[Pan[_2_]]

Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

[Todd H.]

"Pan" writes:

Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

You can do it with Audacity and whatever sound card you might have.

For LP's, you'll want a preamp with RIAA equalization for best
results.

--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Todd H
\ / | http://www.toddh.net/
X Promoting good netiquette | http://triplethreatband.com/
/ \ http://www.toddh.net/netiquette/ | http://myspace.com/mytriplethreatband

[Pan[_2_]]

"Todd H." wrote in message
...
"Pan" writes:

Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

You can do it with Audacity and whatever sound card you might have.

For LP's, you'll want a preamp with RIAA equalization for best
results.

No, it's just tapes. No LP's.

I found this page which gives instructions on using audacity for this
purpose.
http://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

It talks about converting it into wav files.
Does converting it into wav files have any advantage over converting
to mp3 files other than the fact that you would be able to play it on
players which don't understand mp3.
Will wav quality be better than mp3 - assuming it's coming from an
audio tape run through audacity.

[Peter Larsen[_2_]]

Pan wrote:

Will wav quality be better than mp3

Yes. It is as comparing 15" tape recording to compact cassette.


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

"Pan" wrote in message ...
Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?


You have to play them into your computer in real time. "Rip"
is nonexistant in the world of tape.... unless, of course, you
just want to rip it out of the shell and throw it away. Best
results would probably come from playing back using the
same deck used to make the original recordings if possible.
Just use the stereo line input on your sound card. Once in
the PC, you need some decent 2-track editing software and
a program for burning CDs.

There are too many issues to discuss.... without some really
nice editing software, they will pretty much always sound like
cassette tapes.


--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com
Morgan Audio Media Service
Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
_______________________________________
http://www.januarysound.com

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message ...
wrote in message

I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

What you're proposing is illegal; a violation of copyright law.


Wrong.... there was a special "tax" on blank cassettes which
covered this, and if he uses "music" CDs... he's covered again.
(For one copy, for personal use only)


We won't help you with such an activity, ya' crook.

Ah... I see. You were just joking. :-)



--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com
Morgan Audio Media Service
Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
_______________________________________
http://www.januarysound.com

[Pan[_2_]]

"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...
wrote in message

I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

What you're proposing is illegal; a violation of copyright law.

Why? Isn't this covered by fair use?

I originally owned several audio tapes which were legal.
Mixed and matched songs from several of these to
record them onto Blank audio tapes. And now I want to
transfer them to CD's.
At some time, I have paid for each of these songs.



We won't help you with such an activity, ya' crook.

Bob Morein
Dresher, PA
(215) 646-4894

[Buzz]

"Pan" a écrit dans le message de news: ...

"Todd H." wrote in message
...
"Pan" writes:

Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

You can do it with Audacity and whatever sound card you might have.

For LP's, you'll want a preamp with RIAA equalization for best
results.

No, it's just tapes. No LP's.

I found this page which gives instructions on using audacity for this
purpose.
http://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

It talks about converting it into wav files.
Does converting it into wav files have any advantage over converting
to mp3 files other than the fact that you would be able to play it on
players which don't understand mp3.
Will wav quality be better than mp3 - assuming it's coming from an
audio tape run through audacity.
================================================== =

If the software makes it transparent to the user or not, your audio files
will be recorded as Wav files and then if you want, will be transferred into MP3 files.
The Wav files are lossless while MP3 files are compressed systems which lose
a bit of quality. So for the best quality possible, transfer into Wav files and then
make an audio CD out of them.
But MP3 files can be quite ok for an everyday general use if you compress the Wav files
into something at 128 Kbps or more

My way of doing these sort of things here : http://www.a-reny.com
But if your tapes are good sounding and have no hiss or crackle to
correct, you can very well easerly use Audacity as Todd.H said.


