Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Here, you’ll learn how to digitise and edit your record collection, and commit those rare cuts to MP3s that can be slapped on your phone and taken for a walk. First, we’ll show you how to connect a turntable to a Windows or Mac computer (and it won’t matter if you’ve got a normal turntable or a USB turntable). Then we’ll start recording and converting the warm sound of your vinyl into a digital file, before doing a little bit of editing and polishing and saving it as a track-by-track MP3, WAV, or Flac album. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to playback your digitised vinyl wherever you are, whether on your phone, computer, or your laptop – and as a nice bonus, you’ll be conserving the original records. Enjoy!

Before You Start: Does Your Vinyl Need a Clean?

Using the right tools and cleaning fluids, it’s a good idea to give your records a clean since this will result in better recordings later. If you need a little advice, have a quick look at our other blog, How To Take Care of Your Vinyl. Of course, cleaning your records isn’t crucial, but it’s definitely recommended if you want to end up with tight recordings. If you just want to experiment with digitising your LPs, then you can just skip this step.

I Don’t Have a Turntable Yet

If you’re still shopping for a turntable, then a turntable fitted with a USB port is going to be the easiest choice since all you need is a USB cable and your computer.

What’s the difference between a ‘normal’ turntable with a USB port, and a DJ turntable with a USB port? Basically, DJ turntables include some specific DJ-focussed features, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used for some easy listening at home. Our advice is: always have a good look at the product information and specs so you know if a needle and cartridge come included or if you’ll need to pick one up separately.

Want more choice? Then have a browse through our entire turntable range below. Just make sure to check that the turntable you choose has outputs so you can actually connect it to your computer and digitise your vinyl.

Now we’ll take a look at how to digitise your vinyl depending on the type of turntable you have.

How to Digitise Your LPs

Before we start digging into the details, here’s a four or five step summary of how to digitise your LPs:

Step 1: Connect your turntable to your computer

Find the option that best fits your turntable and computer below, then follow the included instructions to get started and learn how to connect your turntable up to your computer. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a laptop or a desktop, a Windows PC or a Macbook.

Option A: My turntable has a USB port

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Instructions:

  • Setup 1: If your turntable has a square USB output, you can use a USB-A to USB-B cable to hook it up (this cable may have come included with your turntable).
  • Setup 2: If your turntable has a flat USB output, then you’re lucky enough to own a turntable that can record directly to a USB stick. Have a look in your turntable manual to check what USB sticks are compatible. If you can’t find any info, then just to be sure, use a USB stick with a maximum memory of 32GB. You can simply plug it in to record your vinyl, then stick it your computer to edit or just listen to the recordings. You can even plug the USB stick into compatible media players that can playback MP3s. For more instruction on how to record, see Step 2.

Option B. My turntable only has a line output

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

  • If the output of your turntable is labelled ‘line’, then take a look at the image below.If you see something different:
  • Is there a switch that toggles between ‘line’ and ‘phono’, then make sure it’s set to ‘line’ and have a look at the image below.
  • Is there a preamp button? Switch it on and have a look at the image below.
  • Does your turntable have a USB port? Go back to Option A above.
  • Is the output labelled ‘phono’, then head to Option C or D below.
  • If the output isn’t labelled at all, then have a look in your manual to see what type it is.
  • If you can’t find any info in your manual and you’re using an old turntable (perhaps more than twenty years old?), then you can be 99% sure that it’s a phono output.

