#useful post

Where does one get a thingie that plays records? You can go the cheap route and find one in a thriftstore, you can go the pricey route and buy one new, you can go the upper-mid-range route and find one at a used record store (at least you’re more certain than at a thrift that the thing will work!) -- or you can cheat the system a bit by buying one of those all-in-one record/tape/CD/radio setups that look like an old cabinet, branded with Crosley or Intelligent Technology or the like, and see what options it has for output (two RCA output jacks and/or a headphone jack), which often costs less than just a turntable alone.

Can we even do this? It’s fair to say that not every record player can be connected to anything at all if it has built-in speakers. Many, though, have a headphone jack that when plugged into will shut off the speakers, so that’s one way. Turntables meanwhile always have some way to connect to a stereo system, specifically the coaxial connectors known as RCA plugs, and occasionally have a headphone jack also. The RCA plugs are usually color coded red and white for the left and right channels, though nothing’s going to explode if you switch them. :) Here’s what the RCA plugs from a turntable look like next to the RCA input jacks on the back of my stereo receiver:

So how do I get the record player connected to my computer? Let’s look at the computer first... There’s a microphone jack on the computer, on the back or possibly you have a second one on the front of a desktop machine, or on a notebook there’s a jack on the side, and many are color-coded pink. (Additionally there may be a blue color-coded jack next to it labelled Line In. It does the same thing but at a different volume level and that’s what I use on my notebook because something’s wonky about my mike input.) Now let’s look at whatever you’re playing a record on... If it only has a headphone jack, you can use one of those plug-to-plug cables ($8 at Walmart, $1 at Dollar Tree) that have become popular for playing music from your cell phone or MP3 player through the Auxillary jack of your car’s radio. [left] If it has RCA plugs, there are handy adaptors (two styles are shown here) to shift from RCA jacks to a headphone plug. [right] 2-RCA-jacks-to-1/8″-stereo-plug adaptors are available online or you might find one at a thriftstore or electronics store like BestBuy.

So plug the headphone cable into the record player’s headphone jack OR plug the two RCA plugs into the adaptor, and then stick the other end of the wire you’re holding into the computer’s microphone jack (or Line In). Now you are set!

(If you want to/can get a little more snazzy -- useful for adjusting volume and balance, the use of an equalizer, and some bonus effects like Bass Boost and Surround Sound -- here’s how I have my home setup: The turntable is connected to the RCA inputs on my stereo receiver, and I’ve run a cable from the receiver’s headphone jack to the computer’s input jack.)

Okay, so now what do I do on the computer? It’d take a longer post to explain every last detail fully, but you can shortcut past most of this by using the controls in the sound editor program Audacity, which you’ll probably want to be using anyway. (Nothing against any of its rivals like Magix Audio Cleaning Lab, which I also use for its various effects, but Audacity is very easy to understand for the process of ripping music from vinyl.) Let’s set Windows up to use the turntable as an input device now. In the latest version of Audacity, here’s the toolbar at the top:

First thing, choose the source (as shown). The above presumes that we’re using the frontside microphone jack on my computer; if the plug were in the backside Line In jack, that would be another option listed. Now we need to get the input sound level set. I’m going to put a record on and drop the needle in some random location; in the control buttons on the left I click Pause then click Record (just like a tape recorder!) so the input volume will be dynamically displayed without starting a recording:

The green ever-shifting bars in the input meter show that audio is coming into the sound card indeed, so that part was successful. Right in the middle (over the number 30) is the thumb for adjusting the input level -- if the bars weren’t going far on the scale, I’d move the thumb to the right to make it more sensitive, and if the bars were all the way to the right, I’d move the thumb to the left until the bars were maxing out between 6 and 12 on the scale, the yellow zone of the meter, because you don’t want it to be overloud (that’s called ‘clipping’; you can use the software to amplify not-loud-enough sound so being in the midrange is best). Once you have the input level corrected, now’s when you should adjust the output sound -- the standard Windows way, by clicking the speaker icon next to the clock to move the slider -- so you can hear it at your comfort level, and it doesn’t affect the volume of the audio files you create.

Okay, you can click the Stop button now that you have the input and output sound levels set, or you can restart the record where you want to begin and unpause. How to rip, edit, and save music is a different post. :) 

What if I don’t hear what’s playing but Audacity shows the sound is working correctly? Also: Can I play vinyl and have the sound come through my PC speakers without being in a sound editor program? Input audio playing through the speakers is a function of Windows’ Sound control panel, the exact location of the toggle varies between versions, but here’s a screencap of what’s what in Windows 10:

Path here: Sound control panel, under Input the Microphone is selected so click Device Properties, then the window shifts to the Device Properties list; under Related Settings click Additional Device Properties, a new dialog pops up with four tabs, and under the Listen tab check “Listen to this device”. Also available here is the Levels tab, which is the place you’d be adjusting the recording level manually if you didn’t do it through Audacity as explained a minute ago.

A protip: It’s probably best to be listening through headphones, rather than using your computer’s speakers at normal volume, when ripping so you hear better sound quality as you work as well as so the playback sound doesn’t bleed/echo into the recording, because needles are fairly sensitive. Yes, I have an MP3 of Thompson Twins’ “Hold Me Now (Extended Version)” where you can hear me lean back in my creeky desk chair during a quiet passage...