--
Allen Reny
http://www.a-reny.com

[Mike Rivers]

On Nov 1, 12:46 am, "Pan" wrote:

I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

It's as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but it's
never as simple as transferring audio data as a file from CD to your
computer as there are no "files" on analog cassettes.

The basic concept is simple - you connect the output of a cassette
deck to the input of a computer sound card, open a recording program
on the computer (Audacity is free and works well), start recording,
then start playing the tape. At the end of the tape, stop the
recording and you'll have a file that you can burn to a CD.

If you want to create index numbers on your CD, that's another step.
Some CD burning programs will detect silence and automatically insert
a new track marker, but it's really better to do it manually. If you
want to try to make the CD sound better than the tape, there are some
tweaks you can do the file, but it's also important to start at the
source with a properly aligned and maintained tape deck.

Figure on each tape to be about an evening's work, so transferring 30
isn't a terribly daunting project. If you had a thousand, I'd say
forget it.

[Mike Rivers]

On Nov 1, 4:46 am, "Pan" wrote:

Why? Isn't this covered by fair use?

It isn't "fair use" but it's allowed under another provision in the US
copyright law. Other countries may be different.

[PenttiL]

Pan wrote:
Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?



There's several possibilities to digit them, for instance burn them CD-r
records.
But, I'm just wonder there's many times when people asked the same
question, they wonder, do the moving process work only real-time, not
faster than 1 x...
Why on earth you must move the old recordings into CD-records if you
hate to listen them...;-)

-P

[Arny Krueger]

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
ups.com...

It's as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but it's
never as simple as transferring audio data as a file from CD to your
computer as there are no "files" on analog cassettes.

Agreed.

The basic concept is simple - you connect the output of a cassette
deck to the input of a computer sound card, open a recording program
on the computer (Audacity is free and works well), start recording,
then start playing the tape. At the end of the tape, stop the
recording and you'll have a file that you can burn to a CD.

Well, sort of. Your best tactic is to start and stop recording well outside
of the bounds of the audio on the tape, and trim off the excess in Audacity.
You'd be wise to record with a little headroom, and bring the levels up in
Audacity. Finally, you might feel the need for a little remastering,
particularly eq. More good stuff to do in Audacity.

That all said, I don't use Audacity that much - most of my work gets done in
Audition/Cool Edit out of habit.

The good news is that unlike transcribing LPs, you don't have a lot of tics
and pops to worry about. So, simpler software like Audacity is a lot closer
to being just as effective.

One tip about Audacity - it seems to take a lot of those freeware plug-ins
that are becoming more and more prolific. They can provide a lot of free
processing power, over and above what you download from the Audacity web
site.

[Scott Dorsey]

In article , Pan wrote:

It talks about converting it into wav files.
Does converting it into wav files have any advantage over converting
to mp3 files other than the fact that you would be able to play it on
players which don't understand mp3.

Yes. MP3 is a low-fi compressed format that is not acceptable if you
intend on doing further processing, or for anything critical.

Will wav quality be better than mp3 - assuming it's coming from an
audio tape run through audacity.

Yes. The hard part is getting a good clean play of the cassette with the
azimuth set properly.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Jay Rose]

To get back to the technical question:

Just about any modern computer with an audio input and CD burner, and
just about any audio software.

Biggest concern is cleaning, demagging, and azimuth tweaking of the
analog playback deck.




--
Jay Rose CAS
tutorials and other sound goodies at dplay.com
email is "jay@" plus the dot-com in the previous line.

[Anahata]

Arny Krueger wrote:

You'd be wise to record with a little headroom, and bring the levels up in
Audacity. Finally, you might feel the need for a little remastering,
particularly eq. More good stuff to do in Audacity.

Especially the noise removal tool, which works well on the low level
hiss from a reasonably good cassette recording.

Anahata

[Todd H.]

"Pan" writes:

"Todd H." wrote in message
...
"Pan" writes:

Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

You can do it with Audacity and whatever sound card you might have.

For LP's, you'll want a preamp with RIAA equalization for best
results.

