USB Turntable to MacBook Pro

I have a Fission USB Turntable (purchased from Aldi about a decade ago). I’m trying to set it up so I can rip old LPs. My MbP has only USB-C ports so I connected the turntable via an Anker hub. I’m using Audacity software. The instructions that came with the turntable are 10 years old and useless. Audacity has up-to-date instructions in their wiki.

The turntable is recognised by the Mac and by Audacity and when I play an LP I can hear faint music through the pickup. When I try to record I get a flat line in Audacity. After lots of experimentation I’ve decided the issue is probably the use of the hub - which Audacity advises not to use. My questions therefore are - would a USB-C to USB adapter get around this problem? and what is the issue with hubs anyway?

Cheers
Steve

Use an original Apple direct USB-C to USB adaptor for things like this is my suggestion when it comes to audio. I’ve never had problems when I’ve done this.

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What is the connection on the record player end of the current cable? You can get USB C to USB anything and remove the need for any adaptor, I’ve seen USB A, B, mini, micro and of course lightning.

Thanks Erwin. I have purchased the Apple adaptor but still can’t get a signal into Audacity. I can get a signal into my Mac as shown by the input level indicator on the Sound Preferences pane. I will keep trying.

Thanks The_Hawk. The turntable USB cable has a USB-B plug at the turntable end. I don’t think the cable is the issue however - see my response to Erwin.

I never quite understood the “don’t use a hub” requirement beyond interferance, I mean digital is digital. In the olden days it may have been a bandwidth issue, but if you only have only thing going then… well why not? But what do I know?

In theory, record players output wasn’t amplified which is why you had a phono input on equipment which then boosted things up… but in this case it’s a digital signal coming out over USB, not analog? right? It should just work. Mind you, reviews on the Fission device aren’t good.

Plan C: That thing has a line output right? Grab a USB based soundcard to give you a 3.5mm stereo input and try that

Plan F: A better turntable with built in USB/SD recoding onboard? Gumtree tends to have a few from people who have finished doing what you’re starting :wink:

Plan G: A better turntable then go with Plan C?

Audacity certainly should just work and no doubt there is a setting I’ve missed. In the meantime, Quicktime works just fine to record the turntable signal and generates acceptable files that I can pull into Audacity. Thanks for the advice. You get what you pay for and this turntable was paid for 10 years ago. I only have a few to do.

Hi Steve, an old thread, I know.

Did you burn your transferred tunes to CD and were you happy with the sound?

We have hundreds of LP’s we want to transfer to CD and have not bought a USB turntable yet but are looking into that now.

Hello Buttercup. Yep it all worked eventually. Quicktime to pull in the audio and Audacity to do the cleaning. I didn’t burn the tracks to CD but just imported them into the Music app. They sound quite good. My albums were mostly in good condition as my practice back in the day was to record them to cassette tape and then play the tapes rather than the albums. Audacity was good at getting rid of any pops and crackles. If I was doing it again I’d buy a better turntable and invest time in cleaning the records. It was a great lockdown project!

LOL I was reading through the thread thinking it was new, and going to suggest trying to capture the audio in Quicktime. But I see you found that gem.

It’s frustrating how some apps just don’t seem to get the preferences that Apple apps get…

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Thanks for responding, Steve and thanks for the tip re a better USB turntable.
If anyone has a suggestion about what to look for, preferably used, I’d appreciate it as it will only be used, once per album, to transfer our existing LP’s. as we already have an analogue turntable to go with our recently assembled state-of-the-art, (1980’s :slightly_smiling_face:, that is) analogue system.
If anyone here, in SE Qld, has a USB turntable to sell I’d appreciate hearing about it.

Forgot to say, the plan is to transfer the audio to CD’s to preserve the albums, which are in very good condition. I’m trusting my late 2012 MacBook Pro to do that but if it’s recommended I’d get a CD burner.

I think our analogue speakers will do a better job than the Mac’s creaky little speaker, which is toast anyway, so I have a blue tooth speaker for it.

When I digitised my records years ago that weren’t available on CD, I used a Griffin iMic with my old Akai turntable. I used Audacity to record & a suite of apps for processing. It all worked out really well but was pretty time consuming.

Well thank you very much, Richard. I suppose I should be embarrassed to admit it but I’ve never heard of the iMic before or its purpose didn’t register. Would certainly cut out the extra turntable. Had a quick look but haven’t read much yet so will definitely be looking into that. Thanks again!

I still have two of these - the older original one & the newer model which I actually got from the Apple Store. I also used this to connect my old cassette deck & digitised a few rare cassettes also.

Griffin iMic

I don’t believe these are available new anymore. I am willing to sell one (or both) of these if you are interested. I have had a quick look on eBay - there are none available in Australia. They seem to be going for A$50 & up.

Anyway, let me know.

Pic of earlier model

Thanks for the offer Richard. I’ll do some more reading. Right now I’m looking into the USB, (non-Aldi) turntables that are available.

You may not have a problem, but modern “slim” optical drives can die a lot faster than the older full size ones… probably make do til you have a problem - if you do.

Thanks Cosmic. I’ll keep that in mind.

Reading about the iMic is leaving me confused. ( I know, it’s easy). I’m not sure how the sound gets from the record to the computer via the iMic. I understand that the iMic connects via USB but do you just play the vinyl on your analog turntable, through speakers and the iMic picks up the speaker sound, along with any ambient noise such as the neighbour’s barking dog, ringing phones etc. A simple non-technical explanation in words of one or two syllables, if that’s even possible, would be much appreciated.

Hi Buttercup.

You connect the turntable straight into the iMic with the turntable’s cables. You will need an adapter cable from the phono plugs to standard 1/8 mini audio plug. See the round ports on the pics I put up earlier. I’m pretty sure this was included with the later model (the white one) which even has a screw terminal to connect the turntables earth wire, if it has one. Here is another pic:

iMic with cable

Let me know if I can help you with any other info.