stretching the term Hi-Fi ......

[admin_exported]

.....but is there a simple, effective way to transfer recordings from Cassette tape (SAD - but I still love it in certain situations) to CD or some other format that may have some time remaining before becoming extinct?

This is not for anything of a HiFi quality nature, but mainly spoken recordings dating from the 70's, 80's and 90's, that I want to preserve before my aging Cassette Deck either dies or is scrapped.

Thanks in advance

Serenity

 

[nads]

yep easy.

tape decj with line out to any computer with a mic in and some recording software click record and press play.

then stream/burn or whatever.

 

[Trefor Patten]

I have used a Griffin iMic into my Mac (I am certain there are similar devices for PCs) to record cassettes of Navy Lark, Round The Horne, etc, etc made back in the day... I then save them as mono files at 128 AAC in iTunes as there is no point in going any higher and burn back-up cds of about 20+ hours of broadcast per disc. The end result, while not hi-fi, sounds much better than the old Alba radiogram (remember those) where I first heard these shows in my youth.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent stuff

I've downloaded a copy of:- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I've ordered a "3.5mm stereo mini jack to 2 x Phono (RCA) cable"
from a friendly looking Web Site.

BUT - On looking in the cupboard of cassettes, as someone once said:-
"I may be gone some time!"

Thanks
Serenity

 

[chebby]

Serenity:This is not for anything of a HiFi quality nature, but mainly spoken recordings dating from the 70's, 80's and 90's, that I want to preserve before my aging Cassette Deck either dies or is scrapped.

Thanks in advance

Serenity

Or buy a brand new cassette deck...

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/785

At the very least you can copy some of the 'shakier' looking cassettes onto good new ones to preserve the material until you get around to digitising them.

http://www.tdk-media.eu/index.php?id=62

I had recordings from over 25 years ago on good TDK tapes, stored carefully, that were still highly playable on my Yamaha KX-580. However, few of them reflected my taste in music anymore and the KX-580 was in a box doing nowt, so I gave the Yamaha to my brother to replace his old Akai cassette deck and ditched all the tapes.

 

[John Duncan]

Or even get a second hand Nak for a couple of hundred notes for this purpose, and get rid afterwards...

 

[Anonymous]

Serenity:..., that I want to preserve before my aging Cassette Deck either dies or is scrapped.

Chances are that your tapes turn into dust or fall apart before the Deck dies. Keep some tweezers ready, and some headcleaning tape probably also..

 

[chebby]

Intrigued by all this yesterday I found my 2metre 3.5mm -> 2 RCA phono lead from my laptop bag and plugged it into 'line in' on the laptop and 'tape out' on the back of the amp.

I tried Audacity (free download) and did not like it. Way too much faffing around and aimed at the home musician/mixing & editing guys more than someone just wanting to digitise analogue media in good quality.

This morning I downloaded the trial (5 albums trial) version of VinylStudio by AlpineSoft (£18 for paid up version) and it is superb.

Very easy to use and geared up for excatly what the OP and I want to do (digitise LPs or cassettes).

Once I had decided upon a few things like MP3/WAV quality and sampling the rest was just logical step by step stuff, guided all the way with simple explanatory windows and 'bubbles'.

I have just finished 'recording' my first test track from LP and imported it as a file to iTunes and played it back.

Superb!

I am going to pay for the software and have fun cherry picking fave tracks from various albums to put in iTunes.

This for me is not to play whole albums (I have the turntable for that) but to add tracks to various playlists (Jukeboxes as I have them named) for casual/background listening.

[Edit.. Ok I now know why the quality was a bit good. Track info on iTunes tells me the track is 1411kbps (16bit/44.1khz) WAV and the track size is 44.6 MB for a 4 minute track!) Think I need to tweak that down a bit. 320kbps should do.]

 

[John Duncan]

Or, if there's no lossless option, just record to WAV and right click/make apple lossless (or 320k AAC or whatever) version?

 

[chebby]

Yes I did the right click AAC and 256kbps VBR which sounds good enough for what I need. (I have the LPs and turntable for 'critical' listening.)

I also amended the track name artist etc in info and got the (correct) artwork then deleted the original WAV.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Cebby (and all).

I've a bigger mountain of cassettes to wade through than I thought. Maybe a repacement Deck is the simplest (but not cheapest) option. Hhhmmm!

Meanwhile, I'll ditch Audacity and check out the alternatives whilst I await the cable to drop on the mat.

It makes a break from creating two cassette sub-mountains "Ditch" and "Transfer".

Serenity