Basics: From Vinyl to Digital, Hold the Crackle

BoinBoing points us to the New York Times which has an article on ripping your vinyl albums to cd or mp3. This is something my Dad has been doing for a few years now, and he has turned it into an art form.

SEARCH the Gnutella Network as you may, some recordings are so scarce or of such limited appeal that you cannot find them anywhere, except maybe in your own vinyl collection. But your rare 45 of Blondie's 'Little GTO' need not be a stranger in the land of the CD player. Technology is available that will not only enable you to turn your hot wax into digital tracks, but will also let you clean up the static that separates your favorite Bruce Springsteen bootleg from its glory days. To turn LP's into CD's, you will need some hardware: specifically a turntable, a preamplifier and a computer. You will also need software to digitize the analog signal, edit the digital recording, clean it and burn it to a CD or DVD.

I think one of the biggest losses during the P2P shut-downs we've seen is the loss of these tracks. In many cases the tracks people are ripping and trading from vinyl are not in commercial circulation anymore. They are impossible to get if you don't already have the album, or can't find them at a swapmeet. The Peer to Peer networks give us a place to trade these tracks, which is especially good for those who have the album, but don't have the time and equipment to make digital copies of the songs.