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Setup instructions:

  • Setup 1: Your turntable has a fitted RCA cable and your computer has a line input. Computer line-inputs are usually marked with a little symbol of an arrow pointing into a rectangle or are colour-coded blue. Microphone are unfortunately only compatible with microphones. What you’ll need:
    • An RCA to mini-jack cable fitted with female RCA plugs at one end and a 3.5mm mini-jack plug at the other end.
  • Setup 2: Your turntable has RCA outputs and your computer has a line-input. Computer line inputs are usually marked with a little symbol of an arrow pointing into a rectangle or are colour-coded blue. Microphone are unfortunately only compatible with microphones. What you need:
    • An RCA to mini-jack cable fitted with male RCA plugs at one end and a 3.5mm mini-jack plug at the other end.
  • Setup 3: The RCA cable is fitted to your turntable and your computer only has a microphone and/or headphone port. What you’ll need:
    • An audio interface (also known as an external sound card) with two line inputs.
      • If the audio interface has RCA inputs (the red and white colour-coded sockets) then you can just connect the RCA cable that your turntable is fitted with to the audio interface.
      • If the audio interface only has jack inputs, then you can use two RCA to 6.3mm jack adapters to connect it up.
    • A USB cable, but this will always come included with the audio interface.
  • Setup 4: Your turntable has RCA outputs. What you’ll need:
    • An audio interface (also known as an external sound card) with two line inputs.
    • An audio cable:
      • If the audio interface has RCA inputs (the red and white colour-coded sockets) then you can connect up your turntable using an RCA cable.
      • If the audio interface only has jack inputs, then you can connect up your turntable using an RCA to jack cable fitted with two 6.3mm mono jack plugs.
    • A USB cable, but this will always come included with the audio interface.

Option C: My turntable only has a ‘phono’ socket

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

  • If the output ports of your turntable are only labelled ‘phono’, then have a look at the image below.If you see something different:
  • If your turntable has a USB port, then skip back to Option A above.
  • If your turntable output is labelled ‘line/phono’ then skip back to Option B above.
  • If your turntable has a little ‘line’ selection button, then skip back to Option B above.
  • If the output is labelled at all, then check your manual to find out which type of output you have.
  • If you can’t find any info in your manual and you’re using an old turntable (perhaps more than twenty years old?), then you can be 99% sure that it’s a phono output.

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Setup instructions:

  • Setup 1: Your turntable has a fitted RCA cable and your computer has a line input. Computer line-inputs are usually marked with a little symbol of an arrow pointing into a rectangle or are colour-coded blue. Microphone inputs are unfortunately only compatible with microphones. What you’ll need:
  • Setup 2: Your turntable has RCA outputs and your computer has a line input. Computer line-inputs are usually marked with a little symbol of an arrow pointing into a rectangle or are colour-coded blue. Microphone inputs are unfortunately only compatible with microphones. What you’ll need:
  • Setup 3: Your turntable has a fitted RCA cable. What you’ll need:
    • A phono preamp
    • An audio interface (also known as an external sound card) with two line inputs.
      • If the audio interface has RCA inputs (the red and white colour-coded sockets) then you can just connect the RCA cable that your turntable is fitted with.
      • If the audio interface only has jack inputs, then you can use two RCA to 6.3mm jack adapters to connect it up.
    • A USB cable, but this will always come included with the audio interface.
  • Setup 4: Your turntable has a set of RCA output: What you’ll need:
    • An RCA cable
    • A phono preamp
    • An audio interface (also known as an external sound card) with two line inputs.
    • An audio cable:
      • If the audio interface has RCA inputs (the red and white colour-coded sockets) then you can connect up your turntable using an RCA cable.
      • If the audio interface only has jack inputs, then you can connect up your turntable using an RCA to jack cable fitted with two 6.3mm mono jack plugs.
    • A USB cable, but this will always come included with the audio interface.
  • * There are also a few audio interfaces that feature a built-in phono preamp, and phono preamps that feature a built-in audio interface. If you have one of these, then you can just skip the part between the phono preamp and USB cable in the instructional image above. The advantage of using one of these is that you don’t have to faff with so many cables and you’ll have a little bit less signal loss. The disadvantage is that it’s likely to be a more expensive solution.

