I'm a little in the dark ages with my music collection. I've got a load of CDs and some vinyl. I bought a turntable that would turn my vinyls into mp3 format but have yet to use it (hopefully oh can help with that), a spare lap top that I could use to copy my entire collection on and a mini ipod (shuffle). Has anyone got any basic advice about where I start and what a good way to do it is. I'd like eventually to get rid of my vinyl and all but my most favourite cds (which I can use in the car).

Thanks in advance ;)

No easy way around it other to sit there and burn them to MP3 using I-Tunes or something similar.. Takes forever but that's your only option!

The vinyl and cassettes, you'd have to do in real time. The CDs you can grab digitally in Windows Media player, much quicker.

No easy way around it other to sit there and burn them to MP3 using I-Tunes or something similar.. Takes forever but that's your only option!

It's a lot quicker than it was 10 years ago! Imagine waiting 17 minutes per song - and even then the quality was atrocious.

But yes, personally I love iTunes - it's fast, simple, and the layout makes perfect sense. You can make it encode everything as mp3, so no problems making it work on a variety of players... but I also love iPods....

Thanks everyone. I think I know what you mean - I've been doing something (following instructions on the screen)to get a few songs on my ipod but it's been a bit haphazard.

I fancy the idea of a bigger ipod so I can buy a new stereo (good god, I feel ancient. Do they still call them that?!?) with a dock. Any advice on which to buy - I don't want to spend loads of money - if poss!

Granted it's not a dock, but if you get a cable that's got a 3.5mm headphone jack at one end and phono plugs at the other you can use your ipod with most stereos - that's what I do.

Link to ebay search here (http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=3.5mm+jack+to+phono+cable&_sacat=See-All-Categories).

Hope that helps,

The best way I find, and much quicker, is.. if you own the original, download a copy from a 'naughty' place, and put it on CD, but since you own the original copy you'r theoretically covered, but some licenses only cover the 'orignal format' (so if you have something on Vinyl that's like that, you are only legally allowed thave vinyl copy, unless you go out and purchase it on CD)

The best way I find, and much quicker, is.. if you own the original, download a copy from a 'naughty' place, and put it on CD, but since you own the original copy you'r theoretically covered, but some licenses only cover the 'orignal format' (so if you have something on Vinyl that's like that, you are only legally allowed thave vinyl copy, unless you go out and purchase it on CD)Good grief, I'd never even thought of that. I want to make space by putting all my stuff on mp3 format and then getting rid of the originals - If I then get rid of all my original cds/vinyls where does that leave me?

Just load I-Tunes, pop the CD in the drive of your computer and it should say "Would you like to import this CD to your library?" - Click yes, wait till finished, repeat with next CD.

I know with my collection it took me almost 8 hours one weekend, but I do have almost 250 albums.

Thanks everyone. I think I know what you mean - I've been doing something (following instructions on the screen)to get a few songs on my ipod but it's been a bit haphazard.

I fancy the idea of a bigger ipod so I can buy a new stereo (good god, I feel ancient. Do they still call them that?!?) with a dock. Any advice on which to buy - I don't want to spend loads of money - if poss!

I got a goodish cheap Wharfedale mini-system with I-Pod dock from Argos for about £89.99 I think. It's in my kitchen, damn fine for the money.

...it should say "Would you like to import this CD to your library?" - Click yes...

You don't even have to do that if you set iTunes' preference "When you insert a CD" to "Import" - better still "Import CD and Eject" if you've more than one CD to do - as you clearly have. Also, you might consider using AAC as an encoding method - that resulting in smaller and, I think, better quality files - as this (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/04/in_search_of_audio_perfection.html) suggests. (The argument is an easy one to settle but I'll let someone else do that.) Another thing I've heard too - and I'm pretty sure this is the case - is that the quality of the audio is better when fed from an iPod's dock rather than the earphones where this is an option. (It may not be on a Shuffle.) Another option is to stream your music from a computer to a decent hi-fi - more about which you'll find by searching the Internet. I use an AirPort Express to feed a pair of these (http://www.scandyna-speakers.com/Products/Micropod_SE.aspx) and they meet my needs - though when I move somewhere (hopefully soon) where I have no neighbours my Heavy Metal collection will be getting pumped into something more substantial.

