Topic: Transfering Casette Audio to Computer

[smokingpanda]

I am very new to the whole putting tapes or whatever media into a digital format. I have recently aquired about 100 recorded shows, quality varying, and would like to put them onto my computer. They are all on cassette tape...  for the most part, the quality of all these tapes is mediocre. My questions are these:

1) What should I look for in a tape player in order to play the tape to my computer? I don't want anything too pricy, but something that will do a nice job and not provide and extra noise.

2) What kind of hardware do I need/should I get for my computer?  Do I need a new soundcard for the quality of my tapes?  Will a soundblaster work?

3) Anything else I should be looking for? Software? etc?

I am sure all this information is buried on this board somewhere, but I have been unable to find it.  I also don't want to spend a bundle of money on this project.. I have spent enough to get the tapes.  I want to spend somewhere under $200.  Someone had mentioned something about using a Nomad Jukebox 3 to hook up to a boombox or whatever and it will capture the audio into a wav format.. However I am having problems finding a realistically priced one of those...  I don't need all the fancy pancy stuff on it.. At least I don't think so. Since Nomad Jukebox 3 are hard to find, are there other cheap alternatives? 

All in all, I am pretty frustrated with this whole project.  I don't want to skimp on quality (what little there is), but I also don't want to fork out a lot of cash.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Roving Sign]

Regardless of your gear - the most important thing is to adjust the azimuth on the cassette deck so the tape plays on the same path it was recorded.

Just try whatever cassette deck you have handy, and the line-in on your computer...these days even the stock soundcards arent too bad.

Download Audacity - best freeware audio editor...very simple to use...

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Unless these are some historic or mission critcal recordings - you will probably be happy to start with a simple setup...

[todd e]

i truely hope that you didn't pay for the used cassettes, esp. if they are 'taper-friendly' bands....

the above advice should work well. 

[rdflash]

i truely hope that you didn't pay for the used cassettes, esp. if they are 'taper-friendly' bands....

the above advice should work well. 

agreed, hope you didnt pay for those cassette tapes

There is a "nomad jukebox 3" on ebay and its around 5-6 days left, guy out of harrisburg, PA
-its $155 buy it now with 11 dollars shipping and handling.
-only one battery, but that should be just fine for your needs.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-NOMAD-Jukebox-3-20GB-MP3-Player-Recorder_W0QQitemZ9701868932QQcategoryZ75464QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Roving Sign]

i truely hope that you didn't pay for the used cassettes, esp. if they are 'taper-friendly' bands....

the above advice should work well. 

agreed, hope you didnt pay for those cassette tapes

There is a "nomad jukebox 3" on ebay and its around 5-6 days left, guy out of harrisburg, PA
-its $155 buy it now with 11 dollars shipping and handling.
-only one battery, but that should be just fine for your needs.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-NOMAD-Jukebox-3-20GB-MP3-Player-Recorder_W0QQitemZ9701868932QQcategoryZ75464QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Why would he want that?

[rdflash]

Why would he want that?

I want to spend somewhere under $200.  Someone had mentioned something about using a Nomad Jukebox 3 to hook up to a boombox or whatever and it will capture the audio into a wav format.. However I am having problems finding a realistically priced one of those...  I don't need all the fancy pancy stuff on it.. At least I don't think so. Since Nomad Jukebox 3 are hard to find, are there other cheap alternatives? 

[rdflash]

you must have missed that.

or you are trying to say thats my auction.

i dont know what you meant by saying "why would he want that?" when he stated he was looking for one.

[Roving Sign]

you must have missed that.

or you are trying to say thats my auction.

i dont know what you meant by saying "why would he want that?" when he stated he was looking for one.

I didnt read it as a real ISO...

Someone had mentioned something about using a Nomad Jukebox 3...

A workable idea - but a bit of overkill just for this simple task...

[rdflash]

you must have missed that.

or you are trying to say thats my auction.

i dont know what you meant by saying "why would he want that?" when he stated he was looking for one.

I didnt read it as a real ISO...

Someone had mentioned something about using a Nomad Jukebox 3...

A workable idea - but a bit of overkill just for this simple task...

agreed as overkill, but if hes going to get into taping, then hey - why not pick one up if the price is right.

[Roving Sign]

you must have missed that.

or you are trying to say thats my auction.

i dont know what you meant by saying "why would he want that?" when he stated he was looking for one.

I didnt read it as a real ISO...

Someone had mentioned something about using a Nomad Jukebox 3...

A workable idea - but a bit of overkill just for this simple task...

agreed as overkill, but if hes going to get into taping, then hey - why not pick one up if the price is right.

He's not getting into taping...but hey whatever.

[cybermansrev]

He's not getting into taping...but hey whatever.

I don't know about that, his question is on "Taperssection" and if he has already

spent enough to get the tapes.

Maybe he should get into taping! Well at least the not for profit ethos

Of course if he's got no interest in taping and has a pc/soundcard/mac then yeah probably not much need for a jb3

[orechall]

a 3head tape deck would be a good start you can usually find those on ebay...I would recommend the maudio 410 card which you could use for not only cassette transfers but DATs as well and you cant go wrong with using wavelab as your program editor...just my .02 though.