No, it's just tapes. No LP's.

I found this page which gives instructions on using audacity for this
purpose.
http://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

It talks about converting it into wav files.
Does converting it into wav files have any advantage over converting
to mp3 files other than the fact that you would be able to play it on
players which don't understand mp3.
Will wav quality be better than mp3 - assuming it's coming from an
audio tape run through audacity.

Yes, it will be better quality in WAV since mp3 is a lossy compression
format.

There are lossless compresion formats that Audacity can probably write
to, or you can get another converter to push into. Then you'd make
mp3 conversions from your non-compressed archive copy for playing in
your favorite player.

Give it a try with your existing sound hardware. If the results
aren't satisfactory, perhaps an external a/d converter of some sort
would yield better results. The Griffin iMic, for instance, humble
though it is often sounds better than integrated sound cards, though I
haven't a/b'd a motherboard a/d with it in the past few years.


--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Todd H
\ / | http://www.toddh.net/
X Promoting good netiquette | http://triplethreatband.com/
/ \ http://www.toddh.net/netiquette/ | http://myspace.com/mytriplethreatband

[PJ Fry]

Take the line out from your tape deck to the line in on your sound
card. Play the tape deck a few times while monitoring the sound to
verify your aren't overdriving the inputs. Then hit record on
Audacity and play on the tape deck. Come back in 45 minutes flip the
tape and hit play again.

Once side 2 is done you will have a big file waiting in memory. You
will have to delete a few songs as 90 minutes won't fit on a 80 minute
CD. After you have trimmed a few songs under File chose export
as .wav(*). Be aware that each tape will take up about 1Gig worth of
space. Exporting as .mp3 will save space but will cost processing
time when burning to an audio CD. At this point close Audacity and
open windows media player and open the file you just created and chose
burn to CD from the File menu item. If your PC doesn't hang on these
big files then repeat the steps 29 more times.

*If your CD player cna play .mp3 CDs then you would be better off
exporting the file as an .mp3 and just buring it to cd as a data file.

[martin griffith]

On Fri, 2 Nov 2007 10:21:52 +1200, in rec.arts.movies.production.sound
"geoff" wrote:

David Morgan (MAMS) wrote:
"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...
wrote in message

I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

What you're proposing is illegal; a violation of copyright law.


Wrong.... there was a special "tax" on blank cassettes which
covered this, and if he uses "music" CDs... he's covered again.
(For one copy, for personal use only)

Double wrong. This is 'format-shifting' and perfectly legal in many/most
countries. If not where you are, it should be.

geoff

A bit Off Topic but.....

I was skyping with a mate, who runs a electronics assembly firm in the
yUK, and he had been in telephonic communication with the PRS (uk
riia_mafia), asking if his staff ( both of them ) listened to the
radio when working......

He said, "Yes" , Talk Radio, but they are still going to send him a
bill.

On topic, we were talking about timecode and video and stuff


Martin

[Martin Harrington]

It's actually not illegal to make a backup copy for your own use.
--
Martin Harrington
Lend An Ear Sound
Sydney Australia

"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...
wrote in message

I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

What you're proposing is illegal; a violation of copyright law.

We won't help you with such an activity, ya' crook.

Bob Morein
Dresher, PA
(215) 646-4894

[Geoff]

David Morgan (MAMS) wrote:
"Soundhaspriority" wrote in message
...
wrote in message

I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

What you're proposing is illegal; a violation of copyright law.


Wrong.... there was a special "tax" on blank cassettes which
covered this, and if he uses "music" CDs... he's covered again.
(For one copy, for personal use only)

Double wrong. This is 'format-shifting' and perfectly legal in many/most
countries. If not where you are, it should be.

geoff

[Pan[_2_]]

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
ups.com...
The basic concept is simple - you connect the output of a cassette
deck to the input of a computer sound card, open a recording program
on the computer (Audacity is free and works well), start recording,
then start playing the tape. At the end of the tape, stop the
recording and you'll have a file that you can burn to a CD.

