Cassette to Digital Transfer

[Norman]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

I have a large collection of classical cassette recordings. Anticipating the
day when my cassette player breaks down and cannot be repaired and also
because of the enormous improvement in quality I have been gradually
converting to CD over the years. However, I have about 12 -15 cassettes
which are irreplaceable. Each is about 40-60 minutes in length. Is there
anyone who can tell me what I need to buy in addition to my eMac and tell me
step by step how to transfer the cassettes to some digital format?
Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 11:49:59 -0400, Norman <normanwt@optonline.net>
wrote:

>I have a large collection of classical cassette recordings. Anticipating the
>day when my cassette player breaks down and cannot be repaired and also
>because of the enormous improvement in quality I have been gradually
>converting to CD over the years. However, I have about 12 -15 cassettes
>which are irreplaceable. Each is about 40-60 minutes in length. Is there
>anyone who can tell me what I need to buy in addition to my eMac and tell me
>step by step how to transfer the cassettes to some digital format?
>Thanks.

You need a quality audio interface for your computer. Some way of
feeding it an optimum level audio signal. Lacking volume controls on
Line Out of your tape player, this probably means a small mixer.
There are Firewire and USB audio interfaces that include this
function. On the computer you need a basic audio recording program.
I don't use Mac, but there are plenty of choices for PC, so I expect
there are for Mac as well. If your computer includes a CD burner, it
will have come with a program to create and burn an audio CD.

You then need some experience of setting good levels. Too low gives
noise. Too high gives digital distortion, which is NASTY

With just 15 cassettes to do, you may wish to send the job out.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Norman" <normanwt@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:BE967E67.31F38%normanwt@optonline.net...

> Is there
> anyone who can tell me what I need to buy in addition to my eMac and tell
me
> step by step how to transfer the cassettes to some digital format?

I don't know anything about eMacs, but I looked at the spec, and see they
have an audio line-in socket., and have CD writer or DVD writer hardware.
So the only hardware you needbuy is the cables to connect your tape deck to
your eMac. With that, you'll be able to record tapes from the tape deck
onto your eMac, and then make CDs on the eMac and play them on your hi-fi
system.

I suggest you get the cables and try it before spending money on anything
else.

It takes practice to make good recordings on a computer. The main trick is
getting the recording volume high enough that the noise is as low as
possible, but not so high as to cause distortion. (It's a bit like
recording with your cassette deck.)

If you record an entire tape at a middle-ish recording volume setting on
your eMac, you can examine the resulting digital file with an editor, and
find what the peak volume is. If the peak is, say, -15dB, you can increase
the recording volume setting by 15dB, and record the tape again. This will
give you the highest possible recording level for that tape.

When you're on the repeat recording, you will probably want to record each
track separately, so you can make them into individual CD tracks.

To make this all happen, you need to identifiy the sound recording softrware
on your eMac (I'm confident it comes with this) and the CD writing software
(I'm certain it comes with this.) I don't know if the emac comes with audio
editing software - all you want is something to tell you the peak level in
an audio file you've recorded.

Tim

 

[rolandmw]

Hi,

This is a pretty old post, and I wanted to know if creating CD's from Cassettes has gotten easier in the past 2 years? My dad has a slew of them and wants to get them onto cd.

Anyone have any ideas on what would be needed on a PC to do this?

TIA!
Roland