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How do I Transfer LPs and Cassettes to CD?

Converting LPs and cassettes to CD is useful for a number of reasons. You may wish to play your records and cassettes in other places where there are only CD players, such as in your car or at your friend's house. You may also wish to put them onto a CD so that you can skip tracks easily without having to rewind and fast forward--in the case of the cassette--or find the track accurately with a needle, in the case of a vinyl. But converting LPs and cassettes to CD also ensures the music's longevity since CDs are harder to damage than the other two formats. Whatever your reason, this task is a bit convoluted--due to the incompatibility of the musical formats--but not, once you know the method, an extremely difficult one.

Things You'll Need

  • Tape deck
  • Record deck
  • Stereo RCA cable with mini-jack
  • Music recording software
  • Computer
  • Disc burning software
  • Blank CD-R (writable)
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Instructions

    • 1

      Plug in the black and white RCA cable jacks into the corresponding black and white input sockets on the back of your tape, or record, deck. Plug the other end of the RCA cable, with the mini-jack, into the headphone socket of your computer, if using a laptop, or the line-in socket in the back of a desktop computer.

    • 2

      Open your music recording software by clicking on its icon. Set the program up to record a new track.

    • 3

      Insert the cassette you wish to transfer into your tape deck and press play. If transferring an LP put it on your turntable, turn it on and put the needle down on the first track. Watch the recording level gauge on your music software; adjust the volume so that the recording level does not go over the red bar at the top of the gauge.

    • 4

      Rewind the cassette tape to the beginning, or take the needle off the record and replace it in its holder, when the levels are set. Press "Record" on your music recording program and press "Play" on the tape deck, or put the stylus at the beginning of your vinyl and turn the record deck on. Save the record tape, or LP, to your computer's desktop when it has finished recording.

    • 5

      Open a disc-burning program such as iTunes, or Microsoft Media Player, and drag the record tape's, or LP's, file into the program. Create a new playlist in your disc-burning software by going to "File" then "New Playlist." Type a name for your new playlist in the box provided and drag your recorded cassette, or LP, file into it.

    • 6

      Insert a blank CD-R into your computer's disc drive. Click on "Burn" or "Burn Disc," depending on your program.

Recording Music

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