Recording with USB turntables

From Audacity Manual

USB turntables are designed to transfer records to digital audio files or CDs by connecting to the computer's USB port, and are especially useful if your computer doesn't have the line-in port needed when digitizing LPs with a conventional turntable. USB turntables often include a line input for transferring from tape decks or similar sources as well. Audacity is suitable for recording from any make of USB turntable, using the instructions on this page.
Several manufacturers of USB turntables now bundle Audacity with their product, notably Ion Audio, Numark, Kam and Lenco.

Note that much of the information on this page and the page linked to below in the Wiki will also apply to recording with USB tape cassette decks and external USB soundcards.

Please see the Audacity Wiki page on the use of USB Turntables for a fuller discussion of the operation of these devices.

Ensure the Audacity software is up to date

Make sure you have a current version of the Audacity software as the software provided on the turntable manufacturer's CDs can be out of date. Note that neither the version number of the CD nor that of any guides produced by the manufacturers relates to the version of Audacity that you have. You should always check the current version of Audacity you have by clicking Help > About in the program (or Audacity > About if you are on OS X). Then go to the Audacity download site and, if needed, grab the latest Audacity download for your operating system.

Ensure your manufacturer's guides are up to date

There can be confusion about the guides provided with the turntables, which are written by the turntable manufacturer rather than by Audacity. Sometimes the guides supplied with the turntables are out of date, or have errors. These are the main errors that you may come across:

You don't need to select stereo mix in the dropdown selector of Audacity's Mixer Toolbar. The dropdown selector is always grayed out when the turntable is correctly selected as Audacity's recording device.

Audacity Preferences are not under the File menu except in the legacy 1.0.0 version of Audacity which is only appropriate for Mac users on OS 9. Preferences are under the Edit menu, except for users on OS X where they are under the Audacity menu.

You do not need to select Monitor Input each time you launch Audacity. Monitoring the input is optional and allows you to hear the turntable through the computer speakers just like an ordinary turntable whenever it's playing, without having to record. If you want to select Monitor Input, you need to have the Meter Toolbar enabled (note: NOT the Mixer Toolbar that current guides state). Instructions on this are below.

Set up Audacity to record from the turntable

After connecting the USB cable of the turntable to the computer, set up Audacity by going to the Devices tab of Preferences and:

In the "Recording" section, select the USB device from the "Device" popup menu. Set the "Channels" popup menu to "2 (stereo)".
In the "Playback" section, select your inbuilt sound or sound card by name from the "Device" popup menu. Do NOT choose "Microsoft SoundMapper" if you are on Windows.

Switch to the Recording tab of Preferences and:

Check "Software Playthrough" if you want to hear the turntable through the computer speakers.

Click the "OK" button to accept the settings you have made.

Go to the Mixer Toolbar and turn up the left-hand output volume slider (by the speaker symbol). The right-hand input volume slider (by the microphone symbol) does not function with USB turntables, so it is not possible to vary the input level into Audacity. If you are on a Mac, you should also click on the Mac hard disk, then Applications > Utilities > Audio-MIDI Setup. Click on the Audio Devices tab, then on the left-hand side, select your USB device in the "Default Input" and "Properties for" dropdowns. If you are on OS X 10.1 or earlier, go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sound, click the Input button and select USB Audio CODEC.
Make sure that your Project Rate bottom left of the Audacity screen is set to 44100 Hz.
Then, ignoring any instructions in the manufacturer's guide to select "stereo mix", simply press the red Record button in Audacity to start recording from the turntable.

Recording, editing and exporting

Once your USB turntable is set up and working properly, go to "Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD" (skip to the last section) for instructions on how to make and edit your recording, export it to an audio file, and then import it to iTunes/Windows Media Player and/or burn it to CD.

Troubleshooting

The following are discussed in detail in the Audacity Wiki - see: Troubleshooting

Links

|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD