OT: Way Off Topic? How to rip music from Cassette tapes for my I-Pod?

[DrivingMissLazy]

With the number of computer guru's on the board, someone must have discovered how to rip music from cassette tapes to my computer so I can transfer them to CD's or my I-Pod.
Richard

[Sean]

Richard,

The microphone input on most computer sound cards in monaural, so this generally can't be done without adding hardware.

There are a number of stereo recording adapters on the market -- most are USB today.  They run anywhere from $40 to $200 depending on features.  Most come with some recording software.  You'll hook these up to the line-level output of a stereo tape deck, fire up the software, and press "Play" on the deck.

The better software will actually recognize the gaps between songs and make separate files (WMA, MP3, or whatever) for each "track."

HTH.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[Dallas]

Richard,
If your computer has a jack called "Line In" you can connect your cassette directly to the computer in stereo.

You will need software to convert it into a sound file and then convert it from there into WMA or MP3 file.

Lot's of different software will do it, such as Nero and others.

I can look around here and copy a couple of different programs for you if you want them.

One thing you'll find.... the quality of sound from the cassette isn't nearly as good as that of a CD since it was not recorded digitally in the first place and the tape head will leave noise on your recording.

What music are you trying to copy, if I may ask? Is it some personal stuff or is it recordings available already on CD?

If I can help, just holler!

Dallas

[DrivingMissLazy]

Tapes are from a little ole lady who can hardly walk, mostly gospel from years ago that she can no longer play in her car due to lack of casette player. Probably 30-40 tapes in all. No money to pay for anything.
Richard

Richard,
If your computer has a jack called "Line In" you can connect your cassette directly to the computer in stereo.

You will need software to convert it into a sound file and then convert it from there into WMA or MP3 file.

Lot's of different software will do it, such as Nero and others.

I can look around here and copy a couple of different programs for you if you want them.

One thing you'll find.... the quality of sound from the cassette isn't nearly as good as that of a CD since it was not recorded digitally in the first place and the tape head will leave noise on your recording.

What music are you trying to copy, if I may ask? Is it some personal stuff or is it recordings available already on CD?

If I can help, just holler!

Dallas

[RJ]

Richard -

I have this little device that my b-i-l (a techie-guru at Intel) got for me.  Takes RCA phono jack audio and video output off the main amplifier and plugs into the computer using a USB cable.  Have no idea where he got it, or how it works, or even what it's called, but it does the job.  No name on it, either.

Some of the more sophisticated video cards for your computer also have stereo audio input, check with CompUSA, Fry's, Best Buy, etc.

The better software, such as Pinnacle's Studio 8, have got noise reduction features, so you can clean up the tape hiss, or pops/cracks from vinyl, etc.  Very cool for editing VCR tapes, too - helps eliminate the wiggles and grass shots! 

My system is set up so that all my (old) stereo gear goes into the amp, then from the amp to the computer.  Have a Technics three-speed turntable, JVC dual cassette deck, a Sony three-motor reel-to-reel deck, Sony Carousel CD/DVD player (holds 200!!), a Mitsubushi VCR and last but not least, a TiVO.  These all feed into a very cool Denon receiver/amp.  Really had to search for that last item, hard to find amps with turntable inputs on them nowadays.  Even still, it's five or six years old.  The rest is even older. . .  Have this whole system on a stainless steel cart I got at Costco.  Unit can be built as one with six shelves, or two with three, which is how I set this up, including some JBL bookshelf speakers.  I can then wheel it out of the den and into the computer room whenever I get the time (?!?!) to play with it, simply by unplugging the strip plug from the wall.

The work that I've done so far has been saved onto two different external hard drives, one's kept in the safe deposit box, and they're swapped whenever they're updated.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[Dallas]

Richard,
I'd offer to dub them over for you but we will be moving in a couple of weeks and Cat has me booked up on stuff to be done before we leave.

Let me know if there's some other way I can help. The offer of the software is still open.

Dallas

[DrivingMissLazy]

Thanks for the offer Dallas, but I really want to learn to do it myself. I have a couple of dozen vinyl records I have saved for years that I would also like to rip, but am going to have to find a turntable. Maybe Russ will ship his complete outfit here to WV. LOL
I did do some Goggling, which I really should have done first, and think I can find anything I want there. Thanks everyone for the help. Now back to bussing.
Richard

Richard,
I'd offer to dub them over for you but we will be moving in a couple of weeks and Cat has me booked up on stuff to be done before we leave.

Let me know if there's some other way I can help. The offer of the software is still open.

Dallas

[Tim Strommen]

Try this product, my dad has this and he's been converting his tapes to MP3 for a few months.  I was actually considering this as a tape deck input for the car-puter.

