Technology is moving faster than a Porsche on an autobahn and your record and cassette collection is being rapidly left behind. Today, everything is getting smaller and going digital, and that includes music.

But what about that precious record collection? Will you lose that now deleted Led Zeppelin album forever? Not if Computeractive can help it. Hold the screams, the fears and the anxiety attacks, and while you are at it, your record player.

In this article we will demonstrate how, through the wonders of MP3, you can now transfer your precious collection onto your PC to listen to and then onto CD without compromising on sound quality.

This opens up the possibility of listening to your new CD in the living room, the car and even while jogging. All you need is a cable, a standard PC with a CD-RW or CD-R drive and some software that can be bought or downloaded for free.

What's a record player, Grandad?

For those of us who are above a certain age, a portion of our music collection will consist of vinyl LPs and audio cassettes. You can now convert those slowly deteriorating formats into MP3 files which never fade, save space and can be packed onto CDs.

For the beginner this seems a tricky proposition, as there are lots of awkward adjustments to make before anything can be recorded but this pressure has been relieved by better, more user-friendly software available for less than £50, such as Nero from Ahead Software or CD Spin Doctor from Roxio (formerly called Adaptec).

Since they are arguably the best applications for the absolute beginner, we shall be using Nero for this exercise but the steps will be similar with other packages such as Clean, a £25 application recently launched by music company Steinberg.

The process does get easier with practice, so be prepared to make a few mistakes at first, and have patience. To get started there are some key points to remember. However, for a full step-by-step guide, look at the Workshop at the end.

That old vinyl

If you're recording from a turntable that's part of a hi-fi separates system, you'll need to connect your PC's sound card to your hi-fi amplifier, not directly to the turntable itself. If you're using a midi system or a similar integrated system, you shouldn't have to worry about this - just make the connection using the line-out or aux connections.

If you don't fancy poking around behind your hi-fi, or your system doesn't have spare output sockets, you can use the headphone socket instead. Simply connect this to the 'line in' socket on the PC's sound card.

Taped up

Recording your audio cassettes is a fairly similar process. Connect your tape deck to your PC using a cable. This will usually be via two RCA phono plugs (left and right) into the sockets marked 'play' or 'out' on the rear of the tape deck to a stereo 3.5mm plug, which plugs into the 'line in' socket at the back of your PC.

If this is not possible, you can improvise in the same way above by connecting the tape deck to the 'line in' socket on the PC via the headphone jack.

Make sure, however, that the volume on the tape deck is at minimum before you start if you use this method, or the sound level could be so high you could damage both your sound card and your ears!

CDs explained

When you start to get involved in the wonderful world of CD recording, you'll come to realise that there are many different types of CD. To help you make sure you use the right type, here is Computeractive's guide to CD types and where you can use them.

Audio CD:
If someone says that they have a CD, the chances are they mean an audio CD - a disc containing music that can be played in any CD player. They can also be played in CDRom and DVDRom drives, as well as standalone DVD players, making them an extremely versatile format.

CDRom (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory)
This is a disc that contains data placed there by its manufacturer. Their contents are permanent.

CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable)
A CD-R is a blank, recordable disc that can only be used once - when something has been written to it, it cannot be erased. CD-Rs can contain music, for use in most CD players (plus CDRom and DVDRom drives, and DVD players); video, for use in computers and DVD players; or just data, for use on a computer.

CD-RW (Compact Disc-ReWritable)
CD-RWs are also blank, recordable discs but the difference is that once used, they can be erased and used again. They can be treated just like reusable CD-R discs and can hold the same kinds of information, but while most CD and DVD players will play CD-Rs, only some newer ones can play CD-RWs. You won't damage your CD player by trying to play a CD-RW in it. Generally speaking, all CDRom and DVDRom drives can read CD-RWs.

What is an MP3 file?

Very simply, MP3 is a way of storing music in a digital format. It is a compressed music format that removes sound within the song that is not necessarily heard by the listener. By extracting these background sounds, MP3 files compress the storage space needed to hold a song to less than a tenth of its original size.

To the true hi-fi purist, the idea of removing sound from a song would be unthinkable but for many people and in many situations, such as in personal stereos or to carry many scores of tracks on one CD, it can be a boon. The quality of MP3 is not up to CD quality but is comparable to old records and cassettes.

