Transferring Vinyl Records – Part 2 – Using Existing Turntable
November 20th, 2009 | by Joel Duifhuis | 2 Comments
Part 1 – Intro
Part 2 – Home conversion with existing turntable
Part 3 – Using a USB turntable
Part 4 – Have Someone Else Do It
Do you have an old record player which is still in good quality and produces a good sound? This is an option for you!
Before you think about playing your records, you want to make sure they, as well as your player are in good condition. Nothing is worse than playing your record in a turntable with a damaged cartridge and scratching and damaging your irreplacable records.
Another consideration when using an old turntable is its output. Standalone turntables usually had a phono output which you would connect to the phono input on your stero amplifier which then connected to your speakers. Standalone turntables have such a low volume output, the amplifier is needed to boost the output to proper listening volumes. When considering connecting your turntable to your computer, if your turntable doesn’t have a high volume output, you will need to invest in a phono stage, such as the Pro-Ject Phono Box II (~$159 US). This allows you to boost your turntable’s output to a volume which can be recorded by your computer without distortion.
What else do you need? You will also need a computer with a line-in jack as well as a converter plug which on one end has a 3.5mm male headphone jack and on the other has 2 male RCA plugs. This cord allows you to connect the turntable (or Phono Box) to your computer. You will also need to download a copy of Audacity. This is a free, powerful program which allows you to record from the line-in connection on your computer. I recommend the 1.3.x versions over the 1.2.x versions as the 1.3 line has additional features which make converting our records much simpler!
How to! Once you have all the necessary parts together, hook your turntable to the phono box using the supplied cables. Then hook the phono box to the computer using the 2 RCA->3.5mm cable mentioned earlier. You are now (almost) able to convert your first record!
Other Option: Rather than connect your turntable through a phono box and into your computer from there, you can upgrade from the Pro-ject Phono Box to the Pro-ject Phono Box II USB (~$199 US) which has a USB output along with the amplified phono output. If you do this option, check out part 3 of this series to learn how to connect your turntable to your computer.
Check back soon for the next part where I’ll talk about hooking up a USB turntable to your computer!
Part 1 – Intro
Part 2 – Home conversion with existing turntable
Part 3 – Using a USB turntable
Part 4 – Have Someone Else Do It
November 26th, 2009 at 5:12 pm (#)
[...] 1 – Intro Part 2 – Home conversion with existing turntable Part 3 – Using a USB [...]
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:01 pm (#)
[...] 2nd, 2009 | by Joel Duifhuis Part 1 – Intro Part 2 – Home conversion with existing turntable Part 3 – Using a USB turntable Part 4 – Have Someone Else Do [...]