Connecting a Turntable to My Mac - Revisited

[Gardnera]

My newish MacBook Pro has no dedicated line input. When I plug the output from my pre-amp into the usb-jack the pre-amp signal on the vu meters disappears. Do I need to convert analog to digital first? If so what device do you recommend?

 

[MacInWin]

My newish MacBook Pro has no dedicated line input. When I plug the output from my pre-amp into the usb-jack the pre-amp signal on the vu meters disappears. Do I need to convert analog to digital first? If so what device do you recommend?

Welcome to the forum.

You are tagging into a 13 year old thread. You can see that from the date of the posts in the red bar delimiting the posts.

You would probably be better served starting a new thread, but maybe one of the MODS here will move this post to do that.

We need a LOT more information to start to help you. What Mac, exactly? What version of macOS? What pre-amp? What software on the Mac? What version of that software? What vu meters are you talking about? Remember, we cannot see what you are seeing or doing, so you need to be very detailed and very specific.

And what is the goal of all of this?

 

[Slydude]

Welcome to the forums.

I've moved these posts to a new thread since the old one was quite old. Perhaps that will get you a few more responses,

Jake has asked some important questions that we probably need answers to in order to come up with good solutions.

What pre-amp are you using?

 

[krs]

I'm always interested in topics about interfacing audio devices to the Mac, but we definitely need the info Jake asked for to even understand the current set up.
In addition to that information, I don't follow what you're saying in your post:

When I plug the output from my pre-amp into the usb-jack the pre-amp signal on the vu meters disappears.

What "USB Jack"? On the Mac?
Does your pre-amp have a USB output?
and what device are the VU meters on?

 

[Toroidal]

Wow, I learned more from the questions about the OP than from the OP, good job guys. I've recorded directly from my turntable to my Mac with great results, but the things in between are exactly what did the job to get it there. I used the Rec Out of the Yamaha receiver that has the Phono input preamp, and those RCA outputs had to go into 2 microphone preamps set to Line Level on the audio interface that connected to the Mac via USB. I used a DAW to record on a stereo track, and I now have digital copies of some of my favorite vinyl.

 

[Groovetube]

That’s the best way to get good results.