Transferring from LP to digital, is there anyone who can do it well for me in the UK?

[mandryka]

If this isn’t appropriate to post here, I’m sorry and hopefully a moderator can move or delete it.

I want to buy a couple of LPs and pay someone who knows what they’re doing to make a transfer to a digital format. They’re not available in digital form and I don’t have a turntable. Can anyone recommend someone in the UK?

In the past I used someone in Scotland and they did a very good job, but he’s become too ill to continue. Since then I’ve used a place in Surbiton just once, but the sound quality of the transfer was so poor that I won’t go back.

It needs to be someone who’ll do a proper, careful job, an artist, a craftsman, a poet . . . But who also won’t charge me an arm and a leg.

 

[Bob McC]

Cheaper to buy a turntable and use audacity...

 

[Wolfmancatsup]

Whereabouts in the UK are you?

 

[Paul R]

Do you know what condition the LPs are in?

And what kind of output do you want? I can easily produce 96k/24 'raw' dubs of each side. It would be rude to charge for that.

Paul

 

[mandryka]

I am in London.

The LPs are Near Mint.

The required output is lossless (flac) /44.1

It would not be cheaper to buy a turntable and use audacity as I would need a good turntable and cartridge to make a good transfer.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I'd recommend you get the actual transfers done as 96k/24 (or 88.2k/24) as it is then easy to generate 44.1k/16 flac versions from that, and you will have the 96k/24 in reserve should you decide later on that you need it.

 

[YNWOAN]

Quite, it certainly wouldn't be cheaper to buy a turntable to copy two records! I don't know of anyone who directly offers this as a service, but lots of people on this forum have the equipment to do this task (and many do this for themselves). Unfortunately, in my case, I think my phonostage has too high an output for my Analogue to digital converter or I could have done it myself.

 

[mandryka]

These are the LPs I want to get transferred

 

[mercalia]

well if there are digital recordings of these they are likely to be identical to the LP. Thats been mine limited experience with classical LP/Cds. So maybe get the cds first and see if they are good enough, given all the variables with LP-CD conversion ( cartridge/phono stage, dac) you will probably get a better result, rather than a result that reflects the variables? Unless the cds have had the analogue LPs been "remastered" Even then it may be for the better

 

[mandryka]

There are no digital recordings of these LPs that I’m aware of.

 

[slavedata]

PM me and I will send you my contact details then you can post me the LPs I'll post them back to you with a CD of the content. Transfer from a Thorens 124 Hansa SL using Vinylstudio software on a PC

 

[Paul R]

The LPs are Near Mint.

The issue for me is whether they require cleaning to play cleanly (IYSWIM)...

The required output is lossless (flac) /44.1

Once they are dubbed to digital the format is arbitrary. 96k24 is a good starting point because it's a wider envelope in both frequency and signal/noise than can be put onto an LP, so you get everything, audible and inaudible. Then you can adjust levels and filter as wanted in the digital domain to produce a version for use. And if you don't like it you can go back to the original dub and try again. Nothing gets thrown away. 96k24 seems to be an ADC sweetspot, more doesn't necessarily mean more, and we're running out of information to capture.

This image,

(which I've posted before) illustrates the signal spectrum of transfers from vinyl of a part of Stevie Wonder's 'Songs In The Key of Life' which was from pretty much the peak of analogue recording, and an extract from Jennifer Warnes 'Famous Blue Raincoat' which was an early digital effort. You can see that the capture process preserves the decay of the noise floor, the evidence of the anti-aliasing filter(s) on the Warnes recording is clear to see. You cannot hear this, but I think it is interesting.

Anyway I'm happy to create dubs for you, but I don't really want to be spending hours editing clicks out or trying to find track boundaries...

 

[mandryka]

The issue for me is whether they require cleaning to play cleanly (IYSWIM)...




Anyway I'm happy to create dubs for you, but I don't really want to be spending hours editing clicks out or trying to find track boundaries...

Clicks don't worry me, and I can deal with track boundaries by creating a cue file myself. What I want is a the natural, unfiltered sound of the LP playing at its best, nothing added or taken away. If you're up for it, PM me and we can agree a price, I'll get one of the two LPs shipped over to you and we'll see how it goes.

 

[Dougie2404]

Presumably you can burn cds yourself? Wouldn't it be easier to just get Mandryka to send you a file. You could then split it your self and burn the result yourself?