Converting LP to digital. Advice please...

It takes a lot of time and effort to do this, so you should try to get the best sound for the least effort. So don't use a USB input or the mic input. These restrict the quality you can get before you even record. They both use the factory sound card, which are usually mediocre at best.

Read up on sample rates. I use an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 sound card - new about $100, used about $40. Run a line level input to the card, or S/PDIF digital (if your system has digital out). Use Audacity or Roxio CD Spin Doctor to record and remove some of the more egregious pops and hiss, cut into tracks and label. Save as Apple Lossless format to iTunes. From there you can play through your computer, output to your amp, burn CDs. More money yields better sound, but one must be reasonable.

Thanks Craig c i am checking out analog to digital converters now along with a second hard drive. I have been procrastinating on doing this for a long time going to get all thats necessary and get it done.

I used the attached with my Sonata MC-101 with great success it is simple to use and works well with a windows machine

Roland UA-1EX

I use a dedicated hard drive/CD recorder, high-end, the Alesis Masterlink. It is a dream. I record album sides (or tapes) from my TT/preamp setup to hard drive at 24bits, normalize, separate tracks, (takes 5 mins or so) and burn to CD. If you do it right, you look at the CD in your PC/Mac with iTunes, and the CDDB database will automatically identify the track names/album, like magic. After that you can use Audacity for click/pop removal or other editing. The Masterlink is pricey but the rest is free. BTW, nobody has talked about normalizing here, but if you don't want to blast your speakers because some recordings are louder than others, it is a mandatory step.

I use a Roland Edirol FA-101 10 in 10 out firewire interfance and capture at 24/96k then downsample for cd.