Is there any way to convert audio cassettes to MP3 format...... the cheaper the better !!?

Answer 1

I know thinkgeek sells somthing to this effect, but it is expensive. It may make sense to make a 1/8th inch adapter cable out of stuff from radioshack (stereo to mono) and put a cassette into a tape player, and plug the stereo side into the tape player, and the mono side into a computer microphone port, and record new. The most fool proof way would be the drive from thinkgeek, but if you built a cable yourself, you could get a good quality mono track for about 10 bucks in parts.

Answer 2

If there is a headphone socket on your cassette player then it's easy. You will need a cable with a stereo jack plug (3.5mm) at each end. You will also need a recording programme, I use audiograbber which is a free download. Then plug the cable into the headphone socket on the tape, and the line in socket behind your computer. Start Audograbber and under file select line in sampling. Start off with the tape volume fairly low and adjust till the recording levels are OK just to test. Then simply record to your computer. If you wish to convert to MP3 you will needthe lame aencoder, the instructions for downloading this are in Audiograbber. Hope this helps

Answer 3

This is where that LINEIN input plug on your sound card comes into play. Normally, its where a microphone is plugged into your sound card. READ YOUR SOUND CARD MANUAL to see how this is done - you CAN destroy your sound card if you over drive your LINEIN. Never run a SPEAKER OUT into your LINEIN. Normally, you can run your LINEOUT of your cassette player to the LINEIN of your sound card. (this is NOT the headphones out on your cassette player - it is the LINEOUT).
Next, fire up a good recorder program on your platform. Set the source for the recording to AUX or MIC as necessary. Set the Record level and give it a test or two. Large differences in quality and file size can be attained by adjusting the bit rate and freq range. Note: files sizes of the generated wav files can be HUGE (200-300meg is not uncommon - make sure to have plenty of free disk space). From there it is as simple a converting the WAV file to a MP3 with an encoder.


A good audio editor is Cool Edit Pro; I use this program to do a lot of music/vocal stuff. It'll be great to reduce the noise on the cassette and to make it more clear.

Answer 4

Google for: convert audio cassettes to MP3

Answer 5

Depending on the type of tape player you have, this is incredibly easy and done for the price of an audio cable costing less than £2!

You'll need a 3.5mm jack x 3.5mm jack cable. One end goes into the headphone jack of your player and the other end into the microphone / line in of your sound card.

Windows comes with a program called Sound Recorder (Start => Programs => Accesories => Entertainment) which will record into WAV format.

Then visit http://www.download.com/sort/3120-20_4-0-1-3.html?qt=Convert+WAV+Mp3&author=&titlename=&desc=&li=49&os=&swlink=&gfiletype= and download one of these programs which will convert that WAV files into Mp3 and are all free to own!

Answer 6

Hi,
A good program to convert audio file is Total Audio Converters (it supports a bunch of formats such as WAV, MP3, Ogg, MP4, FLAC, APE and others). Free download here http://bit.ly/1rgCTxl
I have been using it for years

Answer 7

Is free cheap enough??
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/index.php
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.
NB. if you use AUDACITY make sure you also download the extra DLL file for exporting in MP3 format...
Hope this helps

Answer 8

i'm not exactly sure but my best guess would be to record the songs on ur audio cassette to cd then put the songs on the cd on ur mp3 player. the recording i think could be done with almost and sounds system with a cassette player and a CD player both on it

Answer 9

the way that I using

1) get cassette player
2) connect the cassette player to your computer
3) download record program that support mp3 format
4) play your cassette and record it in your computer

the quality won't be great but enough to enjoy

Answer 10

I saw this free download on Stagepass.com called Spin it Again works for both vinyl records and cassettes. It has a free trial offer and about $35 to buy if you have a lot of projects to do..

http://www.stagepass.com/download/acoustica_spin_it_again.html

Hope this helps