Audio cassettes opened up a world of portability unimaginable in the days when LPs ruled the roost. Now, however, cassette tapes have fallen by the wayside (or, in many cases, have been thrown to the wayside from moving vehicles), and, unlike LPs, they don’t look like making a comeback anytime soon. This poses a problem for those of us who would like to preserve important conversations or good songs that are currently stored on cassettes, not only because audio cassettes eventually deteriorate or get “eaten” by your tape player, but also because cassette players are becoming increasingly rare. Fortunately, you can easily transfer audio from cassettes to your computer, where it can be stored in formats such as WAV and MP3 or can be burned to CDs. In fact, $6 could get you everything you need.
Steps
- Get your supplies together. You have several options. See the “Things You’ll Need” section below for a list of these.
- Rewind or fast-forward your cassette to the desired spot.
- Connect the red and white RCA plugs to the appropriate, color-coded output jacks (line-out) on your cassette player or stereo receiver. Or connect one end of a double-ended 3.5mm stereo cable into the headphone output of your tape player.
- Connect the other end of your chosen cable to the “line-in" of your computer sound card. The 3.5mm Stereo plug is just like the plug of an earphone that you use in your Walkman or iPod. Adaptors are also available which allow you to use your computer’s USB port. For more details on the options see the “Things You’ll Need” section.
- Turn on your computer and cassette player.
- Open the sound-recording software you want to use. You can use just about any sound recording software. Microsoft Sound Recorder, which is standard in Microsoft Windows, will work for brief snippets, but it can be quite tedious to adjust the amount of time it will record (the default is only 60 seconds; you have to prepare your file beforehand by hitting the Record button each time it reaches the end, until you get a file large enough to hold the audio you'll be recording; then hit Rewind before recording), and it may not serve you well if you need to do extensive editing. If you do want to use Sound Recorder follow these instructions: click “Start” - “Programs” - scroll to and click on “Accessories” – scroll to and click on “Entertainment” – select “Sound Recorder”. You could also use a free sound recording like Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net" rel="nofollow">http://audacity.sourceforge.net). If you use this sound recording software, you can touch up the audio (raise volume, clear some static areas) and even export to mp3.
- Click the record button in your sound recording software. (In Sound Recorder and many other programs, this is the button with the red dot.) Start recording before you hit “play” on your cassette player so you make sure you don’t miss anything at the beginning.
- Press “play” on your cassette deck. The computer will record the audio coming from your cassette player.
- Click the “stop” button (typically a black square) when you are finished. If you want to record for a long time (a whole cassette, for example), you don’t have to sit around and wait for the recording to finish. Your recorder will continue recording after the tape stops, and you can just cut the silent portion when you edit the recording. You do, however, want to make sure your recorder will record for long enough to capture all the audio you want. If it doesn’t, simply record each track one at a time.
- Save the audio file by clicking “File” – “Save”. A new window will open and you can give the file a name and choose a location on your hard drive to save to.
- Edit your recording. You may not need to do any editing, but if you want to cut out silences, erase some tracks, or change the volume, for example, most sound-recording programs will allow you to do so. When editing, it is a good idea to keep the original file as a backup and change the names of edited files when you save them in case you find you made a mistake. When you’re sure you like the edited file, you can delete the original to save memory space on your computer.
- Burn audio to CD if desired.
Tips
- The audio file you created in the native PC sound file type: WAV (“.wav”) format. You can play it with almost any audio software. These files, however, are about 10 times larger than the equivalent file in MP3, so you will want to compress them to MP3. Your sound recording software may have this function built in, or you may need to get additional software. Fortunately, you can get such conversion software free online, such as Audio Grabber which will record straight to MP3 (link below).
- Your sound card may need to be set to allow recording from the line-in port (the pale blue circular port next to speakers). You can do this in Windows (XP and below) from the volume control in the system tray (near the clock). Double click the volume icon, then in the window that opens, click 'options' then 'properties' then 'recording' then 'OK'. Make sure the line-in box is selected.
