Converting Audio cassette tape to digital

[radhak]

I have a bunch of audio tapes that I need in digital format : wav or mp3 (I am not too much of a purist).

So what is the best method?

I have a Win XP machine, a Win 2000 laptop, and a G4 Imac.

I have a 10 year old large-ish tape deck that plays tapes and CDs very nicely (again, casual listener, not an afficianado).

I got one cable from RadioShack that has two RCA jacks on one end and a 1/8" (3.5mm) jack on the other, so should be able to connect the deck to the windows machines. The iMac (surprised me) does not have a 3.5mm input - instead, it expects me to use one of it's USB ports as inputs.

So to use the iMac I need to go back to RadioShack to try for an audio cable with the RC jacks on one end and a usb connector on the other. Will i find one such?

More importantly, which software works best? I googled and found a handful for Windows, but all of them are for-purchasing. Is any better than the others?

I am assuming I should be able to dig up a good software for the mac, though some references would be great. (I heard talk of Audacity - is that good?)

[Anna]

Hey, Radhak,

I've done conversions of LPs and 8-tracks using pretty much the same setup on my Macs (most recently this past Christmas). I use iMic for the USB input. The Apple Store had it; not sure if Best Buy carries it. Audacity is okay, but I also use Amadeus which I bought a couple of years ago. You can probably try Audacity and see how you like it before buying shareware.

There are a couple of online writeups on digitizing analog media that might help (too late for me to search my bookmarks; will see if I can find them tomorrow). They listed the available shareware, including Roxio's Toast/Jam/Popcorn software. That's how I found Amadeus. Audacity has improved vastly since I got started on this, too.

Good luck.

[BTC3K]

Audio Tape Conversion

Do A Google Search For Something Called A Plus Deck 2 ...it Is Just What You Need

[Thom2]

YEARS ago I bought a lifetime upgrade for MusicMatch Jukebox (like even before Itunes, I think at the time winamp was the biggest competition), I know all of the versions 9.0 and prior supported ripping from tape or vinyl. There are settings for the silence threshhold so that seperate tracks are made for each song. I'm also fairly certain that these options were available in the free version as well.

I have not upgraded to the newer versions yet as I'd been running W2K and anything past 9.0 requires XP, I'd find it hard to believe if those options weren't still included tho'.

[final_t]

Do A Google Search For Something Called A Plus Deck 2 ...it Is Just What You Need

I can also recommend this, we have it and it works just great. Use it to dupe audiobooks to mp3's for trips and such all the time.

[radhak]

Thanks, good to hear personal recommendations, albeit I am somehow hesitent putting the PlusDeck onto my PC as a permanent fixture...will it work outside, to be put away when not needed?
( And it does not seem likely to work with the Mac..)

Just as an update, last night I tried importing into my Win2K laptop using a regular Audio-jack-mini-jack cable and it was pretty pathetic; then I realized laptops are not good enough for this as there's no line-in (I used the Mic-in port) . And as such most of the better software seem to work only with XP (like musicmatch) .

Now I need to get the Desktop/Mac and the music deck closer (buy a portable cassette player)...

[tung tied]

I've historically found you can do a lot for free on a Mac. Having said that, one of the few programs I purchased was
Roxio Toast. I run it on a G4 iMac. There is a program with it called Auditron, or something like that. I've transferred my vinyl to audio CD. The Roxio program comes with a cable that basically plugs into a headphone jack (1/4" banana plug to either a USB or a mic jack). You might be able to just buy a cable and use the iTunes software, but I don't think it converts analog to digital. I had success also using the Auditron filters to reduce wow and flutter, I'm pretty sure it would filter out your tape hiss.

Lately I've just paid the buck for the digital tune from iTunes, and drag it into the Roxio layout. It automatically converts it to AIFF.
Badabing-badaboom.

[final_t]

Thanks, good to hear personal recommendations, albeit I am somehow hesitent putting the PlusDeck onto my PC as a permanent fixture...will it work outside, to be put away when not needed?
( And it does not seem likely to work with the Mac..)

It's designed to be mounted in a bay, and installation was trivial. From what I remember, you *should* be able to mount it outside, since the only thing "inside" is the 4-pin power supply; the control cable loops out to the 9-pin serial port, and the in/out goes out into your line in/line out.

Figure out some way to provide power (simplest idea: molex extender or Y-cable pulled out the back) and I think you're good to go. But either mounted in a bay or not, you're probably going to be forced to open the case to get power to the thing.

I'm surprised that there isn't a USB-driven model by now.

[tbarn]

I use a free program called CDex
It has a record from an analog input option.
It is simple and seems to have good quality.
I use it every week at church to record the sermons. I have also converted from reel to reel players.

At work they use audacity, I think because it has editing features.

[scorrpio]

Check http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php Look like a good free option, except looks like you have to cut the tracks yourself.