I recently set up Raspberry pi to allow my older equipment to stream. that works fine. Bit I have a large collection of old lps and i want to digitise them as some are not available in any form now. i use the same amplifer to play records as i do to listen to music and tv so i should be able to use to pi to record to usb or even run Audacity to digitise the music. Analog to digital converters are available but all seem to use digital coax or toslink. neither of these input are available for pi. is there any other way?
There are lots of ADCs available for use with microcontrollers and the Raspberry Pi. Here’s a link to one Core stocks. Quick search should produce others, either as discrete chips, or a complete breakout board. Check to see what quality sound you need. (10, 12, 16 bit audio)
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unfortunately, your suggested device is not suitable. For audio there are generally three digital requirements - 16-bit 44 kHz for CD Audio, 16-bit 96 kHz for DVD, and 24-bit 192 kHz for DVD audio. My need is for CD audio. I think that a music specialist is where i have to go. Musos corner has a device that may be suitable. But is the Pi up to it?
Hi John,
The What.CD forums were the place to go for this back in the day… I miss that site. The HeadFi forums and Hydrogen Audio forums were my go-to when I was really into this.
If you want really HiFi audio recording I wouldn’t recommend digitising analogue audio on an SBC of any kind; there’s just too much electrical noise. The Behringer UCA202 is a really popular, cheap, USB sound card with a low noise floor, which has RCA in. You really do need an audio grade DAC for this application, most of the DACs intended for sensor input aren’t going to be up to the task.
I’ve got one myself at home, and I’ve found it to be a great low cost solution for eliminating electrical noise that comes out through the onboard sound on my laptop soundcard. It’s got a 16bit DAC, and you can run it at 32.0 kHZ, 44.1 kHz, or 48.0 kHz.
Regards,
Oliver
Support | Core Electronics
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The behringer is exactly what I was thinking of. Either the 202 or the 222. I already have an Audioengine D1 DAC. I think I am on the right track. Thank you. I will let you know how I go.
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Of course, if you are ripping audio CDs, plugging in an external USB CD drive is fairly cheap, and there are lots of free tools available on Linux to rip the audio, and transcode to whatever audio format you choose.
It is also illegal to do this in Australia. 
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Then I had better not do it!!
When i stated recording of my vinyl records, all i had was the raspberry pi. i have now put the whole system together, including new turntable and the Behringer 222 has finally arrived. it all works as expected and i now have the job of digitizing potentially 250 vinyl records in real time!
thanks for your recommendations.
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It has taken me a while (lots of things to do) but i have finally (today) finished the first job that I bought the raspberry pi for. I have succeeded in making a two CD set of music recorded from vinyl records.Learning how to use Audacity is a steep learning curve but all ended well. everything worked well. I have also used the pi to stream video to my not so smart tv. very happy with it.
have a look at “diy audio” forum there into a lot of different gear there may be worth a look and maybe a post if your not all ready a member…if not for your pi then maybe just for your self
Amazing!
Can you show us the setup you used for the conversion? I’m curious to see how it ended up looking. Also if you’d like to send through a write-up of the project for a store credit reward if it goes on the site I’d check out the hyperlinks on the page below. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
Bryce,
The setup is simple. The ADC is connected to the line out RCA jacks of the amplifier. the USB lead on the ADC is plug into USB socket on the Raspberry Pi. The only other connection on the Pi is the HDMI out of the TV. WIFI does the rest. i have attached a PDF detailing the process of digitizing Vinyl Records. I hope this is helpful.
John Ainsworth
Digital Backup Of Your Vinyl Records.pdf (31.7 KB)
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Hey John,
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing, hopefully, this will be useful and/or interesting to someone else in the future too. Have a great day!
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