hook computer to turntable?

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I had old computer hooked up to receiver with turntable to record music and need help to hook to windows 10. forgot how to do it. Its this sad old brain.

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I believe with my tape deck I used a cable and connected to the microphone jack. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that.
Joe

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I believe with my tape deck I used a cable and connected to the microphone jack. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that.
Joe

You may need to use an “attenuating” cable when connecting to the microphone jack. An attenuating cable reduces the signal, so as to make it usable.

Here is some info about attenuating cables.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Thank you all for your answers. My children did a lot of records several years ago and had the turntable hooked to a receiver and from the receiver to the computer but I don’t see where a cord can hook up on the receiver to the computer. Or not one that works. Guess will have to go shopping. It plays when you put the headphone into the receiver.

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If you’re converting records to mp3s, best to have something similar to: ac-powered, usb-connected, external Sound Blaster, can’t remember the model name, about $60-80. It picks up wonderfully; whatever quality in, WAV or MP3 quality out.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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The same way: Through a receiver that has a phono preamp. Some modern turntables come with them built in (and usually plug directly into a USB port). Others can be bought that have a USB out or a line out. They aren’t particularly cheap. A used receiver with one might be better.

http://www.phonopreamps.com/ – computer
You will likely need these assuming the turntable has RCA connectors and you will use your PC’s 3.5mm “line in” in the back.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021815&p_id=5596&seq=1&format=2

For free app I’d use Audacity to record. (Win10?)
http://audacityteam.org/
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/USB_turntables

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If you already have a receiver then there are likely two RCA plugs exclusively for the turntable phono inputs, and then you would plug into again likely RCA outputs to a 3.5mm “line in” (hopefully stereo). But make sure you see all these connections before buying a cable.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021815&p_id=5596&seq=1&format=2
longer lengths are available for convenience, but I like shorter to keep signal losses down

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There are two possibilities with your existing set up.
1. Connect “line out” on the amplifier to “line in” on your PC with a converted cable, 2 x RCA to 3.5 stereo plug.
2. Connect “headphone out” on the amplifier to “line in” on your PC with a converted cable, 6.5 stereo to 3.5 stereo plug. With this set up you need to adjust the amplifier volume to a very low level to prevent bad things happening to your PC.

cheers, Paul

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2. Connect “headphone out” on the amplifier to “line in” on your PC with a converted cable, 6.5 stereo to 3.5 stereo plug. With this set up you need to adjust the amplifier volume to a very low level to prevent bad things happening to your PC.

That’s where an attenuating cable comes in handy. It reduces the signal for you, so as to prevent distortion in the recording and damage to the recorder.

When I was a music major (a very long time ago!), I used to bring my tape recorder to the library so I could record music I was required to listen to. I used an attenuating cable to connect from the headphone jack (in the library sound system) to the microphone jack (in my tape recorder). It worked perfectly, because the cable “attenuated” (reduced) the signal going from the library sound system to my tape recorder.

I purchased the cable at Radio Shack. You could tell if one was an attenuating cable, because one end of the cable was red. I just went to RadioShack.com to look for one of these cables, but a search on “attenuating” produced no results.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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You will need some kind of pre-amp hardware adapter to go between the two. The signal strength coming from a turntable isn’t very high and getting the two things balanced (and filtered) correctly is important.

If you plan on copying records to MP3, then it might pay you to purchase a turntable with a USB connection and software that’s designed for this. I’ve tried it the other way and had no end of problems with the sound quality.

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Like this? http://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-Shielded-Attenuating-Audio-cable/dp/B001THXU8C%5B/B%5D%5B/url%5D

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Here are a whole bunch of these cables.

I went to Ebay and did a search on “Radio Shack Attenuating”.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Yes! That is EXACTLY what I am talking about.

That cable will work like a champ for recording from a headphone jack (output) to a microphone jack (input).