The best way I find, and much quicker, is.. if you own the original, download a copy from a 'naughty' place, and put it on CD, but since you own the original copy you'r theoretically covered, but some licenses only cover the 'orignal format' (so if you have something on Vinyl that's like that, you are only legally allowed thave vinyl copy, unless you go out and purchase it on CD)

Actually, strictly speaking, until the law change comes in then transferring your CD collection to PC counts as a different format and isn't covered by the "licence" you get when you buy a CD. That's set to change shortly AFAIK.

Noone's going to arrest you for it. (non-legal) downloading is different.

Thank you so much for all your replies. I'm feeling even more like a luddite but I have an idea where to start now.

Actually, strictly speaking, until the law change comes in then transferring your CD collection to PC counts as a different format and isn't covered by the "licence" you get when you buy a CD. That's set to change shortly AFAIK.

Noone's going to arrest you for it. (non-legal) downloading is different.

Quite, and nobody in the universe is going to make any moral judgement on anyone for ripping their CD collection to mp3, despite it technically being illegal. Ripping one's entire collection and then selling it is very questionable, however.

It's a lot quicker than it was 10 years ago! Imagine waiting 17 minutes per song - and even then the quality was atrocious.

But yes, personally I love iTunes - it's fast, simple, and the layout makes perfect sense. You can make it encode everything as mp3, so no problems making it work on a variety of players... but I also love iPods....

Christ, either your computer must've been REALLY slow or you had a collection of nothing but prog :)

10 years ago a 16-24x CD-ROM was fairly standard, with one of them and an Ahtlon 600-800 or P2/3 equivalent I could get through an album in about 7-8 minutes tops. Even prior to that it was rare with a disc in decent nick, even on a 8x drive and a P200, that it would rip at anything slower than real-time. But these days of a full album rip in <60 seconds are really very lovely.

You've made me get all nostalgic for the good old days of CDex and WinAmp and Napster and CDDB not existing so having to type in everything by hand!

I got a goodish cheap Wharfedale mini-system with I-Pod dock from Argos for about £89.99 I think. It's in my kitchen, damn fine for the money.I got a full Pioneer DVD/5.1 all-in-one player (with speakers and sub, player has multiple AUX in sockets) free on Freecycle, and
Granted it's not a dock, but if you get a cable that's got a 3.5mm headphone jack at one end and phono plugs at the other you can use your ipod with most stereos - that's what I do.two of them (1 for 17" LCD TV permanently in, and 1 'permanently in but spare' for PMP or netbook whenever required... admittedly, playing a DVD-RW with 000s' of MP3s on the DVD player is more practical, though ;)).

Hey presto, cheap-as-chips top-draw kitchen AV-ification :D

Good grief, I'd never even thought of that. I want to make space by putting all my stuff on mp3 format and then getting rid of the originals - If I then get rid of all my original cds/vinyls where does that leave me?Unless you still have all till receipts, which are detailed enough to make out which albums you bought and when, that would leave you with no basis at all for any legal defense I'm afraid (if, in the most unlikely case, it's ever required).

Unless you still have all till receipts, which are detailed enough to make out which albums you bought and when, that would leave you with no basis at all for any legal defense I'm afraid (if, in the most unlikely case, it's ever required).

And even then, unless you can prove you disposed of them completely, rather than sold them or gave them away (meaning 2 people have copies of the music from one purchase), the receipts will be worthless. If you want to do it legit and save space, just archive them all and stick them in the garage or something. CDs archive very well (I have 700+ which fit it three small-sized removal boxes, probably takes up the equivalent space of two laser printers stacked on top of each other).

