Turn Your Old Cassette Tapes To Mp3s Or Cds

Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 12:05 am

If you have cassettes with music, or voice recordings you'd like to keep on a CD, this article will show you how you can transfer tapes to your computer, from there, you can keep them as mp3s, or burn them to data or music CDs.

http://www.iceteks.com/articles/parser.php...article=tape2pc

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 12:26 am

(originally posted with the old php feedback form)

justme
February 19, 2003, 12:56:09 pm
very interesting article! i have many cassettes of my dad (who's almost 80!) playing guitar and fiddle. I would like to burn them to disc because the quality is starting to deteriorate. I have no plug-in on the sound card but have a mic-in on my speakers. I've had some success using the mic for chat. Can I use this connection for recording from tape to disc? If so how? All responses will be appreciated and acknowledged. thanx ...ken

Red Squirrel
February 19, 2003, 3:27:15 pm
Yes, using the mic jack should work as well.
Good luck. I'm glad this article helped.

jay161
February 23, 2003, 12:41:45 am
Thanks i have alot of reel to reel tapes so i need to get the cables a two to one will work right two plugs to the reel to reel and one stereo to the in on the computer. Ok thanks again

Red Squirrel
February 23, 2003, 12:52:21 pm
I'm not too sure what you mean by reel to reel tapes, but from my impression it's just a different type of media so it should work the same way.

By the way, was that blank post just an accident at your end or did it do it by itself? I just want to make sure this script is working ok.

rovingcowboy
February 28, 2003, 8:24:19 am
i have been doing this for quite some time there red. and you need to watch the power of the volume on the sound card line in. but it is best to use a bigger tape player then the one in the photos. they will have a better chip and sound encoders in for them. yes what did you think? they were? they are just an input for the tape to a computer chip have been for about 30 yrs which is way before your time i think

but the sound then can be adujusted by the volume controls on the boom box. example? if your boom box has some knobs for adding echo or other neat effects to the sound then you can also add them in to the song on the computer. the audio patch cord will need to be a stereo one or your not going to like the song when it gets to the computer.

there is a wav editor with the software from sound blaster cards. i use the media jukebox from j. river but it is not free anymore. just the player is all the other stuff is purchess able only. so find some software that is free and will allow line in recording. IN STEREO.

jay red is only a teeny boper he dont know reel to reels were made for use by us none recording people until they quit making them in the late 1980's only for use in the studios now.

but yep you can use a Y adapter and plug in the left and right channels to the one stereo patch cord. the patch cord will just make it a mono song. unless you wire up a y adpter your self and make it a stereo one. then you need to plug it in to a stereo patch cord with one female end and one male end. the male end on all the patch cords needs to me the 1/8th size.

just me you can use the mic plug like red said but mic plugs are mainly mono tone and will not make a good stereo song for that reason.

how old is the sound card you have? most i have seen have the line in plug on them. the back of them mostly have the place for the joystick then one plug for the speakers then one for the mic and then one for the line in.

also red did not say what the recording format should be in order for it to go on to the cd rom's you need to have it in the wav format of PCM 44,000 hzs 16 bit stereo. that is the normal and all cdrom players in the home or car will play it any other format and you need a computer to play it. of course if you have a mp3 playing cdrom player, it will be easier to do. you can just copy the mp3 file of the song on to the cdrom disk and doing it that way you can get up to 10 hours of music on one cdrom. but in the wav format you only get up to 1 hour or 1 hour and 5 minutes. for a tip on making the sound of your old songs or your dads songs sound like they are normal after you put them in the computer go to my music site and read the tip. you can get there from my table of contents page which red has a link to here in the links area.

Red Squirrel
February 28, 2003, 3:17:02 pm
Yeah thanks for pointing that out, stuff I forgot to mention. Stereo and mono - completly forgot to mention that. Make sure the patch cable is stereo and that both devices are, otherwise you get mono (which is not THAT bad, but for effects and stuff, stereo is better). It's also good to record at 16-bit 44 Khz like you said, but 48Kz usually works too, that's usually when I do, but not sure for burning, most of what I send to the PC is stuff that stays there (ex: messages and stuff). Sometimes I want Super quality and crank it at 192Khz, but 44Khz is the norm, especially if burning a disc.

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lilbill08 · Post by **lilbill08** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 10:09 pm

thats cool, i should try that

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 8:57 am

That looks like something I should try...

I have an Ace of Base tape that I really like, but I hate handling tapes. I hate trying to find a certain song. Although my stereo has a feature that listens for three-second silence on the tape. Most of the time it finds the beginning of the song for me. I think that's cool.

Ace of Base is cool, but even cooler in FLAC!

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 2:46 pm

bella wrote: thats all very interesting, but do you know of a similar method to convert all my vhs video tapes onto cd-rom...or as m.peg files or whatever the jargon is?

yes there is a way to do it.

you need a vcr a video card with tv in and tv out. i have the " ATI all in wonder 8500 " but there are newer ones out by them now.

and then you just hook up the vcr to the pc by way of that card and you can copy the tapes and have them as mpeg's or wmv's if you want. then you can edit them in the many free or buy edit programs.

or you can go to the QVC Cable tv channels web site and order the dvd recorder they have for about 500 us dollars. either way it is not cheap the video card from ati is about 200 us dollars.

