Please recommend to me a device to transfer my LPs to digital. Money is no object, unless it’s more than, say, $100.
Thanks.
Do you have a computer, a record player and an amplifier that works with it?
If yes, all you probably need is a simple cable like this: DrumZa.com is for sale | HugeDomains
You can probably find one for less than the price on that page. Plug the RCA plugs into the “monitor” outlet on the amp (the outlet that you would use for recording on a tape deck) and the mini jack into your computer’s audio in port. Download Audacity, check the volume level and record away.
Also: if you don’t have an amp and no record player, the Nu-Mark PT-01 is a fairly decent player that costs less than $90 new and doesn’t need a separate amp. Just stick the above mentioned cable into to RCA plugs. There are also some players that provide a USB inter face but I haven’t tried any and I would imagine they’d either be more expensive or crappier.
I have outlets labeled DAT/Tape Output. I should run from there to the computer? Because that’s what I’m doing and I ain’t getting nothing. Error Message: Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate. (after pressing record)
If you have a record player and the proper cheap cables, you can do it yourself for $0. If you are lazy you can buy record players that convert to mp3 on things like Sharper Image or similar stores. If you want to get into gray areas, you can download mp3s illegally under the pretense that you already bought the LP legally. If you don’t have that many albums/songs that you actually care about, you can selectively rebuy them for about 99 cents on itunes or amazon or whatever.
Thanks for the reply about transferring from LP to digital. I have Audacity now but have a few questions, if you dont’ mind. First off, here is my setup: Turntable into phono jack on amplifer;
RCA cable from DAT/Tape Out from amplifer to Line-in on computer. I am playing an album and attempting to record it and can hear it on my stereo. I did as you said about checking the levels, but that’s the problem, there are no levels. Now, if I set Preferences/Recording Device to my webcam microphone I see the levels change to sounds here, so Audacity seems to be okay, but if I select any other option (there are various ones for, I guess, my soundcard) I get nothing.
Thanks very much for any help.
Just a thought, have you set the sound level on the “volume” control? On the volume control, there is a drop-down to set the levels for recording, default is playback. It’s under options.
Also, this seems to be the definitive “vinyl to digital” thread. Maybe too involved, but you should be able to get a few tips.
I figured out the problem. My amp is so old (I bought it in 1988) that one set of DAT/Tape Rec Out jacks are bad. I switched to the second and everything worked out fine.
Thanks for the link. It looks like interesting reading.
Not the involvement with me, so much (tho’ much of the technical stuff is WAY above my pay grade) as the age of the thread–that discussion is over five years old, and I wonder what breakthroughs in equipment, techniques etc. have surfaced in the past half-decade.
In a dream world, of course, all’s I’d need would be some sort of magic wand I could pass over my entire record collection to turn the vinyl into perfect music files downloaded to my laptop, but have we come any closer to inventing that magic wand? I have no equipment, not even a turntable anynore, and have hesistated at buying some because this technical discussion is too much for me, but I hope a simple, affordable, acceptable technique has been developed, because I’d sure like to listen to some of those old tunes again.
Don’t lose heart, because I am now transferring my albums to digital as we speak, using only what I learned in this thread, and it is pretty simple. I didn’t even go to the other thread. As stated, you just need a way to get the signal from your turntable to your computer, and Audacity pretty much does the rest.
In the last few years the turntable to CD stuff has come out, and some of the catalogs that stuff is in makes me think it is pretty simple to do. They clearly are targeting people with lots of LPs which isn’t usually equivalent to the technically savvy set. You might want to look up reviews of these to get the real scoop.
I’m happy with my $50 stereo to USB solution, since I can bring my laptop to the stereo and it works on both LPs and cassettes. Once you get the CDs you can rip them, if they are not MP3 files already.