What you will need

If your PC doesn't have a CD-R or CD-RW drive, you have two choices: buying either an internal or external drive. External drives are good if you are likely to want to record music from other PCs but an internal drive is a cheaper option. If it's to be external, try the Iomega Predator priced at £249 and reviewed here.

For an internal drive, a good bet is the Creative Labs CD-RW Blaster 12x 10x 32x at £239. CD-RW drives can use both use-once CD-R discs and use-many-times CD-RWs, making them very versatile. If you're really strapped for cash, you might be able to buy a mere CD-R drive but most manufacturers have long since abandoned them as ongoing concerns. An average CD-R disc costs around 50p and CD-RW discs cost around £1 each.

CD writing software

With so many CD writing products on the market, there are a lot to choose from and you can even get software to do the job for free over the web (such as MusicMatch Jukebox from www.musicmatch.com).

However, two companies lead the field and are hard to beat: Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 (£44), and Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum (£45)

Sound card

If your PC is a very basic model and you plan to start live recording as well as making backups of your record collection, the Creative SoundBlaster Platinum 5.1 (£179) is a good choice because it adds an extra set of audio sockets to a free 5.25in drive bay on your PC.

If that sounds a bit too expensive, perhaps the Creative SoundBlaster Live sound card and speaker bundle is a better option as it also improves your speakers at the same time for £149.

Cables

This depends on what you are linking up and what your are recording from. Your hi-fi may have the right cable. Otherwise, examine the sockets carefully and visit an electronics store or www.maplin.co.uk. If you're connecting via a hi-fi then you'll probably need a twin phono to 3.5mm stereo jack.

This will take the sound from the hi-fi to the line in socket on the computer. If you are working from a portable stereo device, you'll need a cable with 3.5mm stereo jacks at either end to connect the stereo device's headphone socket to the sound card's line in socket.

Transfering files from hard disk to CD

Once you have transferred all your records and audio cassettes onto your computer, you can play them from your PC whenever you like. However, they rapidly begin to fill up space on your hard disk.

One option is to transfer them to CD so you can use that space for other things. The beauty of storing MP3s on CD is that one disc can hold many hours of music. There are plenty of software applications to help you, including Easy CD Creator and Nero from Ahead Software, and many CD-RW drives are bundled with one or the other.

The steps in both packages are fairly similar but for the purpose of this guide, we shall examine how Nero creates a data disc.

STEP 1: Open Nero. When the wizard appears, follow the instructions and select Data Disc. This will bring up two windows that look a lot like Windows Explorer. From the right-hand window, locate where you have stored your MP3 files - for this example we have used a folder within My Documents called My MP3s.

STEP 2: Drag this folder to the left-hand pane. At the bottom of the screen is a bar, numbered in megabytes, which lets you know how much of the disc will be filled by your selection. If you have more MP3s in a different folder, drag them across too and see how this affects the 'capacity bar' at the bottom. If you go over the CD-R capacity at 650Mb, the bar will turn red and you will have to remove a few tracks.

STEP 3: Removing MP3s is easy. Double-click the folder you have dragged into the left-hand pane. All the MP3 files will be listed there, so hold down CTRL and left-click on those which you are prepared to leave out. Right-click on them and select Delete. Bear in mind that you are only removing them from the CD-R, not your hard disk. If you delete too many, go back into the right-hand pane and drag a few more back in.

STEP 4: When you've filled your disc, then you can proceed to the creation process. One word of warning is essential: allow nothing to interrupt your PC at this point. Anything open, such as a word processor or game, must be closed. Once the recording actually starts, any other tasks that your PC has to perform could cause errors in the created MP3 files.

Make sure that for the duration of the 'ripping' session you do not do anything else with your PC.

Then left-click File and in the resulting drop-down menu, select Write Disc. Another window will appear, which asks whether to Test and Burn, merely Test or just Burn. If you are doing this for the first time, it is wise to click Test and Burn, so that the capabilities of your equipment can be tested, otherwise, click on Burn.

Nero will perform a few checks to make sure that everything is as expected and then begin the CD creation process. If you have not slipped a blank disc into your drive prior to this point, Nero will prompt you to do this now.

STEP 5: Now you must leave your PC alone until Nero has finished. When the operation is complete, the CD will eject from the PC and a screen warning will let you know that everything went well. Nero will then ask if you would like to save the layout of the CD (for creating another copy later on). If you should not require this, simply click No at each box and exit the program.

