For his sister-in-law's fortieth birthday, Jeff Willett of Asheboro, North Carolina, gave her a CD of music by Nantucket, a band she'd loved when she was younger. But he didn't buy the CD, because the band's music had been unavailable for years: Willett used software and his PC to make the CD from an old LP.

Not too long ago, transferring music from analog formats, such as cassette tapes and LPs, to the digital domain was daunting. But now that so many people are keeping digital music on their PCs, numerous packages have emerged that can make this project a lot easier.

Before you begin, you'll need to connect your turntable or cassette player (via preamp or receiver) to your computer by running a cable from its line-out ports to the computer's line-in ports. (Some products reviewed here include the necessary cable.) The process is simple: You record the songs onto your computer, thus converting them to digital format for playback on a PC, CD player, or portable device. The best programs let you choose the recording bit rate, clean up hiss and pops, save songs as individual files, trim out the silences between songs, and look up album information online.

Please note that although many of the products we review have functions far beyond line-in recording, our ratings are based solely on their abilities to transfer records and tapes.