How to Convert Vinyl & Tapes to CD

Old vinyl records and cassette tapes can be transferred to a compact disc, which creates instantly portable music while saving valuable music collections from the obsolescence of the analog medium. Getting the sound from an LP or tape onto a CD requires a computer with a sound card for transforming and recording old analog signals into digital information that can be saved on the computer's hard drive and burned to a disc. Most computers sold with a CD burner are bundled with the software for using the burner. Separate software is needed to capture the vinyl or tape recording. Recording software can be purchased or free software can be downloaded from the Internet.

Things You'll Need

• Turntable and tape deck
• RCA audio cables
• Y-adapter with RCA jacks and mini-plug, available at electronics stores
• Computer with sound card, recording software and CD burner
• Tapes and vinyl records
• Blank, recordable CDs

Instructions

Connect the Components

1. Connect a set of RCA audio cables to the Audio OUT jacks on a turntable or tape deck using the red plug for the right audio channel and the white plug for the left.

2. Attach the other ends of the cables to the RCA jacks on a Y-adapter.

3. Insert the Y adapter mini-plug in the computer's Aux IN jack to the sound card, usually located on the back edge of a laptop or the rear connection panel on a desktop computer CPU (Central Processing Unit).

Recording Records and Tapes to Computer

1. Open the recording software installed on the computer by double-clicking the name of the software in the list of programs.

2. Click the "File" tab and choose "New" to start a new recording project.

3. Load a cassette into the tape deck or place a record on the turntable and start playback.

4. Click the "Record" button with the red circle in the middle on the recording software screen.

5. Click the "Stop" button when the record or tape finishes playing, then click the "File" tab and Choose "Save as .WAV" which is an audio file type suitable for burning to a CD. Type a name for the recording in the "Save As" box and click "OK."

Burning the CD

1. Open the computer's media tray, insert a blank, recordable CD and close the tray.

2. Open the software for managing the computer's CD burner. In a Windows platform, Media Player is commonly used for burning discs. QuickTime and iTunes are popular software packages for Apple computers.

3. Click the "Burn" tab at the top of the software screen.

4. Click and hold the cursor on the file name, then drag the file to the field underneath the Burn tab and release the mouse button to drop the file in a list.

5. Locate and drag as many files as desired into the Burn list for the CD. The software keeps a running tally of available recording space on the blank CD and will display a message when the length of all files in the Burn list exceeds the capacity of the blank disc. Click "Start Burn" to begin recording the audio files to CD.

Tips & Warnings

• Let the CD burning software finalize the disc before attempting to remove it from the computer's media tray. This closes the disc to prevent recording new files over the existing content.

• Disconnect audio components and the computer from the electricity while completing the cable hookups.

References

• PCWorld: Rip your records
• Online-Tech-Tips.com: Recording cassette tapes to computer
• Audacity.SourceForge.net: Free computer recording software

Resources

• ElectronicsNMore.com: Y adapter for connecting analog components to computer