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Question: How can I record my old tapes or vinyl onto CD?

Answer:

The convenience and high sound quality of CDs have left many tape and vinyl collections gathering dust. There is hope for your long lost albums, as you can easily restore your old cassettes and records onto CD. With the magic of noise reduction and other effects, your favourite recordings will sound as good as new - or better!

The process is quite simple:
1. Connect your tape deck or turntable to your soundcard
2. Record the music into your computer
3. Remove noise and add effects if required
4. Burn to CD

We have three bundles that give you the software and hardware you need in one value priced package. The regular Audio Restoration Bundle includes Dart XP Pro and the Audiophile, but if you don't want to open your computer, or prefer a USB soundcard, the USB Audio Restoration is a great value! For the best results possible, consider our Pro Audio Restoration Bundle".

Making the connections

Virtually every computer comes with some sort of soundcard with an 1/8" input jack. It may be labelled "line", "mic" or "in." For very basic recording, the soundcard that came with your computer might do just fine. However, these soundcards are usually designed for playing games, not recording audio. You will find that your recordings have a lot of excess noise and lack the range and fullness of sound that you find on commercial CDs, or even in the original source material.

Without a professional soundcard, you might find that your old albums sounded better on tape than on CD! If you want to get a better sound, then you might consider a soundcard designed for music. For more info, visit our soundcard buyer's guide.

Once you have the gear you need to start, the process is quite simple. You simply connect the source to your soundcard, hit record in your audio software, and then burn the resulting wave file onto a CD. The source is the output from your tape deck, turntable or stereo. Note that most turntables will require a pre-amp, such as the one that comes with Phono Preamp Studio USB - otherwise the level won't be strong enough for recording on your computer.

Record into your computer

Now that everything is connected, you are ready to record. You will need some software for recording. Here are some programs designed specifically for restoring recordings and burning them onto CD:

• Sound Soap
• Sound Soap Pro
• Dart XP
• Dart Pro XP offers high-end audio restoration

For more info on audio restoration software, please see our Buyer's Guide

You can also use pro audio recording software such as WaveLab for advanced editing and restoration. For more information, please see our digital audio buyer's guide.

Each audio recording program has a slightly different method for recording, but they generally follow the same steps. First, check your levels. If you use an audio capture interface with sliders or knobs to adjust the level, just move the input slider the desired level. Otherwise, you can double click on the speaker in the system tray (right hand corner of your computer screen) and go to the Options menu and select Properties. Then, click on Recording and make sure that the source you are recording from (i.e. line in) is selected. Then, click on OK and you should be able to move the slider for your source up and down to control the input level.

Once you are happy with the levels, hit Record in your software and start playback from your tape deck or turntable.

Remove Noise & Add Effects

After you have finished recording to your computer, you can apply noise reduction and other effects. Most of the programs listed above will let you "undo" the changes if you are not happy with the results. Experiment with different levels of noise reduction and other effects until you are happy with the recording.

Burn to CD

If you purchase a CD restoration program, it will include the ability to let you automatically burn the music to a CD. Otherwise, you will need to save your recording as a wave or .wav file. Once you have the .wav files you need, load up your CD recording software and drag the files onto the CD in the order you want them to be created in. Then, pop in a blank CD and start burning! Note that if you do not want gaps between the songs, you should choose the "Disk at Once" or DAO recording method if you are asked. WaveLab allows you to change the length of the pause, or even remove pauses between tracks. This can be useful for live albums.

Want more info on audio recording? See our Buyer's Guide on audio for more ideas.

Although there are a lot of confusing terms, and even though the steps I have outlined above may sound daunting, recording your own audio CD can be easy - and maybe even fun! If you run into problems or have any questions, be sure to visit the help section on our web site, or send us an e-mail and we will try to help.