Option D: My turntable is connected up to an amplifier

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

  • This option will only apply to you if you can answer yes to the following two questions:
    • Does your turntable only have a phono output?
    • Does your amplifier have an input marked ‘phono’?
  • If the output is labelled at all, then check your manual to find out which type of output you have.
  • If you can’t find any info in your manual and you’re using an old turntable (perhaps more than twenty years old?), then you can be 99% sure that it’s a phono output.
  • If your turntable has a USB port, then skip back to Option A above.
  • If your turntable output is labelled ‘line/phono’ then skip back to Option B above.

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Setup instructions:

  • Setup 1: Your amplifier has a ‘tape out’ or ‘rec out’ and your computer has a line-input. Computer line-inputs are usually marked with a little symbol of an arrow pointing into a rectangle or are colour-coded blue. Microphone are unfortunately only compatible with microphones. What you’ll need:
  • Setup 2: Your amplifier has a ‘tape out’ or ‘rec out’. What you’ll need:
    • An audio interface (also known as an external sound card) with two line inputs.
    • An audio cable:
      • If the audio interface has RCA inputs (the red and white colour-coded sockets) then you can connect your amplifier using an RCA cable.
      • If the audio interface only has jack inputs, then you can connect your amplifier using an RCA to jack cable fitted with two 6.3mm mono jack plugs.
    • A USB cable, but this will always come included with the audio interface.
  • Setup 3*: Your amplifier only has a headphone output and your computer has a line input. Computer line-inputs are usually marked with a little symbol of an arrow pointing into a rectangle or are colour-coded blue. Microphone are unfortunately only compatible with microphones. What you’ll need:
  • Setup 4*: Your amplifier only has a headphone output. What you’ll need:
  • * Does your amplifier have a mini-jack output (a 3.5mm stereo mini-jack)? Then you’ll need slightly different cables:

Option E: My turntable only has a speaker output

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

  • Does your turntable have a headphone output, then go back to Option D above!
  • Does your turntable really only have speaker outputs? Then if you definitely want to digitise your vinyl, you will need to pick up a different turntable. The easiest solution is to get a turntable with a USB port.

Step 2: Recording Vinyl to a Computer

In Step 1 we got your turntable connected up to your computer. Now we’re going to take a look at how you can record your vinyl to your computer. If your turntable is directly connected up to your computer (Option B below), then you can use Audacity (free-to-download recording software) and temporarily save the recording as an Audacity file so you can edit it later. After that, you can export the tracks as MP3s, FLAC, or WAV files. Pick the option listed below that best describes your setup:

Option A: I have a turntable with a USB port for a USB stick

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Have a look in your turntable user manual to find the instructions on how to record to a plugged in USB stick. What’s likely is that you just need to hit play and then record on your turntable. Then, your turntable will simply record the sound of the record to the USB stick as one or more MP3 tracks. You can choose to do it one of two ways:

  • All in one go: Record sides A and B in one go without stopping the recording. This is actually the best option since a) you’ll be editing the recording on your computer later anyway, and b) if you just want a digital version of a record as quickly as possible and without any fuss with computer editing and don’t mind not being able to skip tracks. The complete recording can be played on your computer, put on your phone, or you can play it back on a media-player with a port for a USB stick. Beware, any albums won’t be split into separate tracks, this will be something you have to do on a computer (see Step 3).
  • Track by track: Here, you stop the recording at the end of every song, then start it again at the beginning of the next song. This is the best option if you really don’t want to do any editing later, but definitely want separate tracks. Using this method, the turntable will make a separate MP3 recording of each song which can then be played on your computer, put on your phone, or you can play it back on a media-player with a port for a USB stick. But if you’re up for doing a little editing on your computer, then it’s best to record everything in one go.

