Cassette to PC

[BoneDog]

I've got some old tapes of recorded stuff that I want to keep and need to get them on my pc somehow.

I've heard that you might be able to plug something into a walkman headphone socket and then the other end of the cable into your pc. It sounds a bit too easy to me but is this possible? And if so, which software and what cable would I use to do this?

If ithe walkman way is not possible (or would result in a really bad sound), does anyone know of another way of doing it?

Edit : Just thought, this probably wants moving into general pc enquiries cos it might only need 1 or 2 replies!

[stix]

I've got some old tapes of recorded stuff that I want to keep and need to get them on my pc somehow.

I've heard that you might be able to plug something into a walkman headphone socket and then the other end of the cable into your pc. It sounds a bit too easy to me but is this possible? And if so, which software and what cable would I use to do this?

If ithe walkman way is not possible (or would result in a really bad sound), does anyone know of another way of doing it?

Edit : Just thought, this probably wants moving into general pc enquiries cos it might only need 1 or 2 replies!

You can get a Tape to MP3 converter, its made by iON. I bought one off ebay a few months back for £20. I think they sell them in PCWorld aswell though for £25-30. It plugs in via usb, its basically a walkman that just plays the tape and converts its as it does. I will try and get a link up for you mate.

http://wap.ebay.co.uk/Pages/ViewItem.aspx?aid=330482384675&sv=Ion%20tape%20to%20mp3%20converter&emvcc=0

[hairy]

Which OS are you using?

Do you have a soundcard with a mic input?

[Lillehamring]

you shouldn't need to buy anything, except maybe a male-male jack lead.

you should proobably download audacity or something to record it with, some basic recording software.

the trouble with converting audio cassettes to digital is that they will be rather quiet and possibly have lots of hiss and noise, so some basic restoration software (compression, de-esser) will make the difference, but should come as standard.

avoid anything that goes straight to mp3 tho, as you will be selling your original recordings short. if you record on your PC you should convert to wavs/aifs first and then compress to mp3 only if you need to reduce the file size.

i assume these are your own recordings, don't sell them short. i did about 20 tapes straight into my PC and now i have an audio interface i realise i can do them to a much better standard, so i have to start all over again.

[hairy]

you shouldn't need to buy anything, except maybe a male-male jack lead.

True that

you should proobably download audacity or something to record it with, some basic recording software.

I use Sony Sound Forge. Its very easy to use.

the trouble with converting audio cassettes to digital is that they will be rather quiet and possibly have lots of hiss and noise, so some basic restoration software (compression, de-esser) will make the difference, but should come as standard.

If your using windows 7 go into the control panel and open 'sound'. Recording, select mic, properties and then you can adjust the level of the input to get the record level just below 0.

avoid anything that goes straight to mp3 tho, as you will be selling your original recordings short. if you record on your PC you should convert to wavs/aifs first and then compress to mp3 only if you need to reduce the file size.

i assume these are your own recordings, don't sell them short. i did about 20 tapes straight into my PC and now i have an audio interface i realise i can do them to a much better standard, so i have to start all over again.

Converting them to FLAC using dbpoweramp or the like means you will not lose any quality just file size

[Lillehamring]

I use Sony Sound Forge. Its very easy to use.

i've never used this, i'm a die hard nuendo user - i guess you stick with kit you get familiar with...

If your using windows 7 go into the control panel and open 'sound'. Recording, select mic, properties and then you can adjust the level of the input to get the record level just below 0.

naturally, when i did my first run of tapes, i went straight from my 4-track to the mic input, i found that the recordings were so inconsistent that to avoid peaking i had to record pretty low, so it was necessary to use some compression. now i'm using a moto interface and it has a nice built in compression which makes life a lot easier.

Converting them to FLAC using dbpoweramp or the like means you will not lose any quality just file size

true, i've never really bothered with FLAC as it's a bit of a pain packing and repacking it, maybe it's easier these days, i guess it depends what the final destination/use of the tracks is.

[BoneDog]

You can get a Tape to MP3 converter, its made by iON. I bought one off ebay a few months back for £20. I think they sell them in PCWorld aswell though for £25-30. It plugs in via usb, its basically a walkman that just plays the tape and converts its as it does. I will try and get a link up for you mate.

http://wap.ebay.co.uk/Pages/ViewItem.aspx?aid=330482384675&sv=Ion%20tape%20to%20mp3%20converter&emvcc=0

Cheers pal, they sound good, I had a search on Maplins for something similar but couldn't find anything. I will get one of those if the walkman way doesn't do the job.

Which OS are you using?

Do you have a soundcard with a mic input?

I'm on XP service pack 3.

Yeah I put a soundcard in and it has 3 holes (pink, blue and green I think). The only thing I have that plays tapes is a walkman but it's one of the better ones so has quite a good sound.

you shouldn't need to buy anything, except maybe a male-male jack lead.

you should proobably download audacity or something to record it with, some basic recording software.

the trouble with converting audio cassettes to digital is that they will be rather quiet and possibly have lots of hiss and noise, so some basic restoration software (compression, de-esser) will make the difference, but should come as standard.

avoid anything that goes straight to mp3 tho, as you will be selling your original recordings short. if you record on your PC you should convert to wavs/aifs first and then compress to mp3 only if you need to reduce the file size.

i assume these are your own recordings, don't sell them short. i did about 20 tapes straight into my PC and now i have an audio interface i realise i can do them to a much better standard, so i have to start all over again.

