How To Transfer an Audio Cassette Tape
There are many reasons why you might want to transfer an audio recording from cassette to CD. You may have a recording from your early garage band days or an interview with your grandmother or baby’s first words. One thing is certain. Cassette audio does not improve with age. It’s time you transferred that audio to CD. It’s not very difficult to do once you have gathered together just a few items.
1. First, you need a cassette player. The better the quality of the player, the better the final outcome. Borrow a good player if you do not have one, or look in your local thrift shop. It should be possible to get a good player cheaply if you cannot borrow one.
2. Next, you need a cord or cable with the right connectors. Usually, the output of the cassette player will be RCA plugs, and the input of the sound card on your computer will be a stereo mini-plug. Choose wisely, because cables can be very expensive or quite inexpensive, depending on where you make your purchase. If you do not already have a cable, or you cannot borrow one, shop around for the best deal.
3. Connect the output of the cassette player to the input of your sound card. Consult your sound card manual. The line input is usually color-coded blue, but your card may be different. A note of caution: If you have to use the headphone output of the cassette recorder, start with the volume all the way down. It is very easy to overload the line input of your sound card, in which case your audio will be greatly overdriven and distorted. This is even more important if you have to use a microphone input instead of a line input.
4. Next you need to select the input for your system and adjust the input volume. Go to Settings | Control Panel, and then open Sounds and Audio Devices (or Sounds and Multimedia, depending on your operating system). Under the Sounds or Volume tab, make sure you check the box that says Place volume control or the icon in the task bar. Under the Audio tab, make sure your sound card is selected as the Sound recording device. Close the Properties box and double-click the little speaker icon in the area called the tray at the lower right of your screen. This will open up the Volume Control so that you can adjust the input volume. Under Options on the menu, check the Advanced Controls option. Then, under Properties, select Recording (the default is Playback). Make sure the Line In volume control box is checked in the bottom part of the window. If you have to use the Microphone input, adjusting the volume to record without distorting is going to be tricky. Click OK, and now you should see the input volume controls for your sound card. Select the Line In volume control (or Microphone if that’s all you have) and deselect the rest. You are now ready to start recording. You will probably have to come back to the Volume Control, so just minimize the box instead of closing it.how to transfer cassette tape to cd
5. You need software to record to your hard drive, but you don’t need to spend a lot of money for it. Your card may have some recording software bundled with it, or you can download something to use. I recommend downloading a freeware package called Audacity. Audacity has all the features you are ever likely to need. It is certainly capable of accomplishing the task of recording from cassette to your hard drive. Open Audacity and select Preferences from the Edit menu. Under Audio I/O, check to make sure the number of channels is correct. You almost certainly have a stereo card, so 2 channels is probably the correct setting. Under the Directories tab, select a directory on a drive that has plenty of room. A long recording can take up to several hundred megabytes of room.
6. Now, for the moment of truth. Start recording with Audacity, and start playing the cassette at a low to moderate volume. Record a small sample of the loudest part of the cassette audio. Adjust the volume so that you get a strong audio signal, but not so strong that it distorts. Rewind the tape, discard the practice recordings, start recording with Audacity, and then start the cassette player. Watch the recording for a while, preferably all the way through. Watch for peaks that are too loud because they may distort. Keep an eye out for other problems. Record all the way to the end. Make sure you have a good copy of the recording saved. The most critical part is done.
7. You will probably want to do some post-processing of the audio file. Do not work on the original recording. Work on a copy. The most likely thing you will want to do is reduce some of the tape hiss. Audacity has a noise reduction effect. Start cleaning up the audio by selecting a section of the recording that has undesirable tape hiss, but no desirable audio. You need a sample of the noise so the noise reduction effect will know what to remove. Go to Effects on the Audacity main menu and select Noise Removal. Under Step 1, click the Get Noise Profile button. When you have a sample, select the entire audio file. Go back to the Noise Removal effect and set the level of removal to about 25%. Then click the Remove Noise button. After Audacity is finished, sample the filtered audio using headphones. Noise Removal is an effect that can definitely be overdone. If you have the removal level set too high, too much original audio gets filtered, and the result sounds hollow and tinny. Play with the effect until you have the right balance of hiss removal and audio quality.
When you have the audio just the way you want it, slice it up into tracks, trim to the size you want, and then burn your tracks to CD using your favorite burning software. Store the original cassette away in a dry place, and enjoy your new CD.
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How to Transfer Cassette Tape to Computer
Audio cassettes opened up a world of portability unimaginable in the days when LPs ruled the roost. Now, however, cassette tapes have fallen by the wayside (or, in many cases, have been thrown to the wayside from moving vehicles), and, unlike LPs, they don’t look like making a comeback anytime soon. This poses a problem for those of us who would like to preserve important conversations or good songs that are currently stored on cassettes, not only because audio cassettes eventually deteriorate or get “eaten” by your tape player, but also because cassette players are becoming increasingly rare. Fortunately, you can easily transfer audio from cassettes to your computer, where it can be stored in formats such as WAV and MP3 or can be burned to CDs. In fact, $6 could get you everything you need.
Steps
- Get your supplies together. You have several options. See the “Supplies You’ll Need” section below for a list of these.
- Rewind or fast-forward your cassette to the desired spot.
- Connect the red and white RCA plugs to the appropriate, color-coded output jacks (line-out) on your cassette player or stereo receiver. Or connect one end of a double-ended 3.5mm stereo cable into the headphone output of your tape player.
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Cable Converter
Connect the other end of your chosen cable to the “line-in” of your computer sound card. The 3.5mm Stereo plug is just like the plug of an earphone that you use in your Walkman or iPod. Adaptors are also available which allow you to use your computer’s USB port. For more details on the options see the “Things You’ll Need” section.
