The first breakthrough came when my brother-in-law gave me his
turntable, saying he had to let it go and move on. Bless him. Just
think, a spare high-quality phonograph to play with as I please - but
no amp or receiver to plug it into. So I simply hooked it up to a
Y-connector and into my son's iMac.* Then I recorded some sample cuts
from my Beatles collection. He used "Sound Recorder," and we adjusted
the volume levels until we got the right setting. We also had to sample
at 44 KHz rate. It was easy as pie. Once recorded, we dropped the files
into Toast v. 4, and we made a disc using his QueFire CD-RW.
* If your turntable does not have a built-in phono
preamp (some do, but most don't), you will need one. The phono preamp
equalizes the signal according to the industry-standard RIAA
equalization curve. The RIAA curve reduces the bass signal and
increases the treble signal on recording and does the opposite on
playback. During recording, full bass signal would create too-large
grooves and unequalized treble would hardly register on the groove.
Every receiver or integrated amplifier that has a phono section has a
built-in phono preamp. If you amplify the signal without equalization,
the music would have too much treble and too little bass. Standalone
phono preamps are available from Radio Shack (<$50), NAD, and
Parasound (<$150). More expensive units are available from
audiophile manufacturers at much higher prices. eBay is a good source.
Alternatively, you could use an old receiver with a phono section and
plug the Mac into the tape monitor outputs.
OK, this is great. But my son needs his iMac for school and web
projects, and he doesn't want me in his room all the time fiddling
around with this. So let's just take the phonograph to my room and - uh
oh, wrong connector.
The old Performas (mine is a 6290
CD) had the slightly longer microphone plug, nonstandard in the
audio world and unknown at Radio Shack. Was all doomed? Low End Mac to the rescue.
I searched for a connector that would transform phone jack output
from a phonograph player to Mac input. What I found was the
NE Mic, a transformer from a regular microphone input to Mac mike
input. It's by
Griffin Technology, and it was about $20. The only downside is that
it is mono, not stereo. I probably won't miss the sound of "Number
Nine" weaving back and forth annoyingly across the speakers in
"Revolution No. 9".
The most critical part of all this is the second breakthrough.
Magnetic phono output is too weak for anything other than a pre-amp.
That's the function of the Griffin transformer; it's an amplifier that
uses no external power. But you have to ground your phonograph
player with the standard ground wire, otherwise the sound is
unusable.
So, from phonograph to Y-connector to Griffin input to Performa, and
- uh oh. There is no 44 KHz selection in the Sound Recorder box. What
gives? After all this, I failed?
All is not lost. I happen to have a Power Mac 8100 in another bedroom, so I
transfer all the equipment and wires there. Hooray, it has the ability
to sample at 44 KHz. So let's get this thing recorded. Here we come,
Beethoven.
Oops, each side of an album takes over 100 MB. How do we transfer
them on Zip drives that only hold 94 MB? Using compression only saves
about 5%, not enough. Do I have to record each and every cut
separately? That'd take so much time (although my son points out that I
will be able to select the cuts on the CD player). Is it worth it?
QuickTime comes to the rescue. My son has QuickTime 4 Pro, which has
the ability to convert and export. We record in 8-bit AIA sound, which
fits easily onto the Zip, and then bring it over and convert it to
16-bit sound in one click. Now we drop it into Toast, and we burn our
masterpiece. QuickTime would also allow me to divide the sound file
into cuts, but again it adds so many steps in the process, it takes
away the fun.
That's the process. A lot of learning and trial and error.
My son says, "Dad, just get an iMac for your bedroom." Maybe when
the new models arrive.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
Recent My Turn articles
Using Low End Macs for Internet Radio, 08.18.
When the local public radio station moved classical music to HD radio, it was time to find another way to listen. An old iMac with iTunes solved the problem.
'That's Not a Computer', 07.30.
Salvaging a broken PowerBook by turning it into a desktop computer.
My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28.
The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
Mac of the Day: Mac LC III, Feb. 1993 - The first LC without compromise: 25 MHz 68030 CPU, 32-bit memory, up to 36 MB of RAM.
List of the Day: G4 'Books an email list for G4 iBooks and PowerBooks.
September 8 in LEM history: 99: Big sound from the little iMac - Ethernet alternative to USB drives - 00: Building a back-to-school bundle - 03: 17" 1.25 GHz iMac G4 - My Mac Plus revisited - 06: Inside your notebook's battery - Andy Hertzfeld, software wizard - OS X is a pleasure to use - MacBook random shutdown - Core2 7% faster
Listen to Just the Music with the V-Moda Vibe Earbuds, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 09.05.
Well built, the noise canceling earbuds will let you hear all the nuances of your music without letting through background noise.
Best iPod touch Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05.
Refurb 8 GB, $199; new, $284; refurb 16 GB, $299; new, $370; refurb 32 GB, $399; new, $453.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05.
Used 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $999; 2.16, $1,125; new, 2.2, $1,450 after rebate; refurb 2.4, $1,699; 2.5, $1,999; 2.6 Santa Rosa, $1,849; rebates on new.
Best iMac G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05.
Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $279; 800 Combo, $300; 1 GHz $390; 17" 800 MHz SD, $439; 1.25 GHz, $449; 20", $569.
Best Mac mini Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04.
Used 1.25 GHz G4 SD, $549; 1.42 Combo, $409; new 1.83 Core2 Combo, $569 after rebate; 2.0 SD, $769 after rebate.
Tomorrow's Solid State Drives and Notebooks, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 09.04.
Flash drives are great but have some shortcomings. Some thoughts on building better SSDs and notebooks to use them.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04.
Used 867 MHz Combo, no APX, $490; 1 GHz, $550; SuperDrive, $625; 1.5 GHz w/o APX, $660; w/APX, $675.
Best 17" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04.
Used 1 GHz, $779; 1.33 GHz, $799; 1.5 GHz, $859; 1.67 GHz, $910.
11 Mac Browsers Compared, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 09.03.
The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Shiira, iCab, Radon, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, SeaMonkey, Flock, and Camino tested in Leopard.
Best eMac Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03.
Used 700 MHz Combo, $120; 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $150; 1.42 GHz, $349.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03.
Mac OS X 10.5, single user, $99; 5 users, $140; 10.5 Server, 10 users, $395; unlimited, $850.
Best MacBook Air Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03.
Refurb 1.6 HD, $1,499; new, $1,690 after rebate; refurb 1.8, $1,699; new, $1,919 a/r; refurb 1.6 SSD, $2,099; new, $2,294 a/r; refurb 1.8, $2,299; new, $2,400 a/r.
Psystar Strikes Back, Countersues Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 09.03.
Psystar is trying to paint Apple as a monopoly and force it to license the Mac OS.
All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For
price quotes and advertising information, please contact
at BackBeat Media
(646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.
Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer
5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We
recommend Firefox
for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more
secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox
than any other browser.
