How to record a turntable into Audacity
To record a turntable into Audacity, connect it to your computer — directly by USB, or through a phono preamp and an analogue-to-digital converter if it has no USB output — then open Preferences ▸ Devices, choose the turntable as the recording device, set 2-channel audio, and press Record before dropping the needle.
The software side takes five minutes. The hardware side is where people get stuck, and it comes down to one question: what does your turntable actually output? Answer that first and the rest follows.
Record vinyl with Audacity
Which setup do you have?
- USB turntable: plug it in. Nothing else needed.
- Turntable with a built-in phono preamp: line out → audio interface → USB.
- Turntable with no preamp: you need a phono preamp first. This is not optional.
How we choose: we explain why each step matters rather than just listing it, and we say plainly where cleanup tools will and won’t help.
Step 1 — Work out which of the three setups you have
Everything downstream depends on this, and the wrong assumption here produces a recording that is quiet, thin and tinny — the single most common complaint from people digitising vinyl.
A USB turntable has a USB socket on the back and handles conversion internally. Connect it to your computer and it appears as an audio input device. Nothing else to buy.
A turntable with a built-in phono preamp has RCA outputs and usually a small switch marked PHONO/LINE. Set to LINE, it outputs a normal line-level signal you can feed into any audio interface or converter, which connects to your computer by USB.
A turntable with no preamp outputs a phono-level signal, and that needs a phono preamp before anything else in the chain.
If you are unsure, look for that PHONO/LINE switch, or check the manual for “built-in preamp”.
Why a phono preamp matters
Worth understanding rather than just obeying, because it explains the symptom.
A record cartridge produces a very small signal — far below line level. It is also not a flat copy of the music. When records are cut, the bass is reduced and the treble is boosted according to a standard called the RIAA curve. This is deliberate: less bass means narrower grooves, so more music fits on a side, and boosted treble means surface noise is reduced when the curve is undone on playback.
A phono preamp does two jobs: it amplifies the tiny signal up to line level, and it applies the inverse RIAA curve, putting the bass back and taming the treble.
Skip it and you get exactly what you would expect: a recording that is far too quiet, with almost no bass and a harsh, thin top end. That is not a bad cartridge or a bad cable — it is an un-decoded phono signal.
Step 2 — Wire it up
With the turntable powered off:
- Connect the left and right phono leads from the turntable to your preamp or converter, matching red to red and white to white.
- Connect the ground wire if your turntable has one — a thin wire with a spade connector, which goes to the ground terminal on the preamp or amplifier. Skipping it is the usual cause of a persistent hum.
- Connect the preamp or converter to the computer with its USB cable.
- Power the turntable on.
Step 3 — Set Audacity up
Choose the recording device. Open Preferences ▸ Devices and pick your turntable or USB audio device from the Recording dropdown. Also check your operating system’s sound settings and set the same device as the default input — Audacity will otherwise sometimes follow the system default and record silence from your laptop microphone.
Set the channels to 2 (stereo). Records are stereo; recording in mono throws half of it away.
Choose a sample rate. A common working setup is 2-channel, 16-bit, 48000 Hz. If you are producing files for CD, 44100 Hz matches that format. Higher rates are available and mostly matter if you plan heavy processing afterwards. For most people digitising a collection, either default is fine — consistency across your library matters more than the number.
Check your levels before committing. Play the loudest passage you can find and watch the recording meter. You want peaks comfortably below the top — around −6 dB is a sensible target. Clipping cannot be repaired later, and vinyl has nothing like the level consistency of a modern master, so leave room.
Step 4 — Record the side
Press Record, then start the record playing. Let it run.
Keep away from the turntable. Turntables are especially sensitive to vibration — footfalls, a knocked desk, a slammed door all travel up through the plinth into the cartridge and onto your recording. Start the take and step back.
Record the whole side in one pass. Do not try to start and stop between tracks; you will split them later, far more accurately, by looking at the waveform.
For side two, either stop the recording and start a new one, or pause and resume within the same project. Both work — recording both sides into the same project before doing any processing keeps everything together.
Leave the recording running through the run-out groove for a few seconds before stopping. Trimming excess is trivial; recovering a fade you cut off is not.
