Cassette to CD

[Cleocima]

How do I go about putting an old stereo cassette onto a blank CD?

[Buenchico]

Ideally you'll need a cassette player with a phono outputs (such as the ones found in 'hi-fi separates' systems). But you can also use a cassette player (such as a Walkman) with a headphone socket, as long as you remember to keep the volume set to a fairly low level.

Then you'll need a lead to connect your cassette player to the 'Line In' socket on the back of your PC. (So that's probably either a twin phono to 3.5mm stereo jack lead, or a 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm stereo jack lead). Your local branch of Maplins can supply a suitable lead.

Once you've found a way to get the audio signal into your PC you need some suitable (free) software to record the signal. Audacity is the most popular program:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

When you've recorded the audio as a WAV file you can use the CD burning software on your PC (e.g. Nero) to create an audio CD.

Chris

[tamborine]

I have a jack/lead that has a speaker pin on one end & microphone (smaller) pin on t'other end. Play cassette & record on PC; it's automatically a wav file on XP.

[Buenchico]

As Tamborine has reminded me, Windows has its own sound recorder. It's under 'Accessories > Entertainment' in XP. So you don't actually need to use Audacity. However Audacity is far more flexible.

[filthiestfis]

Good night

[Buenchico]

Well, since Ed seems to have (somewhat mysteriously) wandered into this thread, I'll happily say 'Good night' to him!
;-)

[tamborine]

Chris...do you know where a similar lead would be purchased....or named?

[Buenchico]

Hi Tamborine.

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'speaker pin'. Maplin Electronics (online or on most High Streets) should sell something similar.

Chris

[tamborine]

the microphone pin is the size of earphone jack whereas the speaker pin is larger & fits into speaker/mocrophone port in pc. Hope that makes sense.

[tamborine]

I have looked at the jacks & leads on google but cant find the lead with both jacks. Mine came with Samsung Jukebox - now discontinued.

[Buenchico]

It might have been a special lead manufactured for just that product. If it's a tiny 2.5mm plug on one end (as used with some MP3 players) and a 3.5mm plug on the other (as used almost everywhere these days) the only solution I know of would be to use a lead with a 3.5mm plug at each end, together with one of these:
http://www.maplin.co....le.aspx?ModuleNo=1144

[Panic Button]

What is on the cassette?

If it is an album, look on ebay to see if someone is selling the CD version.

[tamborine]

yes Chris, that is the sort of pin.....tho' differently sized on each end.

[Cleocima]

Thank you very muck Buenchico. Can you give me any help with how to go ahead now Ihave 'Audacity'

[Buenchico]

I'll assume that you've connected the output of your tape deck connected to the 'Line In' socket on your PC.

Get the cassette in a position as close as possible to the start of the recording. Click the red button, in Audacity, to start the record function. Immediately hit the play button on your tape deck. Wait until the end of the tape (which you should hear through the PC's speakers) then immediately click the orange 'Stop' button in Audacity.

Go to File>Export as WAV. Navigate to a suitable location and save your sound file to there.

Insert a blank CD into the relevant drive. Launch your CD burning software and choose the option to create an audio CD. Then add the WAV file.

That's a brief summary. You might need a few trials with Audacity to get the recording level set correctly. (If the line on the graph hardly moves above the middle, the level is too low. If it's shooting out of the top and bottom, the recording level is too high).

Chris

[Cleocima]

Thanks again. I'll have a go.

[kia cat]

On the question of leads and plugs, this makes it clearer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector
tambo - sorry to hijack your thread cleocima - I've probably gotthe wriong end of the stick, but on older hi-fi's the headphone and mic jackplugs were usually ¼ inch, you can get a variety of adaptors to go up or down to fit your needs. I hope thats sort of helpful