Published on 12, July, 2020
On Wednesday night, I ordered a record player on Curry's PC World. It came this afternoon, and I played the LP I bought yesterday in Belfast.
The bad news is that the 'Vinyl to Digital' function doesn't work, due to iTunes being obsolete. However, I can still play the album. Also, I discovered a hack in the player where if you turn the auto-stop function on and off again, it will skip any scratches.
I'm happy with the outcome.
What brand? They usually have their own software in addition to the now defunct Itunes. You could also go to the brand site and see if they have any up-to-date software downloads that don't require Itunes. You could also use Audacity, but you might have to use a jack-to jack lead, or some other lead depending on what special plugs your PC has. Audacity looks complex and arguably IS complex, but once you've used it you probably won't want to use anything else. But it might take you a while to get used to the software.
https://www.audacityteam.org/
I have a Numark turntable with a USB connection lead. It's a machine often used by DJs. You can even get a version with a jog lever for scratching, Not my scene, however. ;-)
https://www.numark.com/product_category/turntables
Thanks, guys! However, my number one priority was to listen to Vinyl records once again.
There is an old Vinyl collection - belonging to mum and dad - plus some 7' singles I bought as a child in 1992. They're in our attic, stored in a purple-and-black schoolbag. I tried going up the attic an hour ago, but the steps began to wobble, and I felt uncomfortable. I'll ask my aunt-through-marriage to search for them.
I have a Mac, and iTunes is obsolete as they have shoehorned streaming.
By the way, to answer your question, my record player is an ION Max LP Beltdrive Turntable.
I ended up wiring the phono sockets to a jack plug into an Ubuntu platform laptop, and then ran Audacity.. Audacity also make software for the Ubuntu platform.The result was fine, but there are a lot of settings to re-remember.
I also tried reloading EZ Vinyl & Tape Converter on my Windows 11 tablet/laptop combo. I couldn't get it to load without Itunes; which of course doesn't work any longer. Both Numark and ION use EZ andhave download links on their sites.
Later on, I went to the ION site and downloaded their most recent version of EZ. The download made no obvious attempt to download Itunes at the same time; although the site still mentions itunes, somewhat confusingly. And one thing I can tell you from previous experience is that I have previously used EZ without Itunes being on the same machine. I think I managed to do that on the ION Max. (Perhaps because I also downloaded a more recent version of EZ.)
Anyway, it is a bit late to fiddle with turntables at this time of night, so i will try plugging the USB lead into the tablet and running it tomorrow. and will then let you know how i got on.
I can't help thinking this whole problem has occurred because the Apple people panicked at the prospect of many many USB turntable users making loads of digital music files to share. But ION, Amazon & Curry PC should really be a lot more honest with USB turntable buyers about this issue. But anyway, the positive side of it is that it encourages free Audacity downloads - a software that i really like. In fairness though, when i've used EZ conversion software before it has actually done a very good and fairly effortless job of converting from Vinyl. So I want to get it to work again, if I can.