Configure your Audacity properly. In order to do this, run Audacity (if you don't have Audacity, download it for for free from their website). Click the Edit tab and select "Preferences." Within the Preferences, select the "Audio I/O" sub-tab. You'll see two options that you'll want to adjust. One says "Playback Device" and the other says "Recording Device." Choose "internal sound card" as your playback device and "USB Audio Codec" as your recording device.
In addition, there are a few more other options to customize your recording and playback experience. These too can be found under the preferences.
If you want to record in stereo, set the the channels to 2. Also, select the box that says "software playthrough." Next, click the "interface" tab and make sure "Enable Mixer Toolbar" is selected. Finally, set your quality level. You can choose whatever quality you want, but 16-bit is the best default. Now, click OK to save the settings.
Once you return to the main Audacity screen, find the icon that looks like a microphone. Next to that icon, you'll see an arrow. Click the arrow and choose "Monitor Input." (You'll have to select Monitor Input each time you start Audacity.)
Change your Windows audio settings. If you're using Microsoft XP, go to the settings under your control panel. Then select the "Sound and Audio Devices" panel. Click the Voice tab and under "Voice Playback," make sure your internal sound card is chosen. The exact wording may vary depending on machine, but don't click the option that says "USB Audio Codec, Modem or Microsoft Sound Mapper." Next, click the "Voice Recording" option and select USB Audio Codec. Then, select the tab that says "Audio." In the audio tab, use your internal soundcard setting for "Sound Playback" and select "USB Audio Codec" for "Sound Recording." Finally, check the box that says "use only default device." Click apply.
(Sound set-up for Microsoft Vista is slightly different. For exact particulars, check the link to Audacity's FAQs in Resources.)
Press the record button in Audacity. Start your turntable and begin to play your record. (For best sound, place the needle onto the record and then press play on your turntable.) You should see a waveform appear and hear the audio play out of your computer speaker. If you can't hear audio and/or there's no waveform, ensure that your audio settings are correct. Feel free to mosey about until Side A of the record is complete. Continue to keep the Audacity file recording as you flip the record. Once the record is complete, press the stop button on your Audacity.
Save your project. You now have the bare bones track recorded. Next, we'll finesse the files and export them as MP3s.
Listen to the audio and see if you like the way it sounds. You can make adjustments with various options under the Effect menu option. More helpful options for cleaning up the record include "Normalize," "Noise Removal" and "Bass Boost."
Divide your album into tracks. To do this, move your cursor to the beginning of each track (this is usually pretty obvious by the drops in sound level on the waveform.) Play the track to make sure you've cued it up to the beginning of the track properly. Then, under the project menu, select "add label at selection." You'll see a red box appear by your cursor. Type the name of the track and hit enter. Repeat this step until you have selected all the tracks on your record. Feel free to cut out prolonged silence between tracks and especially the record flip. Achieve this by highlighting the section you want to delete, and hitting the delete button on your keyboard.
Export your files. To export the file as separate tracks, click the file menu and select Export Multiple. A screen will pop-up with some options. Choose where you want the files to go by selecting "export location." To convert to .wav choose WAV as the export format. To convert to MP3, choose MP3 as the export format (note that Audacity doesn't naturally export as MP3s due to license restrictions. You can download additional programs from the Audacity site to make it possible though. See Resources for the link). Next, select the box that says "Using Label/Track Name." Click Export and you're done.
Configure your Audacity properly. Once in Audacity, click the Audacity menu and select "Preferences." Select the "Audio I/O" sub-tab. You'll see two options that you'll want to adjust. One says "Playback Device" and the other says "Recording Device." Choose "built-in audio" as your playback device and "USB Audio Codec" as your recording device. In addition, there are a few more other options to customize your recording and playback. These too can be found under the preferences.
If you want to record in stereo, set the the channels to 2. Also, select the box that says "software playthrough." Next, click the "interface" tab and make sure "Enable Mixer Toolbar" is selected. Finally, set your quality level. You can choose whatever quality you want, but 16-bit is the best default. Now, click OK to save the settings.
Once you return to the main Audacity screen, find the icon that looks like a microphone. Next to that icon, you'll see an arrow. Click the arrow and choose "Monitor Input."
Change your Mac's main audio settings. First, you'll need to change your Audio MIDI setup. To do this, go into the finder and under applications click "utilities" and within that folder click "Audio Midi-Setup." Once in the Audio Midi-Setup, make sure your Default Input is set to "USB Audio Codec," your Default Output is either "Built-In Audio" or "Built-In Output," and your System Output is either "Built-In Audio" or "Built-In Output."
See Steps 3-7 in the above PC section. The steps are identical for the MAC.