Converting casette tapes to CD?

Question

What type of gadget do I need to have to make this happen?

Answer 1

What you need

You'll need a cassette tape player with a headphone jack, a computer with a soundcard, the free "Audacity" software, and a 3.5mm (1/8-inch) male-male stereo audio cable. (Though 3.5mm is a standard size, your own hardware may be different.) A six-foot cable can be found for about $5.00 at your local electronics store like Radio Shack.
How to convert

1) Plug one end of the audio cable into your cassette player's headphone or "Line out" jack, and the other end into your computer soundcard's "Microphone" or "Line in" jack.

2) Start Audacity, and change the center dropdown box to "Line in" or "Microphone", depending on what soundcard jack you're using. This tells Audacity to record whatever it "hears" on the soundcard input.

3) Press the record button (red circle) on Audacity, then press play on your cassette tape.

4) Press the stop button (yellow square) on Audacity when the tape is finished playing.

5) Use the "File -> Export as WAV" menu item to save your recording. The resulting WAV file can be saved on your computer, converted to MP3, or burned to a CD. Get fancy with Audacity's audio editor features: You can cut, paste and add effects easily.

You should record a ten-second clip at first, so you can play it back immediately in Audacity (green triangle button) and make sure your volume levels are right. If the recorded audio is too loud or has too much static, decrease the volume on your cassette player.

Don't stop with cassette tapes. The same technique can import, record and convert records / LPs / vinyl, 8-tracks, and other older audio formats. You may need a different cable to match your playback device, but the actual dubbing process is the same.

Answer 2

You need:

a cassette player with a line-out or headphone jack
a soundcard with a line-in jack
a cable to run between the two. The cable you get is determined by how you are connecting the two.
a CD burner
software to record the audio. I recommend Audacity, as it is free. Personally, I use LPRecorder and LPRipper, but those were not free. You can google to find either of these.
Save the file(s) you create with Audacity in your My Music folder.
Use Windows Media Player to burn CDs from those files.

Answer 3

some boom boxs will record onto cds, there is hardware you can buy most radio shacks computer stores.