what do i have to do, to copy my cassette tapes to the hard drive?

Question

EVENTUALLY, I WANT TO PUT THEM ON MY IPOD, ALONG WITH MY CD,S

Answer 1

Difficult to write all the steps down here, but you can have a look at the following for some guidance (currently under development...) http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/DIY/how_to.htm 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 and 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, 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 produced 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

Answer 2

here is one website to check out - it has step by step instructions and also a video instruction (if you scroll down near the bottom of the website)

http://www.cyberwalker.net/columns/feb02/150202.html

here is another site - goldwave - this also has step by step instructions - and you can download the sound editor - goldwave - (which you can also convert the files with this program) - through this site too (and it's a free download)

http://www.goldwave.com/faq.php#recsrc

good luck
'n keep on rockin'