cassette tape to wav

[AltatemTC]

I would like to convert some cassette tapes to wav or some other format.
1.) What is the best format for small radio quality sound?
2.) How do I get the cassette to my PC?

[AltatemTC]

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

[mattheadfat]

i record from my four track recorder to my computer, it works really great, just be careful that you arn't recording to quite or loud, and don't use windows recorder either, i used ddclip (http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/) and it worked great. i also record from my computer to cassette to listen to mp3's on my walkman and in the car.
good luck

[seti]

Well, since you're already copying music....why not just go on to napster and get high quality cd rips of the songs on your tape? I guess this isn't such an easy solution for those with out a high bandwidth connection...or for those with tapes featuring rare content/original music.

[AltatemTC]

mattheadfast,
Why not use MS Recorder? I'm just curious as to why? I will probably follow your recommendation but always like to have a good reason. Thanks.

seti,
The cassettes I am recording are sermons from our recent Bible Conference. So the only place I can get them from is the tape. I have used napster and it is good but won't solve this one. Thanks though.

[Szech]

Funny you should ask this, because my roommate was doing this two days ago, except that he was burning CDs out of the tapes. Anyway, I'd convert them to MP3, it's a good size, and good quality. As for how to do it, there are two ways:
THE GOOD WAY) Get a tape player with headphone jacks, preferably a high quality tape player. Get a cord that will go from one 1/8" jack to another 1/8" jack. Plug one end into the tape player's headphone jack, and the other into your sound card's input jack. Start recording a WAV from the input jack, and press play on the tape recorder. You will have to stop the tape player and save each WAV if you want them separate.
THE WAY MY ROOMMATE DID IT) Don't buy a 1/8" to 1/8" jack, and instead use your computer's microphone, and put it right in front of the stereo's speakers. Start recording a WAV from your computer, and hit play on the stereo. Evacuate room, close door, tell everyone to be quiet.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!... it was funny when I got back to our apartment, because the stereo was really loud, and he was telling everyone to be quiet. I heard the finalized CD, and besides being low quality, you can hear talking in the background and some coughing here and there. HA!

[Morpheus1964]

I would recommend a slightly different approach on the hookup...If you have a good component-based stereo, or at least tape deck (I have a very nice JVC that I use for this purpoes), set it up next to the PC and get a Y cord like comes with a discman (1/8" headphone jack to two male RCA connectors). Plug it into the audio out on the back of the tape deck, and use the headphone jack on the front for an actualy set of headphones.

Plug the other end into the PC's line in and then play some of whatever you're going to record through your PC (you can even record a test file while doing this) and watch the levels to make sure there's no high-vol distortion. I usually just let the player run and the recorder run while I fiddle with the controls until it's right...

Then, as suggested above, record them to .wav and convert to .mp3 ... mp3s are about 1/10th the size and still very high quality. For just talking, I would suggest whatever you use to convert to MP3s that probably 64- or 80- kbps would be plenty of quality, and that would keep filesizes even lower - as much as 1/12th the size of a wav.

Using the Y-patch cable will give you the highest quality rip, tho.

-M

[mattheadfat]

the reason i don't use ms recorder is, when i have it set up for high quality (higest i can get, cause as soon as i mp3 it, i can dictate the quality), ms recorder says i can record for 45 seconds, not for as long as i need, i can get ms recorder to record longer, but i have to play the empty sound file and press record again for it to bump the 45 seconds up another 10 and so on and so. the prog. i use lets me record hours, until my drive fills up, plus i can set mono and stereo, a lot more options. ms-recorder is pretty awful. sound forge is also a good prog, although the demo is useless, doesn't even let you record, but if you can "get" your hands on sound forge, your set, it's a little pricey.

[AltatemTC]

mattheadfast,
Thanks for the explanation. I definitely won't use MS recorder. Thanks again.

[mattheadfat]

good luck, tell us how it turns out

[chipbgt]

did the same thing myself today, hooked up a cassette player, pluuged the microphone into the line in 2 on my sblive livedrive, uses creatives sound recorder, boom, four hours later got four cassettes done. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif