Tuesday, February 5, 2008

TVD: Maybe it's just us...

...but don't these USB turntables give you the impression that you just plug into your USB port and you're off and listening to your vinyl? No, really -- was it just us? No one ELSE thought the USB friendly ION (or another USB model) would be that user-friendly -- like baby's first turntable?

Here's a handy tip to burnish that learning curve -- it ain't so. The software is WED to the output as a whole. It's not like plugging in your flash drive and boom - there it is on your desktop and you're rolling.

Like TVD thought.

So, time was spent deep in the nooks and crannies of the Mac's preferences. Needle down, hearing stuff, but it's not through the speakers. It's all done through the software program, and that'd be Audacity for ION owners. But ONLY after configuring the Preferences just right. Click to "play track while recording" (yes, we're idiots) and voila! You don't even need to be in archiving mode just to listen, if that's what you're after.

So, there. A whole evening back to you that we lost. But there ARE rewards to come...

4 comments:

IntangibleArts said...

To quote the great Doctor Zoidberg, "hooray"...

perhaps your pain shall be my salvation...

Jon said...

Just to be fair though, now that these hurdles have been met and with this knowledge, you can really go from box to blasting vinyl in an hour or less. It's just odd to me that none of this is made obvious in the set-up info.

epota said...

My question has always been about the quality of the capture. What has been your experience? I have a top-end Denon and everything sounds like a dream coming off of that system and that needle. But I've had to take the long road to capture anything digitally or move to CD. Does the capture from the ION (or like models) end up satisfactory to your ears? I've been apprehensive, given the price tag of the USB turntable (WAY under the price of what I paid for my Denon).

Jon said...

That's the part that remains to be seen and you'll hear the results from the ION when I have them. (I'm still tinkering with Audacity and learning the ins and outs.) But I too have a high end Stanton as my main turntable and the ION is to convert LPs for the blog. We'll let you be the judge...