Connecting turntable to PC?

Hey what's up, first post here. I've been lurking for a few days, you guys have written up a lot of interesting/helpful stuff on here.

Anyway I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong with connecting my turntable to my PC. I've got it running through the mixer, it's all good going through it, but connecting it to the soundcard through the SPDIF eonnection is yielding no results.

I know whatever I'm doing wrong is very simple, but it's frustrating me. Any advice would be appreciated.

does your mixer have an spdif output?.. i doubt it.

your pluging the analog outs of your mixer into the digital in on your soundcard. thats not gonna work.

does your soundcard have analog inputs? if yes, then use them. its an
analog signal you trying to record, so use the analog inputs.

Also a better question is what kind of sound card do you have therefore we can give u more accurate directions.

DFENS wrote:does your mixer have an spdif output?.. i doubt it.

your pluging the analog outs of your mixer into the digital in on your soundcard. thats not gonna work.

Got it in one. Thank you very much, told you it was simple.

I dunno if anyone here has got any recommendations for relatively inexpensive mixers or preferably amps with SPDIF outs on them?

edit: or actually, just soundcards with analog ins. I'm currently using an onboard NForce2 setup, which has always been good enough for me since I've mainly used it for the 5.1 surround watching movies and whatever.

Obviously, I'm not very experienced with music, beyond listening to it...

how much you wanna spend on your soundcard sir?

dont think there are relatively inexpensive mixers or amps with spdif on them. you'll def be hard pushed to find an amp with spdif and grounding for a record player.

Alright well I'm abandoning that route, and will just go down the analog-in one. What you workin with, man?

i got a novation x-station. its a good all-in-one solution for my laptop but the soundcard isnt great. i'm not sure i'd recomend it for your purposes. if you have a desktop pc and are just starting out i'd maybe look at an m-audio solo (tho it doesnt have any midi ports).

but it really depends on what you wanna do..

..what are you trying to do? (make music i guess, but what kinda music?)

do you want to make music just on your computer?

do you have or want an MPC to make music with also?

do you have any other equipment already?

what kind of money you want to spend?

answer me these and i'll be able to help you out.

Yeah I was considering the M-Audio Delta 44.



Seems cool to me. This would work, right?

As for me, I'm just on some basic stuff at the moment, I'll mess with computer programs right now, since I'm too far in debt for an MPC. Once I save up a bit I'll move up to one, but I'm not really particularly considering it right now as far as my sound card choice.

I've got no equipment beyond a turntable and records, but could purchase my housemate's little mixing desk if I can figure out a use for it.

And finally...hip hop. Perhaps branching into r'n'b, but hip hop mainly.

Thanks for your help.

yep that would be a good card to go for (again no midi tho, but thats not a problem for now and you can always deal with that later if need be).

you get ableton lite bundled with that soundcard. i've never used the lite version but ableton is a great piece of software. that card, ableton, your dj mixer and vinyl are all you really need to get started making music.

the next thing i'd suggest would be a midi controller keyboard or pads.

there are tons of keyboards to choose from. the alesis photon has quite nice keys on and is a bargain for the price. the novation remote se is another nice one.

if you want some pads to bang the choices are:

akai mpd16 not the best feature wise but you might get a good price on one.

m-audio trigger finger similar to ^^^ but has more faders and rotary knobs thrown in.

the new korg PadKontrol not sure how nice the drum pads are on this but it comes with an x/y kaoss style control pad on it.

the only other thing you need for now is some monitors so you can hear what you doing. alternatively, you could just come out of the delta sound card and go into your hifi amp is you have one.

if i were you, i'd buy an emu card, as they have the best a/d converters.
but sure the m audio cards would prob be fine, and also the teratec dmx 6fire which isnt expensive, and has phono inputs for a turntable.

yep the emu cards are better quality (tho not the best). dunno what you get bundled with them, but it will cost you twice as much if you want a breakout box.

again, really it depends on what you want to spend?

Well the reason I said the M-Audio one is because I'm currently eyeing one on Ebay and hoping the price stays low on it. A hookup for the turntable to PC is just about all I'm looking at right now, and the next step, somewhat further down the line, will be the MPC.

Once I get that up and running, you can expect me back on here to ask for more advice, haha.

here's what i would buy personally if i was looking for soundcard.

http://www.presonus.com/firebox.html

its an external one and you'd need a firewire port on your pc.

That looks dope, and I've got firewire, but...the price. Nah, I think I'll stay with the 2nd hand M-Audio ones for now, thanks. Lol.

this is what im saving for...