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I would be very grateful if you could help me clarify - I used to use a software program for recording vinyl mixes on my old Macbook called - Audacity. Recently I've replaced this old Mac with a new Macbook Pro which does not have a phono jack, "line in” port, only a USB port and the same software does not pick up the sound any more, from my vinyl mixes.

Do you know a way to get my new Mac to accept the sound from the original phono outputs of the same mixer to the new USB port? I've already bought the generic cable and can't get it to recognise the new USB port as an official input.

Your guidance is greatly appreciated, as there is no current USB input availabilty option within the generic Mac settings - under "sound" settings. This basically means I can not work out how to accept input, via USB & I can not record, until I solve this problem?

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  • Knowing what the vinyl player is might help. Does it already have a USB port, or only the analog outs? If only analog, see electroducer's answer, otherwise it might be possible to get drivers for the deck for Mac.
    – Tetsujin
    Jan 19, 2016 at 8:06
  • Note that if your record player does not include a RIAA preamplifier, you must add one or the sound will be distorted.
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Jul 25, 2018 at 0:12

2 Answers 2

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You just need a quality digital audio interface for your Mac.

The one I personally use and have had great success with has been the Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface. This installs with no drivers required El Capitan recognizes it as a USB audio input/output device.

I have used it with just the System audio as well as with Audacity and it works flawlessly.

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Since you said that you use a phono plug, you will likely need a phono to RCA adapter like the one below. Fortunately, these are relatively inexpensive (around $5 USD)

enter image description here

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  • Did you try this with a record player? It appears that the UCA202 does not have a RIAA preamplifier - the UFO202 does.
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Jul 25, 2018 at 0:13
  • @ThorbjørnRavnAndersen: If the OP was able to use the older Mac to record, then why would the OP need the preamp feature of the UFO202?
    – David Anderson
    Nov 3, 2021 at 10:16
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To record audio from analogue audio equipment, you're going to need to buy a little audio interface that plugs into the USB port of you Macbook.

Here is a sampling of interfaces that should do the trick. Not all of them are cheap, but if you use it a lot, it's a good investment.

If you get one, you can plug your mixer into it using standard audio cables.

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  • and then another adapter for usb-c. technology advancing and we now need adapters for adapters lol
    – Dan
    Dec 14, 2017 at 3:52

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