And even then, unless you can prove you disposed of them completely, rather than sold them or gave them away (meaning 2 people have copies of the music from one purchase), the receipts will be worthless.Well, not quite worthless (which is why I put 'at all' in italics): the OP would at least be able to evidence that consideration was provided to the right's owner at the material time. An appropriate remedy to the infringing situation would simply be for the OP to delete his/her MP3s (assuming mediation as part of pre-action protocol).

personally I love iTunes

I prefer Songbird myself.

I'm sure iTunes does this nicely for you, but I used Winamp a while ago to do my collection and it didn't fill in the tags for some reason. Bloody nightmare with about three hundred files all called things like Radiohead-OK Computer-3.mp3.

I still say Winamp's ten times better than iTunes though :)

I prefer Songbird myself.

It's hard to believe the AOR album "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac would be played in a car like that.

Christ, either your computer must've been REALLY slow or you had a collection of nothing but prog :)

10 years ago a 16-24x CD-ROM was fairly standard, with one of them and an Ahtlon 600-800 or P2/3 equivalent I could get through an album in about 7-8 minutes tops. Even prior to that it was rare with a disc in decent nick, even on a 8x drive and a P200, that it would rip at anything slower than real-time. But these days of a full album rip in <60 seconds are really very lovely.

You've made me get all nostalgic for the good old days of CDex and WinAmp and Napster and CDDB not existing so having to type in everything by hand!

1997/8 - P166, 16mb RAM and BladeEnc (Dos)!

Noone's going to arrest you for it. (non-legal) downloading is different.

No one will 'arrest' you for that either, you may get a polite letter from a lawyer asking for some token 'compensation' if they happen to be monitoring your internet connection and track you from a dodgy peer to peer or direct musoc download site,, but this happens to about 0.0000000000001 persons who take the (non legal) downloading route(s).

No one will 'arrest' you for that either, you may get a polite letter from a lawyer asking for some token 'compensation' if they happen to be monitoring your internet connection and track you from a dodgy peer to peer or direct musoc download site,, but this happens to about 0.0000000000001 persons who take the (non legal) downloading route(s).

Indeed. Still doesn't make it right, though!

Indeed. Still doesn't make it right, though!
indeed that is true....but then you have to actually define right from wrong in such instances, using both legal and moral arguments, which becomes rather complicated and quite possibly beyond the scope of this little thread......

I believe the majority of net users still believe, as the internet is a huge and mostly free resource bank, that you can get anything for free if you look in the right places, and in the majority of cases if you find the 'right places', there is nothing to stop you from getting it free, and indeed absolutely no incentive NOT to get it for free.....

Unless you still have all till receipts, which are detailed enough to make out which albums you bought and when, that would leave you with no basis at all for any legal defense I'm afraid (if, in the most unlikely case, it's ever required).Eek! I just want to make some space! I have book cases full of cds and quite a bit of vinyl which are quite frankly 90% a load of rubbish and I might only like one track on all of them.... I'm feeling a bit naive now though. This means I might have to keep my Five Star albums after all :hihi:

RozeePozee i've just pm'd you

Asda handsworth have digital decks in at the mo for 50 quid if your wanting to digitize your vinyl.

Eek! I just want to make some space! I have book cases full of cds and quite a bit of vinyl which are quite frankly 90% a load of rubbish and I might only like one track on all of them.... I'm feeling a bit naive now though. This means I might have to keep my Five Star albums after all :hihi:

RozeePozee I've never used itunes so I cannot comment on it
For CD's I personally use a free Prog called CDex which I find very simple to use

indeed that is true....but then you have to actually define right from wrong in such instances, using both legal and moral arguments, which becomes rather complicated and quite possibly beyond the scope of this little thread.(i) Download content without any payment (P2P) = morally wrong, legally at least copyright infringement (civil, not criminal)

(ii) Download content with payment for download (to unlicensed content host, e.g. Rapidshare or Usenet) = morally wrong whether you already own the content on another media or not, legally at least copyright infringement (civil, not criminal) but for large-scale infringers (content hosts, e.g. Rapidshare) chuck in trademark infringement as well and that can attract criminal penalties.

