Studio vinyl sampling the right way?

[Lukas drake]

I am in the process of setting up my little home music studio piece by 
piece. I've got a couple of thousand records some I am planning to convert 
to CD but my main focus is sampling off of them. We all know that with music 
equipment it's the sum of all the parts involved which determine the end 
result. I want to sample or transfer off of these records right the first 
time, since I will sell many of them after I have done this and can't go 
back if I figure out another way to do this better. I want the highest 
possible quality to make professional music with. I am new to the computer 
side of things, I have cubase and am hopefully soon going to go to SX soon.
I need to know how to do this the right way.

Do I straight record into Cubase? Bias Peak? another program? and how.

I  am using a very high quality Ortofon Nightclub Gold Eliptical needle, 
with Technics SL1200s. Right now my (DJ) mixer is a Stanton SK Two with 1/4" 
TRS outputs. I am looking to upgrade the mixer to a Allen and Heath Xone:02 
(which has XLR outputs) because that company makes legendary sound boards 
and mixing consoles so the sound has got to be better. All this is going 
into a M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard into my 2002 (noisy) Dual 867 MDD Mac. I 
am monitoring on AKG 270 headphones.

If  I get the Allen and Heath mixer should I just use a cable with XLR on 
one end and TRS on the other? Does this defeat the use of the higher quality 
of the XLR?

Which software should I use which will give the best sound quality? SPL 
de-Esser and declicker? Steinburg has the now X series of vinyl clean up 
software. Another vinyl cleaning program? What about a program that 
catalouges the samples?etc.etc..

As well as any other related topics I didn't mention. Thanks everyone you 
can probably tell by my tone that I am nervous about making the wrong/right 
steps. Thanks.



_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online  
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963