Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 82802 2007-09-08 21:08:00 Ripping cassette tapes jwil1 (65) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
589334 2007-09-08 21:08:00 Hi all,

What's the best way to rip audio from a cassette tape :horrified to MP3 files for iPod etc?

Thanks
jwil1 (65)
589335 2007-09-08 21:41:00 Well the main thing, is you'll need something with line out / audio out, to play it and a cable to plug it into line in on a soundcard to record it. And hopefully its stereo. Speedy Gonzales (78)
589336 2007-09-08 21:46:00 The sound quality won't be all that great ripping from cassette though lysdexic (12796)
589337 2007-09-08 22:21:00 Then use Audacity to convert to MP3 SurferJoe46 (51)
589338 2007-09-08 23:57:00 Well the main thing, is you'll need something with line out / audio out
Anything with a headphone jack should suffice. Audio quality will suck arse and your going to need to chop out the individual tracks as it will record the tape as one long track.
Pete O'Neil (6584)
589339 2007-09-09 00:12:00 A good tape deck with dolby noise reduction or similar and a decent soundcard would also help

Most sound editing programs also allow you to perform noise reduction

Easier way might be just to download the tracks you want, if you've bought the tapes then I wouldn't consider it pirating :D
Agent_24 (57)
589340 2007-09-09 00:16:00 Easier way might be just to download the tracks you want, if you've bought the tapes then I wouldn't consider it pirating :D

If they're only on tape then they would have to be 20+ years old anyway and only selling in CD stores in the $10 bins as "Best of Collections" anyway. You could probably find them available on iTunes or Digirama or just download them from Limewire.
winmacguy (3367)
589341 2007-09-09 01:44:00 Ummm no . I still using cassettes on my mixing console . (metal cassettes) They get more of a warmer tone then going straight to cd, maybe because of the white noise or 'hiss' in the background .

Alot of us (musos) still use old recording 4 trax or 8 trax, as we dont have that much money they are normally passed on cassette versions .

Thankfully mine has the use of both . And I record shows off the radio that i dont want to miss on to cassette .

Sj is correct though, Audacity will remove most noise, good to load a sample of the 'hiss' on its own so it recognises the signal .
rob_on_guitar (4196)
589342 2007-09-09 05:22:00 Actually I've found Tapes record suprisingly well, not as good as CD's for sure but better than I expected.

I recorded mine with Nero Wave editor, sampled the silent lead-in as noise, removed it, cut the recording into tracks , saved them as .wav files, then created mp3's from them later.

Do all your editing etc BEFORE you encode to mp3 as it's best to work with the best quality recording you can up until the final stage. Also keep your original recording untouched and save any edited tracks etc seperately until you're finished and happy with the results, to prevent having to start again if you muck it up.

I personally would use the computer to remove noise afterwards instead of using Dolby as, to my ears anyway, Dolby reduces the already bad high frequency response of tapes and can make them sound dull and flat ( or perhaps "warmer" to some people :P ).

Back when I had a lot of cassetes I always turned off Dolby and put up with the hiss rather than loose the top end.
dugimodo (138)
589343 2007-09-09 06:35:00 Back when I had a lot of cassetes I always turned off Dolby and put up with the hiss rather than loose the top end.

Mine's got B and C but you're right, sometimes I don't even use it, as it sounds better without - depends on the tape/recording though
Agent_24 (57)
1 2