LP-to-mp3 Conversion FTW!

One of my all-time favorite records is "Nona" by Nona Hendryx, who was a member of Labelle before striking out on a solo career. This soul/R&B/dance album was released in 1983 and features an absolute classic, "Keep It Confidential," among other songs. I bought the cassette version and listened to it so much on my Walkman (or whatever brand I had, might not have been Sony's) I wore out the tape. I then bought it on old-fashioned vinyl, recorded it to a 90-minute cassette (so I had the full album on both sides) and pretty much wore it out as well.

For some reason it slipped out of my consciousness. I don't know if it was ever released on compact disc back in the day, once CDs became popular. But it got back into my mind a few months ago and I went searching for it online, and found that there was a limited-edition CD release in March of this year. Unfortunately, every time I looked at Amazon and other sites it was either out of stock or I'd place an order, only to be told it was on back order (and I could wait for it to eventually be filled, or cancel -- why they let me order to begin with if it wasn't actually in stock, I'll never know).

But I suffer no more. Last week I bought a kit to convert LPs and cassettes to mp3 format, and the album is now on my iPod. I won't call it perfect quality -- you hear a bit of LP crackle now and then, but it's good enough for me. The software is fairly easy to work with, but there are tools for cleaning up the tracks and other enhancements and the quick-start guide doesn't address how to use them, so I didn't even bother.

This is a problem with everything now: you get a quick-start guide with things like this, new TVs, new phones, cameras, etc. but the devices have so many features and tricks and you have no idea how to use them. If you really care you have to go online and download a PDF of the full user guide, or perhaps you get it on a DVD-ROM. Either way it's not convenient, and I bet most people can't be bothered, so they don't get the full benefit of all the features they're paying for.

Anyway, if you can find this album in any format I recommend you buy it right away.