Ripping Your Vinyl

I've been working on refining my needle drop processing, and toolset, as well and am finding de-click processing to be similar to the way you describe them (which makes perfect sense when you look at what it's actually doing).

I spent a solid day playing around with the Ian Dury rip I did the other day. Vinyl Studio, Audition, RX 5 all fail to fix the two audible click/noise issues it has, even in manual mode, but ClickRepair fixes them both completely. However, doing anything manual in ClickRepair is, so far, enormously tedious. So I've taken to doing the following:

• Use ClickRepair to automatically repair a file, creating a new copy in the process.
• Load up both the raw and repaired files in Audition.
• Manually patch only those fixed samples that are necessary between the fixed file and the raw one, and then save it.

That might not work out so well with discs that have more issues, but for point fixes like this, especially where the more fluid tools just don't manage to fix the issues, even when directed at them specifically, it's a lot more efficient, and less problematic, than letting ClickRepair run amok. But in this case it took two minutes to fix just the two issues that were audible, and the rest of the file remains absolutely untouched.

Once I've got the raw files in shape, I bang them through Vinyl Studio for splitting and metadata/artwork processing, and let it spit out FLACs for addition to my normal digital library. And I retain the raw files, and Vinyl Studio sidecar files (since it's non-destructive) for later use/comparison

I do need to play more with downsampling tools though as RX sounds better than Vinyl Studio for that part of the chain. Don't really want to use RX just for that, but haven't compared other options there yet.

 

Here is my system playing the same track Fremer used in his comparo from two posts back. Still breaking in the new cartridge (now at 13 hours) but I can't help myself cause things are sounding pretty damn fine.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

 

My vinyl "ripping" system looks like this:

Kenwood KD-2070 -> PS Audio NuWave Phono Converter -> 96/24 -> USB -> VinylStudio Software

I like the NuWave Phono Converter. ADC and Phonostage in one box, with a lot of flexibility (MM/MC, rate/depth, gain adjustments, digital & analog inputs (can connect tape deck if I ever buy one). VinylStudio Software simplifies ripping my vinyl to the PC. It is easy to split tracks, remove clicks (if desired), add album art, add track info, etc. In my opinion, $29.95 is a relative bargain, and may be money well-spent as an upgrade over using Audacity.

 

Has anyone tried the Jil ADC from Schiit for this purpose?