How to Record Music and put on CD [RESOLVED]

[dw85745]

I have a number of old vinyl records that I would like to put on CD.

Can someone explain what I need to do this. Am especially interested in the hardware hookup and the software I need.

For example (my guess is):

1. Hook up record player to amp.
2. Run amp to computer sound card.
3. ??? software to use to record sound card input??
4. ??? what type of file will be generated or what is the best option to choose???
5. Burn file to CD

[Sastraxi]

Assuming you have ~1 gb of space:

1. Run the phono (RCA) out from your record player to an AMP, and hook that Amp up to your PC's soundcard. The first part is easy, but for the 2nd you need either:
- a soundcard with stereo RCA-in
- a 2 RCA -> 1 Stereo Phone connector/convertor. You can get one from RadioShack

2. Use a program to capture this. My program of choice is Winamp, with the Line input plugin and the wave output plugin. Make sure to set it to 44.1k kHz, 16-bit Stereo capture.

3. After this is done, you'll have a large wave file (several hundred megabytes). The size depends on the length of the input. Now, we cut it with WaveSplitter, a very ugly but very useful program:
http://users.jagunet.com/~disrael/wavesplitter/

4. Rename the song tracks, and burn with whatever program you want (ex. Roxio).

[dw85745]

Sastraxi:

Thanks for the help.

Responded several days ago with a post to your comments but for some reason it never showed.

As I recall my question was and still is:

Would you recommend a 2 lineinput sound card over 1 line for better sound or will 1 line keep the stereo?

[Sastraxi]

You only need one - mini phone jacks are almost always STEREO on sound cards. The 2 RCA jacks are one channel each, and when coupled together and converted they turn into a stereo phone jack. So, the answer is I would recommend a 1 line input over a two, but if the two line input soundcard has RCA in, then you won't even need a convertor. What sound card do you have?

[dw85745]

Thanks for the information -- greatly appreciated.
Climbing the learning curve on sound and recording.

What sound card do you have?

Nothing fancy, it's called MagicSound PCI by I/O Magic.
It is soundblaster pro compatible and has Microsoft Direct Sound, DirectSound3D, DirectInput, and DirectMusic.

David

[Sastraxi]

I have an SB PCI 512 OEM... It's basically a rebranded Live! Value, but doesn't come with the extra software (it does have EAX and 3D sound, but only a 2.1 sound card... go figure). It's quality is great, but I would suggest against ANYONE buying this card. After listening to music (or playing a game, or watching the TV tuner, whatever uses the sound card) for about 2h, it emits random pops and squeaks, and it gets worse as you keep using it. who ever thought your sound card could overheat?

And, if you couldn't find the Line-In plugin for Winamp, here it is:
http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/de...ponentId=84040

And BTW, the "Wave Output" plugin is called the Disk Writer plugin, sorry for that.