Topic: Tape > CD Transfer?

[Fan of Tunes]

I was curious how difficult it is to transfer tapes to Digital format for disc?

Pain in the ass?  Simple? Expensive?

Thanks!!!

[Brian Skalinder]

I was curious how difficult it is to transfer tapes to Digital format for disc?

Pain in the ass?  Simple? Expensive?

Thanks!!!

It can be as simple and inexpensive or complex and costly as you want, all depends on what exactly you want to accomplish.

The key, IMO, is to use an outboard ADC instead of an ADC on a soundcard in your PC.  The internal ADCs are pretty noisy I've found.

What's your playback gear?
What media, specifically, are the recordings on?
Use any NR when recording?
What's your budget?

[Fan of Tunes]

 I know nothing... and really have no equipment.

Just a pile of tapes!

[greenone]

Until recently I didn't have an outboard A/D so I ran through my home DAT deck instead - just put a tape (preferably blank) in pause to pass a signal, go in the analogs and out the coax. Easy, and you can also control the gain that way...

--Dave

[Fan of Tunes]

I don't have a DAT Deck?

I'm screwed aren't I?

[Craig T]

Get yourself a used Nakamichi ZX-* (6 or 7 series are very good) off ebay (should be <$500), a used stock UA5 (maybe off this board, should be around $250), and if you have a computer with a USB input you're good to go.  Record at 24bit/44.1k, archive the 24bit files (FLAC), use a good software program to patch the "sides" of the tapes together into sets, and dither down to 16bit for CD's (WaveLab 4 has Apogee's UV22HR dither).  Cut the sets into tracks for CD burning with CDWave, and burn away...  not too difficult, and you can save a few $'s if you go with a cheaper cassette deck.  I'm sure there are decent decks out there, but its been a long time since I've thought about cassettes and I can't remember what the other good ones were (Tascams, Sonys, etc).

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

I've done this, cass>SHN:

Sony deck>analog out>Edirol UA5>optical out>Nomad 3>USB>WAV>CDWave>SHN

You can add a Soundforge or Cooledit step in there between WAV and CDWave is you want to do an EQing or fixing...

A tape deck, I imagine you have.  Analog cable you can get at Rat SHack ($5).  Edirol UA5, I have an Oade Digi Mod unit that was $400 or so.  The Nomad 3 was $200 witha  $20 optical digital cable.

You could substitute any Analog to Digital convertor in place of the UA5, I think KingCrimson found a cheap one and posted it on Ask The Tapers:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K530269E7

The Nomad 3 can be replaced with any kind of digital device like a DAT or Computer.  You can even go Minidisc, but then you are still stuck converting your MD to CD.  If you go DAT, you still have to contend with DAT>CD transfer though a standalone burner or computer soundcard.

To tell you the truth, unless you have analog masters, or uncirculated sources, it would probably easier, if not cheaper, to just find someone that already has the same show on CD and trade for a copy.  Check here:  http://db.etree.org

I had about 1000 analogs and only about 12 or so fit in this category...  THe rest are being given away...

Good luck!

Terry

[ChrisV]

Hey Terry,
How does the "Sony deck>analog out>Edirol UA5>optical out>Nomad 3>USB>WAV>CDWave>SHN" conversion stack up to any other method quality wise.  I am going to have all of those pieces of equipment and I have this one cassette tape of a concert taped off a radio broadcast.  It was a concert from 2001 and absolutely no one else recorded it so I figure someday I want to get this converted and shared for people since this is the only source.   But I want to try to do it as good of quality as possible.   Of course I probably don't want to spend any considerable amount of cash on anything to do this since I only have 1 tape that I need to do but maybe I can find someone else to do it for me if there is a better method with different equipment.

[Chanher]

chrisv, that looks like the best method with the equipment you have. you may want to consider some noise reduction techniques...

[ChrisV]

Yeah, I thought it looks pretty good....maybe the only weak link I would be thinking is on the deck itself and the analog it spits out from the cassette tape.

Do you mean noise reduction as in post transfer, with software on the computer?

[mgleason007]

Sony deck>analog out>Edirol UA5>optical out>Nomad 3>USB>WAV>CDWave>SHN

I wonder why this wouldn't just be:
Sony deck>analog out>Edirol UA5>USB>WAV>CDWave>SHN

Missing something, am I?

[ChrisV]

Yes, could do that too to save a step...if you are familiar with recording to a comp using the USB.   I actually just got my UA-5 delivered to me today and haven't done the digimod yet.  So that is the only way I could do it until I do that

[Brian Skalinder]

Hey Brian, I've tried a bunch of methods for tape transfers, and i'm curious about your adc remark.  how would an external soundcard figure in the mix(audiophile usb)?  is that also noisy?

By outboard ADC, I meant one not embedded inside the PC.  I'm guessing an external soundcard like the Audiophile USB would be just fine, though I haven't used one.  The key is to get it outside of the PC box.

would i be better off going from the tape deck to my home dat deck(sony r300) and then to my pc?  i was told this awhile ago before i had the sony so i tried using my ad20 in the chain and that sucked...

I think you'd probably do well going through your R300, though I'm not terribly familiar with its ADC.

And to further emphasize the point others have mentioned: your analog gear will have a more immediate impact on quality than the other gear.  The better signal you feed the ADC - whether internal or external - the better quality the transfer will be.

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

Sony deck>analog out>Edirol UA5>optical out>Nomad 3>USB>WAV>CDWave>SHN

I wonder why this wouldn't just be:
Sony deck>analog out>Edirol UA5>USB>WAV>CDWave>SHN

Missing something, am I?

You are right I could do this...

I don't know why I haven't except maybe it allows me to continue use of my machine while I source tapes...

Of course, I also just bought a Zoltrix card so I could go Sony deck>analog>Zoltrix>CDWave>SHN

As for quality, I'm sure it could be done much better, but I'm not too worried...  Everything is bit-perfect in this set-up...  

As for any kind of EQing or hiss reduction, etc., Soundfroge can do a lot of that...  I don't bother, I am too lazy...  Anyways, I love a good ear-killing hiss...

And which show did you tape that has no other source???  

Terry

[ChrisV]

You are right I could do this...

I don't know why I haven't except maybe it allows me to continue use of my machine while I source tapes...

Of course, I also just bought a Zoltrix card so I could go Sony deck>analog>Zoltrix>CDWave>SHN

As for quality, I'm sure it could be done much better, but I'm not too worried...  Everything is bit-perfect in this set-up...  

As for any kind of EQing or hiss reduction, etc., Soundfroge can do a lot of that...  I don't bother, I am too lazy...  Anyways, I love a good ear-killing hiss...

And which show did you tape that has no other source???  

Terry

Oh it was a Coldplay concert in Portland back in 2001...I am an Op on their direct connect hub(which has been down for a few days...doh!).   I went to the concert and my dad taped it off the radio for me lol.   This is from way way way before I ever got into trading(and now taping).