Current hardware and software has reached the point where transferring LPs and cassettes to CD is fast and easy (well, straightforward anyway)...and the software is free!

[Alert! Lately I've found I have to click on an audacity/sourceforge link twice. The first time I click on it, it fails with a 404 Error, making me think the link is broken or was not coded properly. However, when I click on it again, it works the way it should.]

There are two parts to the process:

1. transferring the music to the computer and
2. breaking up the music into individual tracks.

Connecting Equipment

The usual way to do this is to connect a cassette deck or a stereo system to the computer. Eventually, I'll put up my own set of instructions. In the meantime, this webpage is an excellent guide.

Once the equipment is connected, Audacity can be used to capture the music by following these instructions.

Using an mp3 player

Another way to transfer music involves an mp3 player with a line-in input. The cassette deck or stereo system is connected to the mp3 player so that the LP or cassette can be recorded to the mp3 player. The mp3 player can then plugged into one of the computer's USB ports to transfer the music to the computer. I've done this a few times, but find I get better results connecting audio equipment directly to my computer. My mp3 players don't have the kind of level meters I need to judge the quality of my recordings.

The instructions in the previous section create a single music file that contains the entire cassette or LP. This file could be burned to a CD, but it would produce a CD with a single track. The step that I find most tedious is this next one--breaking up the music into individual tracks. It's not hard, just tedious. The Audacity website contains a good set of instructions. Basically, it involves

• looking at the wave form,
• locating the short periods of silence that separate individual songs, and
• clicking within each silence to insert what Audcity calls labels. (Other programs use different names, such as cues.)

To remove a label,

• place the cursor on top of the label so that the cursor turns into a black vertical bar, indicating that Audacity is ready to let text be entered.
• Use the backspace key to remove any text that might be present.
• Once the label is empty of text, press Enter to remove the label.

While this step is tedious, it turns out that there is a simple procedure in Audacity to automate it!

• Highlight the entire selection by pressing Ctrl-A or by choosing Edit/Select/All from the menu bar.
• Go to Analyze/Silence Finder on the menu bar. The Silence FInder requires three settings.
  • The Silence Level setting will take some experimentation. The Silence Level is the volume below which Audacity calls something "silence". The goal is to find a setting so that only the white noise between cuts is called silence. It's just a matter of trying a few settings to find one that works. Also, it doesn't have to be perfect, since it's a simple matter to add or remove a small number of labels manually.
    • Start with the default.
    • If Audacity finds too few silences, that is, if it places too few labels, lower the Silence Level.
    • If Audacity finds too many silences, that is, if it places too many labels, raise the Silence Level.
  • Minimum Silence Duration works with Silence Level to identify stretches of silence. Not only must the volume stay below the Silence Level, but also it must stay there for at least the length of time specified as the Minimum Silence Duration.
  • The final parameter tells Audacity where to place the Label. The default is 0.30 seconds before the end of the silence.
• After the Silence Finder has inserted its labels, examine the waveform to see whether the Silence Finder has missed some breaks. If so, insert them manually.
• Also, be sure there is a label at the start and end of the waveform. If not, insert them manually.
• Then, as described on the Audacity website: "Choose 'Export Multiple' from the File menu. When you click the 'Export' button, Audacity will save each song as a separate file, using the format and location you choose."

Now that the cassette or LP has been transferred to the computer as individual tracks, any CD burning software can be used to create the CD.