Going walkabout

So, you've got the old music transferred to your hard disk or archived it onto CD but what if we told you that you could create a CD that can be played by a car, personal or hi-fi CD player? Again, for simplicity's sake, we'll look at the process using Nero. The Easy CD Creator process is slightly different but the principle is the same and the application's wizards will guide you through every step.

STEP 1: Open Nero and at the various wizards that appear, select Music CD. This takes you to the File Explorer window. This time, however, the memory bar at the bottom has turned into a time bar, with segments marked off in minutes, and the maximum being the magical 74 minutes that a conventional CD-R can store.

STEP 2: As before, in the right-hand pane, locate the MP3 files you would like to put onto your audio CD. The time bar at the bottom will let you know how much space remains. Again, if you go past the maximum marker, the bar will turn red and you will have to remove tracks. This is done as before by right-clicking on the track you would like to remove and selecting Delete.

STEP 3: In the left-hand pane, your tracks are shown in the order in which they were added but this makes no allowance for taste in running order.

To adjust the track order to your own preference, simply highlight the track you wish to move by left-clicking on it, then drag it up or down the list to where you would like it to be.

STEP 4: You are now ready to burn the CD but, again, make sure that nothing will interrupt the burning process. When that has been done, left-click on the File option at top-left and select Write Disc. At the next window, click Burn.

If you have not inserted a blank CD-R into your CD drive, Nero will prompt you for this now. Nero will notify you on-screen when the process is completed and will eject the disc. The resulting disc can be played on any conventional CD equipment or on your PC.

Going digital

By this point you should have all the information to master transferring your records and tapes into a vast MP3 library filled with timeless classics - even deleted ones you can't buy on CD. But you can still mix some of those tracks with music from your CD collection or simply transfer all your music into the MP3 format - then you can save space on your shelves, avoid risking scratches on your records or breaks in your tape reels.

There are numerous applications available to achieve this, many of them free via the internet. Our current favourite is MusicMatch - free from www.musicmatch.com.

STEP 1: Open MusicMatch and insert the CD to be ripped. If you have an internet connection open, it will automatically search through the CDDB database to find the track details. If CDDB has no record of the disc or you have no internet connection, then you will have to type in all the information later on.

STEP 2: Now hit the Record button. This will bring up the recording window. The music CD details should appear in the information display. If you have more than one CD drive (a CDRom and a CD-RW), you might have to tell the software which drive you mean. Go to Options and look down the list for Recorder. Select that and go to Settings.

At the bottom of this window is a pull-down menu which contains all the different sound inputs into your PC. Find the CD that contains the music disc and select that. Remember how to get here, as we shall be returning later on.

STEP 3: Now look at the recorder window again. On the left is the information window and on the right are the track details. They are all 'pre-ticked' by default but if you want to leave out say, track 7, simply click the tick box to 'un-tick' it and it will not be recorded. Scroll up and down to find the entire listing. Once you are happy with it we can proceed.

STEP 4: At this stage it's vital that you shut down any non-essential programs including screensavers.

STEP 5: This is where you make some decisions about the quality of the MP3 files. Then find the Recorder settings as per step 2. You can either choose from the pre-set ones or adjust to the Custom Quality sliders at the bottom. For our purposes a 128Kbps MP3 file will suffice, so click the button for that choice.

It is wise to click Error Correction in the CD Recording box; this slows down the recording process a little but makes it less likely to fail. You can tick a box to choose whether to listen to the CD while ripping but this also slows down the recording. Click OK when you have finished.

STEP 6: Now you are ready to begin recording so click the Record button under the info window. Recording will start automatically and you should now leave your PC alone until MusicMatch informs you the process has finished.

STEP 7: To find your files afterwards, open Windows Explorer. In the left-hand pane, click the + sign on the My Documents folder. Do the same with the My Music folder. You should find a folder in here, with the name Artist (or similar, depending on whether you used CDDB at the start).

In here will be your MP3 files (although they may be in a subfolder with the title of the CD). Your MP3 files are now ready to be played on any compatible player such as Winamp or Windows Media Player (free with Windows). We plan to review MP3 software players in July.

