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Donna Elvira
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« on: 13:11:30, 19-12-2007 » |
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Sorry to be a complete technophobe here but I was wondering if anyone knew of a way of transferring a cassette to CD. Many years ago, my sister played in a concert at school (violin solo part in Brandenberg 5) and it was fantastic. The concert was taped but, of course, the quality is very poor indeed. Is it possible to transfer to CD AND edit out some of the fuzziness as well? If anyone could help, I'd be very grateful.
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Jonathan
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« Reply #1 on: 13:14:32, 19-12-2007 » |
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Hi Donna,
I had a collection of 775 music cassettes which I transferred to mp3 but the software I used is also good for transferring to CD. I'm sure there are alternatives but i used Audioclean and found it to be a most useful piece of software. It's also not terribly expensive and includes various tweaks to clean up the signal from the tape prior to changeing to another format (e.g. mp3 or CD).
Hope this helps!
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Best regards,
Jonathan
*********************************************
"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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Donna Elvira
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« Reply #2 on: 14:44:17, 19-12-2007 » |
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Hello, Jonathan
That sounds exactly what I'm after so I'll do a bit of research on it and then decide.
Thanks so much for your help!!
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...trj...
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« Reply #3 on: 14:59:19, 19-12-2007 » |
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Donna - you'll also need something to connect your hifi system/tape player to your computer. Unless your computer has an audio-in socket (many of them only have audio-out - ie for headphones/speakers), you'll need something like an iMic. This is basically an adaptor to plug the audio signals from your hifi into a USB socket on your computer. I've got one and it seems to work pretty well. |
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #4 on: 20:56:15, 19-12-2007 » |
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Hmmm, would iMic also work on transferring my minidisc recordings? My minidisc player refuses to 'play' into my computer...
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Donna Elvira
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« Reply #5 on: 07:47:15, 20-12-2007 » |
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Thank you, ...trj...
Gosh, it's a bit of a minefield, all this, but sounds well worth it!
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #6 on: 09:35:14, 20-12-2007 » |
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Just a couple of pointers, however you're intending to transfer the cassette; make sure that the source material gets the best chance it can by ensuring that the tape heads are clean (vodka on cotton buds works well if you've nothing specialised) and that the cassette itself has already had a couple of runs to make sure that it's at optimal tension. Don't apply any sort of tone to the tape as you copy it, just try to get exactly what's on the tape onto the computer: you can play around with the signal once you've got the wav. file. Again: never actually work on the file you've made, always work on copies of it: that way, if you decide you've gone too far and have chucked out the baby with the bathwater by overdoing tonal adjustment, you still have the original on your computer to try again, rather than having to make another transfer: also, if you find that your original software doesn't do the job you want, you can either find more or pass the file on easily to someone else who may be better equipped to deal with it.
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Bryn
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« Reply #7 on: 10:56:03, 20-12-2007 » |
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May I just add to Ron's points, that you should, if possible, use the machine on which the cassette was recorded. Also, it may seem obvious, but make sure any noise reduction and/or tape coating formulation settings (Ferro, Chrome, Metal, etc.) are as they were when the recording was made. This issue of noise reduction is particularly important regarding Dolby C, which can produce horrendous audio quality if the tape speed does not match precisely that at which it was recorded, and as Steve Reich learned many years ago, no two tape machines play at exactly the same speed. On a quite different approach to the issue. There are now a few quite reasonably priced digital recorders around, to which you could copy your cassettes. I use a couple of devices made by the Zoom Corporation, the H4, which would probably be the better option due to its more flexible input facilities, and the H2, which is cheaper and also offers the possibility of surround recording from its built-in mics. These devices both save to SD cards. The files from those cards can then be read straight into your PC via a USB link, and then edited and burned to CD. See http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewforum.php?f=15 and http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/index.html for further info. |
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Andy D
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« Reply #8 on: 11:23:11, 20-12-2007 » |
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Hmmm, would iMic also work on transferring my minidisc recordings? My minidisc player refuses to 'play' into my computer...
I assume from what you say that you haven't got a more recent minidisc player rm. The MZ-RH1 allows you to transfer digitally old SP/mono/LP2/LP4 recordings to your PC by converting them to Hi-MD format (ie .oma) or .wav files using SonicStage. You can play .oma files using Windows Media Player but Audacity won't work with them, though it will work with .wav files of course. |
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...trj...
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« Reply #9 on: 11:34:38, 20-12-2007 » |
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Hmmm, would iMic also work on transferring my minidisc recordings? My minidisc player refuses to 'play' into my computer...
Assuming you don't have one of the newer players Andy mentioned, then yes. It's basically just a cable with a headphone-style socket at one end and USB at the other, so in theory it will connect anything audio to your computer: one day I'm going to have to transfer all my minidiscs in this way (and it's only a couple of years since I transferred all my tapes to MD...!). It's not terribly hi-fi, but it is a cheap workable solution. Then you just need the software to record the USB input - Audacity is free and pretty stable (although it doesn't do much in the way of sound removal etc.). |
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Andy D
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« Reply #10 on: 13:53:25, 20-12-2007 » |
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[one day I'm going to have to transfer all my minidiscs in this way (and it's only a couple of years since I transferred all my tapes to MD...!).
 Depends on the numbers I suppose but I can't face the prospect of transferring all my cassettes and reels, they'll have to stay as they are. I do play cassettes in my vehicle and also in the bedside portable, but very rarely use either my cassette deck or reel-to-reel deck. Some old SP recordings on MD I am transferring to the PC but this is mainly to recycle the discs (Hi-MD gets a lot more onto a disc) - I don't want to keep buying them as the format is likely to die. One transfer I did recently was of 2 Rory Gallagher/Taste LPs belonging to my brother which I've got recordings of on a reel tape. His originals are too warped to play and the albums don't seem to be available on CD. So I recorded directly from my Revox to a 1GB Hi-MD disc with no compression, transferred the files to the PC using SonicStage, split them into tracks using Audacity (I did try some of the noise reduction options but they didn't seem that successful so I dropped most of them), then burnt the tracks to CD. It took a long time though so I can't face the prospect of doing that too often! I could have gone via my hard disc recorder (rather than MD) and done the editing there but I think it would have been even slower. |
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...trj...
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« Reply #11 on: 13:14:21, 21-12-2007 » |
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Well, my tape player died and I didn't want to fork out for another just for the sake of an archive - particularly as many of the tapes themselves were starting to deteriorate. Unfortunately you're right - MD is probably dead, so one day my MD player will die and then I'll be stuck.
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adastra
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« Reply #12 on: 06:45:45, 27-01-2008 » |
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You can transfer Cassette tapes to MP3 rather cheaply: the only expense necessary, excluding time, is for the cable that connects the tape player to the line in of your computer. 'Audacity' is relatively user friendly Open Source (free) software that can record the music and convert it to MP3, it can contains some filters which can be used to manipulate the music file, I have heard that it has a basic noise removal feature. You can download the software from the following link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Links to related tutorials: |
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« Last Edit: 06:53:09, 27-01-2008 by adastra »
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