I've been doing this for about 17 years now, and have gone from a simple consumer-grade setup to a full-on professional studio rig doing transfers & remasters for commercial release. Things I tell anyone is that there are few to no shortcuts, and that you pay what you get for. There is no quick, simple, brain-dead way of doing LP to CD transfers that is worth the time and trouble.
No matter how one does it, it will take time, a lot of it, and there will be a learning curve. It really makes little sense these days to record directly to CD-R. It's better to record 44.1/16-bit (at the very least) files to one's computer. Then for mobile playback edit and burn to CD-R or, better & easier still, copy to a USB drive either as a .WAV file or, if one must, converted to an MP3 format (save the original file!).
As for hardware, again keep in mind that time is one's biggest cost. The very bottom end would be an ION Audio TT and the free Audacity audio editor. You will most certainly get what you pay for with the ION, and waste a lot of time with it. Audacity is really quite good, and a great value, up to its limits. It will work well enough for most people, but you weren't born knowing how to use it. OTOH, the sky is the limit at the top end. (My kit cost close to $20,000.) A reasonably good system can be put together any number of ways, but at the very least it will consist of a decent TT/cart driving a good phono preamp which in turn drives a high quality sound card in one's computer. An external ADC is MUCH better, and excellent speakers are a must for any audio editing. Also, done properly, down sampling from a higher sample rate file to a 44.1/16-bit Red Book CD is not as simple or straightforward as one might think.
BTW, while there is software, including Audacity, that works reasonably well for click/pop reduction & removal as well as noise reduction (and very expensive pro software that works VERY well...), there is NO software that will reliably and accurately break up the sound file of an LP side into individual tracks. It HAS to be done "by hand" and again will take plenty of time to learn and do.
Enough for here. Searching the Web will yield all manner of detailed "how-to" information for transferring LPs 2 CDs, all of it differing for any number of reasons. Take a long vacation and Good Luck!
No matter how one does it, it will take time, a lot of it, and there will be a learning curve. It really makes little sense these days to record directly to CD-R. It's better to record 44.1/16-bit (at the very least) files to one's computer. Then for mobile playback edit and burn to CD-R or, better & easier still, copy to a USB drive either as a .WAV file or, if one must, converted to an MP3 format (save the original file!).
As for hardware, again keep in mind that time is one's biggest cost. The very bottom end would be an ION Audio TT and the free Audacity audio editor. You will most certainly get what you pay for with the ION, and waste a lot of time with it. Audacity is really quite good, and a great value, up to its limits. It will work well enough for most people, but you weren't born knowing how to use it. OTOH, the sky is the limit at the top end. (My kit cost close to $20,000.) A reasonably good system can be put together any number of ways, but at the very least it will consist of a decent TT/cart driving a good phono preamp which in turn drives a high quality sound card in one's computer. An external ADC is MUCH better, and excellent speakers are a must for any audio editing. Also, done properly, down sampling from a higher sample rate file to a 44.1/16-bit Red Book CD is not as simple or straightforward as one might think.
BTW, while there is software, including Audacity, that works reasonably well for click/pop reduction & removal as well as noise reduction (and very expensive pro software that works VERY well...), there is NO software that will reliably and accurately break up the sound file of an LP side into individual tracks. It HAS to be done "by hand" and again will take plenty of time to learn and do.
Enough for here. Searching the Web will yield all manner of detailed "how-to" information for transferring LPs 2 CDs, all of it differing for any number of reasons. Take a long vacation and Good Luck!