I have many old music tapes and I want to convert the songs into digital wave file and burn them on the CD. Can anyone show me on how to do it ? Software/Hardware needed ?
I did some experiment by getting the line-outs from the tape player and thru a Radio Shack cable the other end to to the microphone socket of the laptop. WHen I use SoundRecorder to record the songs played on the tape player, I did not get anything except static noise.
Audacity might do a better job and it's free. When you're recording you just have to select the source, and make sure the volume levels are set - that way you'll get the best quality. Then you can split your audio files and leave them or convert them to anything you like :)
You must connect the tapeout from your cassete tape to line in of your card in order to have the correct circuit settings. Further I propose to use an analog audio mixer between the cassete tape and your audio adapter which gives you more flexibility to control the volume from the source to audio adapter. This analog item costs maximum ?/$ 15,00 for 2 line-in (tape or cd) / 2 turntables, 2 microphones entrances. It will solve you future problems if you want to diitize your old LP's avoiding running cables between your stereo equipment and desktop/laptop pc.
Remember that the derived quality cannot be upgraded since the tape frequency responce is limited (usually up to 15.000 Hz).
Finally you need the appropriate software to carry out the job such as Nero, Sound Forge, etc.
Wish you happy encoding!
I use CDex (freeware) to record.(menu item tools/record from analog...) Set the format from the settings first.The record dialog
lets you record for a set length of time.(in seconds) Add a minute
or two to the length.(eg. 90 minute tape -> 46 or 47 minutes per
side) There is is checkbox to name the files sequentially.LAME at
320 kbits approx. 110 MB per side,WAV about 4 xtimes that.Tape out
to soundcard line-in. Do not put volume high,better to normalize
after to avoid distortion (clipping).
Nero wave editor lets you select portion between songs to
use for noise analysis.Then select all track and reduce noise.
Also use dehiss and declick.You can also try equalizer to reduce
certain frequencies.(I reduce 8kHz range.)Noise reduction (using
noise print) and declick/dehiss give good results.
Finally I use Blaze MP editor to save individual tracks,normalize,
etc.
