Tape cassettes to CDs etc

[DracoM]

Have just discovered a cache of twenty or thirty tape cassettes going back years. I'd like to convert to CDs, or memory sticks etc.
Is there a cheapish way? An agency that does it? Or..............am I living in a silly nostalgia wallow under an oncoming wave of ridicule?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think that the cheapest way is to use Audacity (the software is free to download), connect your computer to the cassette player and record in real time. The Audacity files can then be stored on memory stick or burnt to CD via i-Tunes or similar. (Tape hiss can be lessened on Audacity, but will always be a feature of the playback.)

There may be more professional ways of doing it - although the cheapest shops offering such a service often use Audacity - but these will be expensive for 20 - 30 tapes.

[Bryn]

Have just discovered a cache of twenty or thirty tape cassettes going back years. I'd like to convert to CDs, or memory sticks etc.
Is there a cheapish way? An agency that does it? Or..............am I living in a silly nostalgia wallow under an oncoming wave of ridicule?

If you act very quickly you might be able to get a Zoom H1 'Handy Recorder" and accessories for a decent price here. With this you would circumvent the need to feed a line into you computer (which often means all sorts of interference from the computer's processor, etc. I can't remember whether the Zoom H1 comes with free editing software but if it doesn't you just read into you computer from the H1's micro-SD card and then edit with Audacity as described by f(hg). Check out reviews of the Zoom H1, such as here.

[teamsaint]

I used something such as Ferney suggests with one of these

Under £10, and using audacity, which is free, and pretty easy to use with basic IT skills.

The files do seem to use quite a lot of hard drive space, (?) but I certainly copied some cassettes successfully and easily this way.

[Serial_Apologist]

My 1000 + audio cassettes are mostly, thankfully, still in reasonably decent listenable condition - as is the JVC KD-WR90B/E twin cassette deck that was kindly donated to me a few years ago. Both, with good fortune, will outlive me, which is just as well, as it would probably take more than devoting the remainder of my life to transfer them all.

I was surprised to see brand new audio cassette recordings on sale at a recent improv gig.

[DracoM]

Huge thx to all.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Picking up a tape player with Dolby B can be a bit of a bind. There are plenty of non-dolly one still being sold, expressly for the purpose of copying cassettes.

[MrGongGong]

A couple of thoughts

The quality of what you will get can be massively affected by the quality of the AD conversion
SO one of the cheapo (or even on board sound) USB plug-in devices is likely to be a bit compromised in terms of quality
not always a problem BUT it can be.

Also, make sure you clean the heads of the tape machine, Isopropynol with a cotton bud is better than any "cleaner" or even the dreaded "cleaning cassette" .... then clean them again.

It's also good practice to spool the tape from one spool to the other before playing, particularly if it has been stored for a while, to even out the tension a bit.

Audacity is fine for starting off doing this stuff but be careful of some of its noise reduction and "cleaning" features, there's a real reason why some folks spend large sums on software. If you are likely to do lots I would invest in an audio editor that has a less "clunky" work flow

then clean the heads again

[gurnemanz]

I went through a strong audio cassette phase and have nearly 200, including many live concerts from Radio 3. Some years ago I transferred a few of them (and vinyl) to CD/computer using the excellent Pioneer PDR-609 with re-recordable CDRs for the initial conversion. I must have had it for nearly 20 years and it still gets mentioned online. This worked very well. You can de-click, de-hiss etc and insert track markers using appropriate computer software, if you want to take the trouble. However, I eventually decided it was not worth the effort (life too short etc) and recently re-instated my old Yamaha cassette player which still sounds fine.

[MrGongGong]

You can always get one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NAKAMICHI-Black-BX-300-Stereo-Three-Head-Cassette-Deck-With-Pitch-Control-/282655034235?hash=item41cf8d8b7b:g:7e0AAOSwEKNZu~8~

[DracoM]

Crikey! At that price?

[Braunschlag]

Crikey! At that price?

That does seem expensive for something in less than pristine condition. I'd be expecting a far better cosmetic finish even if it has been serviced. I've seen them for less money.

[Dave2002]

I used something such as Ferney suggests with one of these

Under £10, and using audacity, which is free, and pretty easy to use with basic IT skills.

The files do seem to use quite a lot of hard drive space, (?) but I certainly copied some cassettes successfully and easily this way.

I tried one rather like that a year or two back, and sent it back - total rubbish. Sorry!

Doing tapes is quite difficult to do well. I found that most commercial tapes were really very poor, but on the other hand quite a lot of tapes I recorded myself from either radio or in some cases CDs sounded almost indistinguishable from the original sources.

I would suggest that if you can't get good replay without digitising that putting an ADC in to do conversion is not going to improve things, but if the replay is acceptably good, then a good ADC should capture the quality of the recording rather well.

Some commercial systems do the conversion at faster than real time rates, but there may be a significant quality loss with that approach - though perhaps some higher performance systems do achieve respectable results.

Good luck with the enterprise anyway!

[Alain Maréchal]

I eventually decided it was not worth the effort (life too short etc) and recently re-instated my old Yamaha cassette player which still sounds fine.

I agree. Obtain a decent quality cassette deck and plug it in. I have many off-air recordings carefully stored and they play well, even radio broadcasts of organ music, which usually severely task any cassette. (BBC broadcasts of historic organs; Martinikerk Groningen*, Dallam organs in Brittany. Have the BBC given up on the genre? )

*Played by Wim van Beek, who died a few months ago at 87, having given up playing aged 85.

[Hornspieler]

I tried one rather like that a year or two back, and sent it back - total rubbish. Sorry!

Doing tapes is quite difficult to do well. I found that most commercial tapes were really very poor, but on the other hand quite a lot of tapes I recorded myself from either radio or in some cases CDs sounded almost indistinguishable from the original sources.

I would suggest that if you can't get good replay without digitising that putting an ADC in to do conversion is not going to improve things, but if the replay is acceptably good, then a good ADC should capture the quality of the recording rather well.

Some commercial systems do the conversion at faster than real time rates, but there may be a significant quality loss with that approach - though perhaps some higher performance systems do achieve respectable results.

Good luck with the enterprise anyway!

You can rely on Dave 2002 to give you sound (ha, ha) technical advice, but do you need to go to all this trouble?

Cassettes take up much less shelf space than CDs or DVDs.

So if you have a quality cassette recorder/player (Yamaha was always favoured by my colleagues at the BBC) with a good working tape counter, why not concentrate on connecting the output to a good amplifier* and speakers?

From my experience, any copy from the original tape loses something.
I still listen to my set of cassettes of "The Art of Dennis Brain" for instance. It gives me a memory of the time (and of Dennis himself) when I first heard it.

Think of the amount of time and shelf space you will save by not copying those cassettes - they are a part of your past life and will bring back many other memories.

HS

* My Bose amplifier with its six internal speakers (three on each side) gives a fine stereo image - and does not take up any floor space!