We've acquired a new ION USB turntable, which is now connected to the audio station. Here are some bits of info about it:

• The turntable shows up as "USB Audio CODEC" in the audio devices lists, so if you're recording from it, that's the device to choose.
• In Audacity and Sonar, you need to turn on Input Monitoring to hear the input from the turntable when armed or recording.
• In SoundForge, there seems to be no way to get Input Monitoring to work; the docs suggest there's a toolbar button for it, but it's not there. So if you're using SF, you'll need to record without hearing the input. The VU meters work fine, though.
• The recommended way to use this is to use Audacity to capture the tracks, then use SoundForge to clean them up; we have a vinyl record plugin for SoundForge.
• The manuals for the turntable are with all the other manuals for audio station kit, in the blue binder on the desk under the big reel-to-reel.
• You can capture 78 records by capturing at 33 or 45, then slowing the audio down in the wave editor.
• The turntable also has standard RCA outs, for connecting to a regular audio system. NOTE that the level for these outputs is controlled by a switch on the bottom of the unit; it can output at regular line level, or at "phono" level (used when connecting to the Phono input of an older stereo system). That switch is currently set to Line, and shouldn't be changed unless you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it.
• The RCA line-outs from the turntable are not connected to anything right now, but in the long run they should probably be routed to the patch bay in place of the smaller reel-to-reel recorder, which is no longer connected. This would enable input monitoring via audio (albeit with some latency), as well as giving the option of digitizing through the FW 410 unit instead of via USB (if, for instance, we needed a much higher sample rate). I'll rig this up when I have a few hours; it'll mean changing the documentation for the patch bay.
• The little record-centre used when playing singles with their middles punched out is underneath the deck.
• We found an ancient record-cleaning device from the 60s which still works, so that's now plugged in and sitting next to the turntable.