Cassette to PC - best setup?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 3hj
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3hj

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Hey, not sure if this is entirely the correct forum, if it isn't, I apologise.

I have a lot of very old original recordings on cassette tape, which I'd very much like to record to PC. What is the best way to do this? Currently I have cut the plugs off one end of an RCA cable, and inserted the bare wires into a hi-fi's speaker sockets (and only in the left channel, but what can ya do?), the other end of the RCA cable which still has the plugs on is inserted into a little plug thing that has two female 3.5mm ports which merges into one 3.5mm plug, which is then inserted into my soundcard. This is the best way I've found to record off cassette tapes, though there's still a lot of hiss. (I know that no matter what method I use there's still going to be hiss, but is there no way to minimize the hiss before transferring?) Previously I had a cable with two 3.5mm plugs on each end, one end insterted into the soundcard, the other into the hi-fi's headphones port, but I've found the RCA cable is a bit better. Or am I completely wrong? Or is there another way that's far better I haven't thought of? Anyway, sorry about the long question, and thanks for reading thus far and hopefully replying.
 
If you have a cassette player that has RCA outputs (playback) ... get a cable or adapters that will convert two RCA mono to male 1/8" stereo.
You will connect to the left and right RCA playback connectors on the tape deck and plug the 1/8" stereo plug into the soundcard.
 
It's not a wise idea to run the amplified speaker output of a HiFi system into the soundcard. If this is the only method you have of outputting the signal, I would suggest putting a 2k Ohm 1/2 watt resistor in series with the positive lines of the left and right speaker outputs.
 
crankz1 said:
If you have a cassette player that has RCA outputs (playback)
Click to expand...

I don't, though. If I did, I wouldn't have cut the plugs off the previously-mentioned RCA cable. All the cassette players in my house have RCA in, not out, which doesn't help me. Thanks for the idea, though.
 
How about headphone out .... that would be better than the speaker out, as the signals in headphone circuits aren't as hot as the power amp circuit to the speakers.
 
and if you con't have one with headphones, go to a pawn shop and pick one up for 5 bucks. how much can a tape player with a line out be? certainly well worht the investment if you have a ton of stuff on tape. better than getting all of your music off of itunes for 1.00 a pop!
 
yeah, the headphone trick should do it for you.

I am considering to do that myself, as I have a bunch of old demos that I'd love to digitalize: do you think that the result would be better by running the cassette deck through my Mindprint preamp?
 
Headphone out to sound card line in is what I use. Works very well for copying cassette tapes to PC.

Ed
 
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