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I have a question, and I need some help? I want to transfer my 78's to mp3s? I have a turntable, and a Gemini PMX-100 mixer. Is there a way to connect my mixer to my mac to transfer my 78's to mp3s? Also, I would need audio file transfer software for mac.


Thanks for your help?

Paul

I use a device on my PC called an http://www.dansdata.com/inport.htm INPort by Xitel and it works great on my computer, but on macs, their is some problems with them. Use a Shure 44 cartridge with different stili available from Expert Pickups, 2.2mil , for most 78s . I use Acid Pro, and Audacity for recording into the computer. Macs have issues with the import device though, and your mixer has the RIAA curve so you will have to make an anti RIAA curve and apply it to your program, then re eq the sound to your liking. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/38 ... 0&tstart=0

This link has some help with mac issues with the computer. The software that comes with the Inport has a 33 and 45 adapter to 78 speed correction in the programs that come with it, but they are PC based.

If one wanted a simpler route, recording the audio (with RIAA) into any basic free program, like Audacity or CD Wave or what have you, and then converting the file to MP3 with simple free program like DB Poweramp would work too.

RIAA, with it's treble roll off, will perform some crude noise filtering and most times doesn't sound too bad left as is, unless, you were actually wanting to get more critical about it.

IMO, you'll also want a least a 3.0 mil stylus if you're intending to use only one, especially with older 78's (like 1920's.) I'd actually say a 3.5, but that's a more expensive custom size. 3.0 can be found, pretty easily and cheaply and will work okay for many records.

Wolfe wrote:If one wanted a simpler route, recording the audio (with RIAA) into any basic free program, like Audacity or CD Wave or what have you, and then converting the file to MP3 with simple free program like DB Poweramp would work too.

RIAA, with it's treble roll off, will perform some crude noise filtering and most times doesn't sound too bad left as is, unless, you were actually wanting to get more critical about it.

IMO, you'll also want a least a 3.0 mil stylus if you're intending to use only one, especially with older 78's (like 1920's.) I'd actually say a 3.5, but that's a more expensive custom size. 3.0 can be found, pretty easily and cheaply and will work okay for many records.

While RIAA sounds fine on acoustic records, electric records may have too much bass. So a little filtering afterwards is recommended, maybe a little bass cut. Also, don't forget to combine the left and the right track into one single mono track, otherwise you'll hear the music in mono and the background noise in stereo!

I am not sure if you really need an external audio interface as your computer should come with a line-in jack. In any case I would only recommend you something that can handle 24 bits. It gives you all the necessary headroom for digital amplification in case you have to record at very low volume to keep the dynamics. The last step before a CD would be then a conversion down to 16 bits.


Audacity is the only free solution I know to run natively on OSX. Politely said, it's user interface is something you need to get used to.

There are other commercial programs like Sound Studio, where you can download a trial. According to the manual it only has basic editing functions and no filters at all.

Another one are the products from bias.

And since Adobe has updated their Audition to CS5.5, it's practically dead. It now has a Mac version too but both of them only feature a third of the function the previous version has. The customer reviews say everything.


But since a Mac has become nothing else than an ordinary PC in a fancy case, you can also always get a cheap WinXP license and run it on VirtualBox if you want to use Windows software such as Goldwave or Sound Forge, or Magix' Audio Cleaning Lab, which is more consumer designed but has a load of filtering features.

What about "Sound Saver" software? Amazon.com has this software for converting LP's to mp3's. Could I use that? I also have a SHURE M78S stylus on my Turntable.

That sounds like a workable idea to me. I also have the 78s cartridge as well, works pretty good, but I use my old WE pickup the most. At least the program will get you to record the records into your computer, they may not have the right EQ but you can work on that at a later date. My favorite way to transcribe acoustic 78s , and electric shellac is a little odd, I use an old 1931 RCA/Western Electric, pickup with the horseshoe magnet, and it goes directly into my DVD recorder, with no amp or anything in the signal path and I record all my 78s this way, Orthophonic, and Columbia Viva tonal sound exellent this way, and I get the highest output, low noise from my acoustic 78s as crazy as it sounds I get more bass and more cleaness and clarity this way. I have also on occasion ran the WE through a single UX-301-A tube into the computer, to give an authentic tube sound, but making the power supply and electronics are a little much for most.

Thank You!

I actually did a load of transfers (to Wav) over the last few days. Some 24 hours of music in all.
Audacity is quite good, once you've become accustomed with its interface.
I would advise to transfer to WAV first though, because these are easier to edit and then convert to MP3. Fading in and out, removing the worst clicks etc. is far easier with WAV.
I've got some 750 tracks to do over the coming months...

Absolutely. Never ever use any lossy compressed format such as MP3, AAC etc. for processing. It also does not make sense for any archival purposes as once you need to change the compressed format into another one, it will be put again into a lossy compression process, thus making it worse than before.

It's quite funny, but with this so called transcoding, the digital age faces the same problems we used to have with analog media such as dubbing tapes.

Whenever possible, I store my transfers in .wav or .flac (preferred), which does a zip-like lossless compression. A few years ago I also decided to keep the unfiltered raw transfers too, just in case some new miraculous software filter come my way. It helped me to re-filter some older transfers of records which are gone by now.