Okay, since I know nothing about techy stuff at all, how can I transfer my cassettes to mp3?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I have a bunch of songs that I recorded from 1995-2000 or so that are all on cassette. I'd like to preserve them in the mp3 format that is so popular nowadays. How would I even go about doing this? I guess I'd probably need a stereo or something, huh?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 November 2006 18:58 (eighteen years ago)

Tapedeck, a dual RCA to Stereo 1/8" adapter, go into the line in on your soundcard would be the easiest way. If you want better audio quality, go through an interface.

― John Justen says Toonces was one of the most talented cats on televison (johnjus, Wednesday, 22 November 2006 19:15 (eighteen years ago)

Please define:

"dual RCA"

"line in on your soundcard" (I have an iMac)

"interface"

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 November 2006 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

Put the tapes in a suitcase with a half-drank pint of expired milk, place directly in front of first revolving door you find, then run half a mile west. There you will find a beige iPod with the fruits of your labor mp3 formatted and ready to be documented on songs .xls.

― stoked for the madness (nickalicious), Wednesday, 22 November 2006 19:47 (eighteen years ago)

Awesome.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 November 2006 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

Basically you need something to play the tapes, a cable, your computer, and some kind of sound recording program (GarageBand will work fine).

Probably the easiest thing to do is run a cable from the headphone jack of your tape player to the audio line-in on your computer. On your Mac, the audio line-in would most likely be right next to the headphone jack. I'm not sure if all Macs have audio line-in jacks though, I know the iBook didn't when I was looking at laptops. Anyway, if you do have an audio line-in, it is probably an 1/8" jack (a small jack, the same size as the headphone jack). If you're playing your tape off of a Walkman, for example, the headphone out is also an 1/8" jack, so you just need an audio cable with 1/8" plugs on either end. If your tapes are in stereo, you'll want to make sure to get a stereo cable so you can convert the sound in stereo. Then you just run the cable from the headphone out on your tape deck to the audio line-in on your computer. Open up Garageband, set up a Basic track, hit record, and play the tape. Make sure the tape isn't playing so loud that it makes the sound meter on Garageband go up to the red; if it is, just turn your tape deck down until it isn't peaking any more. That should do it, hopefully. It's really easy, I just wrote it out in lots of detail.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 23 November 2006 01:13 (eighteen years ago)

Hey, don't you two guys live in the same city or something?

― The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Thursday, 23 November 2006 01:42 (eighteen years ago)

Actually this is useful information. Never mind.

― The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Thursday, 23 November 2006 01:43 (eighteen years ago)

That does sound super-easy. What if I don't have an audio line-in on my computer, though? All I see is a headphone jack and a line-out for speakers, and then my Firewire and USB ports.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 23 November 2006 02:28 (eighteen years ago)

that line-out for speakers is really a line-in, no?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304286

― zappi (joni), Thursday, 23 November 2006 10:03 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know about that. As far as I know, if you don't have an audio line-in, you have to buy some special Firewire or USB doohickey to let you input sound.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 23 November 2006 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

beige iPod

Heh. Heh. Heh.

― Braise: pointed offal. (goodbra), Thursday, 4 January 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

four years pass...

I've got some very old cassettes that I've ripped to WAV. The cassette deck is fine (practically brand new for the minimal amount of use it got at my parents house) but the tapes are either missing the right channel or it sounds very low. Is there a way in Audacity or some other sound editing program to bring up the level of just one channel? For the time being I used the "Stereo To Mono" option and that seems to have produced acceptable results. Suggestions?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 10 March 2011 21:28 (fourteen years ago)

will if i understand it right, technally you only have 2 channels going in from a tape deck to the cum-pooter, a stereo right and left. I should show up as such, and you should be able to pull it up.. But I don't know exactly. I've had a freind of mine put stuff up digitally via tape and things went smooth.

― SeanWayne, Thursday, 10 March 2011 22:50 (fourteen years ago)

Over on the left of the Audacity track, click "Audio Track" which brings down a menu. Click "Split Stereo Track". Adjust your levels. Do the same thing and click "Remake Stereo Track".

― everything, Thursday, 10 March 2011 22:57 (fourteen years ago)

Sorry, it's just "Make Stereo Track", there's no "Remake".

― everything, Thursday, 10 March 2011 23:12 (fourteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.