Okay, I got a lot of good responses about digital music players and I'm very thankful. If you can stand another question or two about pc music then I would be even more thankful.
Here's the skinny. I can do basic audio ripping of my cds. I'm no music afficianado but do appreciate good sound. I have some vinyl lps I would like to transfer to digital format and would really like some pointers about how to do this in a relatively painless way. Now, I have googled all over the place and there's about a million different views as to how this should/could/would be done. The simplest way is to use the inputs currently in most pc's sound card. Lets say a turntable's L & R rca plugs to one of those mini 1/8" stereo plug adapter cables. Using a freeware program like Audacity you then play the vinyl and capture it as a wav. file and edit or compress later. THEN you get the guys who go and screw stuff up for you by mentioning a very few little secrets about sound cards that are mostly aimed at gaming. The normal sampling rate for a cd is 44.1 Hz(I believe). The trouble is, many cards are locked at 48 Hz and down sample to 44.1 and then upsample back to 48Hz on it's way out of the card. This can cause latency that may sound like mis-timed music. Here's the kicker. I can't really tell from their articles whether this effect is noticed if you are just using the card to capture the music or if at the same time you're using the output as well to listen to it. What I'm saying is that I don't know if it affects the actual recorded file or if you just notice this latency while listenting at the same time. These guys grump about sound cards not having 44.1 supported natively in the card instead of being manipulated by the card at the higher freq. They also beef about the digital to audio converters(DAC)on these cards not being too good either. They really dislike Creative soundblaster stuff. It's super for gamers sounds but evidently not too good for recording.
Okay, have I been confusing enough? I'm still a bit confused myself. While I don't have a problem ponying up for a decent sound card, I don't fully understand the functions of some of them. This one is highly recommended http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html
but as you can see, it's geared toward musicians who plug instruments into it. It has RCA jacks in and out and MIDI but if you put this card in your PC, will you need to run all your sound to an amplifier before the speakers? I don't see speaker outs on this card. So as you can see, I'm pretty green with real music editing on a pc. I'm not afraid to try it. I just don't want to get into quasi studio recording. I just need a good way to transfer some vinyl to digital. Before you ask, yes it's because some of what I want to archive isn't available on cd. BTW, specs for my pc are as follows. Dell P4 2.8Ghz with XP Media Center, 160Gig sata hdd, 512Mb ram, dvd player, dvd burner, basic onboard sound with 1/8" jacks for line in, line out, speakers, mic. Very basic and I don't know if it would need to be disabled to keep from conlict with a newer card. After all this, would using the line in jack with an amped turntable give a decent enough recording? Thanks guys and I hope I've been clear in questions. I sense that I'm sounding like I'm going in circles and may be confusing someone(Likely me).
Regards, Todd
Here's the skinny. I can do basic audio ripping of my cds. I'm no music afficianado but do appreciate good sound. I have some vinyl lps I would like to transfer to digital format and would really like some pointers about how to do this in a relatively painless way. Now, I have googled all over the place and there's about a million different views as to how this should/could/would be done. The simplest way is to use the inputs currently in most pc's sound card. Lets say a turntable's L & R rca plugs to one of those mini 1/8" stereo plug adapter cables. Using a freeware program like Audacity you then play the vinyl and capture it as a wav. file and edit or compress later. THEN you get the guys who go and screw stuff up for you by mentioning a very few little secrets about sound cards that are mostly aimed at gaming. The normal sampling rate for a cd is 44.1 Hz(I believe). The trouble is, many cards are locked at 48 Hz and down sample to 44.1 and then upsample back to 48Hz on it's way out of the card. This can cause latency that may sound like mis-timed music. Here's the kicker. I can't really tell from their articles whether this effect is noticed if you are just using the card to capture the music or if at the same time you're using the output as well to listen to it. What I'm saying is that I don't know if it affects the actual recorded file or if you just notice this latency while listenting at the same time. These guys grump about sound cards not having 44.1 supported natively in the card instead of being manipulated by the card at the higher freq. They also beef about the digital to audio converters(DAC)on these cards not being too good either. They really dislike Creative soundblaster stuff. It's super for gamers sounds but evidently not too good for recording.
Okay, have I been confusing enough? I'm still a bit confused myself. While I don't have a problem ponying up for a decent sound card, I don't fully understand the functions of some of them. This one is highly recommended http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html
but as you can see, it's geared toward musicians who plug instruments into it. It has RCA jacks in and out and MIDI but if you put this card in your PC, will you need to run all your sound to an amplifier before the speakers? I don't see speaker outs on this card. So as you can see, I'm pretty green with real music editing on a pc. I'm not afraid to try it. I just don't want to get into quasi studio recording. I just need a good way to transfer some vinyl to digital. Before you ask, yes it's because some of what I want to archive isn't available on cd. BTW, specs for my pc are as follows. Dell P4 2.8Ghz with XP Media Center, 160Gig sata hdd, 512Mb ram, dvd player, dvd burner, basic onboard sound with 1/8" jacks for line in, line out, speakers, mic. Very basic and I don't know if it would need to be disabled to keep from conlict with a newer card. After all this, would using the line in jack with an amped turntable give a decent enough recording? Thanks guys and I hope I've been clear in questions. I sense that I'm sounding like I'm going in circles and may be confusing someone(Likely me).
Regards, Todd