I was in Westfields tonight but that place is rubbish for elecrtical stuff and the shops outside were all closed so I couldn't find a male to male lead unfortunately. I might get chance to get one tomorrow from somewhere.

I've already got audacity on my pc cos I make story cds for the Mrs with my mic, she loves a good audio book! I didn't know I could use it for putting cassettes on my pc though.

Could I also use it for adding sound effects to my mic audio for comedy effect? I suppose I'll have to have a play around on it to try and find out what it can do.

I am worried about the hissing and noise problem especially as they are old tapes from 1988-1995 ish and have been around the block a bit so I'll look into the compression and de-esser stuff (not got a clue what it is yet) and keep trying until I figure out how to get the best sound. Only about 6 of them are my own recordings but they are special to me being as they are the only few left of hundreds I had! The rest are old recordings from pirate radio stations, old parties I went to and a bit of my cousin doing his radio style sketch show!

Edit : So what do I have to do once I get a male to male jack lead?

[Lillehamring]

I've already got audacity on my pc cos I make story cds for the Mrs with my mic, she loves a good audio book! I didn't know I could use it for putting cassettes on my pc though.

Could I also use it for adding sound effects to my mic audio for comedy effect? I suppose I'll have to have a play around on it to try and find out what it can do.

I am worried about the hissing and noise problem especially as they are old tapes from 1988-1995 ish and have been around the block a bit so I'll look into the compression and de-esser stuff (not got a clue what it is yet) and keep trying until I figure out how to get the best sound. Only about 6 of them are my own recordings but they are special to me being as they are the only few left of hundreds I had! The rest are old recordings from pirate radio stations, old parties I went to and a bit of my cousin doing his radio style sketch show!

Edit : So what do I have to do once I get a male to male jack lead?

pretty much exactly what you do when you record your stories, except instead of plugging in a mic, you plug in the cable, and then plug in the other end to the headphone socket of your walkman.

unless you use a built in mic, if so that won't make any sense - male/male cables have jacks (like on your headphones) at each end, one goes in the walkman, one goes in the relevant coloured hole.

you might have to select a recording source on your sound card, (explained by another poster earlier, i believe) and maybe also in audacity, however it may already be defaulted, you'll know if it is, as you will see an input level when you play back your tape.

an audacity user can probably help you more locating the appropriate restoration tools - it's worth doing, as you'll probably only ever do this one time, so you might as well take some time and do a decent job.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Here's a "one-box solution" for you for a cheap price depending on how good you want your tapes to sound on your PC. If you just want to listen to them casually, should be good enough - the USB Turntable they did a couple of months ago was good enough for my needs.

Tape to PC Tape Player at Aldi this Thursday.

[BoneDog]

Yesterday I finally bought myself a 3.5mm male to male jack. It took a good while to figure out how to record to my pc but after all that I've messed around with Audacity settings and am still not getting a decent enough sound on the final result.

One problem is a high pitched whistle sound similar to that ringing you get in your ear after a loud night out. It's there all through the recording but you can only properly hear it on quieter moments. I can remove that sound using 'noise removal' in the effects dropdown on Audacity so it's not a huge problem, but I'm wondering if there's a way to stop that noise appearing in the first place. The playback sound is good if I just listen to the tape through the pc, but when I have recorded I notice that the whistle noise has appeared.

After using the noise removal tool I then used the 'normalize' effect which "corrects DC offset and amplifys such that the maximum amplitude is a fixed amount, -3db". I don't know what that means but it was recommended so I did it.

When that is done, the sound level on the recording keeps slightly rising and lowering. I need to know how to fix that probelm.

Also, now and then the bass becomes slightly distorted on the final recording. Should I turn off BassBoost on the equipment I'm playing the cassette on before I record?

If all fails I will buy one of the usb devices that stix and Trav posted, but would like to do it this way if possible.

Edit : oh yes, I installed the LAME_dll so I could export to mp3, but I've read Valarengas reply about not doing that and exporting as .wav first. Is that where I'm going wrong?

[BoneDog]

Here's my Audacity settings. I don't know what they mean, so is there anything that needs changing?

I've got the lead going from the headphone socket on the cassette player to the line in socket on the soundcard.

Channels - 2 stereo

QUALITY

Default sample rate - 44100hz

Default sample format - 32-bit float

Real time sample rate converter - Fast sync Interpolation

High quality sample rate converter - High quality sync interpolation

Real time dither - None

High quality dither - Triangle

FILE FORMATS

Uncompressed export format - WAV (Microsoft 32 bit float)

MP3 export setup. Bit rate - 128

SPECTOGRAMS

FFT Size - 256 . . . . (64 most wideband, 4096 most narrowband)

Edit : Should I use the Compressor tool that Valarenga mentions? Here's what the help section on Audacity says :

"COMPRESSOR - compresses the dynamic range of the selection so that the loud parts are softer while keeping the volume of the soft parts the same. You can optionally apply gain, resulting in the entire piece having higher perceived volume."

Would that get rid of the lower / higher sound levels plus remove the distorted bass and should I slightly lower the gain to help?

I'll do the Compressor thing now to see what happens but any advice (especially about settings) will be appreciated

[BoneDog]

Thanks for the help assholes I think I've gone and ruined my soundcard and had to give up before even getting one tape onto pc.

That noise I mentioned on the bass is now coming through my headphones and speakers when I listen to anything on the internet or my pc and not just on my recording attemps. Wounded.

Not sure how this happened, or how I can stop it happening again when I buy a new soundcard.