix with this. or just ride the pitch after the break and put a comment in the tags to remember that this track is drifting after the break.

 

Remember though that 1200's are not "High quality decks" at least for rotation speed stability (especialy if you have not them properly setup).

anyway if your track drifts too much and you don't care loosing a bit of "groove" and sound quality, get a light version of Abletion live and Warp it.

 

ive recorded tracks from vinyl using "cool edit" (the old one) when saving it gives you the option to save as a few different file types, once saved as mp3 drag into a deck n hey presto, in the middle of recording a drum n bass collection as we speak and havent noticed any jumping so far

 

Thanks native_girl. Goonzy, can you tell me how difficult it is to warp tracks in Ableton, what's the process involve. I only really wanted to do this one mix of old tracks and wondering if it's worth the effort of getting Ableton and working out how to do it, or if I should just manually beat match as I go along.

The second option would be more appealing if I could figure out how to reduce the pitch increments down to 0.01; at the moment, the best I can get is 0.04 if I set the BPM controls to fine.

Someone mentioned in another thread about setting up modifiers but I haven't been able to get my head around that.

 

Warping is quite straightforward in live, but differs a bit depending on the version you are using (it change radically in version 8 compared to version 7 but you get used to it)

The method is rather simple. Load your sample in a clip.the tempo ( Set the 1.1.1 marker at the 1st beat and create a loop on 4 beats to get the tempo... then extend this loop to 16 or 32 beats) and move it along the wave. When you see it's ot in place anymore, set a warp marker which will stretch the wave accordingly (in 8, it more like move the wave to match the beat marker)... if you see it's going too much out of place, reduce the size of the loop. oncedone, render your clip and you'll have a new warped track ready to be beatmatched without issue..

check ableton's website for the video tutorials for warping and DJing with Live (and Youtube as well


When I have to do this I tend to do a project with several tracks that I render with enough space inbetween (and the tempo changes necessary) and then cut the rendenred track using wavelp of soundforge.

 

I finally got around to taking a loop at Ableton for this but I'm finding that I'm having trouble with Ableton distorting tracks after they've been warped. Is there any way around this?

 

try out the different warping algorithms

 

Just trying that out now. Are there any in particular that you find work better with dance music?
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Repitch seems to be doing a better job so far.