Tx. I am trying to do this using the instructions given here
http://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

The first thing is that I am not able to locate the "Line in"/"input of
the sound card" on my laptop - I have a IBM/Lenovo thinkpad.
I connected on end of my cable to the Headphone hole in my tape
player & the other end to the "Microphone hole" in the laptop -
is the Microphone hole the same as the input of the sound card?
The instructions ask you to select "Line In" in the Audacity screen.
However, I don't see "Line in" as an option on my Audacity - I
see only "Microphone" - is that OK?
Also I noticed that in the windows XP "Master Volume" dialog,
I have a mute button for the Microphone - does that disable
the microphone itself or just prevent the output from going to
the speaker? i.e. should I run audacity with this muted or not
muted - i noticed the recording does happen even with the
microphone muted, I think.

[Pan[_2_]]

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
You'd be wise to record with a little headroom, and bring the levels up in
Audacity.

I don't understand what you mean here!!!

Finally, you might feel the need for a little remastering,

What do you mean?

particularly eq. More good stuff to do in Audacity.

That all said, I don't use Audacity that much - most of my work gets done
in Audition/Cool Edit out of habit.

[Scott Dorsey]

In article , Pan wrote:
The first thing is that I am not able to locate the "Line in"/"input of
the sound card" on my laptop - I have a IBM/Lenovo thinkpad.
I connected on end of my cable to the Headphone hole in my tape
player & the other end to the "Microphone hole" in the laptop -
is the Microphone hole the same as the input of the sound card?
The instructions ask you to select "Line In" in the Audacity screen.
However, I don't see "Line in" as an option on my Audacity - I
see only "Microphone" - is that OK?

No, it's not. The microphone input is different, and I think you may
be in trouble because the IBM laptops do not have line inputs. Try
another computer. Pretty much any desktop should have one.

Also I noticed that in the windows XP "Master Volume" dialog,
I have a mute button for the Microphone - does that disable
the microphone itself or just prevent the output from going to
the speaker? i.e. should I run audacity with this muted or not
muted - i noticed the recording does happen even with the
microphone muted, I think.

If you select the line input, it doesn't matter what the microphone
input is doing, what is plugged into it or if it is muted. You need
a machine with a real line input.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Richard Crowley]

"Pan" wrote ...
The first thing is that I am not able to locate the "Line in"/"input
of
the sound card" on my laptop - I have a IBM/Lenovo thinkpad.
I connected on end of my cable to the Headphone hole in my tape
player & the other end to the "Microphone hole" in the laptop -
is the Microphone hole the same as the input of the sound card?

No. The mic input is different and almost always monaural.
The IBM/Lenovo (as most laptops) do not have line inputs.
Line inputs are relatively comon on desktop/tower systems.

If you can live with a low-quality mono recording, it is possible
to kludge the mic input. Otherwise, you will need a real stereo
line input. It is possible (and frequently more desirable) to use
an external USB device rather than the sound circuitry built into
the computer.

[Mike Rivers]

On Nov 4, 1:53 am, "Pan" wrote:

Tx. I am trying to do this using the instructions given herehttp://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

Oh. Your problem is that you're trying to use instructions that apply
to the writer's computer, not yours.

The first thing is that I am not able to locate the "Line in"/"input of
the sound card" on my laptop - I have a IBM/Lenovo thinkpad.

That's because your computer doesn't have a line input. The sound card
input is intended for use with a microphone for on-line voice
chatting, not for real recording. It isn't even stereo. You need to
get an outboard "sound card" for your computer. There are really cheap
USB gadgets that will do the job (not very well) or expensive
interfaces. You need to go to a music store (not a computer store -
they only sell the cheap junk) and buy something that costs what you
can justify for this project.

