transferring old cassettes on to computer

Froglet

I have a large collection of cassette tapes sitting in a cupboard that I can't bear to throw away,and would love to get them on to my computer or laptop.Yes I could buy them on I tunes but it would cost me an arm and a leg.


I have looked into what is available and I am not quite understanding how it works so can anyone suggest the best and easiest way of going about it please ?


I don't have an ipod, I would just like to play them either on my computer or burn them to discs.

enfield_freddy

mic or line in socket on computer , then you need to get some software , perhaps some free stuff that they give with USB turntables?


I used to do this , but it was 20 yrs ago and win 95 ,


first google search for cassete to MP3 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cassette-Player-Tape-Converter-UCP218/dp/B007UWOP3E


http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/audio/how-convert-audio-tapes-cd-or-mp3-3417318/


distructions here http://www.wikihow.com/Transfer-Cassette-Tape-to-Computer

cookie365

The wikihow article freddy linked to is more or less how I did my old tapes.

One of these from the headphone socket on the tape player to the line in on the computer
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RED-3-5mm-Stereo-Jack-To-Jack-Audio-Headphone-Aux-Cable-Sound-Lead-Wire-Cord-/131425808586?hash=item1e9996b0ca:g:CTAAAOSwPhdU2cun

And then Audacity to capture. If the tapes aren't too good quality have a look here for noise removal
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Noise_Reduction

Though I didn't on mine; tapes and recordings were good quality and any slight hiss just added warmth without being annoying.

I exported to wav from Audacity and used Mediacoder to bulk convert to m4a but you could export directly from Audacity if you want.

I_have_spoken

It's not worth your time and effort. Really. Just get a £10/month subscription to Spotify.

AndyPix

Hi .. I have just done this very thing ..
The hardest part for me was actually finding a tape player to play the tapes !

So I borrowed one off a colleague, connected the headphone "out" socket on the tape player to the mic "in" socket on my PC - using a double ended "headphone lead" ..

Then I just used the built in sound recorder software on windows 7 to record the audio to a file
There's no editing or anything like that - but it did the job for me

Hope this helps
Andy

googler

Froglet wrote: »

I have a large collection of cassette tapes sitting in a cupboard that I can't bear to throw away,and would love to get them on to my computer or laptop.Yes I could buy them on I tunes but it would cost me an arm and a leg.


I have looked into what is available and I am not quite understanding how it works so can anyone suggest the best and easiest way of going about it please ?


I don't have an ipod, I would just like to play them either on my computer or burn them to discs.

If you don't have a decent cassette deck, get one off eBay or Gumtree. Don't skimp on this part, as you don't want to start, then realise you don't have a good deck.

If you just want them on CD, consider getting a CD recorder such as the Pioneer PDR-609, which often appears on eBay - connect output from cassette deck to input on CD recorder. You can, once you've made a CD, import it to your PC with any ripping software - EAC is the best.

Connect cassette deck to Line In on computer and use recording software such as Audacity to commit it to files.

Save it in FLAC or WAV format, not mp3. Record with at least CD-quality sampling rate and bit-depth - 16-bit, 44.1kHz

googler

I_have_spoken wrote: »

It's not worth your time and effort. Really. Just get a £10/month subscription to Spotify.

That presumes that what is on the OP's cassettes is official product that appears on Spotify. It may not be. Could be radio broadcasts or other stuff that's not commercially available.

FedUpWithHikes

There are also cassette converters; Aldi had one quite recently which comes with a copy of audacity, and have previously had a player which also takes USB storage and SD cards - with play and record options (from tape or aux input).
Amazon also has audio to mp3 converters.

droopsnoot

I did the same as googler suggested - got a CD recorder (a Philips CDR600 that Richer Sounds had a deal on at the time) and connected it into the hi-fi - mine actually had two separate cassette decks, so I just replaced one of them with the CDR. I just find it much easier to do this kind of work away from the computer - sitting at a PC tempts me to do something else while I'm recording, which will lead to missing a track change or something.


The only issue with the CDR600 (and I don't know if it applies to other models) is that it will only records onto Audio CDR discs, which (as I found out after I bought it) are not the same as cheapo CDR discs. But I got a pack of 10 Audio CDRW discs, just use one to record to, then rip to the PC and wipe the CDRW ready for the next time.


If the OP is anything like me, they will run out of patience long before they're even part-way through the large collection of tapes.

Browntoa

i used Magix audio cleaning software , got it cheap off ebay

TonyMMM

I've used an old Walkman in the past for this - no problem at all ( other than the time it takes).

Plenty of free software that can let you edit tracks if you want (like Audacity). The results are surprisingly good.