Thanks....yah when I wrote composite I meant just the red and white inputs. I think I found a good card...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040211210420068008211143998821/g=rec/s=computer/search/detail/base_pid/701378/

If I did hook the turntable to the home reciever then ran a line out to my computer, would this card work? (see url above)

Thanks again!

-Videomonster

Or... but a mixer (like a Mackie mixer). I've worked at 2 places that have used them for bringing in audio and they work wonderfully (one place uses it for their mic, LP, reel2reel's (2x), tape deck, and anything else they need into the computer. They also have the computer output through it to the speakers)

Radio shack sells a little preamp for converting the record player to regualr line for about 35$ CA.

Hello. Just to put my 2 cents in. the m audio card you saw is a very good card, especially if you are recording multiple tracks. however if you goal is to archive lp's and not dabble into multitrack recording, i would go for a good sound card with just stereo ins and outs and invest in a dj mixer. that way, the mixer would have the phono preamps that you need as well as line level inputs for connecting a tape deck.
another option, like what pb said, is to get a phono preamp box. aside from radio shack, guitar center also sells those ROLLS preamps for around 40 bucks. either ways, make sure you use a good cartridge for your turntables.

Videomonster,
Get the Terratec DMX 6FIRE 24/96 card. It is an excellent recording card, but not a card for gamers - like Tom's Hardware Guide pointed out when it compared the card to the Soundblaster Audigy Platinum.

It does indeed have a phono pre-amp.
Check out the specs at Terratec's site
And read about it at Tom's Hardware Guide > Conclusion

Don't know the price (and I don't know your currency) but I've seen it listed at 150 - 160 and up British Pounds.
Tor

I have done hundreds of 33 LPs and dozens of 78's.

You MUST have a preamp that is designed for phonograph input. The signal level is much lower than the "line level" input to sound cards, but much more important, the frequency response is deliberately non-linear. The low frequencies are amplified much more than the high frequencies. This is done because, to produce the loudest low frequency sounds, the needle would have to travel back and forth over a distance larger than the width of the groove. To get around this, the low frequencies are surpressed (lowered in volume) when recording to the disc. At the high end of the frequency spectrum, music and speech doesn't contain much energy, and the needle (stylus) doesn't have to move much, even for the loudest picalo trill. Finally, dragging a needle through a groove creates a high frequency "finger nails on blackboard" sound. Thus, to reduce the inherent noise, and to take advantage of the low energy content of high frequencies, the high frequencies are recorded louder than normal. The preamp then lowers the volume of the high frequencies during playback and, in doing so, also reduces the inherent high frequency noise.

For recording LPs, any old cheap preamp will do (I use the one that I bought for college back in 1970). They all use RIAA equalization. RIAA equalization is the same for pretty much all 33-1/3 LPs made since the mid-1950s.

For 78's, you need a much more complex amplifier setup, and also a collection of different needles and cartridges, if you're really going to do it right. I punted on this (since I don't do that many 78's) and have instead created a transform between the RIAA curve of my 33 1/3 preamp, and the desired curve for the particular 78 I'm playing. I programmed the transform into an Excel spreadsheet. I just enter the turnover and rolloff numbers for the 78, and the spreadsheet then gives me the Sound Forge equalization numbers that will "re-equalize" from the sound I get through the RIAA standard preamp to what I would get if I used a real 78 rpm preamp.

Oops, this is more than you wanted to know. Sorry.

Bottom line: you have to get a phono preamp.

I agree with ceffie...
if you don't need to do multitracking, just get a soundcard with 1 stereo analog input/output and an optical or coaxial SPDIF input/outputs. Instead of a DJ mixer though, I would buy one of those new turntables with SPDIF digital outputs. You won't have a need for a preamp.
I have a 2 year old Denon DP-DJ151 with SPDIF outputs which connects to my RME Hammerfall card and had backed up a lot of my favorite vinyl colllection to 16bit wav files. I have to say that the transfers sound great and the levels are hot enough without distortion or clipping.
What soundcard would I recommend? I'm always partial to cards made by RME but for non multi-input output (just basic stereo analog with digital I&O's), I would recommend Digital Audio Lab's CardDeluxe.

John Meyer,
From the length of your post, I think you were probably composing it while I posted mine. But to make it absolutely clear: The Terratec card DOES HAVE a phono pre-amp so you can hook up a record player directly.
Tor

The Terratec is also a noisy card. I reviewed this a while back on the DMN. For output, it's a decent card; most are. For input? Like most cards that convert on a PCI, it's noisy. Way too noisy for a low level like a turntable. Way to noisy for serious work with a mic as well. But decent as an output format card.

As a matter of fact I just did this with two tacks yesterday.
Turntable is connected to a Stereo Reciever which has RCA tape outputs.
I connected the L & R RCA cables to a stereo rca to stereo miniplug adapter and plugged it into the line input of a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.Sound Card.
I used Samplitude to record the wave file while I played the LP record tracks using the default levels for everything. You can use any program you like.
I used the Record Now Max option to create a CD which will play in a home or car CD player and Burned a compliant CD which sounded great without any real editing.

I didn't have to buy anything extra to do it. That sound card is around $50 and beats most soundblaster cards hands down. I also have an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 on my other computer but chose to use the Santa Cruz for simplicity.

John

Samplitude? SAMPLITUDE? You traitor! :-)
Next to Forge, it's one of the best editing tools out there...
Funny, I started with digital audio with Turtle Beach back in around 92'. They used to be a professional sound company, and they had a product called the 56K. It was a great digital editor on the DOS platform. Cost around 4999.00 I still have my card, breakout box, and software. Now they're a consumer company, but they make a good soundcard.