I connected on end of my cable to the Headphone hole in my tape
player & the other end to the "Microphone hole" in the laptop -
is the Microphone hole the same as the input of the sound card?
The instructions ask you to select "Line In" in the Audacity screen.
However, I don't see "Line in" as an option on my Audacity - I
see only "Microphone" - is that OK?

The little "microphone" slider in Audacity is what adjusts the record
level input from whatever source you have selected. If your computer
has only a mic input, that will probably have too much gain and will
give you a distorted recording. You might be able to get a usable
recording, but not a good quality one, by turning the volume on your
tape player way down so as not to overload the mic input on your
computer. It's good enough to learn how the process works, but you may
not be satisfied with the quality of the copy you make. Or maybe you
will. You'll have to judge that.

The "sound card" goes through the Windows mixer, the one that comes up
when you double-click the little loudspeaker icon at the bottom of
your screen. That's where you'll find the adjustment for Mic or Line
level if there is indeed one on your computer. It's possible that on
your computer, the built-in sound card is capable of switching gain
ranges when you select the mic or line input as the recording device.
You won't find this in any documentation from IBM, nor is it worth the
trouble to try to research it on line. See if you can find a "Line"
input on the Windows mixer and if you can, give it a try. You may have
to check a box in "properties" and make sure you're looking at
"recording" properties.

Also I noticed that in the windows XP "Master Volume" dialog,
I have a mute button for the Microphone - does that disable
the microphone itself or just prevent the output from going to
the speaker?

These things are never very clear. You just have to experiment. In the
best possible situation. you'd mute the Mic input, un-mute the Line
input, plug in your tape player, and with the reocord volume slider on
the Line Input of the Windows mixer about half to 3/4 of the way up,
and the Record level slider in Audacity at about that same position,
you'll get a usable reading on Audacity's record level meters. But if
you can't get that arrangement, fiddle around with various settings
and see what it takes to at least get a signal to record in Audacity.
It might be distorted. It might not be stereo. But if you keep track
of what you're doing, you should be able to sort it out.

You may never get anything usable with your built-in sound card, or
you may decide it's not worth the trouble. An external one with a real
line input is much easier to use, but if you don't want to spend any
money (you should be able to get away with less than $100 - look at
the Edirol UA1-EX if you don't have any better ideas) you might be
able to do a mediocre job with what you have.

[Pan[_2_]]

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Nov 4, 1:53 am, "Pan" wrote:

Tx. I am trying to do this using the instructions given
herehttp://www.nsftools.com/misc/TapeToCD.htm

Oh. Your problem is that you're trying to use instructions that apply
to the writer's computer, not yours.

The first thing is that I am not able to locate the "Line in"/"input of
the sound card" on my laptop - I have a IBM/Lenovo thinkpad.

That's because your computer doesn't have a line input. The sound card
input is intended for use with a microphone for on-line voice
chatting, not for real recording. It isn't even stereo. You need to
get an outboard "sound card" for your computer.

My desktop has 3 holes at the back - one green labelled "Out",
one blue labelled "In" & a Pink one with a small icon of a "mic".

I am assuming that the "In" is the line-in you are talking about.
I tried the laptop first because the PC & the Tape Player are in
different rooms. I have a smaller portable tape player which I
will take to the desktop & try it with that.

Tx a lot for your help.

[Richard Crowley]

"Pan" wrote ...
My desktop has 3 holes at the back - one green labelled "Out",
one blue labelled "In" & a Pink one with a small icon of a "mic".

I am assuming that the "In" is the line-in you are talking about.

Yes, that is quite likely exactly what you are looking for.
Remember that you must use the Windows control
screen(s) to select which input to record from, and to set
the recording level (volume).

I tried the laptop first because the PC & the Tape Player are in
different rooms. I have a smaller portable tape player which I
will take to the desktop & try it with that.

Wouldn't it be convieient if our laptops had stereo line inputs.
OTOH, they would probably be pretty noisy given the tight
conditions inside a typical portable machine.