- Turn on your computer and cassette player.
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MS Sound Recorder
Open the sound-recording software you want to use. You can use just about any sound recording software. Microsoft Sound Recorder, which is standard in Microsoft Windows, will work for brief snippets, but it can be quite tedious to adjust the amount of time it will record (the default is only 60 seconds; you have to prepare your file beforehand by hitting the Record button each time it reaches the end, until you get a file large enough to hold the audio you’ll be recording; then hit Rewind before recording), and it may not serve you well if you need to do extensive editing. If you do want to use Sound Recorder follow these instructions: click “Start” – “Programs” – scroll to and click on “Accessories” – scroll to and click on “Entertainment” – select “Sound Recorder”. You could also use a free sound recording like Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net). If you use this sound recording software, you can touch up the audio (raise volume, clear some static areas) and even export to mp3.
- Click the record button in your sound recording software. (In Sound Recorder and many other programs, this is the button with the red dot.) Start recording before you hit “play” on your cassette player so you make sure you don’t miss anything at the beginning.
- Press “play” on your cassette deck. The computer will record the audio coming from your cassette player.
- Click the “stop” button (typically a black square) when you are finished. If you want to record for a long time (a whole cassette, for example), you don’t have to sit around and wait for the recording to finish. Your recorder will continue recording after the tape stops, and you can just cut the silent portion when you edit the recording. You do, however, want to make sure your recorder will record for long enough to capture all the audio you want. If it doesn’t, simply record each track one at a time.
- Save the audio file by clicking “File” – “Save”. A new window will open and you can give the file a name and choose a location on your hard drive to save to.
- Edit your recording. You may not need to do any editing, but if you want to cut out silences, erase some tracks, or change the volume, for example, most sound-recording programs will allow you to do so. When editing, it is a good idea to keep the original file as a backup and change the names of edited files when you save them in case you find you made a mistake. When you’re sure you like the edited file, you can delete the original to save memory space on your computer.
- Burn audio to CD if desired.
Tips
- The audio file you created in the native PC sound file type: WAV (“.wav”) format. You can play it with almost any audio software. These files, however, are about 10 times larger than the equivalent file in MP3, so you may want to compress them to MP3 if size is more important than sound quality. Your sound recording software may have this function built in, or you may need to get additional software. Fortunately, you can get such conversion software free online, such as Audio Grabber which will record straight to MP3 (link below).
- Your sound card may need to be set to allow recording from the line-in port (the pale blue circular port next to speakers). You can do this in Windows (XP and below) from the volume control in the system tray (near the clock). Double click the volume icon, then in the window that opens, click ‘options’ then ‘properties’ then ‘recording’ then ‘OK’. Make sure the line-in box is selected.
- MS Sound Recorder has limited functions to control the recording process such as volume and speed. The software also give you limited function to edit the sound files by mixing or inserting. More advanced sound recording and editing software may already come with your sound card, so check that before you buy any additional software. Otherwise, you can find many good freeware programs on the internet for recording, editing, and changing formats of audio files.
- A good, free, open source audio recorder that works on Windows, macs and linux is Audacity. However, to save to an MP3, you will need to download the free LAME plugin.
- For the reverse operation — transferring digital sound to tape — simply use the same cable setup, but plug one end into the cassette deck’s microphone or line in jack, and the other end into the computer’s line out or headphone or speaker jack. Hit record on the cassette deck, then start the songs playing on the computer. Start with a low volume setting and adjust for good quality sound, then rewind and start over the recording at that volume level.
Warnings
- The WAV format audio files are cumbersome. One cassette tape may take hundreds of MB, so make sure you have enough space on your hard drive.
- Start with a very low volume on the cassette player or stereo, as your computer’s input circuitry can very easily be damaged by high-level input.
- Take care not to violate copyright laws with your recordings. Cassette tapes may be old, but the copyright is usually still enforceable.
- If the recording is rare, don’t throw away the cassette. Always keep your master copy. You will need it when your hard drive crashes, or you find there was a glitch in your transfer, or when your next new computer can record it better.
Things You’ll Need
- (1) “Y” stereo adapter cable with a pair of RCA-style channel connectors (one is usually red, the other white) at one end, and a single line-in, 1/8-inch (3.5 millimeter) mini-connector at the other. This is also called a 3.5mm Stereo to RCA Dual Audio Cable. It can be purchased at Walmart for about $5.or(1) A regular stereo hook-up cable with RCA connectors at both ends and (2) a 3.5mm mini-connector adapter. With this setup, you plug the RCA connectors at one end into the cassette deck’s line-out jacks and then plug the connectors at the other end into the adaptor, which has a 3.5 mm mini-connector at the other end to plug into your sound card’s line-in jack.or
(1) A regular stereo hook-up cable with RCA connectors at both ends and (1) RCA-to-USB audio interface (converter). With this setup you connect the RCA cable to the converter, which has a USB plug to connect to your computer’s USB port.
or
(1) double-ended 3.5mm stereo cable; (also available at most electronics stores)
- A PC with a sound card that has a line-in jack. Almost all computers have this device, except for some laptop computers that do not have a line-in jack. In this case, you may need to use the USB interface. If your PC or laptop does not have a line-in, you may also be able to use the microphone-in port. Just make sure that the volume setting is not too high: start with the lowest setting and raise it little by little until you are able to record a low-volume sound, like for example the first few bars of Ravel’s Bolero.
- Sound recording software.
- A cassette player with either:(1) audio RCA output (line-out) jacksor(2) a 1/8 inch stereo “headphone” or “line-out” jack.
If your cassette deck is built in to your stereo receiver, you can use the line-out jacks on the receiver.
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