Members ask me this question from time to time and I don’t have a good answer since I’ve never done it. Has anybody out there done this before? Please comment on this blog.
Here’s a hot link to a Google search on the subject:
Thanks for your interest in helping fellow members.
August 29, 2007 at 5:22 pm |
I am certainly no expert, but I have done it one time. It was about 2 years ago, and methods and technology have changed, I’m sure. But at that time I went to Radio Shack……told them what I wanted to do. They sold me to connection wires to hook my Cassette player to the computer. It connected to the out jack on the player, to the in jack on the computer. I used the Windows recorder (is it still part of the Windows features?) and played it, recording as it played. I’m sure there are better methods now. I see no reason why they shouldn’t have the same connection cables for cassette player as they do for a turntable that records your LPs on your computer.
I would suggest going into Radio Shack (or someplace similar) and talk to them.
Good Luck!!
Margaret
August 29, 2007 at 5:56 pm |
The kind of cable you get depends on the type of tape machine you have. When I transferred audio tapes, I played them on a home component deck, which sends audio out via RCA jacks. This is probably the best option because the output will be automatically set to “line levels”. You would want a patch cord that goes from RCA jacks (the tape deck) to a 1/8″ stereo mini inline plug (typical for sound cards – check yours before you buy the patch cord). You would run the cord from the tape deck’s Audio Out (Play) RCA jacks to your sound card’s “Line In”, 1/8″ stereo input.
There’s all sorts of software you can use to record with. If you want to just dump to a CD, the Windows recorder is probably fine. If you want to adjust the audio levels, filter the tape hiss, or divide the tape into tracks, look for a program like Adobe Audition or the free Audacity program.
Retaining fidelity is probably not a huge concern because any noise added by audio compression would probably be less than the tape hiss the recording already has, but if it’s a concern to you, look for a recording program that will save audio in a lossless format. I recommend a program that will save the audio in PCM (WAV) format — this is the format most CD software will want anyway. You will also want a program that will sample the audio at a 44.1 KHz rate, the rate that CD audio expects. For a 74 minute CD, you will need about 1.5 GB of disk space free for the recording and burning process.
Finally you’ll need some kind of CD-burning software that will create audio CDs (most will). If you have saved your recordings in PCM/WAV format at 44.1 KHz, then you can simply import the files into the CD software; you will get one CD track per file.
August 29, 2007 at 11:30 pm |
by Carl Farley for Steve Kennedy . . .
I don’t do this often, but I did do it for my presentation on audio at the Camcorder & Video SIG. You may recall the voice actor’s demo performance, doing several dozen voices in a few minutes. That was from a commercial product on audio cassette, but more convenient for me as a digital audio file on my laptop.
I used a PCMCIA audio card in my laptop (Soundblaster Audigy 2 Notebook), plus Sony SoundForge 9 software, all of which is probably more money than most people will want to spend. Here is a similar setup that is free, using Audacity:
http://www.richardcravy.com/?p=30
After capturing the audio, burning the CD is a matter of using whatever is available. The tutorial says Audacity can save as WAV or MP3, and since the CD player I use can handle MP3, I just burn a CD with the MP3 files. For my little Flash drive type MP3 player, its just a matter of copying the MP3 file to the player via USB.
If a standard Audio CD (also called “Red Book” – like you’d buy at Best Buy, etc.) is needed to play on ANY CD player (e.g. my wife’s car CD player cannot play MP3), a further step is needed to convert. In this case, saving as WAV is probably better, avoiding the MP3 compression. Once again, I would use software I bought, but I think Windows Media Player can burn an audio CD.
August 31, 2007 at 8:54 pm |
by Carl Farley for Connie Ogden . . .
Regarding cassette tapes to CD’s, I believe we got the equipment from Radio Shack some years ago. My deceased husband was working on the project (not completed) and it has been disconnected by one of our cleaning people. I have no experience with the process, but he was converting 78’s, cassettes and reel to reel to CD. Hope this information helps, and I am sure someone out there is more experienced.
September 2, 2007 at 3:35 pm |
Just getting around to making some comments about digitizing old music media to CDs. About a year ago I converted over 100 LPs (33 1/3) & 45 records and they play quite well on CDs. For tape conversion the process would be the same, just the mechanism is different. I connected a small inexpensive pre-amp between the turntable and computer, the output going to the sound card Line IN. Tried the Roxio 8 software to do the conversion but didn’t like it. Wound up using MS Analog Converter included with their Plus! software. It did what I wanted, and took out pops, hisses, scratches, but because I wanted to name every band with song title the process was slow. Since then I have a database with the song titles, etc and every old record on its own labeled CD. The music is great! Yeah, I’m thinking about a demo.
September 10, 2007 at 9:26 pm |
I have converted some of my old cassette tapes and Vinyl records into CDs. You can also speak into a microhone (live music performances) and make CDs. To convert the Vinyl records into CDs, you will need a pre-amplifier. If you are interested in knowing how I did that, you are welcome to visit me and I will show it to you. The cost of the pre-amplifier was about $75.00. I am quite pleased with the results I have got. My telephone number is 281-488-1210.