OK- check it out - this is what I do...

1) Of course, you will have a turntable that is either hooked up into a mixer, or hooked directly into your stereo receiver.

2) You will need to get an adapter from radio shack or walmart that will hook into the back of the mixer or receiver's record output jacks (RCA style connectors), and then you will hook the other end into your computer soundcard's line-in jack... (make sure you hook it into the line in jack and not the mic jack, or else it will sound like shit) The adapter can be found here: http://www.cablesnmor.com/rca-mini-stereo.html

3) You will then need some sort of program that you can record with. I use Sony Vegas. It's SUPER EXPENSIVE though... So another WAAAY cheaper, but still very effective alternate can be found here: http://avapps.com/audio-mixcraft.html

4) If your turntable is hooked directly into a stereo receiver, you will be able to skip this step. If you are using a mixer, you will want to make sure that the sound on the mixer is turned up as much as possible without distording... If it has a sound meter on it, you want it to almost bounce in the RED, but not too much....

5) You will also want to make sure that your sound card is set to record from the line input jack. If this is not done, your recording will not have any sound... This can done by going into the Start Menu --> Control Panel --> Sounds and Audio Devices --> Audio --> Sound Recording --> Volume.... You will want to make sure that you have a checkmark under "Line In".

You will also want to set your recording level here as well.... You want to make sure that the sound will not distort - or be too low. If you are using a program like Vegas, you will be able to see the audio meters bounce up and down while the record is playing. You wanna make sure it is almost reaching the RED, but you never want to go into the RED.

6) Once the album is recorded, it might be time to add effects... EQ is a nice one to have because you might not have enough highs or lows... This usually comes with most recording programs.... Another one that's nice to have is an audio restoration plug in that could hide alot of pops and cracks from the record. This is one you usually have to pay for... It's nice to have it though in some cases....

7) If you are recording a whole album, it will more than likely be recorded as one long track. Using Sony Vegas or Mixcraft, you can split up the tracks, and save each one separately. I rip all of mine to MP3 256kbps Stereo, although you can get away with 192kbps without losing noticable quality, and you'll save a little more hard drive space that way over time....

8) A COUPLE COOL FREE TOOLS TO HAVE: