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Digitizing LPs: General advice wanted

Hi everyone,
I will soon set out to digitize a LOT of LPs.
And given the extensive labor that will involved, I DESPERATELY want to do it right the FIRST time :-).
btw, I am solely concerned with the recording process, as playback issues may always be addressed later.

At this point, I only know that I want to record at a minimum of 24/96 with a PLANAR 3 turntable.

As everything else is undetermined, I am looking for some general advice.
I.E.:
Should I use a PC or an digital recorder ?
If a PC, should I use an INTERNAL sound card or a USB sound card (so as to minimize RF nose) ?
If a digital-recorder, are there any that will record at 24/96 ?
And can they easily share files with a PC (for use with editing software, etc) ?

Any other advice, pitfals, or experiences to share ?

Many thanks for any advice you may offer :-).
captainbeyond

Showing 2 responses by onhwy61

onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,149 posts
 
Your computer OS will automatically handle the accessing of multiple hard drives. All the user has to do is specify, via software, where the music files are to be stored.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,149 posts
 
Cap'n, it's important to know how you'll playback your digitized music for there are negative sonic effects associated with sample rate conversion. For instance, if 44.1kHz is your final playback sample rate, then your music will sound better if digitized at 44.1kHz rather than at 96kHz and down converted to 44.1kHz. Avoid SRC if at all possible. Whatever you do, record at a 24bit depth rate.

Despite the above comments which favor stand alone CDRs, computer based systems offer the potential for better sound quality and greater flexibility. The downside is that a good computer setup is fairly expensive. First, you'll need a fast computer (I prefer a Mac because of the better software selection), a pro-quality soundcard (the Lynx Two offers 192kHz A/D conversion) and vast amounts of hard disk space for file storage. For software I use t.c. works Spark XL, but there are others (Sound Forge, WaveLab, Peak). Such a system will approach $3,000, but it will sound better than and be able to do more than a simple CDR machine.
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