Cassete to PC ?????

nijushiho

New member
Hi All.

Can anyone tell me how to connect my computer to a simple tape deck so that I can record my old band tapes onto my pc and then put them down onto a CD to preserve them.

I am using Windows XP (new for the last 2 weeks) This has Windows Media player and I've just downloaded Winamp too.

Please help guys.. these tapes go back to the very early 80's are the only copies I have .
 
Some of this depends on what equipment you have.

If you only have a computer and a tape player, here is what you need to do...

Somewhere on your tape player you need to have a 'line out'. There will probably be a left line and a right line.

You will take the line out from the tape player and connect that to the 'line in' on your computer. Looking at the audio settings on your computer, make sure the 'line in' device is selected as your source for recording. Then, you will need to arrange one of your programs to record while playing the tape. After you have all the tracks recorded, you will need the right software to burn those onto CD. I am assuming you already have that, but if you need anymore help, just write another message.

Some things to keep in mind...

Most computers ONLY have a mono line-in jack. This means that your recording into the computer is not going to be in stereo. The best thing you can do is to get a 'Y' adapter for you cable, put the left and right output from the tape on the 2 ends, and put the single part of the 'y' cable into the computer.

Another thing is that the outputs from your tape player are probably using RCA style cables. You will probably need an adapter since the line in for the computer usually only uses a 1/8" jack.

When you record the tracks from the cassette, you will probably want to record each track, save the recording and record each track separately, or else your wave files will be huge and will be hard to deal with.

I am sure others will add to this, but hope this gets you going for now.

There is a way to record stereo into your computer, but it will probably require you to get a new soundcard.

Let me know if you need more help

Micro
 
Very clear, Micro.

I'm not sure if you can record with Winamp and Windows media player.

The best program that I am familiar with is n-track. You can get the demo for free and it will do a bang up job recording your cassettes in stereo. It might be overkill, though. If all you want to do is record you cassettes, there may well be simpler programs out there- I just don't know what they are.

Good luck (and good idea- I should do that, too.)
Chris
 
you can also buy a 3 or 4 track mixer for like $80 that you can connect to your soundcard.... if all you want to do is make the cds then theres no point, but a mixer can do that a lot more easily, and allow you to record
 
Things could be simple . . .

When I was very inexperienced with recording into the computer (by no means am I a genius now), I did a similar project on the family computer.

I wouldn't assume that if you only have one line-in to the computer that you will be forced to record in mono. The one line-in to my fam's old soundcard ( just a standard Soundblaster Live! Value into an average Gateway) was a 1/8" stereo input that I fed a stereo signal from a Y adaptor the exact same way Micro stated above (from the rca outs on tape player).

My family-sized Gateway w/Soundblaster Live! Value combo came with a simple 2 track .wav recorder which I used to record my tapes.

My fam didn't buy a high-performance specialized computer so I would suggest you check if your computer came with a .wav recorder and if your soundcard's 1 input is stereo or mono.
 
Mono input?

Every soundcard line in I've used, even using sound built into the motherboard, has been stereo - usually a stereo minijack socket and I'm sure you'll find the same on yours. So you probably need a lead with 2 RCA jacks for the cassette player and a 1/8 inch stereo mini jack at the other end. I've used this successfully to save old cassette recordings.
 
I was about to point out the same thing - sound card line in connectors are normally always stereo, you just need a Y-cable or adaptor. The mic input is normally mono.

I have also used Musicmatch Jukebox to record from old cassettes and vinyl. It used to be free.
 
Back
Top