Fancy labels for your CDs

Once your CDs have been created, it is nice to design labels for them for easy reference. You could write directly on the non-silver side using permanent marker pens or make your own labels but there are a few labelling packages available to make the job easier - and their labels are less likely to come off in the player.

They usually include a setup CD, some labels and a labelling tool. This tool is used to get the label onto the face of the CD itself. Nero 5.5 contains a labelling kit but for this demonstration we will use Press-IT labeller from Rocky Mountain Traders which comes complete with exPress-IT software, available for £20 from www.pressit.com.

STEP 1: Upon opening exPress-IT you will be presented with a blank template, which corresponds to the A4 page on which the labels are provided. Each sheet contains two CD face labels and two rectangular multi-use labels.

On the left in the second toolbar down is a small square icon containing a mountain. This is the Create Image Object tool. Click on this and an Open Dialog window will appear. From here locate an image or background you would like on your disc.

STEP 2: At the top left of the CD label, left-click and drag across diagonally to the bottom right. If the square image does not quite fill the CD label, you can pull the image down or to either side by using the tags around the outside of the image. Once you are happy with the look you can add some text.

STEP 3: Click on the text icon, which is two to the right of the Create Image Object icon, and is represented by 'ABC'. Since this box can be adjusted afterwards, simply drag the cursor diagonally down and to the right to create a good sized box. Type in your text (you can add more boxes afterwards, if you like).

You might like to change the colour of this text, and this is done by clicking on the leading letter of the text and dragging across to the end to highlight it. Then click the Palette icon which is in the third toolbar. This produces a selection of colours and clicking one changes the colour of the text.

STEP 4: To place the text box, click Text on the top toolbar and if there is a tick in Edit Text, highlight it to 'untick' it. Now the box can be moved around. Place it over the CD label image where you feel it will look good. If it is too large, adjust the size by dragging the corners inwards.

If you prefer, you can make the text curve round and this is done by clicking on the Circle Text icon on the third toolbar. In the same way, dragging the corners of the curved box will enlarge or shrink the box.

STEP 5: To add more text boxes repeat steps 3 and 4, otherwise you can save your label and print it. Once printed, peel the label off the sheet and place it face down on the labeller. Then place the CD on the labeller face down. Push the CD down via the centre onto the label and then let it return upwards. This has centred the label on the disc perfectly but you will still need to smooth out any ripples in the label by carefully pressing from the centre outwards. For more labels, repeat the operation from the start.

Transferring an LP onto a CD

You can use your CD-R or CD-RW drive to transfer your precious vinyl albums onto CD. Transferring a much-loved piece of vinyl onto a CD isn't as difficult as you might imagine and has the advantage that your favourite albums can be forever preserved in a more compact and durable form. We'll be using CD Spin Doctor, which is included with Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum from Roxio and can be used to record from any sound source that you can connect to your sound card.

There are copyright issues when recording music but as long as you own the vinyl LP, there's no reason why you shouldn't transfer it onto CD as long as it's for your own use.

STEP 1: The first stage is to set up a physical connection between your stereo system and your PC. If you have a separate hi-fi amplifier, use the lead that comes with the software to connect the Line In socket on your PC's sound card to the Tape Monitor Record sockets on the back of your amplifier.

With a compact stereo system, use a lead with 3.5mm stereo jacks at both ends. Connect one end to your sound card and the other to your stereo's headphone socket. You will need an adapter if your stereo has a quarter-inch headphone socket.

STEP 2: To test the connection, double-click on the Volume Control icon in the System Tray to open the Mixer Control. From the Options menu, choose Recording and ensure that there is a tick next to Line before clicking OK. In the Recording Control dialogue box that appears, click the box marked Select that appears below Line and move the slider to halfway. Start Sound Recorder from the Start Menu under Programs, Accessories, then Entertainment and select Properties from its File menu.

STEP 3: Click the Convert Now button, select CD Quality and click OK. Click OK again to exit the Properties for Sound dialogue box and start playing your album with the volume on your hi-fi muted or turned down.

You should hear the sound coming through your PC's speakers and you can then click the Sound Recorder's record button. Record a typical album track for about 30 seconds and then click the Stop button. Stop your LP and then click the Sound Recorder's Play button.

STEP 4: The recording will play back through your PC speakers and if it sounds much quieter or louder than the LP itself, you will need to go back to the Recording Control and adjust the Line slider up or down. Repeat the process until both sound levels are the same.