The only caveat is that you may need to get an adapter or two to make the connections work (like Paul mentioned above). For example, to do stereo recording, you would need to plug a splitter into the turntable, to provide separate mono left and right channels. You would then connect two attenuating cables — one left and one right. You would then need a joiner on the other end — joins left and right. Because I don’t recall them selling a stereo attenuating cable. You wouldn’t need a joiner if you had separate left and right inputs, such as left and right microphone jacks.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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The on-board audio for my PC has a line-in jack. My turntable has two RCA-style connectors, so I got an RCA to banana plug cable. My turntable also has a pre-amp, which is important when using line-in. I’ve been recording this way for years (currently working my way through the LPs I borrowed from my parents).

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I had old computer hooked up to receiver with turntable to record music and need help to hook to windows 10. forgot how to do it. Its this sad old brain.

How you do it depends on the turntable.

If it is a “bare” TT you will need a preamp designed for this purpose because the output of the TT needs to be properly equalized to match something called the RIAA curve.

If you have a TT with a “high level” output available you would purchase a cable with 2 RCA plugs wired to a 3.5 mm stereo plug to connect to the high level sound card input if available. If the TT output cables are hard wired, you would need two RCA female connectors wired to the stereo plug.

If you have a stereo receiver or amp with “phono” inputs, connect the TT to these inputs and use the “tape out” jacks with the adapter cable mentioned in the above paragraph. I would not use the headphone jack unless it is the only possible connection.

I bought a device from Ion (http://www.ion-audio.com) several years ago which will accept either high level inputs from a stereo receiver or amp or low level inputs from a TT and outputs a digital signal to a USB cable. The advantage of this is you can adjust the audio levels and also record from cassettes, open reel tape decks, and even 8-track players.

Once you have the file on the PC you can make an audio CD. Doing that properly does take time and an audio editor.

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A lot of good answers. If you have a Line-Out or Tape-Out on your receiver, use that to connect to the Line-In on your computer. The Mic-in might be mono with “phantom power” usually on the tip and the ring is audio (or is it the other way). Some computers let you select Mic or stereo Line, check with the manufacturer documents. If your turntable has a ceramic cartridge it might work but may sound funny because of the RIAA equalization, or really the lack of it. But if it has a magnetic cartridge you will need a preamp (or your receivers preamp). I use a Soundblaster Xfi-HD USB external sound card and it works well, even though it’s now obsolete. Driver updates are still available to make it work on Win10. It can be set for line level or magnetic level inputs. It also has much better analog to digital converters for recording than my computers built in sound. Hope that helps.

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The OP has never been back. close the thread.

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The OP has never been back. close the thread.

Well, it was fun thinking about the attenuating cable situation.

Seriously, if you want to record from one device to another, and if the only output you have on your source is a headphone jack, and the only input you have on your recorder are microphone inputs, an attenuating cable will be a lifesaver.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Please.

cheers, Paul

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“…Soundblaster Xfi-HD USB external sound card and it works well…” — a previous poster
Thanks for mentioning that model! That’s the one I have two of. One’s a spare. It still works! One quirk I have not been able to solve: I cannot monitor either input [going] into the soundcard or the soundcard’s output [going out of the soundcard and into the computer]; tried headphones, ext speakers, nada zip.

Mods: If you want to split this off into another thread, that’s fine! The reason I’m in this thread is ’cause many are hooking up cassette players and/or turntables into computer is to: convert cassettes or records into WAVE or MP3 files with minimal problems.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I had old computer hooked up to receiver with turntable to record music and need help to hook to windows 10. forgot how to do it. Its this sad old brain.

ginny, if your receiver has Aux. Tape Output jacks (the RCA type) for recording to say a Cassette Deck, then all you need is a cable with RCA plugs on one side and a 1/8″ plug on the other side. If this is the case then plug the Red plug into the right channel jack and the White one into the the Left channel on the receiver. Plug the 1/8″ plug into the Line In input jack (the blue one) on your computer’s audio. The only thing I’m not sure of is whether Win 10’s Media Player will allow you to make MP3’s from Line Input sources. You may need to get another Third Party program to do that. Some have been suggested in this thread. Good luck.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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