Anyone record LP's to MacBook Pro successfully without additional hardware?

[millerrh]

I have a MacBook Pro C2D and am trying to record some LPs to my computer. I have the record player hooked up to a regular home receiver with the output of that receiver (tape out) going straight into the input jack of my MBP (via a Y adapter cable).

What is happening is the signal is too strong and is being clipped. But when I go under System Preferences -> Sound -> Input the slider for input volume is all the way to the left. I can't go any lower. It seems like this is a limitation of the audio driver, but I can't understand why the default setting would be for such a high gain.

Has anyone done this successfully? If so, could you share what you used and how you did it?

 

[Scarlet Fever]

i plug a 3.5mm sterio jack to the headphone port of the amp and into the line in of my MacBook, and control the volume from the amp.

I think whats happening is the amp is putting out the signal pre-volume and tone controls.

I recorded my afi record (Answer That And Stay Fashionable) that way, and it sounds great!

 

[Lovesong]

I'm not sure exactly what your setup is like, but if you have the option to use an optical cable from your receiver into your Mac, it may solve the issue. The main problem is that by using the Y cable, you're going from analog to analog (as if you were using a microphone), and that tends to induce quite a bit of noise. In convering some of my LPs, I usually hook the receiver to my G5 with a optical cable, which means that the digitalization occurs through the receiver, and I haven't had a problem. If you have an older Mac (or an older receiver), you could use a cheap iMic from Griffin, which will allow you basically do the same thing via USB (and it also comes with LP import software). Hope this helps.

 

[iNewbie]

Is a Receiver needed?

This is something I want to do with my soon to be purchased MacBook Pro.

Is a receiver really needed or can you take the red and white from a turntable and plug it into the Mac?

What hardware/software could be used to facilitate the transfer?


Thanks!

 

[stillwater]

This is something I want to do with my soon to be purchased MacBook Pro.

Is a receiver really needed or can you take the red and white from a turntable and plug it into the Mac?

What hardware/software could be used to facilitate the transfer?


Thanks!

You don't need a receiver, but you do need a phono pre-amp to boost the signal from the turntable's output.

 

[millerrh]

I'm not sure exactly what your setup is like, but if you have the option to use an optical cable from your receiver into your Mac, it may solve the issue. The main problem is that by using the Y cable, you're going from analog to analog (as if you were using a microphone), and that tends to induce quite a bit of noise. In convering some of my LPs, I usually hook the receiver to my G5 with a optical cable, which means that the digitalization occurs through the receiver, and I haven't had a problem. If you have an older Mac (or an older receiver), you could use a cheap iMic from Griffin, which will allow you basically do the same thing via USB (and it also comes with LP import software). Hope this helps.

I was hoping to be able to do the recording using the computer's built in soundcard. But the iMic is pretty dang cheap. That might be the best idea. And my recordings are likely to sound better than the on board soundcard anyway. Thanks for the tip!

I still wonder why the on-board sound card on my MBP is not set up to take a line level input from a home stereo. That seems like a really high use case.

 

[millerrh]

This is something I posted in another forum, but thought it was worth repeating here. I have a CD player plugged directly into my computer with a Y cable. This is purely a line-input for sure. When trying to record in Garageband, you can see from the picture that the levels are too high that they are clipping, but the input volume is all the way down.

Is something wrong with my sound card/driver?

 

[NewSc2]

I've never tried directly in (i have an external soundcard), but can't you turn your receiver/amp? From what you're saying it seems to be bypassing GarageBand's sliders.

You might want to go to Applications/Utlities/AudioMIDI setup and see if that slider works.

 

[millerrh]

I've never tried directly in (i have an external soundcard), but can't you turn your receiver/amp? From what you're saying it seems to be bypassing GarageBand's sliders.

You might want to go to Applications/Utlities/AudioMIDI setup and see if that slider works.

I tried it without the amp. Just a CD player going straight into the computer. No other components, so I know it's a pure line input.

Both the Audio MIDI Setup and System Prefs/Sound/Input volume sliders are linked to Garageband's slider. If you move one, they all move at the same time. And it is not bypassing these sliders. If you move them, you see the level indicators go from just touching the red area, but bouncing back in some green to being fully locked on the red. So the sliders are doing something.

Can you do me a favor? Can you go under Audio MIDI Setup and check your line in settings? See what dB the left-most position reads for you. For me, it says 0dB, but I talked with someone who said the left-most position was -16dB, which would obviously make the input volume a lot less.