(iii) Download content with payment for download (to rights owner or licensed host, e.g. iTunes) = legally right, morally right if you don't already own the content on another media, morally wrong if you already own the content on another media...

...etc (by no means exhaustive). You're right, too complicated. Ideally, this would need to be flowcharted :huh:

The issue at hand is always the same: people have been buying copyrighted content on media (CD, DVD, vynils, tapes, books, etc) for decades, and still believe they obtain title to the content as part of the transaction (i.e. own it and do with it as they please).

This is, and always has been, incorrect: all they get is a non-exclusive time-unlimited license to peruse (listen, watch, read...) a copy of the content on that media.

If they sell the media second-hand (and note that there have long been legal questions surrounding the right to even do that! e.g. Nintendo had a go some years ago to ban used games resale) or if they give it away, that license is revoked: they don't have the right to peruse that content anymore.

Copyright is the most difficult type of IP right to practice, because every single work (song, film, etc.) you can think of has many different copyrights in it, potentially belonging to many different people and/or companies. Example ('a song'):
Song lyrics written by Mr A = Mr A owns the literary copyright in the lyrics.
Score written by Mr B = Mr B owns the literary copyright in the score.
Song performed by Pop Group C = Pop Group C owns the copyright in the performance.
Performance recorded by Studio D = Studio D owns the copyright in the recording.
Pop Group C contracted to Label E (contract usually includes 'copyright selling' clause), which owns Studio D = Label E owns performance and recording copyrights, not lyrics and score copyrights (unless Label E buys the respective copyrights from Mr A & Mr B of course... unless again Group C did that beforehand...or... etc.)
Recording broadcast by Radio E = Radio E owns the copyright in the broadcast.
etcFor 'users' (read: infringers or not), chuck in all legal angles in the mix, whether statutory defenses to infringement in the CDPA 1988 or case law e.g. the famed "right to make a backup copy" (there's no such "right", only case law which indicates it is permitted) or the "Amstrad defense" (in the UK, equivalent to Sony/Betamax in the US), and it all gets horribly complicated indeed.

that last post was totally exhausting to even read let alone get your head around....:loopy: and even that was a simplified version of the law!!!

the immortal words of The Prodigy come to mind...
"F*** em and THEIR law"!
i will copy my Records CD,s books, games, films and tapes into whatever format i choose and ill share what i want with with friends.
they will be making laws against libraries next and burning books!

the immortal words of The Prodigy come to mind...
"F*** em and THEIR law"!
i will copy my Records CD,s books, games, films and tapes into whatever format i choose and ill share what i want with with friends.
they will be making laws against libraries next and burning books!

Or next they will be making laws permitting employers to make people work without having to pay them for their work, with much the same effect as your suggestion. Hopefully said law only applying to yourself.

that last post was totally exhausting to even read let alone get your head around....:loopy: and even that was a simplified version of the law!!!That was not a "simplified version of the law": just a basic commentary about some of the (very many) legal issues involved by copyright and legal/illegal downloading.

I thought I'd better leave it short, as I could well imagine the average poster's eyes glazing less than half-way through it :hihi: The point is: it's far (very far) from being as simple as freeloaders on one side, and rights owners on the other, would have the public believe.
the immortal words of The Prodigy come to mind...
"F*** em and THEIR law"!
i will copy my Records CD,s books, games, films and tapes into whatever format i choose and ill share what i want with with friends.
they will be making laws against libraries next and burning books!How ironic. Last I heard, The Prodigy were and still are coining it through resale of their copyrighted content-laden albums. And have copped on to the traditional publishing model by setting up their own label. :twisted:
Feel free to do what you want, just bear in mind that ignorance of the law is no defense to liability (and that is law, btw).

