Project status report 1:
Of course, I hadn't thought of the output via the tape recording channel.
Thanks a lot, bm! Luckily, I found a cable in my big cable box that fits (cinch on the receiver end, small jack plug at the computer end). So I moved the receiver and plugged it into the computer (line in). I couldn't adjust the out signal gain, as bm65 recommended, because there is no such possibility. That control resides in the tape deck. So a very simple set-up.
I also plugged in my headphones to be used as positive control in case of hearing nothing/DC hum/crackling/whatever. I was totally flummoxed, then (hey sorry, I HAVE to use this word once in a while), when my computer speakers started to blather out the current radio program right away. I had braced myself for at least a few minutes of fiddling around with controls and/or Windows media player, instead it just worked. Good
What I did spend several minutes on was grounding. The computer seems to be very sensitive there. From the stereo, I am used to an innocuous soft hum when I don't ground probably, and a bit more from the record player, which has its own grounding cable. With the computer, it was quite pronounced. Whatever, I used speaker cables as grounding lines, so the noise did go away.
A totally funny, and to me, unexplained thing happened along the way: Our flat (what you call apartment) has cable TV and radio, so I figured it would be a good idea to connect the receiver to the cable socket and have a good-quality radio signal to listen to while fiddling with the software (instead of a record, which has to be turned/exchanged/restarted/dusted every 20 min). But when I plugged in the cable line, I got a very pronounced 50 Hz DC hum, which I couldn’t ground away no matter what I did. I never noticed this when the stereo was still sitting on its shelf a few meters away and connected to that same cable socket, and neither did I notice it with my TV or the other stereo, which are both connected to other cable outlets in the house.
The hum also appears via the headphones. What is this? Could it have something to do with the fact that I disconnected the stereo's speakers?
So, on towards downloading, installing and using Audacity!
bm65, one more question: You say Audacity is is the easiest audie editing software. Is it also good? If you know a software which is substantially better re. noise reduction and scratch/crackle elimination, I'd be perfectly willing to spend a few bucks on it.
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Mactep, bm - Re. your recommendation to take it easy with the digitisation:
I am fully aware that this will be slow, tedious and time consuming. I am also aware that probably some 30-50 % of my records at least will be available as CD re-releases, and if I base it on my salary per hour, just buying the CDs would probably be cheaper than sitting here digitising the entire collection.
But that is not the point.
First of all, I am not an audiophile. I was very happy with the quality records and cassette tapes provided back in the old days. I was content to transfer my records to cassette tape and listen to them in a whiny, noisy walkman (and not one from Sony). Since I bought my decent stereo combo (receiver, tape deck, record player, CD player, two tall speakers) for a total of around DM 3.000 in 1989 (around $ 2700 in today’s money), I have never looked for more sophisticated equipment. I am also quite ruthless with my digital recordings: I listen to them in the car, and via small active speakers in front of the computer, via a bad set of headphones. So mp3ing them for me is not a sin against the holy spirit of audio. It's a way to make them more accessible for me. The fact that any affordable CD will sound miles better than my digitised record is not all that important to me.
The second point is, I am very much the classical guy. The number of pop records to digitise will probably be around ten, and I already own the complete works of AC/DC on CD 8), so this quantity is negligible . It will save me some time, as I will have to edit not 12 songs with crazy names of 3:12 duration, but movements (Allegro, Andante, Scherzo, Allegro, period) 10 or 20 min long. And also, some high percentage of my old records will be available as re-releases, but not all of them will.
But there is an even more important point. With my classical records, I have a personal history. Most of them I bought or was given when I was between 12 and 18 years old, during the 80s. I built my music taste with them. I cried over them, I literally spent nights with them, and hours on the bus and U-Bahn with their cassette clones, under cheap blaring headphones. I love them, scratch, wobble, crackle and all. They are my friends, and the fact of the matter is that I am about to abandon those friendships - I haven't played these records in years. Yes, they're there sitting on the shelf, and so are the record player and the stereo. But they are in the living room, I am at my desk. I have very little time and a lot of bouncy energetic little son wanting to handle anything that I handle. I am sitting in front of a screen, reading, watching YouTube files, listening to mp3s and exchanging views with Illuminati around the world in the evening. Not in the living room with a book or the papers. So the records sit there, unused. Converting them to mp3s is my way of continuing a friendship.