USB turntable

[Paul The Party Dj]

Greetings
I've been thinking of getting a USB turntable to transfer some more of my vinyl over to mp3. I'm doing a radio show and keep finding gaps in my library that I need to fill and lots of the stuff isn't easy to find.
Does anyone have a turntable they are really happy with?
I'm a Mac man so any feedback from other Apple lovers would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Paul

[simonp]

I can tell you one NOT to get, and that's the Ion USB turntable - The problem with it, is that the needles too sensitive - it picks up all other ambient and not so ambient noises, right down to someone sniffing in the next room!

In fact I thought I'd do some vinyl to mp3 transfer in the wee small hours one night, and the thing even picked up traffic going past outside - rubbish!

It's just like going back to being a nipper and trying to tape the top 40 off the radio with your separate cassette recorder and condenser mic, and telling everyone in house to shut up as you don't want noise over your prized recording.

If you do find a good one let me know, as I've loads of terrific vinyl to convert.

[Paul The Party Dj]

Thanks Simon - gave me a smile and saved me some money.
We'll see if anyone else can help.
By the way, just subscribed to your youtube stuff - keep up the great work.
Cheers

[Adam_F]

Kam DDX 400 USB or Stanton T92 USB are the only one I'd advise on for decent quality.

Or, get a Stanton T 62, a & Behringer UCA 202 (or similar audio interface). Same quality as the T 92, but a bit cheaper.

[Vectis]

When I did mine I used a 'propa' turntable and hooked it up to my mixer, then used the line out to feed into the computer. Perfect quality with the option to normalise. At the computer end I used 'Polderbits' software which spots the silence inbetween album tracks and breaks the output into individual wav or mp3s.

We're going back a few years here mind...

[BeerFunk]

When I did mine I used a 'propa' turntable and hooked it up to my mixer, then used the line out to feed into the computer. Perfect quality.I used to do the same many years back, and most of theses rips still sound great now. Mind you, one or two of them seem a bit muffled, which I suspect might have been down to the mixer EQ being set up wrongly :o

[Jiggles]

When I did mine I used a 'propa' turntable and hooked it up to my mixer, then used the line out to feed into the computer. Perfect quality with the option to normalise. At the computer end I used 'Polderbits' software which spots the silence inbetween album tracks and breaks the output into individual wav or mp3s.

We're going back a few years here mind...

That's what I do with my grandads old 78s. Audacity. :D

[Paul The Party Dj]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
Yeah, when I did a load (back in the day), I recorded them to minidisc, then I transfered those over to mp3 a few years ago. Now, I've sold my Technics and I think the one turntable left in the house is dodgy.
So how comes lots of people give good reviews on "reevoo" - the impartial review service on sites like djkit?
Fingers crossed someone still might have a decent idea that won't cost the earth.
Bless you all ;o)

[BeerFunk]

If I remember correctly, Steve (Corabar) has one, or at least had one a year or two ago. I was considering getting one at that point, but have since changed my mind.

[BeerFunk]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
Yeah, when I did a load (back in the day), I recorded them to minidisc, then I transfered those over to mp3 a few years ago. Now, I've sold my Technics and I think the one turntable left in the house is dodgy.
So how comes lots of people give good reviews on "reevoo" - the impartial review service on sites like djkit?
Fingers crossed someone still might have a decent idea that won't cost the earth.
Bless you all ;o)Any luck with this then, Paul? I hauled my Dad's old Technics deck out to attempt a few rips, but the stylus has gone, again. I had replaced it a few years ago aswell.

I'm still looking for a solution, sub-£100. I see no need for a direct drive deck, as suggested above, and even pitch-bending is unnecessary.

This one seems like it could be a good buy?

[Corabar Steve]

If I remember correctly, Steve (Corabar) has one, or at least had one a year or two ago. I was considering getting one at that point, but have since changed my mind.
He does indeed. (Ion).

Not used it too much (finding the time to rip in real time), but used in conjunction with Audacity the results weren't too bad.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

He does indeed. (Ion).

Not used it too much (finding the time to rip in real time), but used in conjunction with Audacity the results weren't too bad.

Same here, but I found tweeking the gain etc took ages and I couldn't get it quite right.

[Totally Plucked]

A wonderful free bit of software for normalising gain levels, just rip and run this later. It will normalise all your files to the desired level.

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

Personally I find the default level of 89db a bit to low, I use 92db with excellent results :)