Copying a record to CD?

[Jumpem]

This is from a coworker.....

I have a 45 rpm record that I would like to get recorded onto a CD for a Christmas present. Unfortunately, the only way I have access to do this is to record it onto a cassette (I don't even have a record player, so I'd be using someone else's), play the tape into the in port on my PC's crappy sound card to create an MP3, then burn that to CD. While I haven't tried it yet, it seems like the quality of the final product would be pretty low.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Eeew. You've got to find some way to cut out that intermediate vinyl->tape->digital transition. Borrow the turntable and feed the output right into the computer's line-in. With a powerful system and good sound card, you should get pretty good quality out of it.

- M4H

 

[Rob9874]

Play the record on the system you're going to record the tape onto, but instead of recording to the tape, take the headphone jack into the PC input, and make an MP3 directly from the record.

 

[Heisenberg]

Record player > line in on sound card (WAV file) is the best option.
Record player > tape > line in on sound card (WAV file) is the next best.

Don't convert it to an mp3 and then burn it to CD, as that will make one more conversion take place than necessary.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Would you use a RCA to mini-jack spliter?

 

[fs5]

use a scanner and scan the grooves of the lp.
http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~springer/

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Record player > line in on sound card (WAV file) is the best option.
Record player > tape > line in on sound card (WAV file) is the next best.

Don't convert it to an mp3 and then burn it to CD, as that will make one more conversion take place than necessary.

Yep. And cause more loss in sound quality as well. mp3 encoding should only be used if you want to store it on your hard drive.

edit:

Would you use a RCA to mini-jack spliter?

Yes

 

[Pepsi90919]

i don't understand why the MP3 step.

 

[Rob9874]

Yeah, no MP3. But you'll need to go through an receiver first, and not plug the record player directly into the line-in, as most record players have no amp.

 

[sillymofo]

Or... you could just go and by a stand alone CD recorder, which would have analog RCA inputs, and record straight to CDs from there, and then return the suckas (well, don't do that.. but you know what I'm saying).

EDIT: Oh, and you'll need a signal amplifier also, unless the record player has a built in amplifier.

 

[Lonyo]

Record through the line in to .wav, then use some program (there must be freeware) to "clean up" the sound, if possible. I expect something might be able to, but it might not work brilliantly.

 

[thomsbrain]

skip the tape step and the MP3 step. record player to reciever, set it to phono. then take the tape 1 or tape 2 output on the receiver and plug one of those into the line in of the computer. record to a wav. burn the wav.

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Hmmmm, interesting, been wanting to do this for a while but never really got motivated. Seems like a pain in the ass though.