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Also make sure that the needle of your turntable is free from dust, and it’s set to the right speed. First of all, make sure the albums you’re converting are clean and free from scratches.
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However, there are certain things you can do to make this process easier. Because of this, if you have a large vinyl collection, it could take some time to convert it all. This is because you need to play the tracks in real time, so a five minute song will take five minutes to record. Getting startedĬonverting a vinyl album to digital MP3 files can be a time-consuming process.
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We picked Audacity to convert our vinyl to MP3. Most budget USB turntables don’t have a removable cartridge, which means if the needle gets damaged, the turntable is useless. This offers superior sound to the cheaper turntables, and it can be replaced and even upgraded. This includes an Audio Technica AT3600L cartridge. Not only does it has a USB output, but it features excellent sound thanks to its high quality components. That’s why for this guide we’ve picked the House of Marley Stir It Up turntable. There are some budget vinyl turntables with USB ports, and while these are fine for quick and easy conversions, if you want to use the turntable for playing your albums at a decent sound quality, you’re better off spending a bit more on a better quality turntable. This makes things much easier, as your PC will detect the turntable as an audio input source, and there shouldn’t be any need for pre-amps. There are many modern vinyl players which come with a USB output for connecting to a PC and digitizing the music. It is expensive, however, at $379/£300/AU$556, which means it is probably only of interest to people with huge vinyl collections.įinally, you’ll also need a vinyl player. This makes the process easier, as it has some nice features such as automatic pop and click removal and track splitting. If you want a more powerful application that specializes in converting vinyl to digital, you could try Pure Vinyl, which has been designed specifically for the task.
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