Cassette to MP3

[watkinzez]

I recall this topic popping up a while back, really should have saved it then. Basically in need of converting some old tapes I have onto the comp to preserve the recordings. What stuff do I need; cables, software etc to do this?

[JohnDriLLL]

cassette? whats this cassette u speak of? http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=3.5%20mm%20to%20rca&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi youl need something that looks like that. and i dont know what you would use to record it.

[Gollgagh]

If it's the old cassete tapes that I am thinking of, first off you'll probably need a player with a standard "mini-jack" (3.5mm like this:http://www.hardware-one.com/reviews/bit88/P1010212.jpg)

audio-out, a double sided mini-jack audio cable, and a computer to record it with.

As for programs, you might try Audacity (along with lame, of course).

[Smoke]

Any walkman, radio or stereo with decent audio quality should do as your playback device, and all you need besides a soundcard and something to record with is a cable connecting the output from your source to the Line-In on your soundcard.

The latter is pretty much always a 3.5mm jack, and the former can be also a 3.5mm jack or depending on the player used 2 RCA connections(Left and Right, identified as Black/White and Red) Most walkmans and radios will have the 3.5mm jack, stereos can have a 1/4" jack, but there's converters for that. Alternatively, some devices will offer an RCA line out.

Hit Play on your player and Record on your audio recording software, wait for the tape/track to finish, and then it goes into the post-processing: Cutting out parts you don't need, separating tracks, potentially messing with levels to get better quality, and of course converting the end result to MP3. Make sure to save as MP3 AFTER you are done, and keep everything in WAV until then to minimize quality loss.

Then again, the quality of tapes isn't all that great.

Some suggestions: Don't mess with EQs(Keep them flat) or bass boost or any of that shit on the playback device. This will improve the end result. Also, if you do use an old walkman, make sure the batteries are full or you have a power supply for it .

Alternatively, you can get one of these:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/7a8d/

[Horseboy]

Does it matter if I have a pretty bad onboard sound chip when I do this?

[JohnDriLLL]

try and see how it works.

[OverCoat]

I just set up my turntable to go through my computer today. Recording through a nice [old] Sony amp into Cool Edit Pro, the quality is OK. Stereo 16/24-bit 44.1 khz recording should cover all the frequencies from old tapes and vinyl just fine.