I have no afiliation with this company - I'm mearely a happy user's son.

Cheers!

-Tim

[DavidInWilmNC]

Richard,
You can plug a cassette recorder into the 'Line In' jack on your computer.  Windows has Sound Recorder that will save the audio to .wav files.  You'll need to open your volume control (double-click on the speaker icon in the task bar), click on Options, and then Properties.  Choose 'Recording'.  Make sure 'Line In' is the only item checked.  Play the cassette and you should hear the tape through the speakers.  You can adjust the recording level with the 'Line In' slider.  Note that some of these steps depend on the sound card and / or its software.  When you're ready, start the cassette and click Record on Sound Recorder.  Save the file.  If you want each song to be a separate track, you'll have to do this for each song.  If you don't care if its one track, you can do the entire cassette as one track, but I wouldn't recommend that.  These .wav files will be big, so make sure you have quite a bit of hard drive space.  You should be able to convert the .wav files for whatever format the iPod uses.  I'm not really familiar with iPods (I hate proprietary formats and players that require software installed on the PC to download files; .mp3 is a standard format and my Creative mp3 player works with any Win98 or newer PC with no software), but I'm sure there's a way to convert .wav's to ipod format.  There are other ways to accomplish this, but this will work on just about any PC with Windows and a sound card.  Good luck with it.

David

[DrivingMissLazy]

Tim, Thanks very much for the info. I think I will invest in one of these as the cassette players I have only have an earphone output and from what I read, this is not the best way to go. I appreciate you taking the time to send it.

I am also looking for an inexpensive, quality, (mutually exclusive) turntable to convert some of my vinyl records to MP-3's. Probably someone has an old, turntable component stored in the closet that would be perfect, but the problem is finding it. Money is a problem as always, but maybe someone could ship me one if they have it. I would be happy to pay any costs.
Richard

Try this product, my dad has this and he's been converting his tapes to MP3 for a few months.  I was actually considering this as a tape deck input for the car-puter.

I have no afiliation with this company - I'm mearely a happy user's son.

Cheers!

-Tim

[DrivingMissLazy]

David, thanks very much for the info. I have been looking at several different ways to go and was going to go this way until I got the info from Tim. Now I have to determine if I have space in my computer to install it. I think I can remove the original CD player as I recently had a DVD recorder installed and hopefully it can take the place of the original CD player.

I did transfer all my music CD's to the computer in MP-3 format and then converted them to I-Pod with the Apple software, so I actually have them in both formats now.

I am doing this initially for one of the little old ladies here at the Committee on Aging and am trying to not only keep the cost down, but provide her with something she can understand how to use. I was thinking each cassette on an individual CD but still am unsure of this. I eat lunch ($1.00) most days with this bunch of old fogies and most if not all are way back in what the current technologies are.

As I told Tim, I am also looking for a quality turntable component to convert my vinyl 33-1/3 records to the computer. Anyone with something like this that they no longer use, I would appreciate your contacting me.
Richard

Richard,
You can plug a cassette recorder into the 'Line In' jack on your computer.  Windows has Sound Recorder that will save the audio to .wav files.  You'll need to open your volume control (double-click on the speaker icon in the task bar), click on Options, and then Properties.  Choose 'Recording'.  Make sure 'Line In' is the only item checked.  Play the cassette and you should hear the tape through the speakers.  You can adjust the recording level with the 'Line In' slider.  Note that some of these steps depend on the sound card and / or its software.  When you're ready, start the cassette and click Record on Sound Recorder.  Save the file.  If you want each song to be a separate track, you'll have to do this for each song.  If you don't care if its one track, you can do the entire cassette as one track, but I wouldn't recommend that.  These .wav files will be big, so make sure you have quite a bit of hard drive space.  You should be able to convert the .wav files for whatever format the iPod uses.  I'm not really familiar with iPods (I hate proprietary formats and players that require software installed on the PC to download files; .mp3 is a standard format and my Creative mp3 player works with any Win98 or newer PC with no software), but I'm sure there's a way to convert .wav's to ipod format.  There are other ways to accomplish this, but this will work on just about any PC with Windows and a sound card.  Good luck with it.

David

[RJ]

Richard -

A quick check of eBay shows lots of turntables available, at various prices.  Here's a Technics unit similar to mine: 190129991646   

For my music stuff, I bought an external hard drive.  It simply plugs into a USB port on the computer.  When I rip an album or CD, I rip it to the external drive.  If you have an old computer around with a working hard drive, you can simply buy an external case and install the old drive in it, reformat and away you go.  Less expensive alternative. . .

