Want to record vinyl into my G4 then to CD

Hi, My first thread, so bare with me. Please. What all do I need (in the Mac) to
put my music onto the hard drive or i tunes and then record onto cd's. thanks

Sorry I forgot to say G4 AGP cpu speed 1Ghz, bus speed 100 Mhz,1Gb memory thanks

What you need for the recording ... a Griffin iMic, a turntable with a built-in amplifier (or a stereo with a line out port) and a cable to connect the iMic to the stereo. You also need to download Final Vinyl, which is free and also from Griffin. You can of course do similar with (cassette) tapes, substituting it for the turntable.

Record your music to your G4 hard drive, or external hard drive, as .mp3 (or the file sizes become huge), and then burn the tracks to CD thereafter.

PS. This is a project in progress for me too, I'm awaiting the $$ to buy the Griffin gear. I have a large collection of vinyl discs and cassette tapes to transfer to CD or DVD.

Harley96 said:

Hi, My first thread, so bare with me. Please. What all do I need (in the Mac) to
put my music onto the hard drive or i tunes and then record onto cd's. thanks

Click to expand...

One way to get "vinyl" tunes into your computer is with a USB turntable. Here's a link to one supplier:

Store

I cannot say how good they are, but it's one way to do it.

- Nick

First off, it depends on your audio hardware. Most turntables do not have the proper output voltage level (RIAA equalization) that is required for the recording without an external signal amplifier. Absolutely no turntable of any worth with respect to sound reproduction will have this ability. In this case, you will need either a mixer or a preamplifier with the appropriate input capability (either moving magnet or moving coil, depending on your turntable) and the ability to "loop" or export the signal being conducted (in this case, your songs on vinyl) to an external source (your G4's audio input).

Assuming you have a turntable that can accurately reproduce the source material (your records), and that you have the proper hardware to increase the signal voltage to near RIAA standards, as well as export the signal to your computers audio input (via a mixer or a preamplifier), then you need an audio recording program such as Audacity which will store the audio onto your hard drive. You can either store the audio files as mp3's initially, or record them as .wav (or whatever else your software allows) and covert them to mp3 in the interest of saving space. For that, I recommend Apple's "lossless" importation feature which is integrated into iTunes.

If I were you, I'd be more concerned with the quality of the turntable, cartridge / stylus, tonearm geometry and alignment, and preamplifier abilities than I would with the actual "recording" process.

Most turntables do not have the proper output voltage level (RIAA equalization) that is required for the recording without an external signal amplifier.

Click to expand...

Ahhhhhh........yeah? Basically you have to turn mic level into line level, as turntables are basically mic's, so you need a mixer or amp that will turn it into Line Level, just say that instead of all that other crap. When you finally record into the Mac from vinyl, use wav or AIFF at 16-bit/44.1khz, don't use the MP3 format to save your capture.

Don't use a Griffin iMic either, they suck, you get loads of interference.
Get an Edirol UA 1EX or similar USB input device, and use Audio Hijack or Audacity to record with. Get a good turntable and a pre-amp or a turntable with one built in. USB turntables are rubbish.

Bmode said:

Ahhhhhh........yeah? Basically you have to turn mic level into line level, as turntables are basically mic's, so you need a mixer or amp that will turn it into Line Level, just say that instead of all that other crap. When you finally record into the Mac from vinyl, use wav or AIFF at 16-bit/44.1khz, don't use the MP3 format to save your capture.

Click to expand...

That's not what I said. The output on a typical moving magnet cartridge is about 5mV. From there, you need either a turntable preamplifier or a preamplifier with turntable inputs that work with MM voltage inputs. The average output of a higher end moving coil (MC) cartridge / stylus is approximately .4mV. Again, this signal needs to me amplified via a turntable preamplifier or a preamplifier with MC line capability.

A turntable is not "basically a mic'". A turntable converts mechanical vibrational energy into an electrical signal via electromagnetic induction.

A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer that converts propagating wavefronts (acoustic energy) into an electrical signal via electromagnetic induction.

For our intents and purposes in this case, the signal must be amplified to approximately 2V. It doesn't per se matter if it's a "mic" or a "line level" output, so long as the voltage is correct.