Calling Audiophiles with Vinyl

[ukbubs]

I hope this thread causes nobody grief with its very tenuous connection to xlobby, but I'm having no luck getting guidance on digitising vinyl from the other forums I belong to, and its clear that there are a fair few music fans here.

I've got a load of vinyl I want to digitise. At the moment, the only sound card I have is a audigy2ls, and its bundled software

I know that for most music (rather than gaming purposes etc), the prodigy 192 is a much better bet than the audigy.

What I'm trying to find out, is whether the audigy 2ls is in fact just as good as any other card for analog capture

Also, will the bundled software do me as well as any other affordable solution for cleanup. If not, what do folks suggest.

Finally, if nobody here can help, any suggestions as to other places I could ask without being ignored (!?) or starting a flame war - audiophile forum members seem to be a passionate bunch

[AtTheGates]

I can't really claim to be an audiophile but I have digitized a few tapes and records. I used my Audigy ZS and Audacity. Audacity is a great free open source sound editing program. It has noise reduction and several other useful filters. I recommend only a very small amout of noise reduction because it can quickly lose depth. Don't know anything about the bundled software.

[Arthur]

I also prefer Audacity, it does what you want it to do (record records/tape) and split the files (can even convert to mp3

Arthur

[ukbubs]

Thanks for the tips guys - I love gnus........

Anybody else got any thoughts on audio cards?

[samgreco]

The Audigy should be fine. The only way you'll get a noticeable improvement is to go with one of the more pro cards, like the M-Audio 24/96. The idea is to improve the analog to digital converters.

More importantly is that you will need a phono preamp, unless you're taking it out of an existing receiver's or preamp's tape outs. Turntable cartridges are not line level and they have a strange EQ curve required.