How can I transfer music from an old phonograph record to my computer?

There are two typical ways of getting MP3s onto your computer. You either download them from some website, or you get them from a regular (store-bought or borrowed) CD. But wait! there's a third way, and it's great if you have a ton of old vinyl sitting around unplayed, and you want to take those old scratchy classics along with your iPod.

Here's how you can convert your vinyl-to-MP3:

If you’re like me, you’ve got hundreds of old albums sitting around collecting dust. Or maybe you’ve got several dozen cassette collections from the 70s, 80s or early 90s. You hardly every get them out, unless you’re totally bored or you have an old song busting through your head, like "She's A Lover" by the Pretty Things, Grand Funk Railroad's "T.N.U.C." or "Baby Talks Dirty" by The Knack and you just gotta hear it. Now.

So you pull out the album, play the song and stick it back in. Now wouldn’t it be easier if the song was just sitting on your computer as an MP3, and you just had to click a mouse a few times?

All you really need to accompany your computer and sound card is a line-in recording device and a piece of software to accompany it.

Equipment-wise, you’ll need an RCA to 1/8” headphone jack cable and an MP3 encoder that gives you the option of recording any audio from your line-in. Check out Musicmatch or RealOne Rhapsody. They’re sufficient, although if you want to do any more serious recording with some spiffier controls and options, you’ll want to look into something like Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (now Adobe’s Audition) or Sound Forge.

Still, the low-end versions will accomplish what you want – getting the audio into your computer to convert that old vinyl-to-MP3.

Connect the output of your stereo amplifier to the back of your computer. And again, if you’re looking at doing this more than casually, you’ll want to look at getting a small mixing board, such as a Mackie Mixer for around $240. It gives you a number of inputs, and more control over your volume, balance, bass, treble, etc.

If all you have is your cassette deck, for instance, just hook the output of that into the sound card of your computer.

In MusicMatch, select the desired bitrate for your MP3s. For most uses, the near CD-quality of 128 Kbps will work. If you're like me, and want to make it a little higher quality – in case The Knack means that much to you – try 160bps or 192bps. It’ll take up a little more room, but hard drives are so cheap, don’t hold back on account of scrimping for space. Hey, these are precious recordings!

Now, browse your menu (most likely under options), and set the recorder source to Line In. To set your recording level, play the cassette or record and open up your computer’s Recording Control. (You’ll find that under Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices). Drag your mouse up or down on the slider to adjust the recording volume. You’ll have to listen back to the recording to check out the volume before you’re satisfied that it’s not too quiet or overmodulated (recorded so loud the sound distorts).

One of the tricks at this point in playing back your test recording is to find the darn song! I always have a little trouble finding it. To see where it landed on your hard drive, go to Options > Settings > Recorder and check the Tracks Directory. This way you can see the path and sub-paths to where the song is stored on your hard drive. To listen, navigate to File > Open and go to the directory where your song or test is recorded.

Once you’ve decided you like it the sound level and quality, go back and start another recording. You’re well on your way to creating MP3s of your vintage vinyl tidbits and precious and rare recordings. Then your records will be safe while the digitized version can be played over and over, shared with friends, or taken with you on your portable MP3 device.

Even if you aren’t into The Pretty Things.

Phonograph Record

Easy and simple, Q: do you have a microphone?, yes?, OK plug it into your computer, now You can use many ways to record music to your computer, and here are some:

1.you can use the "Sound Recorder" from your Start>Programs>Accessories>Sound Recorder utility, that is of corse after you plug your Mic and when you hit Record, you play the phonograph. BUT some times the Sound Recorder doesn't record that long time.

2.After plugging the Mic, you can use a Sound "recording/editing" program Like (Adobe Audition) Or (Cool Edit) Or (Sonic Acid Pro)etc..., and the procedure is regularly the same after running the program Find the Record command, and then start the phonograph. after recording the music, the program gives you alot of Saving options, Like .Wav, OR .MP3..... File type.

Well Bingo, that's that.....

Yours Yanal

several people have asked what a phonograph record is and they have been totally ignored.For those who have parents who are younger than 45 or so a phonograph record is a black plastic-like disk(vinyl)that looks something like a fore-runner of a CD disk.They can be big;Long Playing records(LP records) that have several songs recorded on both sides of the record or small for single songs. They have a single, fine tiny groove that spirals around the disk from the edge to the center. They are placed on a turn table which spins it around and a needle on an arm is lowered onto it. somehow vibrations picked up by the needle in the groove are turned into music.

The reason why any one would want to record music from this seemingly ancient format is pure nostalgia for a more romantic innocent time; sometimes one longs for the days when guys didn't compare girls to jeeps and girls didn't accept the disrespect today's men dish out to them in the media as normal. and believe me, Napster does not have everything, only what some guy at Napster thinks you guys need to hear

In rear side of your computer there's an small hole where you normally connect the microphone. This kind of plug or jack is commonly used with headphones as well.

Somewhere in your phonograph there should be two jacks (black and red) these are RCA male jacks for audio output. You must get a RCA-Microphone cable and connect it from your phonograph to the computer and download a recording program from Internet.

Now you are ready to record from LP to MP3.

There are a number of turntables available which directly encode phonograph discs to MP3 on a memory stick.

I have one and it is just so easy, push record and play the record and the machine writes a file to the memory stick, push a button on a remote between tracks and it writes a file for each track. Could not be simpler!

Yes, easily done.

Take the output from the record players earphone jack or the audio out from the amp playing the LP and hooked it into a hand held digital recorder. Now play the LP and record onto the digital recorder.

Next, dump it onto your PC/laptop and burn the CD as you wanted.

-- Pavan Padaki

Im transfering all my cassettes to my computer I use a 4 channels mixer the mixer that I use is a GEMINI and cassette deck, connect the output of the mixer to the microphone input of your sound card then you need to download a record software I use NeoAudio to record the music to MP3, in real time, the only job is you need to record songs by songs. You can connect the turntable to the mixer but I cant remember if is the MAGNETIC OR CERAMIC INPUT.

I wish can I help you with this information.

Very easy. Get an audio editor like Adobe© Audition or if you have mac ... get Quicktime pro... then place a microphone in the phonograph speaker... conect the microphone to an amplifier.... then connect the output of your amplifier to your computer..... Most of the amplifiers come with an REC stereo output... you can use an stereo RCA to Mini plug stereo (3/4 inch plug)... adapter and conect to your computer audio board LINE IN.... then record in to your sound editor.....

Make shure that to separare each song as an individual file....

Next export your files in wav or aiff format files.... and organize them in so you have between 60 or 70 minutes of sound .... and voila! your cd is ready

Very simply get a cheap cd recorder and while you play the record record the sound coming out on the cd recorder and then take the cd and transfer it to your computer and just transfer the music to your computer that way.

Look up Xitel-Inport.They sell a little box smaller than a pack of smokes.It comes with drivers RCA cable and a USB cable you provide the record player.You can do this with tapes as well.There is a couple of problems.1 is quality of your album,if it's scratchy you guessed it scratchy file.Second problem is you will need to set your volume and record volume a couple of times till you get the sound quality you want.I hope you have a good ear.You don't want a file that is so low that you have to turn your computer volume up to the max just to hear it and vice versa.A third problem is the cost I paid over 70 bucks and all it does is audio.There are other devices that do video and audio for around the same cost.