Digitize Your LP Collection, or Penelope Will Leave You

Radio Shack is running a new television commercial that we at Unclutterer find particularly amusing. It features a vinyl junkie who digitizes his LP collection so his passive aggressive girlfriend won’t leave him.

Vinyl and shellac (78rpm) clutter is especially difficult to deal with:

  • If you decide to digitize your record collection, we recommend the ART USB Phono Plus v2 USB Phono Preamp. It enables you to connect your existing turntable to your Mac or PC via USB. It’s well built and it has some nice options for headphone monitoring. However, if you’re serious about digitizing old 78s from before 1954, you probably don’t want to use this, as it’s designed for the RIAA equalization that became standard in that year.
  • If you need a solution for storage, Bags Unlimited has a great selection of boxes and sleeves sized appropriately for LPs, 45s, and 78s. I label my boxes and have the contents organized with dividers that are also labeled by artist and genre.

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Posted by PJ on Aug 7, 2007 | Comments | Tweet This

29 comments posted

  1. Posted by Xamda - 08/07/2007

    I don’t think storing it all solely on an iPod is a good idea.

  2. Posted by Maffalda - 08/07/2007

    I’m with my boyfriend because of his record collection! (Ikea’s Expedit bookcase took care of the mess.)

  3. Posted by 4rilla - 08/07/2007

    Maffalda…. I have used the Ikea Expedit to house about 600 records in my last 3 apartments.

    However my g/f and I just closed on a loft 2 weeks ago and the records and turntables just don’t flow with the new place!

    I need to convert everything to mp3, but I am daunted by the time consuming process.

  4. Posted by Erin - 08/07/2007

    OMG, LOVE IT! I sent it to my bf as a “surefire way to my heart.” Combining households is so much work!!!

  5. Posted by me - 08/07/2007

    vinyl 4 lyfe. converting it to mp3 is incongruent with the love

  6. Posted by Tom Karches - 08/07/2007

    Ways to simplify the process :

    - Transfer album sides and don’t bother splitting up the songs. Name the sides “Side 1″, “Side 2″

    - Don’t bother cleaning up the clicks and pops unless the album is in terrible shape.

    - Record directly to an MP3 recorder (like an iRiver), then just copy the files off. No computer needed for the recording; a computer is only necessary to copy the files to the computer.

    If the album has been released on CD, go to half.com and buy a used copy. I was going to dub my “Doors Greatest Hits” albm, then realized I could buy a used CD copy for $3.

    –tom

  7. Posted by Ishmael - 08/07/2007

    If your aim is to upgrade the LPs to CD, Half.com and SecondSpin.com are both great sources for unfashionable CDs at low, low prices. You can also do fairly well with the BMG Music Club ( http://www.bmgmusic.com ) by starting with a list of target LPs and taking advantage of their Buy 1, Get Unlimited for $1.99 deals once you are a member. I upgraded 50 LPs and 300 tapes to CD over a year’s time in 1999-2000 and never looked back!

    I have also digitized all of my vinyl which never saw release on CD. My turntable died and I replaced it with the Ion USB Turntable http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/ which has been a dream.

  8. Posted by devil - 08/07/2007

    Keep the record collection (good clutter) and get rid of the demanding girlfriend (bad clutter). Win-win.

  9. Posted by Cyrano - 08/07/2007

    My two favorite comments in blogs today are from this one:

    1) “converting it to mp3 is incongruent with the love”
    2) “Keep the record collection (good clutter) and get rid of the demanding girlfriend (bad clutter)”

  10. Posted by Cyrano - 08/07/2007

    Also, if my girlfriend looked like that, I would willing snap all of my records and one of my appendages in half if she told me too.

  11. Posted by TOMAS - 08/07/2007

    For those looking to digitize their LP’s without causing further damage from a needle, you can use a Laser Turntable.

  12. Posted by supersocco - 08/07/2007

    Digitizing that record library would take about 4 months of work. See how happy the girlfriend would be with you slaving over your computer, ripping mp3’s, during your ‘free’ time.

  13. Posted by Jason - 08/08/2007

    Better way: found a crate during one of my thrift runs (the reason I had so many records in the first place) that would hold records the way you’d expect (as in, not side-by-side). Whatever fills that crate, that’s it, made a list of the ones that didn’t go in (for future downloading purposes) and gave them to a friend.

    …who, alas and alack, went back to her ex-boyfriend. They can’t all be winners.

  14. Posted by Doug!as - 08/08/2007

    I’m with Cyrano. :) ~

  15. Posted by Kurt - 08/08/2007

    If this commercial was reality, he wouldn’t have finished digitizing the collection for like 6 years, and by then the girl wouldn’t be that cute any more, and they both would’ve moved on.

  16. Posted by beth - 08/08/2007

    First of all, this commercial practically makes me cry. If you are a true vinyl aficionado, mp3s are never going to suffice. Second, all that vinyl would *never* fit on a single mp3 player.

