Two questions for you guys, who always have answers

[tzikeh]

1) I am looking into buying one of those turntables which converts LPs into mp3s (not the ones that burn the LP to a CD). Do any of you have one of those, and if so, which one? Do you like it? Is it easy to use? Would you throw it out the window if you weren't afraid of hurting someone below?

2) Can anyone think of how I might get a picture of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story which is of high enough quality, and large enough, to use in a newspaper print ad? The posters are all of Ralphie, and he's not what I need.

All hail flist in advance!

Comments

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

We bought one for my dad for his 75th birthday, but I'm blanking on which one, and he's on vacation at the moment. And honestly, I don't think he's ever used it!

But one of these days I'm going to head over there and steal it. :->

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Here's a review of the USB turntable we have; hope this is helpful...

[vrya.livejournal.com]

Do you already have a turntable? With some sort of audio out that could be connected to a computer? Or is it that you want the convenience of an all-in-one device? I converted all my audiocassettes with my computer and then later when I got an mp3 player with a line-in, with that...

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Sadly no, I do not have a turntable - and now that you mention it, there are cassettes as well that I'd like to convert. Sigh.

More shopping....

[xenacryst.livejournal.com]

If you don't want to get your own turntable, I've heard very good things about these folks: http://www.cassettes2cds.com/. They'll convert LPs and tapes to either music CDs or MP3s for you, and they apparently have very high quality audio gear.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

thank you for the link! Unfortunately I have about 7,000 LPs to convert.

[xenacryst.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that could pose a small bit of a hurdle. Perhaps there's a handy lottery that you can rig and win?

[finabair.livejournal.com]

I did it piecemeal when I did this - when I was housesitting for my parents, who have a lovely stereo system, for several months. So I never had to invest in a turntable or a cassette deck, I just plugged those into my camcorder, which I plugged into my computer. At the time, I used iMovie to capture the sound, pulled up the 'movie' that created in Quicktime and converted to AIFF, which I imported into iTunes.

It might not be the best quality conversion possible out there, but it's good enough sound for me.

[moonpupy.livejournal.com]

I work with guys that are such geeks, they make fun of the Geek Squad (tm) (r) (c) (stfu).

Their opinion? Those all in one LP to CD burners work - sorta. It turns the one side of the album into one long track. You have to start and stop it manually - just like when you turned your lps into cassettes. And then flip and repeat. Repeatedly. Okay, but definitely not worth the price they want for 'em.

I'm saving up for the USB turntable, myself.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'm not interested in the ones that burn to CDs (as I said above); I'm looking for info about the ones that connect directly to the computer and make mp3s. And while the page on A Christmas Story is, well, bizarre, all the graphics are for web, and thus not usable in a newspaper ad. But thank you for trying to help!

[moonpupy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and http://www.redriderleglamps.com/?gclid=CO-O7v-4oY8CFRrpIgodoHyJHg

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I don't have any good ideas for you, but if you find something that will convert cassettes and LPs to mp3 or CD (which I can then rip), would you please share? I can buy one for my husband for Christmas and then use it to my heart's content ;->

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh, there are several on the market already - I'm just trying to find out if people have them and what they think of them.

There's this one, and there's <http://www.amazon.com/audio-technica-at-lp2da-lp-to-digital-recording-system/dp/b000meyvig/ref=pd_bbs_5/105-0175678-5106807?ie=utf8&s=electronics&qid=1193023870&sr=8-5">this one and there's this one and there's this one....

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Looks like the Crosley is the best for *my* purposes. I had seen it before, but was hoping for something...better rated and cheaper (yeah, I know). We've got way more cassettes than vinyl (haven't had a turntable for a generation or so), but the vinyl I've hung on to, I'd really love to hear again.

[carbonel]

I just finished converting all my record albums to MP3s (and .wav CDs; I'm compulsive), using a standard turntable and a stereo tuner that had a phone setting, which means it had the preamp that's needed.

At one point, I needed to take the turntable to the Needle Doctor for a new needle, and while we were chatting, I asked about the USB turntables. The guy there was pretty scathing about them. He said that the quality was worse than one would probably get with traditional components. He said something about the USB connection that I didn't understand, but he didn't think much of it.

If money's not an object, there are probably ones that are higher-end, and I'd recommend that for ease of use. But if you're feeling any sort of money pinch, it's really just as easy to use a tuner and turntable, and you can probably get those via Freecycle. That's how I got my tuner. I'd offer you my turntable now that I'm finished, but it's developed a squeak, so it needs some sort of repair (possibly cheap or free) to be at its best.

Just as an FYI, none of the tuners will do all the work for you. What you'll get is one long .wav file that you'll have to 1) check the software's division of the file into tracks and do some manual fixing (the scratchier the record, the more fixing needed), 2) burn the divided .wav file into MP3s, and 3) manually add the album and track info into the MP3s.

I did 1) and 2) using Roxio, and 3) by importing each album into iTunes and first selecting the entire album and typing in the album-specific information, then going through each track to type in the track-specific information.

If there's any way to get album information off of Gracenote/CDDB more easily, I never found it, and I tried fairly hard. Roxio claimed to have a feature to find album information, but it lied; the information it found was never correct.

[reginagiraffe]

What kind of pixel size are you looking for for the lamp? I'm not sure how many pixels you need to get good enough resolution for a print pic.

[reginagiraffe]

This one might be big enough.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

tragically no - that's 72 dpi. All print has to be at least 300 dpi - also the poster is 24" x 36".

[aukestrel.livejournal.com]

I would advise you to get direct-drive and/or automatic start/stop. My audiophile brother thinks direct-drive is more important; my audiophile husband thinks automatic start/stop is more important. Unfortunately for those features, that's the priciest of the USB turntables, IIRC (I was looking into these for a friend a few weeks ago). I can't remember if you're on Windows or a Mac but if the latter, I did see that you don't need to run Audacity if you don't want to mess with it - apparently GarageBand or Roxio will also take the input from a USB turntable.

[redangel618.livejournal.com]

thinkgeek.com has a box that will convert just about anything. my dad bought one, but hasn't gotten to use it yet. one end plugs into your playing device and the other plugs into the computer. it comes with software to cut up the "side" file into individual files.

i picked up a USB turntable at bestbuy. came with software and very easy to read instructions. it says "ion ittusb" on it. records 33 & 45 rpm.

the hardest part of the process is sitting down to actually cut the side into songs. i also recommend getting speakers for the turntable so you can hear when i song skips and not have to re-record an entire side.