Problems copying audio cassette to CD

[blaineh]

I know very little about audio stuff so I’m hoping someone here can help me. I am trying to copy an audio cassette to a music CD.

What I did was take my cassette player (boom box type) and used a stereo phono cable to connect it from the earphone jack to the line in jack on a Santa Cruz sound card. From there I recorded the tape using Audacity. After recording one side I thought it sounded okay so I saved it as a WAV file and burned it to a CD.

So far so good.

After that though played the CD on the boom box and there was a very noticeable sound. It is hard for me to describe since I’m not sure of the proper terminology however it is like a bassy “thud” every couple of seconds. There is no exact pattern to the noise. Kind of like a dull hand clap every so often.

I’ve had a couple people tell me that I need to use a tape player that has two RCA jacks and use a combiner type cable to connect it to the computer. However that doesn’t make a lot of since to me. Also I realize I am using a sound card that not really meant to create the best recordings.

However I am hoping there is something I can do to remove this noise. I have tried various tools inside of Audacity all without any luck. Also I should clarify that I can hear the sound on the computer as well now that I listen for it. I also made sure that when recording the music the volume on the screen did not “max out” if that matters. The tape is just people speaking, not a music tape.

Any pointers would be appreciated. Any that I can do without additional hardware and expensive software is even better.

Thanks in advance

 

[treymonfauntre]

the reason is because the headphone output on a cd player is a higher impedance in order to power headphone speakers. the sound you're hearing is the sound of your soundcard getting overloaded with power

 

[dgatwood]

What I did was take my cassette player (boom box type) and used a stereo phono cable to connect it from the earphone jack to the line in jack on a Santa Cruz sound card.

...

After that though played the CD on the boom box and there was a very noticeable sound. It is hard for me to describe since I’m not sure of the proper terminology however it is like a bassy “thud” every couple of seconds. There is no exact pattern to the noise. Kind of like a dull hand clap every so often.

If it is aperiodic, maybe you have a sticky takeup mechanism on one of the reels on the cassette recorder, causing the tape to sometimes lose proper tension. That's a little odd, though. Usually, those sorts of issues are very periodic and caused by a deck sitting with the pinch roller against the capstan for a long period of time, resulting in a flat spot in the pinch roller.

Either way, unless it's something wrong in the original recording, you should be able to fix it by switching tape decks. It sounds mechanical, not electronic.

 

[Grizzly]

Go to goldwave.com And DL the free software. You can record with this and have the meters show you the input level. You will need to set up your stuff like you had it but use a very very low volume level out to your sound card. It's really easy you just have to play with it till you get it right.

 

[dgatwood]

Go to goldwave.com And DL the free software. You can record with this and have the meters show you the input level. You will need to set up your stuff like you had it but use a very very low volume level out to your sound card. It's really easy you just have to play with it till you get it right.

I could be wrong, but this doesn't sound like distortion. Every ADC I've ever heard distorts with a very scratchy, clicky sound when you oversaturate them. That's about as far from a muffled, low frequency thud that I can imagine.

It sounded more like he was describing tape rumble to me, not distortion. If so, the only thing a lower record level will do is increase the noise floor. Don't get me wrong, if you get the noise floor high enough, you can mask a lot of problems, but....