Newbie Questions regarding Cassette Tape to Digital

[wasack]

Hello

I have some family heirloom recordings and would like to move the cassette tape to Digital via the Reaper program.

Is there any quick primer that can help me get there.

I know enough to be dangerous and found this url online.

http://web.singnet.com.sg/~lion4/articles/diy/cassette.html

Would you recommend that.

Also what type of cable should I buy.

Thank you all for your techie help.

Ed Wasack

[bigwoody]

Hello and welcome. Assuming a couple of things (maybe too big of assumtpions). First that you have downloaded reaper, and sucessfully been able to at least play the demo project that comes with. If you have gotten that far, then the next thing will be to see if the soundcard that is in your computer can record a clean (read noise free) signal, or at least one that is low enough for your tastes. If it is a desktop machine you are probably okay for what you want to do, laptops tend to have more noise, but you may luck out.

Now to your question, Radio Shack (or similar store) will have a RCA to 1/8 stereo cable. Plug the two RCA style plugs into the R/L output of your cassette deck, or the "Tape Out" of your amplifier/receiver. Then the 1/8" plug into the "mic in" on your computer. Read the WIKI or User Manual for how to arm a track for recording as well as how to set up for Recording and you are good to go.

Overall the attached URL looks like it covered the basics well.

[tspring]

Also beg borrow or steal the best cassette player you can get your hands on. I've done the conversion for cassette to digital many times. How well it works depends primarily on how the quality of cassette recorders that are used to record and playback the tape. Even mediocre digital is so much better than the quality of recording on most cassette recorders that what you use on the digital side hardly matters. If the tapes are very old then don't be surprised if one breaks. Don't despair if that happens. It's fairly easy to splice them back together.

T

[bigwoody]

oh ya, and you may want to fast forward all the way thru both sides before recording as well. If you look in the little tape window and see slight ridges in the way the tape is wrapped on the wheels they can cause the playback to drag. Usually ff/rw helps.

[Amether]

Agreed - I've used crappy cable and good cable and wouldn't be able to tell a lot of the time - a good deck however it a much bigger deal.

[jamesp]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far is that you have to set up your cassette deck to match the tape being played. This involves adjusting the head azimuth to give the best high frequency response (listen in mono if possible). You also need to decide whether to use Dolby or not and, if you use Dolby, whether to adjust the level going to the Dolby decoder. There are no software Dolby decoders due to licensing restrictions so you need to get the Dolby setting correct before recording on your computer.

Cheers

James.

[tspring]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far is that you have to set up your cassette deck to match the tape being played. This involves adjusting the head azimuth to give the best high frequency response (listen in mono if possible). You also need to decide whether to use Dolby or not and, if you use Dolby, whether to adjust the level going to the Dolby decoder. There are no software Dolby decoders due to licensing restrictions so you need to get the Dolby setting correct before recording on your computer.

Cheers

James.

Yes. See http://audio-restoration.com/cassette.php

T

[sounds@hounds]

Hi, nothing to do with Reaper but whenever I wan to do this I use Audacity which is dead straightforward and a free download - just google it and awy you go!

[rforssell]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far is that you have to set up your cassette deck to match the tape being played. This involves adjusting the head azimuth to give the best high frequency response (listen in mono if possible). You also need to decide whether to use Dolby or not and, if you use Dolby, whether to adjust the level going to the Dolby decoder. There are no software Dolby decoders due to licensing restrictions so you need to get the Dolby setting correct before recording on your computer.

Cheers

James.

I recently recorded a cassette with reaper. One way to reduce the noise is to use ReaFir to build a noise profile on a silent area of the recording and then to use ReaFir's subtract mode.

[kingkyle23]

hey i got all these old messages could you break down the reafi thing for me again well the part about making it quiter and stuff please