As much as I love my vinyl collection, it’s nowhere near as practical as digital formats. So why not get the best of both worlds and back up your analog music with a digital copy that can be played on your devices?
Converting analog music to digital can be a smart move to preserve sound quality and better organize your music library. Analog tapes and records deteriorate over time, making digitization an effective solution to preserve these audio treasures. We’ll walk you through how to convert analog music to digital in a simple way and why you might want to do it to maintain long-lasting sound quality. Check out Why Music Lovers Prefer Spotify Over Vinyl Records: The Top Reasons.
Why should I digitize my music collection?
Converting old vinyl records and cassette tapes to digital format has never been easier with various analog-to-digital converters and software solutions. Here's why I did it.
Listen to analog music on the go
The cassette-based Sony Walkman may have revolutionized portable music, but modern digital devices are more practical and durable. While most popular recordings can be found on streaming platforms, rare, non-commercial recordings will not, and many of us choose not to pay a monthly subscription fee to stream music.
Protect your sensitive analog collection
Analog music can quickly show signs of wear and tear with repeated use, even in the most careful hands. Creating a digital backup can save cassette tapes from becoming damaged or distorted over time, vinyl records from attracting phantom scratches, and packaging from wearing down with repeated handling.
Backup copies of out-of-print recordings
Much of the music of the 20th century is simply not available in its original format. Some rarities have to be sourced from Japan, where companies reissue old stock at high prices. Others are first printings that can be worth a lot of money. Backing up these recordings gives you peace of mind and helps preserve their content, even if it’s just to share your audio library with friends and family.
Required devices and applications
I’ve been converting my recordings to digital formats since I bought my first digital audio workstation in 2001. Those were the days of Napster, iPods, Nokia phones, and my trusty iMac G4 with 1GB of RAM, but the principles remain the same today. Converting analog music to digital requires some form of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and music production software. Check out Expanding the Capabilities of the Raspberry Pi with an ADC: What You Need to Know.
Vinyl/Cassette Player with USB Port
Although not as common, a USB-enabled CD or tape player is the easiest way to connect analog audio to your computer, as they have built-in analog-to-digital converters. Connect these players to your computer, select them as the input source, and you're ready to convert analog audio to digital.
analog to digital converter
You will likely need a dedicated analog-to-digital converter (A/D converter) to convert audio. Many computers have built-in sound cards or line inputs (not to be confused with microphone inputs) to connect to the phono output of a turntable or a 3.5mm audio cable. If your computer does not have a built-in A/D converter, you will need an external sound card/A/D converter that passes between your computer and the analog music player in the signal path. Check out our guide to installing a dedicated internal sound card on your computer: Easy and effective steps to enhance your audio experience.
Music Production Apps
Once you have the hardware to convert analog audio to digital, you need to process it using the appropriate music production application. This combination of hardware and application is called a digital audio workstation, or DAW, and can be used to create, edit, or digitize music. Mac users can use Garageband to process audio, and other free solutions like Audacity work on all platforms.
How does analog music digitization work?
Analog music, like the noise we hear around us, exists as sound waves. Digital music reproduces those sound waves using binary code. If we were to visualize an analog sound wave, it would be a smoothly sweeping curve, just like an ocean wave.
When we digitize analog music, the sound wave resembles a series of ascending and descending steps, with each step occurring every time a snapshot or “sample” of the sound wave is taken — the higher the sample rate per second, the more detailed the sound reproduction.
To digitize your music, you must first record your analog audio.
- Select your preferred audio input in your computer’s sound settings, create a new audio track and activate it (or “trigger” it), and press the record button before playing the recording to vinyl or cassette tape in your favorite DAW application. You’ll see your music visualized as an audio waveform as it’s recorded as an audio track.
- Once I've played the entire side of the cassette or record, I usually create a new audio track and record the next side.
- Once recording is complete, these tracks can be cut into songs and exported as digital audio files.
As I said, it's a time consuming process, but it's worth it in the long run.
Some tips for converting your audio library to digital format
Once you have a few recordings converted, digitizing your music collection will be easy. However, there are two things you should do either before or after hitting the red button to get the best results:
Clean up records or tape heads
While analog music should theoretically sound fuller and more detailed than compressed digital music, the sound quality is often affected by static interference, friction, and dirt or dust particles accumulating on the components. Before recording analog audio, use a tape head cleaner in your cassette player or clean the recordings with a recording brush and make sure the needle is free of debris.
Check levels before registering
If you have a separate level control on your A/D converter, start with it at a lower level (I usually default to 12) and make sure the sound isn’t distorted through your speakers. When you include the audio track in your DAW, check the mixing console to see if the meter is “distorted.” This means it’s distorted and usually appears in red. If the recording level is too low, increase it, but leave yourself enough room for dynamic changes in the music.
Keep the audio path neutral.
As a general rule, keep your audio track free of any hissing. EQ should be set to a constant level or turned off, and no plugins or effects, such as reverbs and compressors, should be activated. You want your converted digital reproduction to sound as close to the original as possible. Before exporting your audio, you may want to try noise reduction plugins to remove hiss, especially if you are converting a cassette tape to digital format.
Cut audio files
The analog audio will be recorded as one complete track, which you can cut into sections as songs. Once you have each song separated on your arrangement page, zoom in on the timeline and cut the before and after waveforms at the beginning and end of each song. This eliminates the hiss and crackle before and after the song and makes the song transitions smoother.
Convert audio to lossless format
When exporting audio as a digital file, use a high-quality digital format. Typically, you can export audio in a lossless, uncompressed format, such as WAV or AIFF. These formats can be converted to other lossless digital formats, such as FLAC or ALAC, which are played on most digital audio players. Alternatively, if you need to save space on your digital devices, you can choose a compressed format such as MP3, although there is a compromise in quality.
While converting analog music to digital may seem like a lot of hassle, the fact that you can play it on digital devices alone is worth the effort. You likely already have most of the materials you need to convert analog music, and there are plenty of free apps available. It’s a fun process that teaches you about audio editing and music production, and will ultimately extend the life of your precious analog music collection so you can enjoy it for years to come. Check out the best music production apps for beginners to get your creative juices flowing.
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