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Best way to record vinyl to digital?

I hope that I'm not hijacking someone else's thread, but I asked a question over on the Digital Forum and did not receive a reply so I thought I would try here:

Can anyone provide a brief comparison of LP ripping software? Audacity and Reaper have both been mentioned, but not Pure Vinyl. Has anyone tried it?

I have been struggling with ripping my vinyl collection to digital files. I have a Mac Mini and an Apogee Duet I borrowed from the kid next door, and I downloaded the Pure Vinyl demo which is supposed to be fully functional. After messing with it for over a week I still can't get it to work, and the documentation they provide with the demo version stinks. So I am looking for a better way to do this and would appreciate any suggestions.
bodotes
altbrewer
24 posts
 
If you only downloaded the Pure Vinyl 3 beta version, you should also get the PV 2.3 application suite. The documentation with version 2.3 is more complete and will help somewhat with version 3, although several aspects of the interface differ.

The beta version 3 still has significant limitations and I have not yet gotten it to work to my satisfaction. It works much better if you record using a non-equalized amplifier for the turntable and let PV add digital RIAA equalization. But, recording an equalized signal from my phono preamp still fails with PV3. PV 2.3 works fine, but you have to downsample to CD quality (16/44.1) to edit the recording into individual tracks.
bodotes OP
30 posts
 
Guys, thanks for your comments and suggestions.

Altbrewer, I *think* that I have it working with the Duet, usinf the PV RIAA equalization. I'm still having trouble with the recording trigger - the recording stops when the music passes from a loud passage to a quiet one. I did send an email to Channel D, but their web site does state that support is for registered users. Fair enough, but why would I buy something that I cannot make work?

I think that the application is pretty good, but their documentation for v3 stinks. And you are correct, there are significant differences between the v2.3 and v3 interfaces that make the former documentation almost useless, except maybe as a concepts document.

Any other suggestions?
secretchimp99
8 posts
 
I don't know if this is helpful, but I would recommend demoing as many as possible before deciding.

I demoed a handful of programs a year or so ago (including Channel D's Pure Vinyl) and settled on Sound Studio. It's simple and does everything I need when combined with Click Repair(Highly, Highly recommended). I thought Pure Vinyl was a bit gimmicky for my tastes and functionally didn't offer anything IMO. However I do use their Pure Music for playback.

I record in 32/96khz in Sound studio then use Click Repair to remove surface noise and pops. Then normalize, edit, split tracks and downsample in SS. Really simple and no bugs, freezes or lost data in my year of using it. It's very stable IME.
br3098
994 posts
 
Well, after wasting the better part of this weekend plus several hours over the last two weeks, I am retiring Pure Vinyl v3. I just can't seem to get it to work reliably, and the documentation provided with the demo is almost useless.

I will try some of the other applications you all have suggested. Thanks for your help!
tobias
1,534 posts
 
I don't use PV for recording although I use Pure Music for playback. My recording software is Audiofile Engineering's Wave Editor and it is excellent.
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