I have bought the ultimate toy this weekend - USB turntable

[LynneSin]

Now I can upload my LP collection to MP3 form. I won't do all of it, but for a few good albums that I don't have in CD - I might upload them for my Sony MP3 player. Still have about 10gigs of free space on it

[Kali]

1. Cool!

I bookmarked this from the computer forum, because I have been intending to copy albums to cd for forever. Wonder if I will ever get around to it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

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2. I would absoluely love to have one of those, especially if it would

automatically divide the songs into separate files on disk. Then you could just play the album and it would automatically create the files. I've tried doing a couple of albums manually but it was tedious and took all day just to do 2 albums.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Divide songs into files

In the thread that Kali linked, I mentioned a Xitel device. That comes with software that automatically does that dividing. You have to tell it how many are on that side of the album, it divides. Sometimes you need to manually go into that software and fix things, as some songs have "dead air" in the middle, and some albums have "run-on" songs with no "dead air" for the separator to work with.

It's tedious, I agree, but it gets faster. It takes the system about 30-40 min to rip an album, both sides. Another 30-45 minutes to separate it, copy to cd, import into itunes, and fix up the itunes info (artist, album, track names). Good "rainy-day" activity.

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4. What would you do with a Firesign Theater album?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Easiest of all. Side 1. Side 2.

Some actually have some tracks, but why bother?

Like Beethoven's 5th, which I don't bother separating by movement.

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. I wouldn't eat it with my hands

I'd use my entrenching tool.

[LynneSin]

8. Boo-hiss - no Itune!! I use Connect from Sony

And I'm so anal retentive when it comes to my music that I spent 6hours fixing everything that started with "The" or "A" so that those words would come to the end.

True alphabetation doesn't use "The" or "A" for alphabetizing. There for 'The Rain Song' in my list is 'Rain Song, The' and is found under the "R"

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. I don't know Connect from Sony

iTunes came with the iPod, so that's what I use.

I name the songs the same as on the album cover, even if it starts with "The" or "A". The only order I care about is the arrangement on the vinyl, so I preseve that.

I use your method of naming the albums, moving "The" etc to the end. And putting artists last names first. And for group names, I just drop the "The".

Anal-retentive? I guess anyone converting vinyl to digital is automatically anal-retentive.

[LynneSin]

10. I did last name first as I uploaded them

[LSK]

5. do you know if they make anything like that for cassettes?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. Yes, follow Kali's link

then to my entry about the Xitel Inport thing. It sits between a stereo amp and the computer, 2 RCA jacks on one side, a USB jack on the other. It works for anything you plug into the amp, or for the FM tuner.

That assumes you have a cassette player on your stereo. And that you have a stereo.

[LSK]

12. thanks, I will look at that

[LynneSin]

15. This might be my next purchase

http://www.amazon.com/Plusdeck2c-PC-Cassette-Deck-Tape/...

[Coventina]

13. I am SO JEALOUS!!!!

I would so love to have one of those!!!!

[LynneSin]

14. It wasn't that expensive

I'm sure there are higher end ones but I figured I start with this (which had a good rating from Amazon) and see how it turns out.

http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/d...

[Coventina]

16. Keep us posted!

It might be what I want from Santa this year!