Oh, another tip:  The more memory in your machine, the easier it is to edit files, especially video ones.  The computer I'm using right now has 2 gig of RAM, and is WAY faster than the other machine on the netework that only has 512.

Have fun with your project!

FWIW & HTH. . .

[DrivingMissLazy]

Great info Russ. Why did I not think of going to the E place? Anyhow I placed a bid on it. Will see what happens. And using the spare computer for storage is great also. Nobody ever said that I was very smart when it comes to computers. LOL

I also happen to have a couple of computers here that are no longer used but are current so I will probably try and use one of them. Maybe just install the cassette player in it and use it exclusively for music. I think there are a lot of old folks here in this area that would like their old cassettes and records converted to CD's. Should help improve my personal collection also. LOL
Richard

Richard -

A quick check of eBay shows lots of turntables available, at various prices.  Here's a Technics unit similar to mine: 190129991646   

For my music stuff, I bought an external hard drive.  It simply plugs into a USB port on the computer.  When I rip an album or CD, I rip it to the external drive.  If you have an old computer around with a working hard drive, you can simply buy an external case and install the old drive in it, reformat and away you go.  Less expensive alternative. . .

Oh, another tip:  The more memory in your machine, the easier it is to edit files, especially video ones.  The computer I'm using right now has 2 gig of RAM, and is WAY faster than the other machine on the netework that only has 512.

Have fun with your project!

FWIW & HTH. . .

[DavidInWilmNC]

As I told Tim, I am also looking for a quality turntable component to convert my vinyl 33-1/3 records to the computer. Anyone with something like this that they no longer use, I would appreciate your contacting me.
Richard

That reminds me... I was also hunting for a decent older (cheap, high quality) turntable a while back.  I went to a surplus sale at the local university here in town.  I found a turntable for $8.  It's an immaculate Bang & Olufsen from back around '82 or so.  I was 16 then and practically drooling over that turntable, but it cost several times what the Technics I eventually bought did.  What impressed me about it so much at the time, besides the looks, is that the salesman banged on the shelf it was on and it didn't skip.  He then banged on the dust cover then the turntable itself... still no skips.  In addition to some of the Technics, many of the higher end Pioneers are good.  A lot of the nicer Yamahas and 'most all the Denons I've seen are still good, as long as they haven't been abused.  Don't forget that you'll need a phono preamp to connect a turntable to a PC.  If you have an old receiver or amp, that'll suffice.  Can you tell I really like vintage audio?     I'm still trying to figure out a good way to install some of my old silver faced components in the bus.  It's too bad the older speakers are so damned big!

Another option is to download the songs.  I won't get into the ethics or legality of it.  If one has already paid for an album, the royalty has been paid.  If you copy it to a CD or download the songs, no additional royalties are paid.  It's just a thought...

David

Edited to add:  Here's a 'table like mine on eBay:  160135960866.  Mine came from the music dept. and had a new cartridge.  I also picked up 2 '70's Marantz amps and a really nice TOTL Kenwood amp ($20 total for the amps).

[DrivingMissLazy]

David, what great info. I swear, I believe there is an expert here on this board for anything that anyone would want to know.
Richard

As I told Tim, I am also looking for a quality turntable component to convert my vinyl 33-1/3 records to the computer. Anyone with something like this that they no longer use, I would appreciate your contacting me.
Richard

That reminds me... I was also hunting for a decent older (cheap, high quality) turntable a while back.  I went to a surplus sale at the local university here in town.  I found a turntable for $8.  It's an immaculate Bang & Olufsen from back around '82 or so.  I was 16 then and practically drooling over that turntable, but it cost several times what the Technics I eventually bought did.  What impressed me about it so much at the time, besides the looks, is that the salesman banged on the shelf it was on and it didn't skip.  He then banged on the dust cover then the turntable itself... still no skips.  In addition to some of the Technics, many of the higher end Pioneers are good.  A lot of the nicer Yamahas and 'most all the Denons I've seen are still good, as long as they haven't been abused.  Don't forget that you'll need a phono preamp to connect a turntable to a PC.  If you have an old receiver or amp, that'll suffice.  Can you tell I really like vintage audio?     I'm still trying to figure out a good way to install some of my old silver faced components in the bus.  It's too bad the older speakers are so damned big!

Another option is to download the songs.  I won't get into the ethics or legality of it.  If one has already paid for an album, the royalty has been paid.  If you copy it to a CD or download the songs, no additional royalties are paid.  It's just a thought...

David

Edited to add:  Here's a 'table like mine on eBay:  160135960866.  Mine came from the music dept. and had a new cartridge.  I also picked up 2 '70's Marantz amps and a really nice TOTL Kenwood amp ($20 total for the amps).