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From: Paul-J on 5 Feb 2010 16:00
I wish to try to digitalize a dozen of old LP records.
Hopefully, I dont need to invest in special equipment.

I will use my old hi-fi line to play the records
How do you connect the loudspeaker line out (left and right connectors) to the back of a
4 year old Dimension tower? Device manager says it is a sigmatel audio card.


From: Steve W. on 5 Feb 2010 16:26
Paul-J wrote:
> I wish to try to digitalize a dozen of old LP records.
> Hopefully, I dont need to invest in special equipment.
>
> I will use my old hi-fi line to play the records
> How do you connect the loudspeaker line out (left and right connectors) to the back of a
> 4 year old Dimension tower? Device manager says it is a sigmatel audio card.
>
>

YOU DO NOT WANT TO CONNECT TO THE SPEAKER CONNECTIONS.

If you don't have a line out or a tape monitor circuit then you will
need to hunt up a line level converter to drop the speaker outs to a
safe level. Unless you want to blow the sound card.

That said once you have the correct outputs connect them to a simple RCA
to 1/8" stereo adapter cable. Plug the 1/8" plug into the line in on the
sound card. Start the recording program of your choice and play the
record. Now edit the resulting files to level them and eliminate any
pops, hiss or whatever.

--
Steve W.
From: William R. Walsh on 5 Feb 2010 17:09
Hi!

> I wish to try to digitalize a dozen of old LP records.
> Hopefully, I dont need to invest in special equipment.

There may be a few things, but read on.

> How do you connect the loudspeaker line out (left and right
> connectors) to the back of a 4 year old Dimension tower?

You MUST NOT connect the loudspeaker outputs to your computer. At the
very least, you will get extremely distorted audio whenever you try to
record. At the worst, you may well blow the sound chip right off the
motherboard trying to input that kind of a signal into it.

That's not what you want to do.

If your hi-fi has an *output* for a tape recorder to pick up, that
would be a good starting point. If it does, the hi-fi unit itself can
act as the phono preamplifier and you will have no problem digitizing
your records that way, as nearly all of those outputs put out a line
level signal, which is what your computer expects to see.

You'd connect it to the line input on the sound card. This is
typically a blue colored plug. (Microphone is red, speakers are green.
Other speakers and the digital output will be other colors.)

The cable to do this has a stereo miniplug at one end and two RCA
"phono" connectors at the other. It's about $6 at most electronics
stores (Radio Shack in the US carries them).

If you have a turntable that is old enough to use a ceramic cartridge,
it may be able to put out a close enough approximation to a line level
signal that the computer can pick it up. Most halfway modern
turntables use magnetic pickups, which have a very low output signal
that will require amplification.

If your hi-fi is a completely integrated setup, and has no output
connectors on it except for the speaker outputs, you may need to
acquire a standalone turntable (magnetic pickup preferred) and a phono
preamplifier. Neither part will be terribly expensive--a decent used
turntable and preamplifier should cost less than $75, maybe a lot less
depending upon who is selling it. (I gave $1 for a nice Technics
turntable several years ago. A new needle fixed it right up to perfect
playing condition. Total cost $31. Still works fine today.)

From there you need an audio recording program. The Audacity program
is a good, free starting point that's actually very capable.

If all of this sounds terribly confusing, there are turntables you can
buy (about $150-200) that plug directly into your computer, typically
with a USB cable. These frequently come with software that can help
you digitize your old records.

William
From: Paul-J on 6 Feb 2010 08:10
>
> From there you need an audio recording program. The Audacity program
> is a good, free starting point that's actually very capable.
>
> If all of this sounds terribly confusing, there are turntables you can
> buy (about $150-200) that plug directly into your computer, typically
> with a USB cable. These frequently come with software that can help
> you digitize your old records.
>
> William

Thanks a lot for this great information.

I have seen several of these new USB turntables. They look rather poor quality.
So I will get the needed RCA/minijack connector.
The only difficult thing will be to move my old turntable + amplifier close enough to my
desktop computer.



From: Bill on 6 Feb 2010 10:30


"Paul-J" <getpaul(a)get2net.dk> wrote in message
news:hkkajr$dll$1(a)news.dansketelecom.com...
>>
>> From there you need an audio recording program. The Audacity program
>> is a good, free starting point that's actually very capable.
>>
>> If all of this sounds terribly confusing, there are turntables you can
>> buy (about $150-200) that plug directly into your computer, typically
>> with a USB cable. These frequently come with software that can help
>> you digitize your old records.
>>
>> William
>
> Thanks a lot for this great information.
>
> I have seen several of these new USB turntables. They look rather poor
> quality.
> So I will get the needed RCA/minijack connector.
> The only difficult thing will be to move my old turntable + amplifier
> close enough to my desktop computer.
>

Just to add my two cents. I have one of those USB turntables (ION) and it
works very well. It comes with software that allows you to record, tag etc
etc. It even allows you to speed up the turntable and record at a faster RPM
and then you play back at normal speed . The software is Audacity which I
think you can download for free

As turntables go its not a Technics (which I have used for years) but it
makes LP transfer a snap and the quality IMO is very good.

The only problem I ran into was my motivation dwindled after doing 25 LP's
...:-)

Bill




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