Recording from vinyl records, cassettes or 8-Track tapes to your computer in order to create a CD is not difficult. It can be tedious and boring, but it's not hard.

    In order to do this you need a means of playing the media you wish to record. A turntable, cassette player (or recorder) or a 8-Track player (or recorder). Your computer sound card wants a line level input. This is a nominal 200 mV signal. Generally anything you can plug in to the AUX or TAPE input on your receiver or amp and have it work OK is line level already. Turntables with Ceramic carts are line level and the 'slope' is built in, but the sound quality and tracking are relatively poor. Turntables with magnetic cartridges are NOT line level. Not only is the signal very small ( .5 mV) but it is "sloped", i.e. the bass is compressed in order to fit the grooves on the record. This is why even if you get enough gain (volume) it still sounds tinny. A magnetic cartridge needs a phono preamp. These have the proper gain and RIAA slope to make the signal sound correct. You can use your receiver or amps phono preamp by hooking up your turntable and using the "TAPE OUT" or "REC OUT" to connect to your sound card. If you don't have a spare receiver or amp, or yours is too far away from your computer for easy operation you can buy a dedicated external phono preamp, they used to be dirt cheap, now they are $50.- and more. They are better quality now, at least, no cheap chinese junk anymore.     You could go to Parts Express, by clicking these words, and search for part number 245-035. This is a Rolls phono preamp, a high quality unit. It is $70.- + shipping from them.

    You then need a cord with the proper ends to match your preamp (or whatever you are using as a preamp). This is usually 2 RCA phono type connectors ( one for LEFT, one for RIGHT) to a 1/8" stereo phone plug (like a walkman or discman type headphone plug). These are fairly common, one may have come with your discman. If you need one Parts Express has them also ( Part number 240-135 $1.65 Each ).

    Now that you have sound coming into your computer, you need to be able to adjust it. Double click on your 'Speaker' icon in your system tray (Down where the clock is located. Some soundcards come with their own icon, whichever one says 'volume' or 'mixer' when you point at it is the one you want.) Make sure there is a control for "Line In", if not, go to File or Options and choose 'properties'. Check the box for line in then click OK. You should now have a control for Line In. Try playing whatever you connected to the Line In, adjust the Line control, do you hear sound? Good.
HINT - You may have to add line in to both the Playback and Recording mixers properties. Use the dropdown or check off to pick the different lists of controls.
HINT - If you get no input when recording into your software, try switching properties of your mixer to 'Recording', click OK, then adjust the line input to a suitable level. I often leave the mixer minimized so I can adjust the level for a good recording.
HINT - Make sure you leave it on playback for normal use.

Now you have to record that sound as a .WAV file on your hard drive.

    WAV files take about 1 MB per minute. You will need 2-3 times the space for editing the files, depending on the recording software you use. A typical record is about 46 minutes. You will need 50 MBs of space for the master WAV files plus 50 to 100 MBs for editing. Total 150 MBs. With 20 to 40 GB hard drives being common and cheap, this space shouldn't be too hard to find. I find it is easier to record the songs (tracks) separately. This makes processing the files much simpler and more reliable. When you assemble the files in your CD creating software, make sure you put them in the original album order.

    There are many choices for recording software.
    "Sound Recorder" comes with Windows (Start, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment) Although it will record stereo, the time seems to be limited to 60 seconds and the options are limited.
    This info is dated. Adobe has bought Cool Edit. Free Pro Tools is hard to find (but I believe still available). But the basic info is still applicable.
   Pro Tools is a free program that will do the job very well. The program and help files are available from digidesign. This is free, but a large (48 MB) download. Follow the "Get Pro Tools FREE" link at the bottom of the page. A CD is available by mail, also. They have a nominal charge for that.
    Cool Edit is available from Syntrillium. This is shareware and it works very well.
   Dart Pro has CD Recorder 4 (30 day demo available) and Pro 32 available.

    Skipping past the 3 days of recording and figuring out your software and hardware, you now have your .WAV files recorded on your hard drive. You can use your recording software to remove noise or scale the sound for better loudness. You can use a program like CDex to convert the files to MP3s.
When you are done with that, you can burn your files to a CD. .WAV files use the audio section of your burning software. MP3s use the data section.

    I hope this gets you started. There is a lot of info available on the web about this subject. Many of the sites listed above have tutorials, which can answer a lot of your questions. I remain available to help with your audio hardware troubles.

AJ April 7, 2002