Option B: I’ve hooked my turntable up to my computer

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

  1. Install some recording software: You can download the recording software Audacity for free. Just go to their website, select your operating system, then download and install. Tip: There are plenty of audio editing programs available that come with built-in restoration functions – but you will have to pay for them. If you already have an audio program, you can always install a restoration plug-in. Just make sure to double check that the plug-in format is supported by your software (e.g. VST).
  2. Select the audio source: Start up Audacity and to the right of the little microphone symbol, you can select your audio source.Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!
    • Turntable directly connected via USB: the recording instruction in your turntable user manual will probably tell you what the audio output is called e.g. USB Audio Codec. If you have no idea what to select, then just try everything, making a test recording for each until you know the correct audio source is selected.
    • Turntable connected to the line-input of the computer: Select the name of the internal sound card of your computer. If you don’t know it, then just try everything, making a test recording for each until you know the correct audio source is selected.
    • Turntable connected via audio interface: Select the name of your audio interface. If you don’t know it, then just try everything, making a test recording for each until you know the correct audio source is selected.
  3. Make sure that Audacity is set to record in stereo: To the right of the sound source selection, make sure that ‘Stereo recording’ is selected.
  4. Are you using a USB-turntable in Windows? Then make sure to do the following, that you’re certain that you can record in ‘real’ stereo and that you’re not just recording the same audio on the left and right stereo channels. Right click on the little speaker icon in the Windows taskbar > click on Sound > Record tab > Advanced tab > select ‘2 channel 16-bit 44.1000 Hz’ in the drop-down menu > click OK.
  5. Make a test recording (every time you record an LP): Find the loudest part of the LP you want to record and set up your turntable to play from that point. Now click on the red Record button and then hit play on your turntable. Record maybe ten seconds and then click on the Stop button to stop recording. Since you used the loudest part for the test recording, you can check that the recording will never get too loud.Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!
  6. Check your test recording: Check that the test recording isn’t too loud and doesn’t get distorted. Click on ‘Show Clipping’ under the View menu. This will highlight parts that are too loud in red. Before making another test recording, adjust the input volume with the ‘-/+’ fader next to one of the little microphone symbols. Basically, you need to keep making test recordings until you see no red lines.Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!
  7. The USB-turntable volume in Windows: If the sound is a bit distorted even though you’ve reduced the volume in Audacity, follow the steps in point 4 above but, instead of selecting Advanced, select the Levels tab and shift the slider a little bit to the left.
  8. Delete the test recording: Via Edit, click on Undo to delete the test recording.
  9. Make a real recording: Now that everything is set up, you can record the entire LP in one go. Start recording and playback side A, then flip the record and playback side B. Then stop the recording. It doesn’t matter if there are any silences or sounds of the LP being flipped and started in the recording, because we can remove them later. It’s better to make one single long recording since editing lots of little recordings later is a lot more difficult.
  10. Save your recording: Before editing your recording, (see Step 3 below), you need to save it. The easiest way to do this is to click on Save Project As in the File menu. This will save the recording in an Audacity file format, which will be the handiest when it comes to editing. You won’t need to export an MP3 until you’ve finished editing.

Step 3: Editing Your LP Recordings on a PC

In Step 2, you digitised your LP and saved the recording to your laptop or PC as an Audacity file. Now, in just a few steps, you can edit the recording. Now, you can actually go a lot further than we do in this blog, but it’s not really necessary if this is your first time. By following these instructions, you’ll quickly get some satisfying results.

Tip 1: Only do what you think is essential. If you like the character that the pop and crackle of vinyl adds, then leave it in.

Tip 2: If you make a mistake, just click on the Edit menu and select Undo and the last action you took will be undone.

  • A. Open the Recording You Made in Step 2
  • B. Remove Any Noise
  • C. Remove Any Pops & Clicks
  • D. Remove the Silences at the Beginning and End
  • E. Normalise the Sound

A. Open the Recording You Made in Step 2

Open up the file you saved earlier in Step 2.

Tip: Save the file again under a different name just in case. Do this by clicking on Save Project As in the Edit menu and add something like ‘edited’ to the title before saving. This means you can keep the original recording as a backup so, if you make any major mistakes while editing, you can always make another copy of the original file.

