Digitizing Vinyl, Part One: The Big Question...

Before you spend a single minute digitizing a record, make darn sure to ask yourself one question... "Why am I doing this?"

If your answer is along the lines of "I spent all this money on my records, and I don't want to buy this junk again for my iPod" then stop right there. If you are seriously longing to hear Eliminator by ZZ Top again, go buy the damn thing used on CD. Why look, Amazon has it for sale for under $3.50. Unless you just have an overwhelming need to keep busy, digitizing music from an analog source is a time consuming process at the best of times. Even if you buy a kit that comes with free software and a USB turntable, you still have to play through everything in realtime... Thats about 40 minutes per LP, not including clean up and splitting the audio file into named tracks with artist info. If you are dealing with an old record that is dusty and might skip, things can go downhill quick. Seriously, read a book or build a ship in a bottle. You should really try to only digitize records that aren't available for a reasonable price elsewhere. Believe me, I've done it and it just doesn't seem worth it at the end of the day.

Now what if your answer is "But records sound better." To that I can only suggest that you dim the lights, fire up the McIntosh amp, and enjoy your nice album. Digitizing a record because you like the way analog sounds, only to play it back on a digital device... well, if that floats your boat, more power to you. I personally can't recommend it for everyone.

Years ago I read that a shocking amount of records are not and will never be digitized and re-released. So If your grandmother left you more than 5 records in her will, the chances are good that you might have something that in the digital age, does not exist. Or if you're like me, that dusty old Well Charge 45 from Kingston might be the last survivor, and the quest for those gems makes all the trouble worth while. Further, some of the inexpensive audio restoration software can produce stunning, if not magical results, proving that math can actually be cool.