Cassette Tapes to MP3

[LeftCoastMark]

I've got some incredible field recordings on cassette tape of hundreds of fiddle tunes, and they're pretty inaccessible the way they are. If I could get them into my computer, I'd burn em onto a CD and whala!

Any ideas?

[Martin Jonas]

I've got some incredible field recordings on cassette tape of hundreds of fiddle tunes, and they're pretty inaccessible the way they are. If I could get them into my computer, I'd burn em onto a CD and whala!

Any ideas?

Relatively straightforward. #You need a soundcard with a stereo "line in" jack connected to the line level output of your tape deck. #There is a quite a bit of free software out there that will do the recording for you (Audacity is one of them), but for the purpose that you're looking for (and assuming you're using Windows, but there are alternatives for Macs and Linux as well), the easiest is probably CD Wave. #Before recording, you have to make sure that the recording device is set to "line in" (i.e. the appropriate box is ticked in the recording device part of the Windows Volume Control panel) and you have to set the volume level correctly. #To do that, go to the loudest part of your tape, record a test piece and adjust the recording volume level for "line in" (again in the Windows Volume Control panel) so that the highest level in the recording is about 80% of full range. #I recommend you then record the entire tape as one big file and then chop it up into tracks afterwards. #That is very easy in CD Wave, slightly more cumbersome in Audacity. #You can then export the tracks as WAV files (for burning onto CD) or as MP3.

Martin

[johnwalser]

I use an Edirol Audio Capture USB device tht works nicely. I use Cool Edit Pro or Sound Forge.
John

[Walter Newton]

I use Cool Edit Pro to go from tape to .wav. What's really nice is you can use the Noise Reduction feature to take a sample of the hiss from the beginning of the tape etc., and then digitally subtract that from the file.

[LeftCoastMark]

Thanks for the great advice, ya'll.

Mark