B. Remove Any Noise

The Noise Removal function of some audio software can distort the original sound a little, so it’s better to only remove noise if the soft prattle of a revolving record annoys you. If you do use the Noise Removal function, always check that the result sounds good to your ears.

  • Click on a section of silence at the beginning of the record, where the needle is definitely on the record, but the music hasn’t started yet.
  • Zoom in on the section using the magnifying glass (+) until you can see about ten seconds. You’ll see the seconds numbered in the bar above.
  • This section should be full of soft crackles, so no ticking or music, but no absolute silence either.
  • Select a part of the waveform (a couple of seconds) that looks at flat as possible.
  • Go to Menu, then Effects, select Noise Suppression, then Noise Profile
  • Go to the Select menu and click on ‘All’
  • Go to Menu, then effects and under Noise Suppression, select OK
  • Check various parts of the recording. Does everything sound good? Great! It’s actually normal if you can still hear a little noise, since the noise suppression will never be perfect.
  • If things sound a little weird, then you can undo the noise suppression by clicking on Edit and then selecting Undo Noise Reduction. It’s better to have no noise suppression at all than bad noise suppression.

C. Remove Any Pop & Crackle

Only remove any pops and crackles that you find annoying. Getting rid of them is a bit labour intensive and can have a negative effect on the original sound. So have a listen and decide for yourself. Good to know: Extremely high peaks are always annoying. Why? That question is answered in the last paragraph of section ‘D. Normalise the Sound’.

  • Use the magnifying glass (+) to zoom in on the first song of the record (for example).
  • Look for any pops in the song. You can recognise a loud pop as a really high peak in the waveform of the song.
  • If you’re not sure, then have a listen to check.
  • Zoom in on the first pop.
  • Select the pop as precisely as possible.
  • Go to the Menu, select Effects, then select Repair
  • Repeat the process with every pop you find
  • It also makes sense to listen back to every pop after you’ve repaired it to check that the section of music still sounds good.

D. Remove the Silences at the Beginning & End

  • Zoom in on the beginning of the recording, so the beginning of side A.
  • Select the section of silence before the first song starts then click on Menu, Edit, then Delete. Make sure that you’ve only selected silence, because sometimes the music might softly fade in. It’s worth listening through a set of headphones to double check this.Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!
  • Repeat the process to remove the silence between sides A and B and at the end of side B.
  • Leave all of the other silences between songs. These silences have been left in deliberately by the musicians, producers and sound technicians so that there’s rest between each song. If you remove them, the album will sound pretty rushed.

E. Normalise the Sound

Normalisation brings the loudness of the recording up as high as possible while retaining the differences in volume within and between the songs. Only normalise the recording after making any repairs during Steps B and C. Normalisation is really easy and has two really big benefits

Why Normalise?:

  • The sound will (hopefully) be loud enough to be played on low power audio equipment. You’ve probably noticed that the sound on some clips on YouTube or Instagram are too quiet, even if you turn the volume on your phone or laptop all the way up. By making sure the recording is loud enough in the first place, you can usually avoid this issue.
  • The difference in volume when compared to other recordings won’t be so noticeable. Professional recorded music uploaded to Spotify and other platforms is always normalised. If you normalise your recording as well, then you won’t experience a drastic volume difference between your digitised records.

Other Points:

  • Normalise the entire LP in one go. It’s normal for some of the songs on an album to sound quieter than others. Just think about the volume difference between a ballad and a really heavy rock song on one album. That volume difference needs to be retained because that’s how the album was crafted as a whole. If you normalise every individual song, then you’ll mess with the balance between loud and quiet that has been crafted across the album.
  • In some genres, extreme volume differences are normal. In classical music, really, really quiet intros or passages are very common. So don’t worry if you see a really long and flat part in the recording, even after normalisation.

