I don't fancy spending the next month trying to get librarian out of the carpet.

Spike ,'Chosen'


Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?  

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


sumi - Dec 30, 2006 2:18:07 pm PST #9956 of 10003
Art Crawl!!!

Oh, about that connecting the turntable to the computer thing -- my turntable is from the late 80s and my computer is from this year. I have a feeling the input/output stuff won't work -- are there adapters for that sort of thing?


Liese S. - Dec 30, 2006 2:39:36 pm PST #9957 of 10003
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

Has anybody else noticed an increase in spam recently?

Err, sorry, this is my fault. All the spam in the world is being sent from my domain. Sorry about that.

are there adapters for that sort of thing?

Most likely.


Jon B. - Dec 30, 2006 2:47:58 pm PST #9958 of 10003
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

Oh, about that connecting the turntable to the computer thing -- my turntable is from the late 80s and my computer is from this year. I have a feeling the input/output stuff won't work -- are there adapters for that sort of thing?

Read my post above, Sumi. Do you have a receiver you can plug the turntable into like how you would normally play a record? Does the receiver also have "record" and "play" rca jacks for connecting a tape deck? If so, you can use my method above.


NoiseDesign - Dec 30, 2006 3:04:01 pm PST #9959 of 10003
Our wings are not tired

The big thing when dealing with a phonograph is that you need some piece of gear with a Phono preamp in it. This can usually be a receiver like Jon is describing, though newer ones don't always have a phono input on them. You need to make sure that it is specifically a phono input for two reasons, one is that a turntable puts out a different level than other components and also because there is a equalization curve on those inputs that is needed. Basically certain frequencies are boosted or cut in the mastering process for vinyl and those must be compensated for with a specific EQ curve on the phono input. You can get a standalone phono preamp as well, here is a site with a selection of them.


sumi - Dec 30, 2006 4:26:31 pm PST #9960 of 10003
Art Crawl!!!

I have a receiver - (completely blocked from view) I believe that it's set up to have a cassette player or at least something aux connected to it too so I should be able to follow Jon's method.

And I've marked all relevant posts for future reference. Thank you so much! It will be so m uch fun and much cheaper to convert records to mpgs and then burn them rather than buying more cds.


DCJensen - Dec 30, 2006 7:18:56 pm PST #9961 of 10003
All is well that ends in pizza.

We are 40 posts away from a new tech thread. I've just proposed these early ideas in the bureaucraxy thread Daniel C. Jensen "Bureaucracy 3: Oh, so now you want to be part of the SOLUTION?" Dec 30, 2006 9:15:09 pm PST:

Buffistechnology3: clocking a pretty scary amount of computer time.
Buffistechnology3: I'm jacked in, I'm jacked in, I'm jacked in...
Buffistechnology3: Technopagan is the term.
Buffistechnology3: It's the computer age; nerds are in.

All from "I Robot, You Jane," so far.


Jon B. - Dec 30, 2006 7:29:00 pm PST #9962 of 10003
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

It will be so much fun and much cheaper to convert records to mpgs and then burn them rather than buying more cds.

If you want to digitize your LPs specifically to convert to CDs, then you should save them as .wav files (or .aiff on the Mac) when you record, and not mpegs. Mpegs, especially mp3s, are a "lossy" format, which means you'll lose fidelity in the process of making the CD. Wav and aiff files are not lossy. They will take up more space on your hard disk, but if you're just burning them to a CD and then deleting the files, size won't matter.


NoiseDesign - Dec 31, 2006 12:14:02 am PST #9963 of 10003
Our wings are not tired

Actually you can do .wav files on the Mac as well. Both formats are pretty much the same thing just with a different header on the file. Wave files are more prevalent at this point.


Jon B. - Dec 31, 2006 4:27:14 am PST #9964 of 10003
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

Say I wanted to take a composite video and stereo audio signal from a TV tuner and record it onto my Mac Mini. I assume I'd need some sort of USB or Firewire device to capture video? What's a good cheap piece of hardware to do that? I don't need the Mini to act as a DVR; I just want to be able to record video and then do some simple editing.


Tom Scola - Dec 31, 2006 4:37:06 am PST #9965 of 10003
Mr. Scola’s wardrobe by Botany 500

Not exactly "cheap", but [link]