A Brother!
I got a Turtle Beach Multisound classic card in what must have been '92. Still have it. I also have a Multisound Pinnacle (sic) which I will still use if I can get the old motherboard fixed. (Need an ISA slot, you know).
Then you probably also know that it was a later to be Sound Forge employee (now Sony?) who wrote the drivers for those cards (Peter Haller).
Tor

Nobody mentioned using Sound Forge Click and POP remover to remove these nasty things.

JJK

That's cuz we knew you would, JJ!
Seriously, IMO EVERYone should own Noise Reduction if they are doing anything with DV or older media formats. For a studio with quality gear, it's not as critical. But for DV? Absolutely necessary. Same for LP's, cassette transfers, forensic media, etc.

Get the Terratec DMX 6FIRE 24/96 card. It is an excellent recording card, but not a card for gamers - like Tom's Hardware Guide pointed out when it compared the card to the Soundblaster Audigy Platinum.

TorS -- Our posts did indeed overlap. I was totally unaware of this device. Sounds very interesting.

Nobody mentioned using Sound Forge Click and POP remover to remove these nasty things.

JJK -- You are absolutely correct. As Spot pointed out, you definitely should use the Noise Reduction plugin before burning your vinyl to CDs. However, the trick is to use as little noise reduction as possible. I recommend using the "Click and Crackle" default settings for vinyl. I seldom use the Vinyl Restoration tool because I find its noise reduction (background hiss, etc.) too obtrusive, and I don't think the click reduction is as clean as the Click and Crackle defaults.

On most "clean" records, I don't bother anymore trying to get rid of the hiss and rumble, unless it is really bad. When I do need to clean this up, I use the Noise Reduction filter, using a sample of the audio during a silent part of the track.

I've been using Steinberg's Wavelab (from v1.6 and now v4.0) for all my vinyl recordings and the Waves Restoration plugins for cleaning up. I highly recommend Waves restoration tools but they are processor intensive. There used to be a great program named Dart Pro 32 which was great at cleaning up noise and such, dunno if it is still available. Sometimes I don't even do any cleaning up just to retain that real vinyl sound!
I've used Soundforge before, but I found it too slow for my taste. I guess because I got so used to Wavelab.

I just wish that Sony would come up with an enhancement filter for correcting the distortion on some records which is not click and crackle related but continous type garbage. Sometimes the clip peak restoration will help even running it multiple times but I just wonder if there is a really good setup to play bad records. Sometimes playing the record through a couple of times will help. The repair track tools and cut and take the good track and duplicate it to the bad tack tools really help. My turntable is an old Kenwood linear tracking with Audio Technica cartridge. On new records it was just fine. But me being in the plastics industry know that plastic decays and if left in the sun its bad news. Those clicks and pops just seem to pop up anytime they feel like.

JJK

Marquat,
You might want to consider the DAL Card Deluxe.
http://www.digitalaudio.com/DIGITALAUDIO/myarticles.asp?P=5210&S=75&PubID=4401

I just wish that Sony would come up with an enhancement filter for correcting the distortion on some records which is not click and crackle related but continous type garbage.

I don't think Sony, or any other software company, can help you with this. The kind of distortion you are talking about is usually caused by actual wear in the grooves. This produces all sorts of distortion. Distortion cannot be filtered.

There are several ways, however, that you can sometimes make the audio sound better.

In the world of 78 rpm, the purists use various "truncated" needles that are designed to ride higer in the groove and avoid the lower part of the groove where all the wear has occured. The improvements can be dramatic. If you want to hear the results from what I consider to be the ultimate guru of 78 rpm restoration (and also hear some amazing, long-lost, performances), check out this link:

Jukebox

This guy uses Sound Forge's noise reduction, but much of his secret lies in using the correct needles, and also in using amplifiers that are customizable for the various 78 rpm equalization curves. I am in total awe of his capabilities. You have never heard 78s sound so good, even those that have been restored professionally and that you can buy on CDs.

You can also sometimes get more listenable sound (not exactly restored, but easier on the ears), by using Sound Forge's noise reduction plugin, and then using the Vinyl Restoration filter. Normally I don't use this, but when I have a record with wear-induced distortion that sounds a little like clipped peaks, but isn't clipped peaks, I fire up the Vinyl Restoration, and go a little wild with the settings. I start with the General Restoration preset, but then set the Click Removal amount all the way up to 20. I then set Reduce Noise all the way up to maximum (100 dB). I then set the noise floor all the way up to maximum (-40 dB). I play the clip, which of course now sounds muffled, but usually quite a bit of the distortion has also disappeared. If the distortion is still there, forget it; this isn't going to help. I then move the noise floor down until I start to hear the distortion, and then move it back up from that point until the distortion just disappears. Finally, I move the Reduce Noise slider down until I get the balance between muffled and distorted that I'm willing to live with.

You may also find that setting the Smooth/Enhance filter to -2 or -3 may help, although again, the sound will begin to sound muffled.

One final note. Don't waste your time restoring old records if you can purchase the CD. The CD generally sounds better. The only exception to this is that some of these CDs have been re-mixed, and you may not like the new mix that much. This is true, for instance, of many of the Beatles CDs which were re-mixed by George Martin (the Beatles producer). The new mixes are quite different (not better, not worse -- but definitely different).