Roxio Easy LP to MP3

For the many of us who still have old LPs and tapes lying about, Easy LP to MP3 offers a simple three-step path for converting them so they can be used on a computer or portable music player, or copied to CD.

The package includes all the software required to sort, edit and save your music once it's on the PC, and it comes with a cable connection kit to connect the computer and hi-fi.

Despite its title, Easy LP to MP3 works with just about any music source, as long as it has either a 3.5mm headphone socket or a phono hi-fi plug typically found on most audio gear (usually coloured red and white).

The other end of the cables plug into a matchbox-sized audio capture box, which sends the audio to the PC through the supplied USB cable.

Similarly, it does not only create MP3s: WAV and WMA are among the other formats it supports, or you can burn to CD. And the included label maker utility helps give a more professional touch to your discs.

But it's in between these two points that Easy LP to MP3 does its most important work. The step it calls Identify and Enhance.

There are sliders to set the noise reduction and remove clicks and crackles, and another to control the enhancement, which essentially boosts the bass and treble. An equaliser allows for finer control, and all these tools can be used over a single track, parts of a track, or a whole album.

Once you have captured all your music you will need to name the tracks. Fortunately, this is made easier through access to the Gracenote service that tags your tunes automatically from a detailed online database.

Our only reservation comes from Easy LP to MP3's strange interface, which buries all its main functions in an Audio sub-menu within a much larger window.

It's clearly designed to fit in with Roxio's other offerings, but for the first-timer it makes a rather bizarre entry point to an otherwise excellent application.