The whole music industry is moving slowly towards total digital online retail. Most music devices today don't even come with a cassette player anymore, not to mention a turntable. So what are you doing with all your old music on tapes and records? Bring it into the digital age of course. Digitalization not only makes your music compatible to all new devices, it also preserves it for the future. Other than analog media like tapes and records, digital music doesn't degrade in quality over time. All you need is a computer with a reasonable soundcard and space on your harddrive to record the music. Midrange soundcards are inexpensive today and record in better quality than the analog music plays back in. Chances are the existing soundcard in your computer is good enough. Next you need a tape deck or a record player connected to your computer. Some record players can't be connected directly to your soundcard and need a preamp (be connected to your stereo and than to your computer). The last thing you need is a good sound recording and editing software. The quality of your recorded music depends to a large portion on the recording software. “Audacity” is one of the best programs available and, you might have guessed it, it's free. With this program you can not only record you music but also cut it and edit the quality. You can remove the “campfire” sound from your records or clean up the dull sound of old tapes. You can play with speed and pitch of the sound and compress it into MP3 files to take up less space on your harddrive and to be played on your MP3 player, or just export it into your favorite CD burning application and write a audio CD. Several commercial products on the market are doing about the same but cost between $30 and $120.

LameFE A very good CD ripper (copy CD's to your harddrive). It also converts files into MP3 files. Based on Lame but easier to use. This program is also needed by Audacity, if you want to export files as MP3. >>> Free Download <<< >>> Visit the Website <<<

Audacity A fantastic sound recording and sound editing tool. Lots of special effects and editing functions. Needs Lame to export to MP3. Downloads for Windows, Linux and Mac. >>> Free Download <<< >>> Visit the Website <<<

Scheduler for Audacity This little timer works as a recording timer, play timer and snooze timer. Cool little addition to Audacity. >>> Free Download <<< >>> Visit the Website <<<

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