- MS Sound Recorder has limited functions to control the recording process such as volume and speed. The software also give you limited function to edit the sound files by mixing or inserting. More advanced sound recording and editing software may already come with your sound card, so check that before you buy any additional software. Otherwise, you can find many good freeware programs on the internet for recording, editing, and changing formats of audio files.
- A good, free, open source audio recorder that works on Windows, macs and linux is Audacity. However, to save to an MP3, you will need to download the free LAME plugin.
- For the reverse operation -- transferring digital sound to tape -- simply use the same cable setup, but plug one end into the cassette deck's microphone or line in jack, and the other end into the computer's line out or headphone or speaker jack. Hit record on the cassette deck, then start the songs playing on the computer. Start with a low volume setting and adjust for good quality sound, then rewind and start over the recording at that volume level.
Warnings
- The WAV format audio files are cumbersome. One cassette tape may take hundreds of MB, so make sure you have enough space on your hard drive.
- Start with a very low volume on the cassette player or stereo, as your computer's input circuitry can very easily be damaged by high-level input.
- Take care not to violate copyright laws with your recordings. Cassette tapes may be old, but the copyright is usually still enforceable.
- If the recording is rare, don't throw away the cassette. Always keep your master copy. You will need it when your hard drive crashes, or you find there was a glitch in your transfer, or when your next new computer can record it better.
Things You'll Need
- (1) "Y" stereo adapter cable with a pair of RCA-style channel connectors (one is usually red, the other white) at one end, and a single line-in, 1/8-inch (3.5 millimeter) mini-connector at the other. This is also called a 3.5mm Stereo to RCA Dual Audio Cable. It can be purchased at Walmart for about $5. or(1) A regular stereo hook-up cable with RCA connectors at both ends and (2) a 3.5mm mini-connector adapter. With this setup, you plug the RCA connectors at one end into the cassette deck’s line-out jacks and then plug the connectors at the other end into the adaptor, which has a 3.5 mm mini-connector at the other end to plug into your sound card’s line-in jack.or(1) A regular stereo hook-up cable with RCA connectors at both ends and (1) RCA-to-USB audio interface (converter). With this setup you connect the RCA cable to the converter, which has a USB plug to connect to your computer’s USB port.or (1) double-ended 3.5mm stereo cable; (also available at most electronics stores)
- A PC with a sound card that has a line-in jack. Almost all computers have this device, except for some laptop computers that do not have a line-in jack. In this case, you may need to use the USB interface. If your PC or laptop does not have a line-in, you may also be able to use the microphone-in port. Just make sure that the volume setting is not too high: start with the lowest setting and raise it little by little until you are able to record a low-volume sound, like for example the first few bars of Ravel's Bolero.
- Sound recording software.
- A cassette player with either:(1) audio RCA output (line-out) jacksor(2) a 1/8 inch stereo "headphone" or "line-out" jack.If your cassette deck is built in to your stereo receiver, you can use the line-out jacks on the receiver.
Related wikiHows
- How to Change Your Records Into CDs
- How to Record a CD
- How to Make a Perfect Mix Tape or CD
- How to Burn a Music CD Using Windows Media Player 9
- How to Fix Computer Speakers
- How to Make an Mp3 or Wav out of a Midi for Free
Sources and Citations
- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">Audacity A very popular freeware audio editor which has a more complicated, but less restrictive interface than Microsoft Sound Recorder.
- http://www.goldwave.com/" rel="nofollow">Goldwave.com Goldwave, a shareware-licensed piece of audio software. Easy to use filters help enhance the quality of the file.
- (http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html) Audio Grabber (freeware) will record you tapes straight to MP3 and is extremely user friendly (choose Line-In Sampling).
Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on http://www.wikihow.com/Transfer-Cassette-Tape-to-Computer">How to Transfer Cassette Tape to Computer. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons license.
