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General discussion

Line In feature in MP3 player

Aug 26, 2004 4:02PM PDT

I am interested to know if direct encoding cassette or vinyl music via MP3 Line-in will produce good sound effect? Is it worthwhile the investment?

Discussion is locked

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Re: Line In feature in MP3 player
Aug 27, 2004 1:00AM PDT

You'll have to try it. You may have to diddle with "levels" to avoid a too low or high input level just like all audio equipment. Yes, it does work, but as all audio work, the beauty is in the ears of the beholder.

Bob

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Re: Line In feature in MP3 player
Sep 4, 2004 3:22PM PDT

Bob,

I've been running a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 (hard get unless you're on eBay). It does auto volume level, pretty much, and works well. It also has a "gain" feature to juice up weak recordings.

- Jim Walsh
jimmarin1

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Re: Line In feature in MP3 player
Aug 29, 2004 1:31PM PDT

If you are going to do a lot of songs, i suggest that you just use a computer, but for a few songs on the go, most are very good sounding. You'll just have to decide what formay you want encoded to, and what bitrate, 128 and 192 are always good. There are some players that let you raise or lower the volume directly as you encode it, so you can record it perfect the first time.

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Re: Line In feature in MP3 player
Sep 1, 2004 7:14AM PDT

I have recorded direct from CD, record player and audio cassette using my iRiver HP-120. It encodes straight to MP3 on the fly and the quality is excellent. If you have a CD player or Minidisc player with optical out you can even record digitally with no loss of quality.

It depends what you want to use the player for, but if you can afford it the iRiver HP-120 / 140 is the best available. You can put all your LPs and cassettes on it.

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Re: Line In feature in MP3 player
Sep 4, 2004 3:19PM PDT

Janet,

Vinly? You're a boomer, aren't you?

Yeah, me too. So here's what I've got:

I bought a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 about 2 yrs ago. It's line-in feature pulls right out of the stereo so anything you can play there (cassettes, vinyl, audio from video tapes of great horse races, for example) you can rip right to mp3. Now the catches: I believe Creative discontinued the Jukebox 3 (this is NOT the Zen product line). I just found another one on eBay that Creative is selling as a refurbished unit - they appear to have many . . . Perhaps they will re-introduce the product. Perhaps there is a Santa Claus.
Too, as you may have figured out, once you create the mp3 file, you've got to label it if you ever want to find it again. Aaaaaand you've got to sit by the turntable and hit "stop" every time a song on the turntable ends - I like my recordings clean.
The good news: the quality, in my humble opinion, is stellar. That is to say, waaaay better than taping - no hiss. What you get out of the turntable, you get out of the player.
I've been very happy with what I get from the Jukebox (I have since purchased a slimmer, higher capacity Nomad Zen Xtra - 60g drive, It will keep me out of trouble for a long time, and interfaces perfectly with the current "media play center" that you can get at Creative's website.
I would love to find an alternative to sitting at the stereo cueing and cutting each track. There must be some software that would let you look at a graphical representaion of the recording and cut it into separate tracks, I'm thinking.
I googled vinyl-ripping and the one that jumps out is something like Vinyl R.I.P or some such. To use that you don't need a line in mp3 recorder but you do need a device that converts the stereo signal to a usb connection (apple sells it, about $35, what's it called?) I forget, but it does work on pc's as well as macs. I've tried it a few times, however, and didn't get great results. I'm thinking it was the software, or maybe my pain-in-the-butt Vaio laptop (never again!)
I'd love to hear if you or anyone you know has tried any other vinyl ripping software, especially software that might allow you to clean up tracks . . . it must be out there.
That's all I know. If you need the usb/stereo product name, email me and I'll send the name when I get home.

Jim Walsh
jimmarin1@yahoo.com

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I Have The Answer For You!!!
Jan 19, 2005 3:42PM PST

I know I'm a little late with this reply, but I just read the forum tonite.

The answer to your ripping and audio adjusting problems is a program call Audacity. The best thing about it is it's FREEWARE!!!! This program is so powerful(especially for freeware) the posibilities are limitless. Here's the link http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ go there read all about it, download it start ripping and fall in love.
please e-mail me back if you have any questions about features. I've been using it for a few years now, so I'm pretty handy with it. The first version was a beta and you could not export the file as an MP3, but they have made major improvement sense then.

If you are ripping from vinyl or tape the best feature or effect, as they label it, will be the noise removal. Basically you sample(or hi-lite) a section of dead air or just tape hiss, then you hi-lite the whole song, album etc, then remove the hiss from it all!!

The program will allow you to record up to I think 5 hours of uninterupted audio (the first version was unlimited,you could fill your hard drive!!) You can perform unlimilted undos & redos.

What I've always done is record the whole tape or record at one time. Even if you have to flip it over leave it recording. It is easier to delete 30 sec. of dead time then stop and restart the recording.
Each time you stop then hit record again, Audacity opens a new recording window. You want it to be all one continuious recording so when you go back and perform adjustments, every track has the same adjustment made. Keeps things sounding uniform.
Under the "edit" tab there will be a button called "split" this too will be your best friend!!! If you're like any other great music lover you really enjoy a lot of the concept album that came for the late 60s and the 70s (Floyd, Rush, Hendrix - Electric Ladyland, Etc) Then you understand that songs must be played back to back to completely enjoy the album. Well once you're finished recording the album in, adjusting the audio, you will be ready to chop it all up into tracks!! That is where "split" comes in. Hi-lite the complete track, hit "split" and it drops it down into its own track. once you've exported as an MP3, Hi-lite the remainder of the original album and hit the "project" tab, go down to the "align tracks" button and align with zero. Then delete the "split" track, and start all over again until all you track are done. What the "split" and "align with zero" do for you is make flawless track breaks!!!

I can go on forever about this program, just download it play with it a bit and don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

Happy ripping!!

Doug

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Recording LPs and 45s
Jan 29, 2005 8:03AM PST

There is one problem with recording LPs and 45s by hooking them directly to a recorder. Unlike most audio components, signals from a turntable have to be equalized before they can be recorded, otherwise the highs will be too high and the lows will be very low.

LPs and 45s are recorded with an RIAA equalization curve to take into account the limitation of vinyl. The curve lowers the lows and boosts the highs. Without it, the lows would cause the needle to jump out of the groove and the highs would be lost in the surface noise. Also, the signal strength from a turntable is lower than that of other components.

To record LPs and 45s, you will need to hook it up to a receiver with a phono input and then record from the receiver.