How do I convert my old cassette into a CD?

Question

I have my daughter recorded on cassette when she was a toddler and I'd love to have it on CD. How does one do this? Thanks!

Answer 1

get a cassette player and connect it to the "line-in" hole on the back of your pc. If you have output rca jacks on your cassette player you want something like this: (rca to 3.5mm jack)
http://www.rueducommerce.fr/hifi/images/produits/info/large/HRCA.jpg
If you only have a headphone output on your cassette player you will want this: (3.5mm jack to 3.5mm jack)
http://www.cellcom.cz/data/zbozi/12102x2.jpg
Once that's connected you can record using audio software. Audacity is a free one.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Set the source to "line-in" and you can record. It will take you some testing to make sure you're recording at the right level. Once you get the recording level right, you can record the whole tape, or one side at a time.

Use the editor to clip anything off that shouldn't be there, then split the recording into separate tracks.

I can go on and on, so here's a guide on doing the whole procedure.
http://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

Answer 2

This is certainly 'do-able', if you have the patience....
You will need a cassette player (!), PC with a stereo input to soundcard, conversion software, CD writer.
Note: if you are using a laptop, you may need a USB external soundcard (mine has only a mono mic input – not good enough!) – you can get cheap, simple but effective ones (from Hong Kong) via ebay…
You could get someone to do it for you, friends of mine at: http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk for one. There are plenty to choose from out on the web, this type of job is perfect for a 'virtual' studio.
The software is probably the thing you really want to know about.. you will find loads out there. Personally I use Magix Audio Cleaning Lab – primarily for lifting vinyl, but will take any analogue signal. It has loads of features including cleaning filters, effects and editing… it’s cheap too and even comes with a stereo cable – try ebay. There are loads more, some even free downloads (audacity avaiable from download.com)– listen to folks who have used the software then have a go….
Oh yeah, and Magix has automatic track recognition based on silence between tracks and auto-stop recording so you can go out for the day and it will stop at the end of your tape – really useful!! You will use up loads of hard-drive space, so don’t try this if you are pushed for space…You may need to purge the huge files every so often (10MB per minute WAV files, 1MB per minute MP3). You could save some space recording directly into MP3 at the sacrifice of a little sound quality.

Hope this helps