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Old 2005-03-05, 08:47 PM
h_vargas
 
Re: More on vinyl transfer/lineage questions

e6003 - what brand/model DAT player do you have? on the Sony home models (e.g. PCM-R300, PCM-R500, etc.), you can actually do the following, which works quite well and will save you time:

turntable (output) -> amp (if necessary, to get a good input level) -> DAT player in *pause*/'monitor' mode -> digital input on soundcard

that will give you a clean signal, you only have to capture the audio once in realtime, and no wasted/used DAT tapes. if your DAT player will power on, then you can likely use it safely as the A/D converter with this process. (most problems i've ever read or come across myself with DAT players are inability to either play/record/RW/FF tapes, never usually an issue with incoming or outgoing signals being distorted/hampered).

do you have a decent soundcard (read: a soundcard that is bit-accurate doesn't resample the incoming digital signal)? as a side note, most (if not all) Creative Labs soundcards - the SoundBlaster stuff - DO resample incoming digital signals (and are much less desirable as a result).

another aside note, if your DAT player needs to be repaired, a good place to get that done is at prodigitalinc.com. most DATheads swear by their work, and i've had things repaired there and only had good experiences. and no, i do not work for nor am i affiliated with ProDigital.

lastly, some consumer standalone CD recorders have a louse noise floor (above -75 dB, which is about the maximum acceptable amount). this means that a lot of these standalone CD recorders (when you use them to convert analog sources to CDR) actually ADD IN noise to the recording. it's like adding in another analog generation to the source. of course, if you were to use something like an HHB 880 CD recorder (a 'pro' model that costs a boatload of money), you likely will not run into this problem.

if your soundcard isn't bit-accurate for digital transfers, have no fears. there are cheap reliable options out there to remedy this, e.g. the Zoltrix Nightingale soundcard. it costs about $30, and has a bit-accurate digital input.

hope this info is useful.
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