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Thread ID: 58983	2005-06-18 02:04:00	audio tapes to cd's	the_inspector (7721)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
364904	2005-06-18 02:04:00	Hi, I am running windows xp. I want to transfer my collection of audio tapes onto cd's using my pc, I have a cable to connect my stereo to my laptop, can anyone give me any ideas on how to do this and if there are any programs that come with xp or are available to download that can make this task straightforward.	the_inspector (7721)
364905	2005-06-18 02:42:00	I'm in the middle of doing just that now. I use the software that came with my SB Live Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I have my Tape deck from my stereo connected up to my computer. It is a stand alone tape deck. Try this site for free software. http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/ Trevor :)	Trev (427)
364906	2005-06-18 02:47:00	You'll need a tape with audio out so u can connect it to line in on your soundcard. And line in needs to be ticked in Windows, so it can pick up audio. And a program that can record audio, from line in.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
364907	2005-06-18 06:26:00	Much patience will be required. A prog. called Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net is a good choice, to be explained... First, you must connect an audio signal from your tape player to your computer. Your tape player should have an audio out socket, such as for headphones. You need a matching plug for that socket, an audio cable and a matching plug for the audio-in socket on the sound card of your pc. This should be easily obtained from your favoured electronics shop. It helps to have a set of headphones also, to check that your audio out is indeed supplying sound. Your player should be of the best quality... Activate your software, figure out its options ("line in", "microphone", etc. may be offered, and your sound card may have options too), and start it recording. There will be some sort of screen display showing the sound levels, (Stereo) or level (mono). With your amplifier set to the *absolute minimum* and sound barely audible in the headphones, remove the headphones from the tape player and plug in the connection to the computer. Observe the jiggling of the sound indicator. Advance the amplification until the loudest sounds (which you usually can't hear, because the tape player cuts out the connection to its speakers when a headphone jack is plugged in) do *not* overflow the allowed range. If your computer fails to show a jiggling sound indicator, then: the tape is in a blank sector, or, a connection is wrong, or a software setting is wrong. Experimentation.... Your objective is to record digitally a good signal. This means not having the sound too low, even though it can be amplified on later playback, because the quiet sounds have small numbers. Like, in 16-bit recording, values range from -32768 to +32767 but if your sound level is low, your signal might range from -1000 to + 1000; this can be amplified to the equivalent of -10000 to +10000 but detail is lost. That is, values such as 998, 999, 1000 become 9980, 9990, 10000 with no detail in the low digit. If your signal had been digitised into the range -10000 to +10000 the values might be 9983, 9997, 10004. So, you want the signal level to be high. But, too high means distortion introduced by the amplifier (unlikely, in this case; the amplifier is not driving a 50watt signal into headphones or your sound card), and separately, the sound card may lose linearity outside its proper signal range, and, the digitisation may exceed the available 16-bit limit. Some audio cards may record with more than 16-bit (if the option is activated) so the problem may be eased. Audacity processes its digital data with more than 16-bits and can rescale the numbers for you to fit into the 16-bit limit (or other) if desired. Naturally, you do not know how loud is the loudest sound on the tape of the moment. So,... you get to make one pass with your best guess settings to check that the sound levels are neither too low, nor too high, adjust as necessary and then make a second (or third, or...) pass to do the actual recording that you will keep. Audacity allows you to edit the resulting sound data, even to the degree of twiddling individual sound samples. Hiss and click annoyances can thus be removed, both semi-automatically and by hand. Naturally, the same procedure applies to vinyl records, or any other sound source. A great deal of disc space is required to store sound data: watch out that you don't run out! Convert it to compressed form (I favour .ogg) only after you have removed clicks, rescaled, and so forth.	Nicky (112)
364908	2005-06-18 07:16:00	I have gone to the address you said(audacity) but IE blocked it from being downloaded, are there any implications with this site?	the_inspector (7721)
364909	2005-06-19 21:55:00	I'm using FireFox (via the computer at work), and so far as I can see, there is nothing worrisome about the website (no pornograpic links, no webpage-based virii, whatever) so I haven't a clue as to why IE might block your access, or what option (or where hidden) that might control this blocking. There are other websites that offer copies of Audacity that might not be blocked.... If you wish, you could try sending me an e-mail and I could send back a reply with the installer as an attachment. (An .exe file of 3MB) Your installation may of course block attachments, or attachments of type .exe, or other helpful ploy. Further to my previous communique, I have just spent Sunday afternoon estabishing that some two dozen cassette tapes had all been transcribed as mono. A friend had done this for me a few years back. I had been trying to finish off with the remaining dozen tapes of traditional Andean music, and couldn't get stereo on the systems available to me. Finally, I wanted to know for sure that a test tape was stereo - by now, merely listening to it was unconvincing. So, a visit, and, ... the tape transcribes as mono (as seen by the identity of the wiggles in both channels). So, I try a CD (Pink Floyd) and this too transcribes as mono, even though when ripped (ie, not via a cable from the cassette tape/radio/cd player to the computer and digitisation) the two channels were visibly different... It turned out that on that particular computer, although the sound out definitely was stereo, the sound system as supplied, took the "Line in" as mono. :angry There is no indication of this :badpc: other than in the results. I suspect that the "Microphone" input socket (if present) is also likely to be digitised as mono. :annoyed: But he had another pc, and that one, also with the as-supplied sound connections, had a line-in that did lead to stereo digitisation. So, that pc is on loan to me, and when I got it set up at home, a test run on the same test cassette, produced mono! :@@: But by this time, the locus of suspicion was narrow. With a multimeter, I verified that the connection cable from the stereo to the pc was indeed capable of carrying a stereo signal (it having three conduction lines), but, ... the conversion plug was not. :groan: The stereo has a fat socket for headphones (about 5mm diameter), but the pc uses a narrow one (about 2mm diameter) so I had been using the conversion plug my father had obtained a while ago... It has only two conduction paths, whereas the fat plug for the headphones clearly has three.... Mumblemumblemumble. So, the systems I had tried might well have been able to transcribe stereo, if they had been presented with stereo: this was why I had to find a system that definitely did transcribe stereo... So, as soon as I can find a fat stereo conversion plug, I can start transcribing cassettes, and re-do the ones my friend so diligently had transcribed for me...	Nicky (112)
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