Ripping Vinyl With My Setup?

DJ Gear & Hardware CDJ & Vinyl DJing
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Ripping Vinyl With My Setup?

I have posted this here as i am not entirely certain as to where it should go, so if i am wrong, i am sorry.

I am a jungle & Oldskool Dnb dj, who has just taken his first step out of the dark ages and purchased his first set of CDj’s.

Now because of the Genre i mix, a lot (and i mean a lot!) of what i mix is only available on vinyl and there in lies my problem.

I did a bit of research and read some positive reviews on the Stanton T.92 USB Turntable. I watched a few youtube videos and got Audacity, plugged my Stanton T.92 USB into the macbook and started ripping my collection. I ripped all the tunes as .Wav files at first, but changed to .AIFF (I Re-formatted them from the original Audacity file, not converted the .Wav) because i was having trouble with the ID Tags on each file.

This is one of my favourite tracks to mix, and i thought the quality sounded really good…………Until i actually mixed it with a CD rip.

https://soundcloud.com/matty_c-1/terrordome

Now when i listen to my Vinyl rips, i see that the quality is really bad, they sound weak and well….flat for want of a better word.

So,

My goal is to get my vinyl rips sounding much, much better with the equipment i have. If i need to buy something else, then depending on price, so be it.

This is what equpitment i have.

Turntables

Stanton T.92 USB x1
Technics M5G x2
Technics SL1210 Mk2 x2

Mixer

Allen & Heath DB4

Computers

27-Inch iMac (Mid 2011), OS X Lion 10.7.5 & Logic Express (Not Sure What Version)

Macbook Pro (Early 2013) Retina, OS X 10.9.1 (Maverick I Think) & Audacity

I use Ortofon Dj “S” Carts & Styli on all my turntables.

Now,

Although i have all this gear, i am Primarily a vinyl Dj, so my knowledge is not majorly technical, i purchased logic express because i am a guitarist too, but i never got around to recording too much with it, and therefore learning much about it. I do know the bare bones basics though.

Can i achieve the level of quality i am looking for, with the gear i have? if so, can you please tell me how?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any help will be great fully received.

Matt.

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I’d buy a new styli just for ripping, use an M5G with the reset button active to hold zero pitch, a rubber mat to reduce vibration, clean the records properly, and record with audacity via the DB4 with the FX and EQ disabled to create an uncompressed recording then compress down to 320 when you’re happy with the uncompressed results.