It's an Ion USB Turntable and it's my turn to use it. Yippee!Costco tweaked my interest by offering them for sale last year. Our turntable, circa 1979, hasn't worked properly for years. We've slowly and reluctantly been replacing our vinyl with CD's, but possess some personal recordings that would never be available. So I did a little research and came to a favorable conclusion regarding the ability of USB turntables to digitize LP's, but by then Costco had sold out of their supply. I happened to mention the new turntables to Pooh and the Professor during last year's annual Portland visit and one thing led to another. We went halfsies and purchased one.
My goal is to have our modest collection residing tidily on our hard drive instead of occupying an awkward and heavy box. I'm already about halfway through (I iron Erkie-Pie's shirts or read blogs while I'm using the turntable).
I've rediscovered Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter Paul and Mary, Tim Hardin and the Moody Blues. I've also been singing Christmas carols in 95 degree heat whilst hoping the neighbors don't hear me!
It's reassuring to have those irreplaceable personal recordings digitized. It's even better to actually be able to listen to them for the first time in a decade.
The Audacity software that came with the turntable is user friendly and then some. Really! Audacity is like Recording for Dummies Simplified. This software has a noise-reduction algorithm that I thought I'd use a lot, but I find that I enjoy that little buzz inherant to an LP while it's playing. It seems to me that I get a richer, fuller sound too. That could be my imagination since I haven't played with the system very much yet.
I have yet to try separating the tracks and naming them, but I'm confident that process will be painless if a bit time consuming. Still, what else is summer for?
Anyone want some old records??
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