Backup your old “mix tapes” into MP3s
Last week I wrote about the Technosonic turntable that can rip your favourite vinyl records into MP3s directly onto USB memory sticks, Flash cards or supported MP3 players. But I received many emails from Sync readers asking if I knew of a cassette deck that can be used to convert old tapes into MP3 files. So I did some digging…
Last week I wrote about the Technosonic turntable that can rip your favourite vinyl records into MP3s directly onto USB memory sticks, Flash cards or supported MP3 players. But I received many emails from Sync readers asking if I knew of a cassette deck that can be used to convert old tapes into MP3 files. So I did some digging…
Available at SkyMall.com – the online home to those in-flight shopping magazines – you can pick up a PlusDeck2, which looks like a white and blue car stereo that can be connected to a PC’s sound card via a line-in audio jack and 9-pin serial port. In fact, if you have a whole whack of cassettes to convert, you might just decide to mount this 5.25-inch drive bay into your desktop computer’s tower!
Load the software on your computer, blow the dust off those old cassettes (Fleetwood Mac, anyone?) and then feed them into the PlusDeck2 to begin the real-time analog-to-digital conversion.
With audio compression, you can backup about 25 cassette tapes onto one 700MB recordable disc to play in the car.
Price for the PlusDeck2 is US $108, plus shipping. More info is here
why buy something else you won't need for very long. Take your old cassette deck & blow the dust off of it hook it up to the stereo line in on your computer and down load a recording program like Audacity (free) and start recording. I use Polderbitz which is a better program but its $40.00. I did all my analogue music tape and vinyl and the results were excellant.
Looks like Ion Audio has a similar device, but theirs is a double-cassette deck that reminds me of the gear I had in high-school: http://tinyurl.com/24yn26
just connecting your old turntable or cassette deck directly to your sound will not work, so I added a pre-amp between the turntable, deck and soundcard. You can use an older type stereo amplifier if you connect the sound card to the tape in/out of your amp. Use a recording program as suggested in one of the rescent comments. Do you have an aquaintance that has a great LP collection but will not lend it to you so you can convert it to cd? The USB turntable that Marc talks about is easier to take to their place, connect to their computer or your laptop and record all your favourite tunes. Thanks Marc!
EJ
Real-time conversion from tape to a lossy compression scheme? No thanks.
Just download the mp3s @ high bitrates, or find the lossless counterparts online.
Also, you can achieve much higher sound quality using an amp, some in/out wiring, and your sound card. Probably about 5$ altogether, assuming you have the amp.
Probably not worth the $108 dollars, your tapes are probably so worn out the sound quality not that great….and for vinyl, would you really want "all" those songs on MP3s?
Lots of old albums now digitally remastered on CDs, look in shopping bins at Walmart & grocery stores, you'll be surprised what you find..
The best gadget I found to use for backing up my old LP's and cassettes is from ADS Electronics. I just plug in my pre-amped turntable or cassette deck and the unit (nice and small) plugs into any USB port on my tower! It comes with NERO software. Plus the cost is only $69.00 CDN.
The operative concept here is that you're saving these to MP3 as a space saving endeavour. However, sound quality is not always the issue: I am copying some old tapes from bands I've been in (along with wedding soundtracks, kids concerts…), and sometimes these are going to people such as senior citizens, parents, etc who have purchased the last CD player they expect to own in their lifetime, which is not MP3 compatible. I've had great results using a sound card a friend was going to throw out (Avance 100, I think)and downloading their software, which included a 'Rack32' (or something like that) audio recorder, recording full size WAV files like on a standard audio CD. I'm using this on a Pentium two and burning to CD from that with great results. I've even experimented with burning CDs off my vinyl, using turntables I have, through a number of garage sale specials such as a radio shack turntable preamp (boosts output to normal line levels), an old DJ mixer, and an old stereo with turntable inputs and line outputs. The high tech only has to be in the computer, if you can get an appropriate output. My gut is that WAV files mitigate surface noise a little better from analog media, although I haven't used any type of metering to try to quantify this. Of course, I'm being a little more selective than someone who just wants to capture the old tapes before they break.
I agree with Rick and I did exactly that and it turned out excellent. I use the free mymp3mymp3 to record and then a free editor to edit anything that needed it. I keep the recorder going while switching sides and then edit out the dead space. All done with free programs.
All my cassettes are now mp3's!
I think the idea here is that you can press play/record and walk away. Meanwhile this thing records and sets up automatic track breaks. Then it automatically flips the tape over and stops recording when the tape is done.
If thats the case it would be valuable.
I have thousands of records and tapes to tranfer. This is what I use. First my turntable or tape deck, into a small (and cheap to buy) pre amp. I use a program called magix. It turns the files into wav format. It also splits the tracks on it's own. I can also re mix with this program. Now to get 4.000 more records burnt.
personally i like this idea. i just don't know if this is the best way to do it.
as for tapes being worn out?no,mine are not as yet and the sound quality is still there.some of those songs you can't find anywhere.no matter how hard you look and no matter where you look.the record companies haven't figured it out yet. people still want to hear the classics what ever genre they are.
I spent $0, zero, nothing to transfer my old cassette tapes to mp3. I have used MusicMatch, you can download it for free. My Sony walkman headphone out to line-in of my soundcard and then I connected my headphone to the line-out of soundcard to monitor the sound while recording.
can you let meknow of a good website to down load music for free. I used limewire but that bring virus to you PC i had it for 1 day and got 2 viruses. I used ARES, not good, takes toolong. any suggestions?
why not just download your favorite classic songs? you could download limewire or another shareware program and download songs for free. and im not advertising for limewire.. just saying
i just read the persons comment about limewire.. you have to be careful when you download a song, make sure that its not a very small file when you download it, like something that is 30kbs is probably a virus. and also, stop the downloaded song halfway and preview it. if it doesnt play or something then delete it and find a different file for that song
Well IF your computer is like mine…( the centre of the universe..- meaning its hooked up to stereo so u can use the stereo to record off of…
You could simply record the files err songs from album or tape as .wav or .mp3 direct and save 100.00.
Just make sure you have the right programs to convert, and yer off to teh races!!!!