A number of accessories may be used when converting old analogue recordings into digital format, a few examples are listed here.

Accessories

Pre-Amp:

A standard turntable which has not been adapted for use with a PC may require a 'pre-amplifier' to bring the audio signal up to a level that your PC sound card can 'hear'. These are commonly available from electronic audio component retailers and on the internet and are relatively inexpensive.

You won't need one of these if you have a Hi-Fi amplifier that you can connect your turntable to as long as you have a suitable output from the amplifier. You can use the headphone output of the Hi-Fi or phono (RCA) outputs. If there are RCA outputs for a cassette deck, you could set up the HI-FI to record from turntable to cassette, then use the cassette input or output to send the signal to your PC. If you use the cassette output, you may be able to adjust the volume via your cassette deck (you will also have to press the 'record' button on your cassette deck - in some cases a blank cassette will need to be inserted). If you use the inputs, by-passing the cassette deck completely, you should get the signal delivered directly to your PC) .

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Example pre-amps

USB turntable/ tape deck:

You can get turntable with built-in 'pre-amp' usually complete with some recording software to do the entire job of converting vinyl to CD, and a USB tape deck from Ion iTT. These systems are comparatively expensive, when you bear in mind that you may have all you need to complete this task anyway. The most poular versions useAudacity software and the turntable has an input to plug other audio devices such as a cassette player - this input allows you to use the device as a soundcard for your other analogue devices.

If you don't have a turntable or cassette deck at all, it might be worth considering buying one of these rather than buying 'conventional ' audio equipment (especially if you don't have a suitable amplifier or you don't have suitable stereo inputs on your PC, ie. some laptops - see below)

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Ion iTT

USB soundcard

Laptops often only have a mono microphone input which is not suitable for recording in stereo. Where you don't have access to a computer with a suitable soundcard, an external USB device will do the job.

There are lots of fairly expensive ones around specifically for recording musicians - these tend to have all sorts of inputs/outputs and knobs and dials. In contrast you can get a very simple version which just has the same ports as a conventional soundcard. I use one with a laptop - this one was purchased on ebay for around £15/$25 (including postage from China!). A device like this is perfectly adequate for the task in hand and will produce the same results as more expensive versions.

One of these can double as a convenient way to record on a standard PC with a perfectly usable soundcard. It is easier for me to plug into my USB hub than to get down to my soundcard, so having bought one of these devices for my laptop, I now use it on all my computers.

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Behringer USB device

Soundblaster Audigy

iMic

PC tape player:

You can even get a tape-player which sits in your PC like an extra floppy-disk drive. Like the USB turntable, this usually comes with suitable software to record straight from the cassette. Also like the turntable, this is an expensive solution, especially if you have the right components to do the conversion for nothing anyway! Only consider this if you don't have a tape deck and are planning to do loads of recordings.. You could get recordings done professionally for a fraction of the cost.

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Plusdeck 2