Audio recording: Is there a way to transfer music from a cassette tape to digital format?

Question

I have a cassette tape that I want to get onto either an MP3 or burn on a CD. How can I do this? (It's my own demo music). I don't have protools or anything like that, just a tape player and a computer with a CD burner.


Love Jack

Answer 1

Put simply, you will need to connect your cassette player to your PC soundcard, then play the cassette whilst recording on your PC. A step-by-step guide is available at:
http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/diy
The recording software is the key, there are some free software downloads available at:
http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/downloads.php
I have used ‘Magix Audio Cleaning Lab’ and ‘Audacity’ – Audacity is particularly popular since it is free!
If you record to WAV format, expect file sizes of around 10MB per minute, or 1MB per minute for MP3 (at 128kbps).
Once you have your digital versions of the recording on your PC, simply burn them on to a CD (Nero burning software or similar..). If you use Magix Audio Cleaning, the software will burn an audio CD for you without needing additional software (assuming you have a CD writing drive of course!)
You can also download a free PDF version of the step-by–step guide from the download page mentioned above, the guide is complete with diagrams and screen-shots.
Hope this helps

Answer 2

All you need is a special type of cable. connect one end to the audio out socket of the tape player, so the sound being played is being sent down the cable. Connect the other end to the Audio in socket of your sound card in the back of your PC. Then go to any program you have installed that is capable of recording sound in the format you desire, press record on the program and play on the tape player, and leave both machines going for the length of the tape.
When It's finished, stop both machines, disconnect them from each other, go back into the program and crop the recording to the length you desire (to cut out the bits at the beginning and end when you were not recording anything), and "save as" to create a new file (incase you make a mistake in the crop) in the different format you want. Now you have a digital audio file to do with as you please.

Important: Following these instructions will produce a clearer, higher quality, more professional sounding, cheaper, and more easily made sound file. Using a microphone will create significant interference and any background noise you might create while the audio is being recorded, and a microphone is more expensive than a little cable. It will work perfectly regardless of what type of computer you have, and / or what type of cassette player / recorder you have. Lastly, the special type of cable I refer to can be found in any low end electronics store. It may be special but it's not rare. It is rarely seen, but only beacuse it's function is to connect two unrelated devices, a relatively uncommon desire.

Answer 3

You could just play the tape and record it with a microphone. That will save it as a .wav from there that will play on a cd in a cd player. or you could get software and convert the .wav to a .mp3

go to start/programs/accories/entertainment/sound recorder
hook up the mic and your good to go.

Answer 4

Hi Jack,

The only way I know to do it is with an interface like DVD Xpress.

With DVD Xpress you can transfer your tape to your hard drive and then edit it if you desire. DVD Xpress comes with basic video editing software. I got mine at Sam's for $59.95. They are cheaper now. You can look at one & read about it here - http://www.usb-ware.com/ads-dvd-xpress.htm

You connect the composite output of your DVR into the DVD Xpress and connect the DVD Xpress to your computer via a USB cable.

I know it works with video & I think it would with audio but you still would need a program to convert the audio to MP3 format.

Norm

Answer 5

I use this gizmo to transfer both my cassette tapes and LPs to CD (it works on both Mac and PC):

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=6C04E07A&nplm=TF815LL%2FA

Answer 6

yep
pretty cheap too
just get a Griffin iMic from any Mac place (if you have a Mac)
$30
then get a mini-mini hook up at radio shack
$4

Answer 7

Go to http://spinitagain.com they have the program you need, and it relatively cheap.