[John Williamson]

Martin Harrington wrote:
It's actually not illegal to make a backup copy for your own use.

It depends where you are. In the UK, it is. It's just very rarely enforced.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Arny Krueger]

"Pan" wrote in message
...

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
You'd be wise to record with a little headroom, and bring the levels up
in Audacity.

I don't understand what you mean here!!!

Set levels so that the peaks are a few dB below full scale.

Finally, you might feel the need for a little remastering,

What do you mean?

Equalization, perhaps some adjustment of dynamics.

particularly eq. More good stuff to do in Audacity.

That all said, I don't use Audacity that much - most of my work gets done
in Audition/Cool Edit out of habit.

[Art Cohen]

In article , says...
In article , Pan wrote:
The first thing is that I am not able to locate the "Line in"/"input of
the sound card" on my laptop - I have a IBM/Lenovo thinkpad.
I connected on end of my cable to the Headphone hole in my tape
player & the other end to the "Microphone hole" in the laptop -
is the Microphone hole the same as the input of the sound card?
The instructions ask you to select "Line In" in the Audacity screen.
However, I don't see "Line in" as an option on my Audacity - I
see only "Microphone" - is that OK?

No, it's not. The microphone input is different, and I think you may
be in trouble because the IBM laptops do not have line inputs. Try
another computer. Pretty much any desktop should have one.

Also I noticed that in the windows XP "Master Volume" dialog,
I have a mute button for the Microphone - does that disable
the microphone itself or just prevent the output from going to
the speaker? i.e. should I run audacity with this muted or not
muted - i noticed the recording does happen even with the
microphone muted, I think.

If you select the line input, it doesn't matter what the microphone
input is doing, what is plugged into it or if it is muted. You need
a machine with a real line input.
--scott

This is not always true. I've worked with a Dell laptop which had a
combination mic/line input. It was labelled "mic" IIRC. According to the
manual, if you plugged a stereo 1/8" line source into it, it would
autodetect and work correctly. I was surprised when it worked as
described. I was able to get a useable recording of a soprano in a church
using a pair of km184's into a mackie board into the laptop input. Not my
preferred method, but given the situation, and the lack of other options,
I went with it. The client was pleased with the result.

Peace
Art Cohen

[Mike Rivers]

On Nov 5, 12:47 pm, Art Cohen wrote:

This is not always true. I've worked with a Dell laptop which had a
combination mic/line input.

Nothing about computers is always true. I have an older Dell laptop
that's like that, and a newer IBM laptop that has only a mono mic
level input that's normalled to the built-in mic.

[zeus]

Hi Pan,
I have just recently ripped from pre-recorded tapes directly from the
cassette player to the sound card on the pc using creative
recorder.Then burned them to CD.
I was mildly surprised to hear the music on some (about 150) sounded
great, others(cheap tapes) were low bassy sounding.

As for issues involved, a pc with a cd burner and patience and time.
It took me about a week to record 15 tapes, not all at once, after a
few hours which equaled 2 tapes...you do get tired.

There are plenty of freeware recording software on the web that works
fine. Thats for recording the tape to the pc.



Let me know how you make out.

Hi,
I have about 30 audio cassette tapes (C-90)'s. These are
essentially compilations made over many years from other
medium (other pre-recorded audio tapes, LP's etc). They
are all in good condition.

How do I rip these & transfer them to a CD? Are there any
free software available which will help me with this? Are there
many issues involved?

[Scott Dorsey]

In article , zeus wrote:
I have just recently ripped from pre-recorded tapes directly from the
cassette player to the sound card on the pc using creative
recorder.Then burned them to CD.
I was mildly surprised to hear the music on some (about 150) sounded
great, others(cheap tapes) were low bassy sounding.

This was probably because the azimuth was wrong. You MUST ride the azimuth
on cassettes because they are invariably recorded with it wrong.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."