Normalising in Audacity:

  • Open your LP recording.
  • Go to the Select menu and click on ‘All’
  • Go to the Effect menu and select Normalise
  • Tick only the ‘DC-offset delete’ and Peak-amplitude normalise’ options.
  • Fill –1.0 dB in.
  • Click on OK.

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Checking & Correcting Peaks

Big clicks in the recording can cause massive volume peaks that will need correcting. These peaks can bring a recording to its ‘volume ceiling’ very quickly, so that when you normalise it, it won’t be as loud as it could be.

So, how can you correct them? If you spot a very high, very narrow peak in the recording, then zoom in on it and have a listen. If you hear a loud click, then you can remove it in exactly the same way we did in Step C. If it’s not a click, but a loud point in the music, then unfortunately, you can’t do anything about it.

Check the entire recording for any big and narrow peaks and correct them wherever needed. Once done, normalise the recording again.

Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!

Step 4: Convert Your LP into an MP3, WAV or FLAC

While we’ve already saved the recording as an Audacity file, you’ll probably want to be able to listen to it in a different programme, so you’ll need to export it!

One Long, Single Track

If you haven’t got the patience to split the recording into separate songs or you know you won’t want to skip through the album, then you can simply export it as one long, single track.

  • Go to the File menu, select Export, then select Audio export.
  • Under ‘Save in’, select the file where you want to save the export.
  • Under file name, type in the name of the album. E.g. Michael Jackson – Thriller
  • Select the file format and quality under ‘Save As’ and ‘Format Options’. For more info about different formats, see below.
  • Click on Save to export the file.

Separate Songs

Exporting the album as separate songs can be handy. You can quickly skip to a specific track rather than scrolling through one long recording. You also get to add more info per song, so the title and artist.

  • Click on the silence just before the first song starts. Remember: some songs start with a fade-in, so double check that you’re clicking just before the fade-in by zooming in on the track.
  • Go to the Edit menu, click on Labels, then Add Label to Selection. Or: Click Control-B (Windows) or Command-B (Mac) on your keyboard.
  • Type in the name you want to give the song, so the full song title or simple Track 1. Basically, put in anything that you’ll find the handiest.
  • Press Enter or Return on your keyboard to confirm.
  • If you want to edit a label, you can just click on it. If you want to delete a label, then you can right-click on it, then select Delete Label.
  • Now repeat the process for every song on the album.
    Want to turn LPs into MP3s? Here’s How to Digitise Your Vinyl!
  • Go to the File menu, select Export Audio
    • File: Audacity will save the songs. With the options that follow, you can save them to a specific file or make a new file.
    • Format: See below for more info about different file formats.
    • ‘Labels’: Select this.
    • ‘Multiple files’: Select this.
    • ‘Label/Track Name Numbers’: Select this as well.
  • Click on Export.
  • A pop-up window will appear. Fill in the metadata for the first song, so details like the song title and artist name. This isn’t essential but it means that when you play the song back on your phone or laptop, you’ll be able to see the title. How does it work? Just click on the relevant field and start typing. Note: With an MP3 or FLAC file, you can fill in more metadata than with a WAV.
  • Click OK, then fill in the details for the next song, then the next song, and so on.
  • As soon as you’ve filled in the details for the final song, Audacity will save all of the songs to the file selected under Location. Audacity will base the file names on the metadata you just added.

Format Options

There are three popular file formats:

  • MP3: These are really small files, making them perfect for the limited memory space of devices like a smartphone. You can add extensive metadata to an MP3 like the title, artist, album title, and the track number. Unfortunately you do lose a little sound quality with an MP3. Under Options in Audacity, the higher the kbps, the better the sound quality, but the bigger the file. At 128kbps, the sound will be fairly decent, but even at the highest kbps setting the file will still be pretty small, so you can get away with selecting the highest possible quality. Then, select the options Constant and Stereo.
  • WAV: This kind of file retains the full audio quality of the original, but results in a much bigger file than an MP3 and less metadata can be added. WAVs are great if you’re only playing the files back on your computer and the metadata isn’t all that important. Note: If you want to burn the songs to a CD, always export the songs as WAV files!
  • FLAC: These are bigger than MP3 files, but smaller than WAV files. FLAC files offer a lot of metadata options, just like MP3s and retain the full quality of the original audio!

