Turn LPs and cassettes into digital media files

When you're ready to begin the transfer, play the LP or tape and hit the Record button in your software. You can, of course, save directly to CD, which you might do if you want to save an entire LP or tape without making any modifications. If you do, however, you miss out on many of the potential advantages of transferring first to hard drive and later to CD. If your LPs suffer from what's known as the Kellogg Effect--those snap, crackle, and pop noises--you can eliminate them via software. Or, if your cassette has a song or two you'd rather not commit to disc, you can delete unwanted tracks easily. All this and more is possible using the software mentioned here--if you copy the source material to your hard drive first. When you're done, you can burn to CD.

If the copied material is one large file, split it into multiple files before burning to CD. Each file will become a separate track on the CD--the digital equivalent of the spirals between tracks on an LP. The Track Tracker option in DAK's Wave MP3 Editor Pro handles this task with ease. When you're done, you can make one or more copies to CD in a format supported by your software.