[Roving Sign]

What would a 3 head deck add...that feature set is really for analog recording (near realtime monitoring)

...playback is not affected by the 3 headed-ness...?

[smokingpanda]

I most likely am not going to get into taping shows, if thats what you all mean.  I just purchased these from someone (not for profit, but for the cost of the cassette tapes) and I want to be able to digitize them for the community.  Like I had said before, the quality of these cassettes are not master/soundboard quality, but you can still hear the band alright.  The two things I have in my possession now if I was to transfer this second is

The sound card that is part of my motherboard. (soundmax integrated digital audio)
A couple of boomboxes that have a cd player and a tape player
A macintosh/laptop from school that most likely doesn't have the correct software
Cool Edit

Yes, I know this is some kind of ghetto setup, what more should I add, or will this do the trick.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

Why would he want that?

I want to spend somewhere under $200.  Someone had mentioned something about using a Nomad Jukebox 3 to hook up to a boombox or whatever and it will capture the audio into a wav format.. However I am having problems finding a realistically priced one of those...  I don't need all the fancy pancy stuff on it.. At least I don't think so. Since Nomad Jukebox 3 are hard to find, are there other cheap alternatives? 

I'm the person who mentioned the JB3 to Smoking Panda over at the ETREE.FORUMS.  He had asked the same question over there.

I recommended using a tapedeck into a JB3 (I do something similar - deck>UA5>JB3), if fact here is the post I made in that previous thread:

"Anyways, it might be easier or cheaper to find a Nomad Jukebox 3, or another MP3 device that records to WAV. A HiMD would also work.

Find a decent cassette deck and run that into the recorder. Later, transfer into your PC and use CDWave to track. That's basically how I do it. I have a Best Buy Sony deck and a Nomad Jukebox 3.

Other people use a variety of devices to help their transfer. Finding a really nice tape deck would be ideal. Nakamichi and Marantz make really nice decks that let you dial in the azimuth so you can fine tune the tracking of the tape (better sound).

Some folks also use an external analog>digital convertor (I use a Edirol UA5) rather than relying on the ADC in their recorder or PC soundcard. Still others just use the ADC on a nice soundcard. I think WIKI has a list of "good" soundcards. I have a Zoltrix Nightengale, but never use it. I bought the Zoltrix used for $20, and the AP2496 I think is about $100."

I hope we can come up with a better and cheaper answer, because, frankly, a cass(3) out of a boombox into a crap PC soundcard is not the best way to go about getting these shows into circulation.

Terry

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

Saw this discussion just now:

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=61705.0

T

[greenone]

Well, the number one most important thing when transferring cassettes is a good cassette deck. Number two is probably the sound card. If he wants to spend less than $200, and you're steering him towards a JB3, then he's still missing a cassette deck...I don't see the wisdom in that, especially if he's not looking to get into taping.

[Krispy D]

I don't want to come off as a dick but the first thing I would do is take a look at these tapes (that he has already said are not of the highest quallity) and decide if archival is even neccessary.  High gen, abused, poor sounding tapes are going to just corrupt the bit pool. if better sources already exist then the tapes aren't worth transfering

I hope we can come up with a better and cheaper answer, because, frankly, a cass(3) out of a boombox into a crap PC soundcard is not the best way to go about getting these shows into circulation.

Terry

it looks like this tranferring atempt is 'for the community' so before a substantial outlay of cash I'd look into wheather or not the sources are needed.  now if it was just for personal listening by all means transfer whatever you want.  but, crappy sources of already existing shows do nothing for anybody.

[smokingpanda]

you are right.  It is more for archival purposes and for the community.  The sound quality is not great, but I still want to get them so the whole community has access to them.

I have been looking at DAT on ebay.  What kind should I be looking for?  Sony? Does it matter?  Also, I saw a DAT player that was a handhelled sony one, a player and recorder.  Would this be alright to use?  Thanks again all.  Sorry to get everyone up in a rise.

[greenone]

I wouldn't bother with a DAT...go right from the cassette deck to your computer.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

you are right.  It is more for archival purposes and for the community.  The sound quality is not great, but I still want to get them so the whole community has access to them.

I have been looking at DAT on ebay.  What kind should I be looking for?  Sony? Does it matter?  Also, I saw a DAT player that was a handhelled sony one, a player and recorder.  Would this be alright to use?  Thanks again all.  Sorry to get everyone up in a rise.

DAT would be useless for you.  While it would allow you to transfer the analog tapes to digital tapes, you will still need to transfer the digital tapes to your PC or whatever. 

You'd be better off taking the money you would spend on a DAT and buying a nice cassette deck and nice soundcard instead.

Terry

[keepongoin]

yep, a nice tape deck and sound card, along with a nice ADC would be ideal...

i use my V3 between my deck and sound card and feed it a S/PDIF signal.