Vinyl to iPod - easiest method?

[Mike Fishcake]

OK - my dad has a large collection of vinyl from the last 40ish years, and we're trying to see what the best method is to get that music on to his iPod.

I've seen the various different USB turntables around, and a lot of them seem to come with Audacity.

Now whilst I've occasionally used Audacity myself for sound editing and found it a good program to use, it seems like it may be a bit overcomplicated for what I'm hoping is a simple task - that is, recording off a turntable into mp3 format with minimum fiddling around.

Anyone got any experience of this? Whilst my dad isn't a computer newbie, it would probably be nice if he could do something like leave it running, then come back to it in 20 minutes or whatever and find that it's recorded one of the sides, split them up by detecting silence in the tracks and brought up prompts for him to type the details in. Is that asking too much, or is there software out there that can do that? Don't mind paying for a decent application (well, as long as it's not too much).

(It would be nice if it ripped the tracks, submitted them to Shazam and instantly got the track names, before manually flipping the record over, but I think that's even less realistic ;-))

BTW, purchasing via download or CD isn't an option for a lot of it, there's a load of really obscure stuff in there that just isn't available digitally.

[Behemoth]

I remember reading one review of these products in Computer Shopper or PC Pro (I forget which of the two mags it was exactly) some years ago which said and I think it was an Ion one that came with two methods for recording. Auto mode which gave no control at all to the user so you weren't able to fiddle with the sound settings much get rid of some of the hiss.

Then there was a manual mode which handed over to Audacity

[Powderhound]

I assume he has a functioning turntable.
1. Plug the output from the amp into your PC's line-in
2. Start recording in Audacity
3. ...?
4. Profit!

[menthel]

Easiest method? Buy the CDs and rip them or buy the MP3s! Otherwise it is as above, either line in into PC or get one of the many USB turntables out there. I don't think its easy though!

[Mike Fishcake]

I assume he has a functioning turntable.
1. Plug the output from the amp into your PC's line-in
2. Start recording in Audacity
3. ...?
4. Profit!

Well yeah.

Now whilst I've occasionally used Audacity myself for sound editing and found it a good program to use, it seems like it may be a bit overcomplicated for what I'm hoping is a simple task - that is, recording off a turntable into mp3 format with minimum fiddling around.

I.e. - Recording it, checking which levels work best, removing any hiss, finding where the tracks start and end, cutting that particular part of the track out, pasting it into a new version and exporting it as MP3. A pain in the rear end.

Looks like the ION TTUSB software is able to have some level of automation, so hopefully I'll be able to find some software that can do this through the PC's line-in. If not, I'll just recommend that turntable as a whole.

[Mike Fishcake]

Thanks for the advice, menthel, but:

BTW, purchasing via download or CD isn't an option for a lot of it, there's a load of really obscure stuff in there that just isn't available digitally.

Obscure folk records and that sort of thing

[Powderhound]

I've done transfers the way I mentioned, and have been very happy with the results; it's not too much work since you can usually see where the tracks start and end from the wave pattern fairly easily. IIRC, Audacity also has a built in option to detect separate tracks, but this can sometimes end up cutting at the wrong places, and I expect the USB turntables would have similar problems. The newest version of Audacity certainly has comprehensive noise removal features.

[finlay666]

I think when my dad did his vinyl collection he used audiograbber
http://download.cnet.com/Audiograbbe...-10016038.html