Skip to main content

i have a Zenith cabnet turntable. also a realistic lab-58 turntable. got to love hand me downs and garage sales. here is my problem. i dont want to go out and buy a new turntable when i own two already. i want to record my vinal on my pc to mp3. i have a preamp Inspire 1394. Fruity loops, Cubase sx3, i dont know how to work them properly though. my cabnet has stero plugins (two rca plugins), my turntable has mono (one)but, with the wires striped. not sure how to hook up to the rca hook ups on the preamp. i dont want to rig it up if i have to but, i dont want to start a fire. please help me out.

Comments

djmukilteo Tue, 12/28/2010 - 00:30

you mean vinyl...LOL
You need to use a "phono" preamp for a turntable which is already connected inside your Zenith console cabinet.
You can take the stereo outputs (unbalanced RCA's) from the back of the Zenith directly into your Inspire.
For the Realistic turntable you could find an old stereo receiver and plug the turntable into the phono input on the back of that and then take its line outs (again RCA's typically) into your Inspire. Just get a couple RCA to 1/4" adapters...
Setup two tracks in Cubase start record and run the LP's (we used to cal those records..."wreck-erds").
The sound quality will all depend on how good the turntable cartridges are (needles) and how good the LP's are (as in how scratched up and warped they are).
There are some nice plugins and software these days that digitally cleanup older records after transfer and they can remove most of the hiss, pops and scratching out.
I have used Bias SoundSoap and it works really well on cleaning up old recordings from LP's, reel to reel and cassette...I think Cubase might have a restoration plugin too..
Good luck and have fun!
Spellcheck or a dictionary can be your friend

anonymous Tue, 12/28/2010 - 05:49

Well it was pretty late last night when i was posting this. I didn't expect a respond right away. The only thing i was worried about was getting the info that i needed. I'm really the only person that i know that is interested in vinyl. Thank you for the info. Now with only 5 hours of sleep this will be a good way to spend my morning.