USB turntables
- Thread starter Robder
- Start date
Heard none of the USB ones are too great tbh. Are you using it to convert Vinyl to Wav / MP3?
As long as you spend a bit of cash on the Cartridge it should sound ok tho mate look for elliptical stylus for the best sond but dont go crazy scratching as it will wear your records out.
As long as you spend a bit of cash on the Cartridge it should sound ok tho mate look for elliptical stylus for the best sond but dont go crazy scratching as it will wear your records out.
Well it does and it doesnt the Tone arm and the cartridge is where the sound quality comes from.
You want a proper Hifi Cartridge rather than a Dj one to get the Best sound quality but there are cheep things you can do to improve the sound quality. It all depends on how you class the best tbh.
http://www.at440mla.co.uk/ I have been told this is quality but its a lot of cash. What ever you do set the tone arm up correctly as too much or little pressure on the end will cause problems
Something like this will help too http://www.htfr.com/more-info/MR38410 by stopping vibrations through the record and helping to straighten out any warped records. But again you can spend over £300 on them so it dependns on how much you care / can actually pick out the difference.
And leave the rubber mat on dont get slip mats as they wont help your cause!
You want a proper Hifi Cartridge rather than a Dj one to get the Best sound quality but there are cheep things you can do to improve the sound quality. It all depends on how you class the best tbh.
http://www.at440mla.co.uk/ I have been told this is quality but its a lot of cash. What ever you do set the tone arm up correctly as too much or little pressure on the end will cause problems
Something like this will help too http://www.htfr.com/more-info/MR38410 by stopping vibrations through the record and helping to straighten out any warped records. But again you can spend over £300 on them so it dependns on how much you care / can actually pick out the difference.
And leave the rubber mat on dont get slip mats as they wont help your cause!
No problem mate normally peoples eyes glaze over when i get into this stuff! 
Well it all depends on how much of a snob you are mate. The Purist will say its not great but my sensible side isnt gonna tell you to spend loads on something that will only be used for a limited time.
You can get a usb Deck for around £100 then get one of these for £80 which are supposed to be designed for what you want to do. Get a clamp for £20 and away you go.
Will it sound as good as a £1000+ plus hifi deck with a £200+ cartridge? Probably not but will you be able to hear that difference?
To record with try this http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ its free and works great for what you need it for. I normally record mixes into it and it will export them as Wav for archiving and Mp3 for your Ipod
Clean your records before you record them, Lighter fuel (the stuff you fill zippos with) is a good cheap method or wood glue is good for deep cleaning really dirty records.
Well it all depends on how much of a snob you are mate. The Purist will say its not great but my sensible side isnt gonna tell you to spend loads on something that will only be used for a limited time.
You can get a usb Deck for around £100 then get one of these for £80 which are supposed to be designed for what you want to do. Get a clamp for £20 and away you go.
Will it sound as good as a £1000+ plus hifi deck with a £200+ cartridge? Probably not but will you be able to hear that difference?
To record with try this http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ its free and works great for what you need it for. I normally record mixes into it and it will export them as Wav for archiving and Mp3 for your Ipod
Clean your records before you record them, Lighter fuel (the stuff you fill zippos with) is a good cheap method or wood glue is good for deep cleaning really dirty records.
Yeah! Bought the ****ty ION one today...will check out sound quality and if there's an issue I'll get a cartridge also (let's not get too carried away because we're dealing with sh!tty mp3s).
Only problem I'm thinking might be due to the lightweight base (solid ones mean less jumping and some of my records are getting on a bit!)
Only problem I'm thinking might be due to the lightweight base (solid ones mean less jumping and some of my records are getting on a bit!)
Get one of the clamps I posted about mate. It really goes make a difference to warped vinyl. If its good enough for Mancuso its goon enough for you! Make sure the arm is set up correctly too.
OK - bought one of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ion-Profile...RA1U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1288336641&sr=8-3
Got it home, tried remastering a few records, the quality is absolutely God awful and unusable.
There's no kick to the bass and the treble is distorting.
I may go and get a cartridge but need to know I'm not wasting my money before splashing out.
I've been reading about this thing called RIAA yet on Audacity I can't find anything to correct this?
Is that likely to be the problem or is the cartridge likely to have more of an effect.
Oh and why is everything so feckin' difficult?
All I want to do is play vinyl through my computer and make it sound passable ffs! Grrr.
What do you reckon Mr Audiophile? (Can I use that word and mp3 in the same context? Errr probably not.)
(see below - nicked from a forum)
...
Quite a few people talk about how 'terrible' this or that USB turntable sounds, ie see 'Bush' above.
This is due to a lack of understanding of vinyl processing and the nature of the USB turntable they have bought.
When music is 'cut' onto the vinyl the bass sounds are 'turned down' and the high frequency sounds are 'turned up'. This is due to the physical limitations of the cutting into plastic.
Old Style amps, ie those with phono sockets, would include RIAA circuits, to reverse this process to return the sound to normal. These USB turntables do no include such circuitry, they only boost the signal voltages to 'Line Out' levels without the use of additional earthing you would get with a seperate amp - which causes 'hum' of some sort when connected to a device that has no earthing, ie a PC.
Some software packages automatically adjust the sound with digital RIAA Equalization, some don't. For example, the software provided with the Bush Turnables requires an additional step of manual RIAA Equalization, without this your music will lack 'bass' and sound 'tinny'. Bush is at fault for not explaining this, but I suspect other manufactuers do the same.
If you want to know more checkout 'RIAA' in Wikipedia.
Vinyl transfer to digital is far more complicated that the USB Turntable Vendors let on, and the better your ear the more you'll realise this.
