LP's / tape to tape into mp3?

kam1nsk1

Hello

My dad wants to get his old vinyl and tape to tape stuff onto his mp3 player.
I've seen turntable decks with usb designed to do this, but is there anything out there that can do both (I'm thinking something that can use a line in source to convert anything to mp3 format).

I saw this on the richer sounds website, is this what I'm talkin about
http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=ADS-RDX150

Help greatly appreciated as usual!

Minski

vyseyboy

Could just do it manually with an everyday soundcard's line-in and some free recording software, like audacity? Record then export to Mp3. It takes a while, but you could leave it running an album at a time, then split the tracks and export each as a seperate MP3 at the end.

This is assuming that you already have a reciever / amplifier, and that has a line-level output (many will) or even a headphone socket (pretty much all will) for output.

See here, for example.

kam1nsk1

Thats great, but is there an easier way to do it, even if you have to spend a few quid?
My Mum wants to get him something for xmas, and anything too longwinded and complicated is totally out (in fact even a simple to use gizmo would probably take hours of careful explaination!)

vyseyboy

Ah right, I see. As far as easy to use objects, there aren't really any as I'm aware... the thing you posted a link to is basically a good quality external sound card, with Nero software instead of audacity (which would be functionally much the same) and the procedure would be much the same as the guide I posted as far as I can see.

ION (who make usb turntables) also do a USB tape deck, but both are quite pricey for what they are, and you'd still have to record using audacity! (that's what they ship with)

GunJack

My dad's just finished doing all his stuff...he's 66, so had quite a lot of stuff !! He used Magix to record his with a line-out from the amp in his hi-fi into the soundcard, but however you do it it's a long-winded process, as you have to play all the records/tapes in order to record them.....

I did offer to pay him to do mine & mrs G-J's for us..now he's retired, I thought, however he's moved onto scanning his photo slides, which will take another age. Not suprisingly, his answer to my suggestion was not really printable on this forum

bluewomble69

Running a feed from your amplifier's line-out into your PC's soundcard line-in and capturing the file via Audacity or similar works fine (except when you discover your line in doesn't work properly and only records in the left channel like me!). You have no choice but to record the originals in real-time unless you want to be clever and record your 33 rpm LP's and 45rpm and slow them down with computer software. Bear in mind that MP3's always sound inferior to CD's and LP's (when using a decent turntable) owing to the "lossy" compression using in making them. Usually OK for portable players and low-end equipment like the average PC though.

GunJack

bluewomble69 wrote: »

. Bear in mind that MP3's always sound inferior to CD's and LP's (when using a decent turntable) owing to the "lossy" compression using in making them. Usually OK for portable players and low-end equipment like the average PC though.

womble - depends, if you rip the tracks to mp3 at a high bitrate, you can get over most of this IF you need to..although unless you're a real buff, I'd suggest that ripping at 128 is fine for virtually all applications.