    The Ikea Expedit is a great staple in the record collecting community. As someone with a 1,000+ record collection I can also honestly say this is probably the least cluttery and intrusive stuff in my house. The books look far more messy, and those are arranged by color. Additionally you can get all manner of fabric and plastic bins to stash the records in, inside the Expedit, but out of site.

    Also Havoc Records has the best prices around for LP sleeves, better all around to deal with than Bags Unlimited.

  17. Posted by PJ Doland - 08/08/2007

    I wasn’t actually suggesting readers go the MP3 route when digitizing their record collections. I’m actually a proponent of lossless encoding. The files are larger, but they are of much better quality.

  18. Posted by Tom Karches - 08/08/2007

    As for the time it takes, the iRiver MP3 recorder has a feature that stops recording after a period of silence, then resumes when the audio resumes.

    This reduces the process to putting the needle down and walking away for 15 minutes.

    I have an Expedit, which is really nice, but it’s also nice to be able to listen to my vinyl collection anywhere.

  19. Posted by Brian of DevYou - 08/08/2007

    I see that the digitizing portion of this article has garnered the most attention, but the Bags Unlimited tip for storage boxes was information I critically needed right now. (I’m moving and need storage boxes for all my LPs.)

    That said, I agree with PJ that lossless is the way to go. You can always encode to MP3 later if you start with lossless. If you start with MP3… well that’s as good as it’s going to get.

  20. Posted by Grace - 08/08/2007

    Not a bad script for a commercial. The analysis of it in the post is flippant and hostile, though.

    It’s her home, too. Only if you dispute that, only if you think the house belongs to the Man, can you argue that she should have no input on what comes to fill that space and how much of it.

    It’s especially unfair, and, yes, passive-aggressive that the woman in the scenarior is labeled PA for saying “we’ll discuss it when I get home”. Damned for negotiating, and I assume would-have-been-damned for trying to insist that something be done. I detect an attitude problem on the part of Mr. Unclutterer.

  21. Posted by Adam Snider - 08/08/2007

    I’m all for digitizing my vinyl so that I can still listen to it if it ever becomes to scratched and worn to listen to on vinyl. But, getting rid of my records (or even my CDs) for the sake of decluttering? I just can’t do it! I am a tactile person, and love the object just as much as the music that is stored on it.

    Still, this is a cool way to make backups of vinyl records. Thanks for the head’s up!

  22. Posted by TallDave - 08/09/2007

    Can I get that dude to rip my collection?? He is gooood. I only have about 100!

  23. Posted by Pete - 08/12/2007

    He should have just changed the lock… ;)

  24. Posted by spiffy - 08/14/2007

    I’ve been looking at the Expedit case for a long time… Is it really sturdy enough to hold vinyl records in all of its compartments? I worry that the particle boards will buckle under the weight of all that albums…

    Also, are there Expedit-like cases but with doors for a cleaner look?

  25. Posted by Abbe - 08/14/2007

    I’m with Grace. But I have a husband who has seen the light and has been digitizing his vinyl on our old computer in the basement all summer. Of course, he’s keeping a select few albums…

  26. Posted by 4rilla - 08/14/2007

    Spiffy,
    I filled filled the Ikea Expedit to the limit with vinyl with no adverse effects. It is a great low cost solution.

    Works like a charm.

  27. Posted by Jez - 08/14/2007

    If you have a turntable and an amp, the only thing you need to convert your vinyl to mp3 is freeware called Audacity. Then, if you have a mini (1/8″ jack) to RCA (red & white) cables, and a soundcard in your computer, you can do this very easily.

    A couple of things to note:

    1. When you download Audacity, you will have to go to preferences to set it up for stereo recording, and then change the values to get the best (read:highest) bit-rate available.

    2. Put the cable into the Record or OUTPUT of your Tape deck on the back of the amp.

    3. You may have to dig out your sound card manual or go online to find which jack is the audio input of your soundcard. Plug the mini end of the cord into this.

    4. Singles take more of your time to do, because you have to pause in between sides, but whole albums are better because you can actually wash the dishes or do other household chores while one side plays.

    4a. Between sides, press the PAUSE button. If you press stop, you’re done with that file.

    5. Once you’re done with both sides, go back to the beginning and mark the beginnings of each song. I’ll detail more of this in my blog.

    6. Use the File, Export Multiple, and the software will divide your files up nicely.

    Thanks for posting this. I will plan to elaborate more on this in my blog (http://jezmez68.blogspot.com) in the next few days. I will add more tips from what I have learned so far using Audacity. If you have any questions, please email me.

  28. Posted by spiffy - 08/19/2007

    4rilla,

    IKEA listed Expedit’s maximum load per shelf is 29 lbs. — and from my experience, a full crate of LPs weight a LOT more than that — can you really fill each cube to the limit?

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