Apple It used to be difficult and costly to convert music on vinyl records, cassette tape recordings or photographic prints and transparencies into digital files, but several new products aimed at non-professionals make the task much easier and deliver high-quality results.
Audio Technica’s AT-LP120 USB turntable 5/5 (pictured, above)
As a discerning collector (ie “pack rat”, according to my wife), I find it almost impossible to pass by a pile of discarded vinyl LPs. It isn’t just that Maria Callas or Captain Beefheart sound better on vinyl. As a package, LPs – with their designer covers and sleeve notes – are so much more pleasing than cold, silver CDs or the digital files in an iTunes library.
Vinyl does have its limitations, however. LPs are easily scratched or warped, and are not very portable or convenient when on the move. It makes sense, even if you love vinyl, to digitise an LP collection.
Audio Technica’s new turntable, the AT-LP120 USB Direct Drive Turntable System, which costs $300 (£255 in the UK) makes the process relatively easy.
With its counterbalanced arm and transparent dust cover, the turntable looks like the sort of high-performance turntable that formed the centrepiece of most Hi-Fi set-ups in the 1960s and 1970s. It is solidly built with a cast-aluminium record platter and a beefy, three-speed direct-drive motor that spins the vinyl at the three standard speeds of 33, 45 or 78 revolutions per minute.
However, the turntable also features a USB output that connects directly to your computer and an internal preamplifier, which make it easy to turn LPs into digital MP3 files for playback from your computer or a portable device.
Set-up is easy, although it takes a few minutes to configure the open-source Audacity software that it uses to digitise the albums.
The results, meanwhile, were impressive, particularly when I chose to create higher-quality “lossless” Flac files. Unlike MP3 files, Flac preserves all the music information while managing to compress the file to a reasonable size.
While a true audiophile might be able to tell the difference between the original and a Flac digital file, I have no hesitation in recommending this USB turntable as an easy and satisfying way to protect precious vinyl LPs and turn them into a more portable medium.
Ion TapeExpress Plus MK II 3/3
Cassette tapes deteriorate over time – including irreplaceable family recordings. Fortunately, Ion Audio has developed several low-cost gadgets that enable consumers to convert these fading analogue recordings into digital files.
One of these devices, the $40 (£25) TapeExpress Plus MKII, looks like one of the old-style Sony Walkman portable cassette players. It has a trick up its digital sleeve, however.
You can use this hand-held tape player with all kinds of cassette tapes but it also has an easy-to-use USB connection, which enables the audio to be transferred to a PC. There, Ion’s EZ Converter software transforms the contents into a standard MP3 file for storage in an iTunes library, burning to a CD, or to play back on a computer or MP3 player.
The device runs on batteries or on USB power when connected to your computer and is very easy to operate.
Ion Pics-2-PC 5/5
Most baby-boomer amateur photographers – including me – have boxes of prints and transparencies that rarely see the light of day because they have been stashed away.
It is relatively easy to scan prints using a dedicated scanner or a printer/scanner to turn them into digital images.
Digitising transparencies or raw 35mm film is harder, but Ion Audio’s $180 (£99) odd-looking Pics-2-PC high-resolution scanner is fast and easy.
It converts 35mm negatives or slides, and 3x5in, 4x6in, or 5x7in pictures into digital files for viewing on a PC or sharing via Facebook, Flickr or Picasa with family and friends.
