I should know this but don’t.
I’ve got a few cassette’s I want to digitise. I have a high end cassette player and apple mac and a macbook air and a hi fi system.
Can I achieve what I want with items?
thanks
ATM converting cassettes to digital format
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When I did it years ago I used a wave editing programme like Goldwave. Connected the tape player to the computer (I did it via the amp headphone socket) and Bob’s your uncle.
That was ages ago mind, so it’s probably all different now.
You have a high-end tape player so that’s the difficult part sorted. Your tape player should have an RCA phono or similar output round the back to connect to HiFi I presume?
So you need a way to connect that output to send the audio into your computer.
I’m not a Mac user so I’m not sure what inputs they have in terms of audio…if any.
You may have an Audio input on your computer that resembles a heaphone socket? In which case you just need a twin RCA cable with a 3.5mm stereo jack lead to come out of your tape player into that socket. Most PC soundcards have that. However **Mac users will need to jump in here** if it’s a Mono input or a Mic-only input you might find you either get a mono copy of your tape or a distorted version as there’s some amplification for the mic that you don’t need.
The other way is to get an audio interface that will convert the audio from your tape player into digital audio that you can send to your Mac via USB connection.
Something like this will do the job – so you just plug yr tape player into this (you’ll need a cable with twin RCA connections on each end – any electrical or hifi store will sell them) and the USB cable goes into your Mac.
http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Behringer-U-Control-UCA222-USB-Audio-Interface/AML
You then need some software that can record the audio coming into the computer – again I’m not a Mac guy so maybe Apple has an app for this but Audacity is the standard freeware for this sort of thing
it will record any audio source and then covert it to WAV, Mp3 or whatever format which you can then archive or burn to CD or whatever it is you want to do.
If such things matter, the UFO202 lacks the SPDIF (digital) connections and adds an moving-magnet vinyl input, for a fiver less.
Thanks Steve, I have a turntable with a moving magnet cartridge – does this mean I ned the UFO202 ?
Probably – it has a switched MM / line input for your vinyl & cassette respectively. If you have an external phono stage or amp with RIAA input and tape, expect either of those to sound better than the UFO202 MM input, and go into the line input.
Don’t expect sonic miracles but it’ll be better than a built-in laptop soundcard.
Thanks Doc,
I know audacity from my love recording days. Will explore further.
“love recording days”- what was that? The mind boggles.
Well, mine does.
You’re welcome Jr.
I bought a little kit a few years ago which had a lead with various plug options – RCA, jackplugs etc. and a USB plug on the other end. It also came with Audacity software, but you can download that for free anyway. You just open up the sofware, set to ‘record’ and set your taoe or record playing. You do then need to edit into individual tracks and export as mp3 (or whatever) and type in the metadata (track name, artist, album etc) which is a bit of a faff, but quite satisfying in an odd way – I then import into iTunes.
Seems like apple had a line in function but after 2012 , god bless em, they ditched it .So third party kit it is then.
Line in is OK but the quality will be a bit pony. You’re better off with a proper little interface into USB as stated by the good Doc.
I’ve got a hi-fi set up under the office desk and attached to the PC for just this purpose (old NME cassettes were the original inspiration, but now I’ve worked through quite a lot of old SA-90 needle-drop recordings as well).
So depending upon what you mean by “a few”, you could take the easy way out: stick ’em in a jiffy bag, ship them to Foxy Towers and I’ll post ’em back with wav files (one per side) burned onto a DVD for you.
Those needle drops come out well don’t they! I’ve digitised tapes from the late 70s and they sound brilliant. Mind you they were prime quality records on good systems to decent tape so they should!
I was going to say, Twang Studios is good to go for digitising so happy to process a tape or three for AW pals.
Thanks @Twang
These gadgets the lads refer to seem ok , though reviews are mixed. Just means refamiliarising myself with Spotify. If I screw it up I may be in touch.
I’ve used Audacity for this and the results have been pretty good.
Audacity also has an excellent built in denoiser plugin.
Remember doing this….
http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i449/charlieboy14/20161218_000415_zpsmouklgjx.jpg
Inspired by Junior’s thread I dug in the old tape box and found this scabby item – a local band I used to admire at school. Naturally the bloody tape broke the moment I hit play so I’m in splice mode. Thankfully it’s the leader tape which has detached so fingers crossed.
You’re holding the tape down with I presume a slide and a bottleneck! None more Blues!
Both bottlenecks, nearest thing to hand on my desk!
hopefully the Lowell-esque Sears & Roebuck jobbie hasn’t been stored for a prolonged period sitting on top of the bridge humbucker on a 1960s Les Paul, thereby picking up a hefty Gaussian charge, sufficient to wipe cheapo thin C120 cassette tape at a distance of six inches or less….
….those little Christmas Cracker screwdrivers look like they are about to skitter across the desk and snappily align themselves north south against the steel.
Yes the Christmas cracker screwdrivers are great! I don’t have Sears and Roebuck 11/16th socket wrench much as I’ve tried to get one. There isn’t an equivalent here unfortunately.
Usually the bit next to the spindle which makes it easier
Gotta say that the tapes I’ve been playing sound ok
OK, done plenty of this with a Mac. The simplest bit of hardware required is a Griffin iMic, which converts a 3.5mm audio cable to USB. I connect this to the hi-fi with a stereo phono to stereo 3.5mm cable. Job done, just works. The iMic appears under sound inputs on System Preferences.
If you know Audacity, I’m sure you can use that for your editing software, but it’s always looked quite complicated to me. I’ve always used Audio Hijack, which allows you to isolate and record all sorts of inputs on your Mac, with useful timers etc. I like Fission for tidying things up too. Hope that helps!