Combo Turntable/CD Burner

[Islander]

I don't know anything about this unit, but it might be just what some folks are looking for. This is a Canadian site, so the US price is probably lower.

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/product.aspx?product=4213002&language=en-CA&ref=2005

CNet review: http://reviews.cnet.com/turntables/ion-audio-lp2cd-turntable/4505-7860_7-32816498.html

[dtel]

Now thats different, no computer needed, if you wanted to make CD's from your old LP's that's not a bad price really.

[Al Klappenberger]

FOIE!

If you spin vinyl you already have a good turntable and cartridge! There's what I use and it costs about the same:

http://www.tascam.com/products/cd-rw900.html

Tascam is Teac's pro division.

Al K.

[gmc]

I too use a free standing CD recorder, but mine is the less expensive Teac CD-RW880. Overall, I am pleased with the results, and would surely recommend going this route over the combo. The one thing that I wish would be improved upon is the track division feature. I believe that the automatic track division feature will insert a space after a period of five seconds of silence. Obviously, this is flawed. On the other hand, the recorder will allow you to manually insert track dividers during recording only. I believe that the Tascam is the same in this regard. I would like to see a CD recorder that allows track dividers to be inserted after recording.

As a "professional" model, the Tascam has the advantage of being able to use data discs as opposed to my "consumer" model, which uses the pricier CD-RMusic discs exclusively.

[Al Klappenberger]

gmc,

The Tascam has the ability to increment tracks after a silence or some minimum level you can set, but I gave up on it and I do in manually. You can't seem to ever get the level set right! Using it to properly increment the segments of a vinyl record fails becasue the "quite" is often not quite enough, not long enough, or something. It just doesn't work right.

Incrementing the tracks after the recording would require doing it before the disk was finalized. I think doing that would be easier said than done even if it would be possable.

In any case, those all-in-one vinyl to CD units just limit your flexibility and stick you with a turntable and cartridge you don't want.

Al K.

[bliss53]

Depends on how many you want to convert. I use my turntable, cart, phono stage, apple computer, audicity software (free), and an m-audio usb audiophile unit to record lps. The sound is much better than the plug and play units. This method is time consuming if you want to break out and label the tracks and de-click the files. The easy option is labeling side 1 and side 2.

[gmc]

Al,

Mine works the same way, and I gave up on the auto divide feature myself.

Problem is, while I'm recording LPs, I sometimes get distracted (looking around on the computer, usually), and often forget to manually insert a track marker, or two. I guess I'm not a multi-tasker.

If the technology were available, I don't think it would be much more difficult to divide recorded tracks before finalizing. Granted, you wouldn't have the benefit of watching the needle approach the end of the songs, but, if need be, you could play back the recording and decide where you want to segment each track before doing so.

Anyway, I agree that the all-in-one units aren't the way to go.

[Al Klappenberger]

There just isn't a good way to divide the trcks. I often record off an FM tuner. I am trying now to use CD-RW diskes to make the tracks and then transfer them to another, final CD-R on the computer. You can pick tracks at random that way. You can't divied them though.

AL K.

[gmc]

I would imagine that there is software available that would allow you to divide tracks once they are on your hard drive. They have video editing software, there must be something similar for audio.

Note: A quick google search of "audio editing software" brings up a bunch of "free" download options, one of which is the Audacity software that bliss53 mentions he uses, a few posts above.

As long as you're going through so much effort, I'll bet you could upload your radio broadcasts, get rid of all of the unwanted excess and divide and even re-arrange track order with this stuff. Me, I'm just looking to put some of my records and cassettes on CD, so I can play them in my truck, and put them on my Ipod.

[Al Klappenberger]

gmc,

A lot of the track collecting off FM I do is to make a CD for the car too. I like to play it rather then the same FM station when they are broadcasting news or some music I don't want to listen to.

The software I am using is Nero express CD burning software. It will read individual tracks from a CR-RW to my computer hard drive. After collecting the tracks I want from the ones I have recorded burn them to a permanent CR-R from the hard drive. I can erase the CR-Rw and put in back in the Tascam recorder to collect more stuff.

Another possibility is to get a digital tape recorder. Then you can transfer the selections dgitally to the CR recorder. I have done this with a Yamaha cassette recorder too. It's anaog though and every time you do a "dub" you loose a little. I have also used the cassette recorder to do the initial recording and then dub the selections to the CD recorder. That looses a bit too but lets you cut the tracks where you want them. What I realy dislike about that method is that an analog cassette is so slow! You need to do it in real time which can take hours!

Al K.