Terrible sound when trying to record from LP

[scott_fs]

I have a lot of LPs from the 70s and 80s, and I want to copy them to CDs

I hooked my HP laptop to the tape out posts on my amplifier, and then hooked it up to the mic input on the laptop. I started the turntable and immediately got blasted with absolutely terribly distorted sound. (I had the play through the laptop option turned on) (I turned down the sound via the laptop's volume control).

I did record a song and when I played it back on the computer it was just as bad as what I heard from the laptop's speakers. The volume showing on the VU meter was fine.

What am I doing wrong here?

[steve]

and then hooked it up to the mic input on the laptop.

"Mic" input - that's an abbreviation for "microphone".
The signal level of a microphone is about 1000x smaller than the output from the tape out on your amplifier.
Also, it is usually only a mono input.
You need to use a "Line level" input on the computer. Unfortunately most laptop PCs do not have line level inputs, but external sound cards with line level inputs can be bought quite cheaply. I use a Behringer UCA 202 and find it very good, nice sound quality and easy to use (and inexpensive).

[scott_fs]

yeah, I was afraid of that. I look for an external sound card.

Ya think it would be easier to just copy from an LP to a hard drive. I made many copies of LPs to cassettes years ago, and that was so easy...

Thanks for the reply.

[waxcylinder]

Yes digital recording is a little harder than the old analog ways - but once you get over the initial learning curve and get your processes sorted out it does become straightforward.

You may find it helpful to have a look through this set of tutorials in the 1.2/2/0 manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... iscs_to_CD

And in particular have a look at this particular tutorial which is loosely based on my own workflow for LP transcription: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... gitization

BTW, like Steve I also use an external soundcard - the Edirol UA-1EX - see this thread on the forum for a review of such devices that we know work well with Audacity: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

WC