I am running a 15" G4 Powerbook with the newest version of iTunes, which is my main method of listening to music. I also happen to own a few vinyl records that I dearly love, and I was wondering if there was a simple way to somehow import the tracks from the record (similar to what I do with CDs) onto iTunes, or if there isn’t a simple way, what kind of equipment/software I would need to do this?
I don’t believe you can use iTunes to record music. (I don’t consider ripping a CD recording because it doesn’t involve converting analog audio into a digital format.)
The easiest and cheapest wayto do it would be to connect the turntable to a stereo amplifier, run a line out from the stereo to the line-in on your powerbook, and record it with Audacity, a free audio editing application.
Record each side of the album, use Audacity to split it into separate tracks, and save them in MP3 format. Then ope iTunes and import them into your library.
If you really want to get geeky, I believe that Audacity has some noise reduction capabilities. You could try to get rid of a little of the record noise, if it bothers you.
Afterthought. Since these are records you really like, you’d probably want to save the song files in AIFF format, to avoid the MP3 artifacts. If hard drive space is a problem, archive the AIFF files onto CDs, and keep the MP3s on your laptop.