Does anyone know a good way to convert a cassette to an mp3? I found my high school band's old tapes recently (mixed on a four-track ~17 years ago), and I want to put them in a digital format. I have found a couple of internet articles on the topic, but I am confused about the connections. The only audio connections that I have on my computer are the microphone input, the headphone output (not going to work, of course), and something called "5PD/F" ... or perhaps "SPD/F" (???) Any ideas? Tricks? TIA
The S/PDIF port is a Sony/Philips Digital InterFace port. It's used for digital to digital transfers. Since you are moving your cassette (analog) to MP3, this won't work for you unless you've got a very high end cassette deck. All you really need is to connect your cassette players headphone port to your computers microphone port, or a "line in" port if it has one. The latter is preferred. You will need the right cable for this and it is easily found at radio shack or similar outlets. It is a 3.5" male-male stereo audio cable....very cheap usually. You'll also need some recording software capable of output to MP3 format. You didn't mention Mac or Windows but if Windows, but I recommend the open-source Audacity if you need some software. Try doing a short recording first, then when you are happy with the results, you can record the whole thing. I did this a few years back with all my old cassette tapes...once you get the settings right, it works great.
^Awesome! Thanks! I will definitely try it out. So the microphone jack should work out? That's good to know. (I'm on a PC, btw) Again...I appreciate it!
Yes your mic jack will work, but be a little careful with your volume at first. Plugging an audio out port into the mic port can blow attached speakers if the volume is jacked way up. You'll want to fool around with very small volume levels at first until you are happy with the output.
^ Wouldn't he be using the line-out jacks on his cassette player, and be connecting them to the line-in plug on his PC? L&R RCA jacks on the cassette end of the cable; 1/8" stereo plug into the PC line-in jack? That's what I've always done. And, yes, Audacity is an awesome program, and it's free!
http://www.bringyou.to/CassetteTapeToMP3.htm The blue jack is the audio input. The cord they're showing is only if you are stuck with a real low-end cassette unit (and needing to use audio/headphone output only). Decent cassette recorders, intended for use in home stereo component systems, would have RCA line-out left and right output jacks. Here is the cable I'm talking about: FYI, 1/8" mini stereo plugs are the same thing as 3.5 mm plugs.
Bob, yes, if he's got L/R output on a cassette deck, then that would be preferred output. I wasn't sure about his cassette player, just what he offered for the laptop inputs.
Consider saving the recorded files as WAV before converting to MP3. Or save as "raw" audacity files. Your cassette tapes have major limitations in terms of noise, frequency response, and consistency of timing (wow and flutter). *BUT*, they aren't compressed by a lossy computer based algorithm (MP3) which does odd things to the sound. Hard disk space is cheap. Music is priceless. Sorta. :) Dr. P
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NewRomancer Deactivated User
under THEIR avatar 738 Posts 7/08
Posted - Nov 22 2009 : 11:09PM
Spend a few bucks and get an external USB sound card that has a Line In port for your computer... Don't plug in to the mic input... It'll sound like crap....
Wow. Thanks everyone--I truly appreciate it. I think that I will try the microphone input, but if I can't get decent sound, I will buy a line-in sound-card. I might just do this, anyway, b/c I would like to start recording with the old four-track again...at least until I get into it enough to buy a better 8-track recorder that's modern. I have a good stereo system with a tape deck, so I believe that the cable that I will need is the one that BigBob was suggesting. I will also heed the advice about the WAV, etc. format. Audacity sounds like the way to go in terms of software... Thanks to everyone...seriously...I appreciate it.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Kierkegaard 2684 Posts 8/09
Posted - Nov 24 2009 : 9:42AM
fu_q, Not sure if you are familiar with FLAC, but it's a loseless audio codec. I know everyone has their favorite formats these days, but I think FLAC is great (I store all my master audio files in FLAC nowadadys then convert them if I need it), offers no sacrifice in audio quality, but saves up-to/around 50% of space (file size) in many cases. I never did the whole cassette ---> digital, but if I were doing it, I would encode the master copies into FLAC while I'm encoding it to digital (as DrP0rn0 said master samples are precious, especially in rare recordings). There's a lot of software (growing) that supports FLAC, so I'm not sure how it affects your situation... Just food for thought. Good luck. Edited by - BYOB_Kenobi on 11/24/2009 9:43:10 AM
^Cool. Thanks! I will look into that format, as well. With all of this info, I am going to have to experiment with a lot of this stuff--should be fun. I really appreciate all of the info from everyone...
If its not to late look into an "Audio Sonic Exciter". I have a stand alone model, but there is software you can get too. It really helps to clean up cassettes. you can do a remix tonaly, adding some life into the old tapes. I know Roxio has/had a program that does all this and more.
^Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to experiment yet--we have been putting stuff into storage, and my work has been a pain... I will definitely be trying this stuff out over the next month or two--that seems to be my time-frame for everything these days--and let you guys know. Thanks so much for all of the advice everyone--I will put it to good use and report back. I'm just slow on getting stuff done these days.
Wicked Pictures,Vouyer Media, Axel Braun Productions, Marc Dorcel, JoyBear Pictures, abbywinters.com 1390 Posts 7/05
Posted - Apr 22 2011 : 1:48PM
^ He just wanted to convert his old high school band's cassette tapes into a more permanent format. I've done the same thing to archive some of my old Berklee sound experiments. Quality isn't optimal but at least you have something after the cassettes deteriorate completely. Roads To Moscow / Twitter: @roadstomoscow
Nothing says I love you so much as a tongue in the ass. 2884 Posts 1/03
Posted - Apr 24 2011 : 4:56PM
I had live shows recorded off the radio that I wanted to digitize, and using the iMic and Roxio's Spin Doctor on a Mac, I was able to get them on my computer and separate tracks for outputting to CD. Quality was pretty good considering the source material.
