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VINYL - 2,200 LP's to CD or Hard Drive - HELP

Someone I know has an extensive LP collection - to the tune of 2,200 lp's which he has had for MANY years, he is 86. He and his wife are interested in freeing up some space and ease the ability to listen to the music on the LPs instead of looking at them.

He wants to get them onto CD - but I am wondering about getting them onto a hard drive storage facilty for him, as he wants to sell the entire collection after. That will be my lovely task, but before - how do I do the above and any experiences would be appreciated.

One by one is obviously the only way to do this - suggestions on CD versus hard drive storage? Are these folks that get paid to do such an event?

I am near SF, CA -

thanks for any and all input.

Dan
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drvan
7 posts
 
Check this out. It can be used with an existing record player, and will record straight onto a hard drive.

http://www.needledoctor.com/Gemini-iKey-Plus-Portable-USB-Recorder?sc=9
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kmulkey
173 posts
 
Maxtor makes a few good quality drives in the terabyte range which is what you'll need. The 1.5 TB drive is about $500. The model is One Touch III...or even IV.
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james1969
345 posts
 
Have a look at Pure Vinyl software for the Mac. I've only just begun to use it, it's pretty slick.
johnnyb53
3,490 posts
 
In addition to the garbage ION USB turntable, there are some decent ones, including a USB version of the Project Debut III and the Audio Technica PL-120. All include a built-in phono stage, DAC, and USB interface.

Project Debut USB

Audio Technica AT-PL120 with USB

I'd go for the Audio Technica. It's a quality knock-off of the Technics SL-1200, weighs about 24 lbs., has the detachable universal headshell, and the price is right. You could actually get some good transcriptions off this.

Oh, and I also vote for going HD server. Heck, you could encode at 24/48KHz if you wanted.
arnold_layne
141 posts
 
No one mentioned this, and I don't want to be a kill joy, but you might want to remind your 86yr old freind that copying the contents of the LP's to another medium, then selling the LP's is a violation of Copyright law. Once he sells the LP's he must destroy the "back ups" which is the CD's or digital coversions stored on the HDD. WIth that being said, transferring 2200+ LP's is a major undertaking and he will most likely go through at least two cartridges.

USB turntables are not built for sound quality but for ease of use. I doubt one would last thru 2200 LP's being transfered to a HDD. If you want a quality transfer, use a quality turntable / arm / cart / phono pream / sound card. Surely this will be a major undertaking no matter which path you choose. LP's to HDD is not an automated task. You will to monitor the job constantly to ensure there's no skipping, and unless you use a semi or fully-auto TT, you will have to be there to lift the arm at the end of the side which you will want to do becuase recording audio at cd quality to a hdd requires 10MB's per minute no matter if you are recording sound or the silence at the runout groove. I don't want to discourage you, but this will not be a quick and easy task.

A_L
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