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 2:49 pm

takahita_tsukino wrote: That looks like something I should try...

I have an Ace of Base tape that I really like, but I hate handling tapes. I hate trying to find a certain song. Although my stereo has a feature that listens for three-second silence on the tape. Most of the time it finds the beginning of the song for me. I think that's cool.

Ace of Base is cool, but even cooler in FLAC!

your mean your not doing this already??

you can take that into a wav editor on the computer and add in more bass make it a really good loud boom

yes base is the right spelling for the word if you are talking about baseball.

if you are talking about music you spell it the same way as the fish call bass.

you just say the letter a different in them.

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 3:07 pm

rovingcowboy wrote:
yes base is the right spelling for the word if you are talking about baseball.

if you are talking about music you spell it the same way as the fish call bass.

you just say the letter a different in them.

Yes, I know.

That's how you spell it though.

I'll have to buy a few things before I can turn my tape into FLAC files.

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Wren · Post by **Wren** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 4:06 pm

http://www.mulberrydays.com/music/aceofbas.../aceofbase.html

Take a look here, cowboy!

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 10:31 am

dont buy too much you will go broke.

and thanks for that site i went by but it was underconstruction.

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:07 pm

1) batteries ARE a power source.

2) Radioshack usually sells them usually for like only 10 bucks or something.

3) not sure of any, since I use sound forge. I know some creative sound cards come with a program to record.

4) I use DBpoweramp, not sure if it still is available or not but you can do a search.

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Streety · Post by **Streety** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:41 pm

On points 3 and 4 you might like to try audacity. It's open source software that allows you to record and edit sounds / music.

It's uses the LAME mp3 encoder.

I've only played about with it a little bit and I have nothing to compare it to but it looked quite good.

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:34 pm

Forgot about that one. Used it before, and it's pretty good, I mean sound forge beats it but for open source and being free it's great.

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:49 pm

Hmmm sounds like somekind of weird driver issue. Try using a different program if not try reinstalling your sound drivers, or maybe even directX (DirectPlay is part of DirectX)

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richardj · Post by **richardj** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:32 am

SINCE WHEN CAN UNREGISTERED GUESTS POST?!??!???
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richardj · Post by **richardj** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:04 pm

Guest wrote: always could on feedback for articles richardj.

roving cowboy / keith hall.

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 4:48 pm

right click on the speaker icon in the tray
and open the mixer board.

on the mixer board you will see in the upper left corner the words options?

you want to click on that then select the round radio button for the recording
mixer.

and click okay.

then make sure you have the line in mixer set to be heard and not muted.

adjust its volume up to about 3/4's the way and click okay.

now make sure you can hear your tape when you play it in the boombox. just press the play button on the boombox with the patch cord connected.
the sound should be sent to the computer speakers
if so then you can record the tape to the computer.
you need a wav editor but lets say you have one as your trying this.

just adjust the volume on the boombox and
on the main computer volume speaker icon.

the volume on the boombox will effect the recording but the volume from the
speaker icon in the tray should not.
unless when you were in the mixer panel for recording
you made the mixer
called "what you hear"
the one to record from instead of the line in mixer.
if you did that then the speaker icon volume will mess up the
recording volume too.

I need to correct something i said in the orginal post reply i made
that red has in the orginal post, since i can nolonger edit that one i
have to correct it here.

the mediajukebox program is not the one i am using any longer.
i got rid of that just about the time i posted my orginal reply.
i am now using the wav editor in sound blasters software,
they call it Wav Studio.
and i am using Audiomatrix which is an old 16 bit one.
it cost me 5 bucks in the store's discount shelf. but it still works.

and i am using the Media monkey program to organize my songs and convert them when needing too.
media monkey is both free and pro. i use the free version.

http://www.mediamonkey.com

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:49 pm

i must update my answer to above,
now i am not changing any thing in it.

i am however adding to it.

i just got an ion turntable that goes to the usb port

if you have way of getting one, get it and forget
going through the vinyl to tape to pc, path way that this subject is
talking about.

how ever if you can't get one of the new turntables that connect
to the pc usb ports, then you must stay with the vinyl to tape to pc way
that is the main subject of this article.

how ever you need to know that you will be in need of some wav editing if you
do the tape path.

but when you use the usb turntables there is no need to add any chorus or echo
in the song after you get it in the computer since the turntable is putting all the
sound from the record directly in to the computer no degrading of the song is done.

so i am now using the usb turn table for adding all my vinyl to the computer.

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onykage · Post by **onykage** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:16 am

why would you ever have added a step to a 2 step process? Almost any kit turntable has an aux out. Just go from the aux out to the line in on any 8bit+ sound device and record it directly.

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:12 pm

well my other turntable needed a preamp.

this usb one did not.

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