Turntable for sampling/ digitizing? What's important?

[regler]

Hey,

I'm a rookie when it comes to turntables, I know the basics, but I'm not educated when it comes to turntable sound quality. I'm looking for a solution on budget which is good enough for the following cases. I can't afford something fancy, I'm just looking for a down to earth solution which are good enough to work with. I have a RME audio card so the quality should be enough on the ADC side.

1. digitizing vinyl to play in clubs/ via PA (even tough I don't have a turntable I bought a lot of vinyl only releases I love).
2. sampling vinyl for production

Of course I know that things like even speed from the turntable are very important, but even is a 1210 is very solid it's not some kind of hifi-turntable as far as I know. I really can't judge if a old mid class turntable from my parents would be enough?

How important is the needle, is it maybe even more important than the turntable self? Is there some kind of "standard" needle like the 1210 is for turntables?
What about the preamp, how important is it in the whole line? I have a pretty ok mic preamp, but I guess I need a separate phono amp. Is something like this ok or does it have to be allan&heath quality to be really usable?
http://www.thomann.de/gb/art_deejaypre_ii.htm

I'm really interested in your opinions.

best regards

ps: I'm really looking for neutral first hand experience and not for internet rumours or GAS (gearacquisitionsyndrome) related :-)

[tone-def]

Why don't you just play the vinyl in the club? It would make things easier for you not having to record all your records into the computer.

As for sampling for production, who cares if the quality isn't all that good. All the classic sampling DJ's just sample from technics and often into some 12bit samplers.

[Ingemar]

im no wiz at this, but dont bother getting a 1210 if you are only going to use it for sampling. The strength with the technic mk2's is the direct drive magnetic lock - as with all turntables the only two things that affects the Sound is the needle and your ria amp.

your best way to get information about this is to pay a visit to a hifi-store and ask a dude with gray hair (important), ive only laid down the rudimentary basics

[oblioblioblio]

I'm not an expert but my opinions are: your RME will almost certainly have a stereo preamp that will be of good quality. It will have more gain than you needas it will designed to work with microphones/instruments and will probably have a balanced XLR input. But I believe you will be able to use it with the RCA outputs from your turntable. I think RME is well regarded in terms of analogue to digital conversion so probably not worth upgrading.

Your ears should be a good judge. Listen for noise, particularly ground loop hum which will be able to be solved without needing to make a big purchase. Record at the highest quality your soundcard and playback software will handle, i.e. 24bit depth and 96k sampling rate.

Upgrading your turntable might mean it keeps a more solid speed. Probably not a big deal depending on your DJ software.

[regler]

Thanks guys!

@oblioblioblio: I guess the problem is needed RIIA curve, or can I do that in the digital domain too? Any experience?

im no wiz at this, but dont bother getting a 1210 if you are only going to use it for sampling. The strength with the technic mk2's is the direct drive magnetic lock - as with all turntables the only two things that affects the Sound is the needle and your ria amp.

your best way to get information about this is to pay a visit to a hifi-store and ask a dude with gray hair (important), ive only laid down the rudimentary basics

the needle&amp advise helps a lot!