how do i record cassette tapes on to cd's?

Question

if i need special hardware for my computer where to i get it and what is it called?

Answer 1

All you need is a sound card that has a line in connection, and a cord to connect the output from your tape player to the line in. Just about every computer sound card I've seen has line in, so you should be fine there, just have a look at where your speakers plug in - there should be a pink, green, and blue jack. The blue one is line in.

As for the cable, you basically just need something with a stereo miniplug (a headphone jack) on both ends. You should be able to buy that at radio shack.


Download Wavepad by NCH (http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/), it's a freeware audio recording program. Start it up, select your sound card line in as the source, hit record, then hit play on your tape. Save the file. Then open up Nero or whatever you use to make audio CD's, and add the new file(s) you just made.

Answer 2

No special hardware unless you don't have a soundcard (see note about laptops..)
Difficult to write all the steps down here, but you can have a look at the following for some guidance http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/diy/how_to.... 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 http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/downloads.php )– 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
Free download of software and complete guide to converting cassette to CD at http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/downloads.php
Hope this helps...

Answer 3

Plug your tape player's line-out jack into your PCs line-in jack and use a program like Audacity to record it. Then, just split up the file into tracks and save each track. You can also clean up the audio.