Tonight, I attempt vinyl -> cassette. Tips / hints welcome!

[SunnyDaze]

Well, I'm done with my semester. I'm starting on shit I've been meaning to do for some time now. On top of that list is begin to transcribe some Vinyl. I'm going to attempt to put The Yes Album on a metal cassette tonight using Dolby S NR on my TD4600. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow, I might actually try putting vinyl on my hard drive with Audacity or something of the sort using the Tape 2 / Monitor output on my P-304.

Anyone have any tips?

[bmwr75]

Audacity works fine and is free.  You will need to run your TT through your preamp and then to the input of your PC soundcard.  Or. to the input of a device like the TASCAM 144 that converts the signal to digital and can output it via USB.

Vinyl to cassette is easy........did it for every new album I bought in the 70s. 

[SunnyDaze]

Yeah. I actually have Audacity on my Macs. I'm going to try the vinyl -> computer tomorrow night. I'm anxious to see how Dolby S works with this.

[Falcon]

Good luck SD.  Let us know how it turns out.

[SunnyDaze]

It turned out pretty well for a trial run. When I did the recording level calibration for left and right, I had both knobs maxed out, and the VU meters still weren't up to 0db when I ran back the calibration tone.

Thinking this might have been some kind of error, I was hesitant to turn the recording calibration level up to max, so I ran it at 3/4 for both left and right. Turns out, with Doby S, you can run the calibration at max. I'm going to do it again tonight after I recalibrate the recording level for both sides.

[SunnyDaze]

I'm wondering if that's just a property of Cr02 tapes? I tried calibration with LN, aka "Type I" tape, and it was not nearly as drastic of an adjustment.

I'm just concerned because for the Cr02 tape, I can turn L and R calibration up completely and it's still putting out a -4 dB tone. Ideally, it should be 0. I can't get it anywhere near 0. Unless I'm supposed to hold the "Record Calibration Tone" button while I'm playing back the tone, which makes zero sense?

Also, Dolby S to transcribe vinyl works (not so) surprisingly well.

[OconeeOrange]

Did a lot of that way back when.
Have a new phono amp never opened if someone wants it.

I came to the conclusion that it was more fun to play my old LPs on my turntable - they sound excellent there.