STEP 5: Recording an album can be a fairly lengthy process so ensure any screensavers are disabled by right-clicking on the Desktop, selecting Properties and clicking on the Screen Saver tab. Select None in the drop-down box and click OK. You can then start CD Spin Doctor and from the Select menu, choose New Source. Highlight LP and click the Select button.

Under New Destination, choose your CD Recorder and click Select. It's also worth noting that at this stage you can choose to convert your album tracks directly to MP3 files if you wish.

STEP 6: From the Options menu, select Properties and place a tick in the box marked Adjust for Source Type. This will use the predefined settings to remove the audible scratches and clicks that are so memorable to those of us who were around before CDs. Also from the Options menu, select Split Into Tracks, which will ensure that each side of the album will be separated into individual tracks before it is burned onto the CD.

STEP 7: Now it's time to start recording. Ensure that there is a blank recordable CD in your CD-R or CD-RW drive, click the Record to CD-R button at the top right of the Spin Doctor window and start playing the first side of the LP. The Ready to Record dialogue box will appear and just before the music starts, click the Record button. The Recording Progress dialogue box will then appear and the entire side of the album will be recorded onto your hard disk in one go.

STEP 8: As soon as the last track on side one ends, click the Pause button and turn the LP over. Just before the first track on the second side starts, click the Record button. You can pause at any time if you don't want to record a particular track and you can even record tracks from different albums or singles.

If you do this, though, ensure that you select Balance Loudness under the Options menu beforehand, as this will record all of the tracks at the same volume. As soon as the final track has ended you can click the Stop button and Spin Doctor will then begin the task of finding the gaps between the tracks and saving them as individual sound files.

STEP 9: The final stage of the process is the actual burning of the tracks onto your blank CD-R. This is handled automatically by the software and the time this will take can be calculated by dividing the total length of the tracks you are recording by the write speed of your drive.

STEP 10: Once the last track has been recorded, the Unclosed CD dialogue box will appear. If there is enough recording time left on the CD you might want to add more tracks, in which case you should click on the Don't Close CD button and go through the process again until you have finished adding extra tracks. Click the Close CD button if you are finished and that's it. Your CD should be playable in any CD player or CDRom drive.

Quality versus quantity

MP3s offer a fine balance over quality and quantity. You have to decide whether you want a few tracks which sound great or lots of tracks that just sound alright.

Like VCRs, most MP3 recording packages have options for you to change the quality or quantity of the recording. Almost all VCRs have short play and long play options - you can double the recording time capacity of the tape with long play but the quality of recording goes down.

In the world of MP3, the principles are the same except there are more choices. Below is a quick rundown of the settings to help you make the right choice.

Above 160Kbps - uses a lot of space but could be handy for archiving special recordings where quality is more important than file size.

160Kbps - A useful standard where file size is quite large, requiring 1.5Mb or one minute of music but sound quality is good.

128Kbps - The internet's usual choice, commonly referred to as 'CD Quality', and the ideal compromise setting. File sizes are 1Mb per minute of sound.

96Kbps - Slightly lower quality but smaller files, using only 700Kb of space to store one minute of music.

64Kbps - Known as 'FM Quality', as it is supposed to be equivalent to FM radio broadcasts. Good for speech recordings, such as plays or dramas, where fidelity is not as important as file size. You can squeeze one minute into 400Kb.

32Kbps (mono) - Not used a great deal, although it is a great setting for transferring old mono cassettes of 1950s comedies, where the quality was relatively poor to start with. The file size works out at around 6Mb for 30 minutes, which means one CD-R filled with them would literally play for days.

Below 32Kbps - Far too poor to listen to without straining to hear the sound thus this setting is not generally used, although the files could be tiny and might play for weeks.

JARGON BUSTER

Ripping: The name that describes the process of converting CD music tracks into MP3.

Screensaver: Software which, after a period of inactivity, replaces the existing image with a moving one to protect the screen.

Sound card: The part of your PC that controls the sound coming from your speakers.

System Tray: Area at the right-hand side of the Windows Taskbar where the clock and other icons are stored.

Wizards: An automated online 'assistant' designed to guide you step-by-step through a potentially complex process such as faxing, creating a template or changing software options.