Copying to CDs

Is is possible to connect a cassette player or turntable to an iMac to copy old cassettes or records to CDs? I know I can get a converter cable, but am concerned if the voltage, etc. might ruin my iMac.

Also are there applications which facilitate this like Garage Band.

Many thanks,
David

Cassette player shouldn't be a problem, but I recall that turntables have some kind of weird voltage thing that receivers with phono inputs somehow accomodate. Don't know that it would hurt it, but it certainly wouldn't sound very good.

A cheap way to test would be to get a Griffin iMic (USB microphone input for Macs that don't have audio in, like my old Mini, which died a death by Cabernét) for US $30 and see what it would do. Of course if you already have a receiver or amp that accepts phono in, it's probably got a headphone out, and you should be able to hook that up to the Mic input.

Otherwise I'd record the LP's to cassette first before recording to the Mac. I used to routinely hook up cassette players to a computer. Not necessarily a Mac, but it was no problem and I could record the cassette out to digital.