Step 5 — Clean it up
Vinyl has two distinct kinds of noise and they need different tools. Confusing them wastes the most time.
Clicks and pops are isolated, one-off events from dust and scratches. Audacity’s Noise Reduction effect will not touch them — it works from a profile of constant noise, and a click is by definition not constant. Use a click-removal tool, or zoom in and repair individual clicks by hand for the worst ones.
Surface noise and hiss is the steady background rustle underneath everything. This is what Noise Reduction is for. Select a few seconds of the run-in or run-out groove — noise with no music — and use it as your noise profile, then apply the effect to the whole recording.
Be conservative. Pushing noise reduction hard on a record produces a hollow, watery sound that is worse than the hiss you started with. A little surface noise reads as vinyl; heavy processing reads as damage. Our guide to noise reduction in Audacity covers the sliders and the artefacts in detail.
One honest note on the AI option. Audacity’s free OpenVINO plugin includes an AI noise suppressor, but it is optimised for spoken word. On music it can do unpredictable things to sustained notes and cymbals, so for a vinyl rip the classic Noise Reduction effect is the better tool. The AI plugin is genuinely useful for spoken-word records and archive interviews.
Step 6 — Split it into tracks
You have one long recording of a side and you want individual songs.
Use the silences. Zoom out to see the whole waveform and the gaps between tracks are obvious as flat sections.
Place a label at each track start. Select the point and press Ctrl+B (⌘B on Mac) to add a label, then type the track name. Audacity’s Analyze ▸ Label Sounds can also place labels automatically at silences, which gets you most of the way on a well-recorded side.
Export them all at once with File ▸ Export ▸ Export Multiple, set to split on labels. Audacity writes one file per label, named from your label text.
Add metadata as you export so the files carry artist, album and track names into your library rather than arriving as a folder of untitled files.
Which format to export
| Format | Use it for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| WAV | The archive copy you keep | Large files, universal support |
| FLAC | Archive with smaller files | Lossless, slightly less universal |
| MP3 | Phone and car listening | Lossy, small, plays everywhere |
The sensible approach: export a lossless copy once — WAV or FLAC — as your archive, and make MP3s from that whenever you need them. You only want to do the recording work once, and a lossy file is a poor master to make future copies from.
Setups compared
| Your setup | What you need to add | Typical result |
|---|---|---|
| USB turntable | Nothing | Convenient; conversion quality varies by unit |
| Turntable with built-in preamp | An audio interface or converter | Good, and you can upgrade the converter later |
| Turntable, no preamp | A phono preamp, then a converter | Best quality ceiling, most components |
| Turntable straight into a line input | — | Quiet, thin, no bass. Don’t |
FAQ
Do I need a phono preamp? Only if your turntable has neither a USB output nor a built-in preamp. If your recording is very quiet and has no bass, this is your problem.
Why is my recording so quiet? Almost always a phono-level signal going into a line input. Add a preamp, or switch your turntable to LINE if it has the option.
Why does it hum? Usually a missing or loose ground wire. Connect the turntable’s ground lead to the ground terminal on your preamp or amplifier.
Can Audacity remove crackle and pops? Not with Noise Reduction — that targets constant noise. Use click removal for pops, and Noise Reduction only for steady surface hiss.
What sample rate should I use? 48000 Hz is a fine default; 44100 Hz matches CD. Consistency across your collection matters more than the specific choice.
Should I record each track separately? No. Record the whole side in one pass, then split it with labels — you will get far more accurate track boundaries.
Is Audacity free for this? Yes. Audacity is free and open source, and everything in this guide uses built-in features.
Next steps
Once the transfer is in, how to use effects and plugins in Audacity covers adding a cleanup chain — EQ, gentle compression, a limiter — as realtime effects you can keep adjusting.
For the cleanup stage in depth — including which noises are and are not fixable — see noise reduction in Audacity. If your records are spoken word rather than music, AI audio editing in Audacity covers the free AI suppressor that suits speech.
Comparing tools before you commit? The best free audio editing software puts Audacity beside the alternatives.
Get Audacity and its free plugins in one place — download MuseHub free.
