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Downloading &/or Digitizing Music

12 years ago

Hello all

Ive only recently begun catching up with new technology for listening to music.

I have tons of old vinyl and cds, used to be a real music fan back in the day. Some of the vinyl does not exist on Cd or online... does it make sense to just convert these to MP3? Is the sound quality decent? Any reason why Id want to put them in CD format? Can anyone recommend software for this purpose? I have an old turntable but no receiver/amplifier - will I need to have one of those?

Started downloading some music that already exists digitized - purchasing from amazon + downloading some very old 50s/60s stuff from Youtube... its so much fun to find this old stuff!!

Some of the songs I downloaded in MP3 format - I find them right in the "downloads" folder where they should be. Other songs I can't find anywhere on my hard drive! I can see and listen to them on Windows Media Player but cannot locate them anywhere. Where are they??? It kind of bothers me that there's stuff hidden on my computer somewhere - or is it for some reason being streamed from elsewhere - even though I specifically requested it to be downloaded as an MP3?

And Finally - last question. How best to store/organize my music long term. How much music fits on a computer anyway - like say hundreds or thousands of songs? Not sure I want to go the Ipod route.

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Comments (6)

grandms
12 years ago
I have lots of old LPs that I have started digitizing. I purchased a USB turntable that connects to my computer via USB. With it came two programs: Audacity, which can be downloaded for free, and Cakewalk Pyro 5. I find Audacity hard to understand, so I use the Cakewalk program and get good results. This is an older version, but it works just fine for me. I have not yet burned any of the music to CDs but just have it on my computer. I know I need to get it saved elsewhere, but I do have it backed up on two different external hard drives. As for your other questions, someone else will have to advise you.
bob414
12 years ago
Do a search for *.mp3. That should find all the mp3 files on your computer. You can then right click on one and choose 'properties' from the drop-down menu and that will tell you where the file is located. It might help to know which version of windows you are using.
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mxyplx
12 years ago
Grandms- USB Turntable:

Have you digitized any monaural records? Did they come out OK?

They don't sound too good on a stereo phono.
grandms
12 years ago
No, mine have all been stereo or monaural that were "rechanneled" or whatever they call it. They came out as well as can be expected, I guess. Certainly not true stero.
grandms
12 years ago
There are other ways of digitizing old records than the use of the USB turntable. Lots of hits when you Google this, but I wanted something fairly easy to do, so that's why I went this route. I bought the turntable online---it is an Audio Technia brand---but there are a number of others. Shop around for the best price because they all work basically the same. Mine does have a cover, which I appreciate, and sometimes I just use it to play my LPs :-) I have fairly good speakers with a sub-woofer connected to my PC, so the sound is good.
Debbie Downer
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks bob, I tried the search function and I still cant find that silly MP3. Actually I think it doesnt exist as an MP3 - its some streaming thing because the only place I see it is in Windows Media Player and under properties, it says its in my "download" folder but then it also says "ip (and a long number)ip.secureserver.net." Which suggests Im plugged into some streaming thing, no?

I went back to Youtube and tried to download it as an MP3 again and got "error" -can't do it! So OK I cant have it, which is fine but what's with the games? Just tell me it's not available and I wont waste my time trying. (BTW, its some obscure 45 year old song I have on vinyl - guess I'll have to get to work converting that instead. Oh well! Thought Id save some time....)

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