Recording from Vinyl to a laptop - what software?

[stockhausen]

A neighbour who is in his 80s is a vinyl enthusiast. Not having a whole lot to do at the moment, he has asked me for advice on transferring music from LPs to MP3 format on a laptop.

In order to test this out he has lent me a (good quality) turntable, an Amplifier that amongst other things has a phono / turntable input, tape input/output capability and a few LPs.

I have absolutely no experience of this sort of thing. I have in the dim distant past used Audacity but don't know whether it is up-to-date or whether something else would be better. I realise that you will not be able to carry out the conversion fast (as you can do with CDs) but he isn't worried about this.

I would greatly appreciate input from anyone who has copied LPs to MP3 format - ideally using free software.

 

[Shac]

Google Fu suggests https://www.turntablelab.com/pages/recording-vinyl-into-your-computer-guide

 

[stockhausen]

Yes, Audacity. I have tried both that and "Golden Records" without success so far

 

[seanyc5]

Audacity will work fine. You need to connect the turntable to phono in on the amp - then from amp(record out or tape or whatever its named) to line in on pc.

I have done this before it works fine.

You will need 3.5mm to phono cable/adaptor to be able to connect to your pc though.

When you say no success, are you getting nothing recorded?

Do have speakers connected to the amp? to make sure the turntable/phonostage is working ok?

Have you played about with the input choise in audacity, I forget what its called.

Assuming you are using on-board audio?