Oh yeah... "They" don't need to make "laws against libraries": libraries pay a flat fee to collecting agencies in respect of copyright licensing, have done for decades. The premise is basic (and entirely equitable, morally speaking): you can rent a book from a library for £X or even free, that means the author (or publisher) is deprived of one retail sale (you're unlikely to buy it in Smithies), so the library stumps up a small bit of cash to make up for the lost sale.

Or next they will be making laws permitting employers to make people work without having to pay them for their work, with much the same effect as your suggestion. Hopefully said law only applying to yourself.
funny you saying that because once you understand how the global financial system works you see that work = slavery.
take a look here if you want the truth.. http://www.zeitgeist2movie.com/#/welcome/4532487782
ZEITGIEST ADDENDUM at the bottom explains your prediction has already come true.

Feel free to do what you want, just bear in mind that ignorance of the law is no defense to liability (and that is law, btw).
thank you i do feel very free to do what i want with my knowledge. i choose to share it!
i don't need to defend anything! let them bring their law down on me!
im no criminal, sue me all you want i have nothing to lose. my human rights come before any corporate greedy lawyer, all they want is more money.
they cant take what i don't have. shove you crappy law where the sun don't shine!
P.S. lend us a fiver ;)

perhaps this thread is losing its way a bit....its not a question about legality of doing something, its HOW best to digitize a music collection......the law is too complex in this area to make a YES or NO decision about legalities, there are far too many factors at play....

You're not wrong there :blush:

Vynil = 'USB turntable' the OP already has (or use the HiFi's AUX OUT, plugged into 'something' capable of digital sampling, for instance a Personal Media Player)

Tapes = as above (I'm reasonably certain they do 'USB tape decks', in the same way they've made 'tape-shaped MP3 players' to play MP3s in cars with tape radios)

VHS = DVD recorder (or again use the VCR's AUX OUT (scart or composite), plugged into 'something' capable of digital sampling, for instance a Personal Media Player)

CD = slap in PC and use dedicated app (CDEx or more recent), Windows Media Player or iTunes

VCD or DVD = slap in PC and use dedicated app (Isobuster or more recent)

Personally, I'd try and grab an inexpensive PMP on eBay, as a device which can be fed all sorts of analogue signals and can automatically and very easily turn them into digital content.
I've had Archos PMPs for years and these are a bit of a digital swiss-army knife, handy for such occasions. E.g. I haven't checked FleaBay going rates lately, but I'm quite sure you can get hold of an good condition AV420 for less than £50 these days, and you can digitise pretty much anything you throw at it, so long as you can get your content out via composite.
I digitised our entire collection of family vacations/occasions on VHS (straight into DivX avi at DVD resolution) and both my parents' and in-laws' respetive vynil record collections (straight into MP3s at 320 kbps) with one of these: plug it in, start playing the analogue source, start recording on the PMP, leave it to it :thumbsup:

once you have your audio digitised i recommend Cooledit pro for getting rid of hiss clicks and pops, it has some good automated tools to do this or you can do the clicks and pops by hand, it can zoom in to an individual sampled bit and allows you to manipulate it. a very powerful tool.

Most computer-capturing record decks come with relevant software so look at that in respect of your vinyl collection. Capturing and (especially) cleaning up audio is very time consuming so you might be better off replacing your vinyl by purchasing the content online or on CD if it's available and you can afford it - or steal it so if you lack the funds and morality. Not that I'm suggesting you would do the latter - though, as this thread illustrates, some do.

Start at ABBA and go thro' your collection until you reach ZZ Tops.

If you have the disc space (and it's cheap enough nowadays) rip into a lossless format such as FLAC. This means you can transcode into MP3 or whatever you want at a later date without having to go through the whole ripping procedure again.

copy them to your laptop,then use your Driver to write in a blank DVD to save