help/suggestions | tape 2 CD

keith_correa

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Hey guys:

I have around 200 cassette tapes from the 90's which I need to transfer to CD. I'm aware that the transfer will be a painstakingly slow process and I'm willing to invest the time in pieces towards doing this. Have accumulated these tapes over a long period of time and at some cost [relative to those times] so these are important to me. I have a excellent 3 head glass head [remember them?] Kenwood cassette deck that I can use. I need suggestions on the best way to do the transfer and what to do post transfer - maybe to cleanup.
I'm sure that numerous folks on this forum must have done this so am looking for ideas, caveats, things that you did that worked, things that you could have done better in retrospect - etc. etc. ANY suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Connect tape deck to "Line In" (Mic) of your PC sound card and capture/ convert with "Spin it Again" SW.

Happy converting!
 
I don't think so, as the SW is basically doing the capturing/ converting.
 
A good sound card wit ha decent ADC like the Asus Xonar essence and a good power supply (smps) like from Corsair would be a good investment considering the pain and long term archival value of your project.

Regards
 
Hai Keith,

If you have a Realtek onboard sound (i.e Pentium IV or later model PC), then that should be fine or else you can try Creative Audigy Value Ext Sound card which costs around R.1700/- the Recording software comes bundled with it which has provision for 24 Bit mastering, the sound is somewhat better than 16 bit mastered wave. I recommend you connect the Tape Deck to a good amp and feed the Line out of the amp to the Line in of the Sound card or PC. The SW supplied with the Creative card is more than enough, for editing. Record the Sound in wav format at the high sample rate (eg 24 bit 96000 Hz). But remember to normalize the wave files and if required remove the hiss, save the final master file as 24 -Bit 44100 hz, before you burn to CD.

Hope this helps,

N Murali.
 
Last edited:
Hey guys:

I have around 200 cassette tapes from the 90's which I need to transfer to CD. I'm aware that the transfer will be a painstakingly slow process and I'm willing to invest the time in pieces towards doing this. Have accumulated these tapes over a long period of time and at some cost [relative to those times] so these are important to me. I have a excellent 3 head glass head [remember them?] Kenwood cassette deck that I can use. I need suggestions on the best way to do the transfer and what to do post transfer - maybe to cleanup.
I'm sure that numerous folks on this forum must have done this so am looking for ideas, caveats, things that you did that worked, things that you could have done better in retrospect - etc. etc. ANY suggestions would be appreciated.
Hi, offtopic ,any relation to Charles Correa ?
 
If you need to cfonvert to MP3 this may be useful

Philips - CD Soundmachine MP3 - AZ1856/98 - CD sound machines - Audio products - Sound and vision


Philips CD soundmachine

CD Soundmachine
MP3 AZ1856/98


Rip music from CDs, radio and cassette onto a USB device

With this smart feature, you can easily listen to all your music content on your Hi-Fi system directly from your portable MP3 player. Simply rip your desired music content from CDs, cassette tapes, radio programs or line-in music from your system directly to your USB device. Store your favorite cassette tapes and convert its content into MP3 format - without using a PC. You can also preset timer recording of your favorite radio show on your system and it will automatically record the show onto your USB device.a
 
Hai Keith,

If you have a Realtek onboard sound (i.e Pentium IV or later model PC), then that should be fine or else you can try Creative Audigy Value Ext Sound card which costs around R.1700/- the Recording software comes bundled with it which has provision for 24 Bit mastering, the sound is somewhat better than 16 bit mastered wave. I recommend you connect the Tape Deck to a good amp and feed the Line out of the amp to the Line in of the Sound card or PC. The SW supplied with the Creative card is more than enough, for editing. Record the Sound in wav format at the high sample rate (eg 24 bit 96000 Hz). But remember to normalize the wave files and if required remove the hiss, save the final master file as 24 -Bit 44100 hz, before you burn to CD.

Hope this helps,

N Murali.

Yes, Murali, I have onboard Realtek. Any reason for connecting the deck 2 an amp. and then feeding Line out of the amp into the card as opposed to feeding Line out of the transport directly into the card?
 
Hai Correa,

I think by connecting to a Amp, the SQ should improve. Unlike Vinyl, tapes tend to lose SQ over time. As suggested by the post, Audacity is very good for recording and editing, but for normalizing the wave I think it is not so user friendly, that's why I suggested to go in for the Audigy Sound card from Creative which has Creative Wave Editor (bundled Software) which will be very useful for editing and burning CDs.

Hope this helps.

N Murali.
 
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