Anyway don't be so quick to throw away or return your USB Turntable because it sounds 'poor'.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ion-Profile...RA1U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1288336641&sr=8-3
Got it home, tried remastering a few records, the quality is absolutely God awful and unusable.
There's no kick to the bass and the treble is distorting.
I may go and get a cartridge but need to know I'm not wasting my money before splashing out.
I've been reading about this thing called RIAA yet on Audacity I can't find anything to correct this?
Is that likely to be the problem or is the cartridge likely to have more of an effect.
Oh and why is everything so feckin' difficult?
All I want to do is play vinyl through my computer and make it sound passable ffs! Grrr.
What do you reckon Mr Audiophile? (Can I use that word and mp3 in the same context? Errr probably not.)
(see below - nicked from a forum)
...
Quite a few people talk about how 'terrible' this or that USB turntable sounds, ie see 'Bush' above.
This is due to a lack of understanding of vinyl processing and the nature of the USB turntable they have bought.
When music is 'cut' onto the vinyl the bass sounds are 'turned down' and the high frequency sounds are 'turned up'. This is due to the physical limitations of the cutting into plastic.
Old Style amps, ie those with phono sockets, would include RIAA circuits, to reverse this process to return the sound to normal. These USB turntables do no include such circuitry, they only boost the signal voltages to 'Line Out' levels without the use of additional earthing you would get with a seperate amp - which causes 'hum' of some sort when connected to a device that has no earthing, ie a PC.
Some software packages automatically adjust the sound with digital RIAA Equalization, some don't. For example, the software provided with the Bush Turnables requires an additional step of manual RIAA Equalization, without this your music will lack 'bass' and sound 'tinny'. Bush is at fault for not explaining this, but I suspect other manufactuers do the same.
If you want to know more checkout 'RIAA' in Wikipedia.
Vinyl transfer to digital is far more complicated that the USB Turntable Vendors let on, and the better your ear the more you'll realise this.
Anyway don't be so quick to throw away or return your USB Turntable because it sounds 'poor'.
Never come across this before as I record them through my mixer which does all this for me. A quick google has thrown up this tho
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3097
You can apply RIAA equalisation in Audacity through the Effects menu, but only after recording.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Equalization
Mess about with the EQ to boost the bass and cut the treble.
Are you using the cartridge that comes with the Deck?
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3097
You can apply RIAA equalisation in Audacity through the Effects menu, but only after recording.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Equalization
Mess about with the EQ to boost the bass and cut the treble.
Are you using the cartridge that comes with the Deck?
It wouldn't of worked that well either mate. You would need a phono pre amp in the chain as well as most sound cards have Line level inputs not Phono inputs.
Line level inputs are for Cd players which have a higher output so there is no need to boost the signal coming in. A Phono Input has a boosting effect before it gets to the amp stage as the output from a turntable is a lot lower.
A phono level signal put into a line level input will be low gain, quiet and poor quality. Boosting it will just create loads of Hiss
http://support.radioshack.com/support_tutorials/audio_video/audfaq-2BA6.htm
Last edited by a moderator:
True enough mate you can also pay £100+ for them. In General the more things the signal goes through the greater the degradation, thwe worse the sound quality.
Looking at the spec's of Rob's deck it has a Pre Amp built in so can be connected directly to his computer
Rob what are you recording them too a Mac?
Looking at the spec's of Rob's deck it has a Pre Amp built in so can be connected directly to his computer
Rob what are you recording them too a Mac?
I love sound geeks.
Is your living room pimped up with high spec custom built bass bins and ceiling suspended tweeters Rob?
Yes - recording to a mac. The deck already has an audio out as well.
So you think the cartridge would solve my problems then? It's a fair amount of dosh you see - but well worth it if it'll work.
A couple of my tracks are distorting quite heavily though, I'm wondering whether it's because they're really loud pressings and there's no control over the volume before it hits the computer.
Actually - scrub that, I've absolutely NO idea what i'm jibbering on about.
Is your living room pimped up with high spec custom built bass bins and ceiling suspended tweeters Rob?
Yes - recording to a mac. The deck already has an audio out as well.
So you think the cartridge would solve my problems then? It's a fair amount of dosh you see - but well worth it if it'll work.
A couple of my tracks are distorting quite heavily though, I'm wondering whether it's because they're really loud pressings and there's no control over the volume before it hits the computer.
Actually - scrub that, I've absolutely NO idea what i'm jibbering on about.
Not quite mate but its not far off!!! I have 8 speakers in the front room alone
Your Mac must have an audio in? Try using the audio out from the deck into the Mac and see how that sounds you just need some sort of converter
Well the Cartridge is the first link in the chain so it will sound better but we need to sort out the one you have first. If we can get the quality near using what you have then you can make a call on buying something new. Have you Eq'ed the track yet?
You have a volume control in Audacity there are an input and output meters at the top of the screen with sliders below then to adjust the level. you want it so its not just full all the time other wise it will clip and sound distorted, set it so its at -3 or something and try again
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/toolbar_meter.htm
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/toolbar_mixer.htm
Your Mac must have an audio in? Try using the audio out from the deck into the Mac and see how that sounds you just need some sort of converter
Well the Cartridge is the first link in the chain so it will sound better but we need to sort out the one you have first. If we can get the quality near using what you have then you can make a call on buying something new. Have you Eq'ed the track yet?
You have a volume control in Audacity there are an input and output meters at the top of the screen with sliders below then to adjust the level. you want it so its not just full all the time other wise it will clip and sound distorted, set it so its at -3 or something and try again
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/toolbar_meter.htm
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/toolbar_mixer.htm
Last edited by a moderator: