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USB Turntable - It's the Platters that Matter
It's the Platters that Matter:
The Arrival of Vinyl-to-Digital Technology
It's June, 1967—the Summer of Love. Flower children gather in San Francisco. Hippies march for free love and free expression. The entire culture appears to have become a melting pot of creativity, mind-blowing substances, politics, revolution… and, of course, music. But the soundtrack for those days didn't come on iPods or compact discs, cassette tapes or even eight-track. The music of the age was available only on vinyl, a/k/a/ “The LP album,” a petroleum-based platter that turns beneath a stylus to deliver its tunes in all their bumpy, scratchy, hiss-and-crackle glory.
Fast forward more than four decades. Most of those flower children have long since grown up (although quite a few never did). You could very well be one of them. And if you are like millions and millions of others who came of age during those formative years, you might have held on to the albums you loved, the LPs that carried some of the greatest music ever made between the 1950s or so and sometime in the 1980s when the advent of compact discs spelled their final doom. Maybe you have a massive collection of vinyl, records. You just haven't had the heart to throw them away or sell them for nickels to the second-hand shop. Someday, you've long told yourself, you'll have the chance to play those records again.
Rejoice, because that day has finally come. With the relatively-recent arrival of USB turntables, you now have the power to turn all that vinyl music into digital tunes to play on your computer or favorite mobile mp3 device. Whether you want to save money on digital downloads by converting your vinyl music to files, or if you simply miss the “authentic-sounding” hiss and pop of those original analog recordings, there are plenty of options for you on the market—in the form of hardware, software, and specialized devices—to revisit the soundtrack of your life, the one that came on vinyl.
They're widely known as USB turntables, because they provide USB ports for computer plug-ins. Several turntable makers produce reasonably-priced systems that allow you to simply “burn” your vinyl LP albums right onto your hard drive, making them available to download into your music player. Some of these turntables can start as low as about 100 bucks per unit, although, depending on your wants and needs, you may see fit to shell out a bit extra for a good stylus and cartridge, some sound-enhancing software, and even higher-quality turntable equipment.
If you are one of those who held onto your vinyl LPs, the best way to breathe new life into them is with a USB turntable that works with a software program such as Audacity to covert those old analog signals into digital tracks that can easily convert to mp3, .wav, or just about any other audio format. Some may find it a lot simpler than trying to feed an audio signal into a USB-equipped mixer or an add-on like Sound Blaster. You simply plug in the USB connection from the turntable into your computer and set the record spinning right round (round, round). Your computer does the rest.
Of course, for the best quality recording, the conversion of vinyl tunes to digital ones has to happen in real-time. Unlike CD to mp3, there are no shortcuts. Although some recent applications include high-speed vinyl to digital conversion, for best results, converting 45 minutes of vinyl music takes 45 minutes (not to mention a bit more for the conversion and encoding process). Still, it gives you the chance to listen to that great vinyl sound as you're transferring your music. And once the process is complete, you can take that great turntable music wherever you can take an iPod.
Currently, there are several manufacturers of USB turntables. Among industry leaders are brand names such as ION, Sony, Numark and Audio-Technica. Some models, in addition to letting you transfer albums to your computer, can let you move vinyl tracks directly to CD, an iPod, or a laptop. What's more, there is a wide range of software designed to remove or smooth over the pops and crackles that are so common on aging vinyl albums. Audacity is one software version that can provide this kind of enhancement, and it is usually free to download or comes along with the purchase price of a USB turntable. The Audio Cleaning Lab software, engineered by Magix, costs about $40, and has extra tools for enhancing vinyl sound quality.
The ION TTUSB Turntable with USB Record is available for about $100, and is a good, basic system designed to help you convert your old vinyl collection directly to digital. The turntable comes with Audacity software, and also works with many other software versions that support USB audio input. As for drawbacks on this basic model, it does not have a dust cover, and the turntable tone-arm must be manually dropped.
The Crosley CR249 BK Keepsake USB Turntable sells for about $150, and provides a good system that is both reliable and cool to look at, with styling like an old stereo system. It can interface with any computer with a USB port, and comes with a software suite to easily convert files. One of the most endearing features of this model is its ability to simply play all your old albums, while a couple of drawbacks include its questionable sound-quality, and low-budget tone arm.
The Sony PS-LX300USB USB Stereo Turntable System sells for around $200, and comes well-equipped with a brand name that denotes quality and reliability. This model features great sound quality, and has a sleek and stylish design that makes it well-suited to complement other sound equipment. Still, this is a middle-of-the road turntable, and the tone arm is somewhat questionable quality-wise.
The ION USB Turntable with Built-in CD Recording is a high-level unit that sells for about $400. Its best feature is probably the built-in CD burner which gives you the ability to move those vinyl albums to CD without the necessity of first interfacing with a computer. It can also connect to your computer to transfer music to a mobile player. Also included is a small internal hard drive capable of holding about two albums.
To find out more about USB turntables, visit the websites of some manufacturers:
ION Audio, the home of ION, a manufacturer of several different models, including units that can record right to CD or mp3.
Numark, the maker of genuine disc jockey gear and a wide variety of audio equipment including USB turntables.
Audio-Technica, the online home of Audio-Technica, the international audio-equipment company.
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