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I've just been experimenting with ripping some old vinyl records to CD via MP3 - albums I'm not so amazingly keen on to want to buy them in CD form, and singles that I wouldn't have a clue where to find on CD (including some oldies that were my dad's).
This turns out to be surprisingly easy and doesn't require any expensive hardware or software (at least not unless you're a devoted audiophile - in which case you probably know all this stuff and/or have everything on CD anyway).
So, in case anyone else was thinking about trying this, steps that work are:
(1) Connect the headphone output on the stereo to the Line In connector on the computer sound card. That's probably the same type of connector at either end (this link might be useful). If you don't have one, you should be able to get one at the local computer or electronics shop for less than a fiver.
(2) Get some software which will read the stuff coming in to the computer on the Line In and allow you to trim the resulting waveform and save it in whatever format. I used a free, open-source program called Audacity which, remarkably, does exactly what it says on the tin and just works in a nice easy way. You can download it from that link, and you probably want to get the add-on that allows you to save in MP3 format (see the FAQs).
(3) Start recording in the software, play the vinyl record, use the editing facilities to chop out any bits you don't need after it's finished, save as MP3 or whatever other format you want.
(4) Use a CD writing program (e.g. whatever came with your computer system, or failing thst Real Player, Windows Media Player, etc) to burn a standard format music CD.
Obviously, the exact method for (3) and (4) depends on what software you use, but it should be reasonably straightforward. And the quality is actually pretty good after all that!
This turns out to be surprisingly easy and doesn't require any expensive hardware or software (at least not unless you're a devoted audiophile - in which case you probably know all this stuff and/or have everything on CD anyway).
So, in case anyone else was thinking about trying this, steps that work are:
(1) Connect the headphone output on the stereo to the Line In connector on the computer sound card. That's probably the same type of connector at either end (this link might be useful). If you don't have one, you should be able to get one at the local computer or electronics shop for less than a fiver.
(2) Get some software which will read the stuff coming in to the computer on the Line In and allow you to trim the resulting waveform and save it in whatever format. I used a free, open-source program called Audacity which, remarkably, does exactly what it says on the tin and just works in a nice easy way. You can download it from that link, and you probably want to get the add-on that allows you to save in MP3 format (see the FAQs).
(3) Start recording in the software, play the vinyl record, use the editing facilities to chop out any bits you don't need after it's finished, save as MP3 or whatever other format you want.
(4) Use a CD writing program (e.g. whatever came with your computer system, or failing thst Real Player, Windows Media Player, etc) to burn a standard format music CD.
Obviously, the exact method for (3) and (4) depends on what software you use, but it should be reasonably straightforward. And the quality is actually pretty good after all that!