Step 5: Burn Your LP to a CD

You can also burn the audio files you just saved to a CD. If you want to do this, make sure to export the songs as WAV files, since this is the best quality for the job. Burning MP3s to a CD makes no sense, since your computer will automatically convert the MP3 files into WAVs before burning them to the CD anyway. Moreover, you’ll lose some of the sound quality when you export the songs as MP3s – and that’s just a waste of a CD.

Burning a CD via the Windows Media Player

If you have a Windows computer, then you burn a CD directly (as long as you have a CD drive) using the included Windows Media Player. The menus and text in your version of Windows Media Player might differ from the version we used in our example, but luckily, any differences will be small so it should be easy to figure out what you need to do.

  • Open Windows Media Player.
  • Click on the Burn tab.
  • Click on the little icon on the right below the three tabs and select Audio CD.
  • Slot a writable CD – or CD-R into your CD burner. Rewritable CDs can sometimes have playback problems after a while.
  • Open Windows Explorer and go to the file where you saved your audio files.
  • Select all of the files and then drag and drop it into the burn list of Windows Media Player. You can also drag and drop each file one by one, but if you find working with multiple windows a bit of a faff, this can be a pain.
  • An audio CD usually has space for around 80 minutes of audio. If you’ve added too much music to the burn list, then Windows Media Player will let you know.
  • If you need to, adjust the running order of the songs by simply grabbing a song and moving it into the correct position.
  • Click on the little icon on the right below the tabs and select ‘Name disc’. Fill in the album title and artist. E.g. Michael Jackson – Thriller.
  • In the same menu, select ‘More burn options…’ Then, set the ‘Automatic volume level’ to off and ‘without pauses’ to on.

Burning a CD via the Mac Music App

If you have a Mac computer, then you can burn a CD directly (as long as you have a CD drive) using the standard Music app that comes included.

  • Open the Music app.
  • Make a playlist of the songs you want to burn to a CD.
  • Click on View, select ‘as Songs’, then tick the box next to everything that you want to burn. If you can’t tick any boxes, then go to Preferences, then under General set the Check Boxes to on.
  • An audio CD usually has space for around 80 minutes of audio. If you’ve added too much music to the burn list, then the Music app will let you know.
  • Slot a writable CD – or CD-R into your CD burner. Rewritable CDs can sometimes have playback problems after a while.
  • Now, click on File, then select Burn Playlist to Disc.
  • In the Burn Settings window, under Disc Format select Audio CD.
  • Set Gap Between Song to the number of seconds you want between each song, and leave the box next to Use Sound Check unticked.
  • Tick the box next to Include CD Text
  • Click the Burn button at the bottom.

Are You Actually Allowed to Convert an LP to MP3s or Burn it to a CD?

Yes, as long as you own the original vinyl record, you’re allowed to make copies for your own personal listening pleasure.

See also…

» Turntables
» USB Turntables
» DJ Turntables
» USB DJ Turntables
» Record Cabinets, Boxes & Racks
» Record Bags & Cases
» Vinyl Maintenance Gear
» Cartridges & Spare Needles
» Phono Preamps
» Turntable Accessories
» Turntable Parts

» How To Connect A Record Player To An Amplifier Or Pair Of Speakers
» The Differences Between Spherical and Elliptical Needles
» How to Take Care of Your Vinyl Records
» So, Can You Connect a Microphone to Your Computer?
» Buzz, Hum and How to Get Rid of it
» Podcasting Tips and the Gear You Need to Make it Happen

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