Recording/ripping vinyl
I’m on a pretty hefty budget after purchasing my turntables and a few records so I need to make sure if I have this right before I go out and buy. I googled the easiest way to get this done, and if I have it right all I would need is an rca cable leading from my mixer (from line out) to my laptop’s headphone jack and some recording software. Just thought I’d confirm whether or not this is correct.
Nope - you need to use your laptops mic in, not headphone out (the clue is in the name …), but if you’re using a DVS you’re probably better recording internally or using audacity to pick up the soundcard output
okay, then that’s all I had wrong?
Yes, make sure you do the Line In as he said.
I’m not entirely sure about the Line out from the mixer…I would have done the booth out or record out…
This would be much much easier with a soundcard with an input though.
Id recommend you get a phono preamp and hook it up directly to your soundcard and avoid recording through the mixer (most mixers color the sound).
found this out after recording half my record collection with a old ass pioneer mixer.
I’ll keep that in mind. Gotta try it out straight through the mixer first.
That’s not bad thing. In most cases it’s a good thing unless you have a mixer that is 10 years old or older. Unless you have budget mixer like pyle,behringer or stanton mixers (the under $200 ones) one’s mixer should be just fine for recording.
What’s with the ten year cutoff?
It just sounds good.
Edit: The statement sounds good with the superfluous wordage, not the less than 10 year old mixer BTW…
+1
-1
Yeah, like vintage mixers all sound like POS because they’re so old. In fact I might go round to my parents and smash all my dad’s vintage guitars. They’re just SO OUTDATED GIRLFRIEND!
It’s a good thing to add noise?
BTW, DJ mixers are noisy as hell. Even the good ones.
The “right” way to do it is with a phono preamp and an audio interface (or an audio interface that has a preamp), but that’s also a lot more expensive than an RCA → Stereo Mini cable. But realistically…you might just want to see if you can buy digital copies of the tracks. It takes less time and usually gives better results.
But I also think vinyl sounds like crap, so most DJs won’t agree with me.
If you like the sound of vinyl playing through your DJ mixer, use your DJ mixer and have your tone controls configured in a flat position.
If you want your vinyl to sound like something you are not familiar with in terms of sound, by all means purchase one of those esoteric phono preamplifiers.
THIS^^^^^
You knows it.
In the short time i’ve been on this forum, the solution to every single problem lies in buying expensive equipment!
How the hell did a poverty stricken kid from Bolton, from one of the areas worst estates, who was either unemployed - because the late nineteen eighties could show todays times of austerity a trick or two, or on some pittance paying YTS scheme ever get out and play music?
It appears some DJs here are not poverty stricken and have no idea what is layaway when buying equipment. 
Pick up a second hand audio 8/4 they have built in phono preamps, and if your worried about spending money DJing is not for you…
Right then lets look at this step by step.
He has just bought two decks and a mixer.
The purchase has left his wallet light.
He says so himself in his first post.
Now i’m gonna make an assumption, He might not have an RCA to jackplug lead (£6 at the most) but possibly barring that, he has everything else needed to successfully rip Vinyl to the Hard drive - i’ve been doing it that way myself for years.
Why are so many of you obsessed with suggesting the purchase of extra or needlessly expensive equipment for doing a job that he is already amply equipped to do?
This ain’t an attack on anyone, but an observation…
I believe there is an assumption by some that their DJ Mixer is not good enough to send a signal to a computer’s sound card to make a recording.
Possibly some are not technically inclined and are assuming the worse. It could be an issue of hearing other people buying esoteric preamps for recording vinyl in their computer other than the unit they’ve grown accustomed to when, playing vinyl for years.
I’ve used the same mixer for decades so I am not looking for my vinyl to sound “different” once transfered to digital media.