Audio cassettes-anyone?

[gadjo_dilo]

I have a radio with CD and cassette player but I'm sticked to TV so the device is full of dust. However on Christmas I use to listern to some cassettes of romanian Christmas carols which are the best in the world.

[schmenke]

...am going to purchase one of the turntables that records to your computer. You can then burn CDs or copy to a MP3 player or whatever. ...

I purchased one of those turntables a couple of years ago with the intent of transferring my vinyl collection to MP3 format, however the audio quality was extremely poor. To achieve a half-decent quality I had to muck around extensively with the settings on the software provided, and these varied from LP to LP. The process was so time consuming, producing mediocre results that I gave up after only a handful of albums

[Firstgear]

I purchased one of those turntables a couple of years ago with the intent of transferring my vinyl collection to MP3 format, however the audio quality was extremely poor. To achieve a half-decent quality I had to muck around extensively with the settings on the software provided, and these varied from LP to LP. The process was so time consuming, producing mediocre results that I gave up after only a handful of albums

If you still have your old stereo equipment (turntable/cassette deck/amp) I believe you can do a better job - cheaper. It'll still be time consuming though. I did all my old albums not too long ago.

The old amp will have inputs at the back for various components. The inputs intended for the cassette deck will have IN & OUT inputs. Connect your turntable (or cassette deck) to the IN. Then connect the OUT to your computer. I can't remember right now if it's the mic or headphone jack at the back of the computer that you need to connect to - but it's one of those two. To make this connection, you'll need a cable with RCA plugs on one end (at the amp) and a normal jack at the other end (computer). I had a cable like this from my old cam-corder - but they only cost a couple of bucks if you need to buy.

Then download free software "Audacity" onto your computer, and you're ready to copy your music to mp3.

What is a bit time consuming is cropping a complete side of an album into individual tracks. I'm not a computer or music whiz - but I was able to figure it out quite easily, so it's not too difficult. The one mistake I made initially was recording to mp3 in mono instead of stereo. The default setting in Audacity is one track - so just go to 'settings" and switch to 2 tracks and you're good to go.

The crappy quality you speak of Schmenke might be in the equipment you bought. I remember a stylus alone for a turntable costing about $100 years ago, so the complete unit that Race mentioned (for $80) probably isn't that great.

[Dave B]

^ All good advice with one exception - the output of a standalone hi-fi turntable will almost certainly require a pre-amp before you can plug it into a tape deck, not only to boost the signal but correct its equalisation: vinyl is RIAA equalised before recording. You may be able to correct the EQ in software, I've never used Audacity, but somewhere along the line you'll need to do it.

[Firstgear]

^ All good advice with one exception - the output of a standalone hi-fi turntable will almost certainly require a pre-amp before you can plug it into a tape deck, not only to boost the signal but correct its equalisation: vinyl is RIAA equalised before recording. You may be able to correct the EQ in software, I've never used Audacity, but somewhere along the line you'll need to do it.

Like I said, I'm no expert - so I'm not even sure I understand what you're saying there Dave

But I do know that Audacity has a slide bar type of control to turn the recording level up or down (I had to turn it way down). It was just like in the old days of recording albums to cassette, where you had to turn the dial up or down to get it into the correct volume range for recording.

[Dave B]

In a nutshell, if you didn't apply EQ to a vinyl recording the groove would be massive to accomodate the bass - and bring a multitude of practical problems. So a curve is applied where the bass is reduced and the treble increased, which needs correcting before playing back otherwise the music will sound awful. A pre-amp does this, either as a seperate box or more commonly built into an amplifier with a dedicated turntable input. I would imagine that any decent recording software can simulate this EQ curve.

</geek>

Edit: have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization if you're really bored

[schmenke]

Thanks for the advice FG and Dave. I may just give it another go!
I don't have my old LP player anymore (come to think of it, I can't remember what actually happened to it), so part of my woes my have been, like you mentioned FG, the crappy $80.00 USB player that I purchased from London Drugs :

http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/...9&ProductTab=3

[race aficionado]

Once I try it, I will let you know.

mokin:

I'm now playing with my new toy and it's worth it's weight in gold.

Ok, so it cost me $87 bucks plus shipping and in terms of physical quality, it shows why it was so cheap. Every time I press the control keys I think it is going to brake if I press them too hard.
After easy installation and the reading of the instructions I have managed to save many precious cassettes that I've hold on to that have precious memories like that of my late grandma reading her poems or me singing with my family 35 years ago.
It is connected to the computer via USB and the quality is as the original tape.
I haven't tested it with a cassette that has commercial music on it but of what I've heard, I'm sure it will do a great job.

Hopefully this deck will survive all the old tapes with its dissolving elements but I have been having a ball re discovering treasures that are being saved.

This is the product:
GRACE Digital Audio Tape2USB
GDI-T2USB
http://www.gracedigitalaudio.com

back to my new toy I go.
mokin:

[fandango]

^ All good advice with one exception - the output of a standalone hi-fi turntable will almost certainly require a pre-amp before you can plug it into a tape deck, not only to boost the signal but correct its equalisation: vinyl is RIAA equalised before recording. You may be able to correct the EQ in software, I've never used Audacity, but somewhere along the line you'll need to do it.

If you take the audio output from the amp it'll work fine. Headphone out to the input on the computer. The problem is that it's time-consuming to split up the tracks later.

I've never heard of this EQ correction you speak of. Perhaps it's true, but I doubt it. I used to work in recording, and I never heard of anyone mastering a record with this mystery EQ in mind. It sounds like a bit of an urban legend, because if it existed then it would be necessary to make various masters of a recording, with one specifically for this vinyl conversion. I don't think mixing engineers and producers would just send the master off to the pressing plant trusting the guys there to get it right.

In fact, it's more likely that EQ would be needed to correct problems when going from cassette to computer, especially if there's Dolby noise redution involved.

[race aficionado]

By the way, for my toy to work, audacity is part of the equation.
In their instruction manual, I was asked to download the "audacity" version that was compatible with my operating system and audacity works in tandem with my deck.
I do not need to equalize - It gives me what is actually there and if I want to mess with it, then i can go to other programs if needed, but so far, all has been transfered wonderfully.

mokin: