Connect your record or tape player to your computers audio line-in socket, which is usually located close to the speaker socket. It may be coloured blue or show a symbol of an arrow pointing into some sound waves.A phono-to-minijack adapter cable may be required.

In Windows XP, click on Start, Control Panel, then Sound and Audio Devices, and select the Audio tab. Make sure that your soundcard is selected under ‘Sound Recording’. In Windows Vista, right-click on the speaker icon in the Notification Area and select Recording Devices – select the correct input and click on Set Default.

Download and install Audacity from www.download.com/Audacity. Run it then click on Edit, then Preferences, then Audio I/O and make sure the correct device is selected under Recording. Click on the red Record button on the toolbar and play the record. If the level meter flashes red, the sound is too loud – adjust the slider with a microphone icon.

Once you have the volume set, restart the recording and this time record the whole first side of your LP. Once it has finished, click on the yellow Stop button on the main toolbar. If you scroll through your recording, you should be able to see where each song begins and ends.

Select the first track by clicking just before it starts and dragging your mouse to the right, releasing the mouse button when you reach the break before the next track. Click on File, then Export selection as WAV. Name your file Track 1 and save it to the desktop. Repeat this with all the other tracks and do the same for side two.

Open Windows Media Player, if you don’t have version 11, get it from www.microsoft.com then click on the arrow under the Burn button and select Audio CD. Drag and drop each track from the desktop into the Burn List pane on the right.Then insert a blank CD into your recordable CD drive and click on the Start Burn button at the bottom of the panel.