Help Needed: Tranferring Analog Cassette To Digital

Life Technology
1

I have some cassettes of my music from years ago and would like to transfer them to a digital format. My wife did it somewhere, and the results were atrocious. I know nothing about computers and how to do these things. I am aware that one can digitize analog recordings and do a limited amount of editing. Like, the drums are a tad loud here, can we bring that frequency down a bit? I’m not interested in doing overdubs, just getting a nice, balanced sound. Do any forumosans have the ability to do this? I’m quite willing to pay for the time and effort. If not, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thank you in advance, my dear friends. :bow:

2

how many are we talking about jimi? also do you have a walkman or audio cassette player with a good clean output? glad to help if it’s not too many or get you set up, do a few, then you can do them on your own to your exact preference. could do it over beers.

on PC, there are a number of programs for this ranging from simple all the way to studio. on the mac or ipad, garage band is a good, cheap program that is simple but pretty powerful.

3

[quote=“mabagal”]how many are we talking about jimi? also do you have a walkman or audio cassette player with a good clean output? glad to help if it’s not too many or get you set up, do a few, then you can do them on your own to your exact preference. could do it over beers.

on PC, there are a number of programs for this ranging from simple all the way to studio. on the mac or ipad, garage band is a good, cheap program that is simple but pretty powerful.[/quote]
That’s very kind of you, Mr mabagal. I’m sure that I could procure a decent cassette output from a forumosa friend. As I said before, I’m quite willing to pay for the service. Thank you, again. :bow:

I would prefer a thingie that lets me adjust some frequencies, if that is possible.

Please inform a digitally challenged member of the 1970’s.

4

Mr. Jimi and mabagal: I want to keep this as simple as possible but there are main two issues here, with actual audio manipulation being the least of your concerns. Getting the audio out of the cassette player (via stereo aux cables [aka RCA phono cables] – i.e. basic stereo cables; easy to find) , which if you’ve got a player with clean heads, it will do just fine, and (2) getting the audio into the PC/Mac, of which there are several ways to consider:

The most common and best way is USB interface. I’m sure some Forumosan has one of these. If not, they are easily found at music shops around town, and if Mr. Jimi is musically-inclined and interested in stepping into the 21st century, would be a worthy investment of $30-200, depending upon your budget. Here’s a cheapy I saw recently in the guitar shop in Ximen.

google.com/products/catalog? … CwQ8wIwAA#

The problem with certain USB interfaces is that they use 1/4" inputs and in many cases, XLR stereo inputs, which means you need to get yet another adapter jack, which I’ll get to in a minute.

The second way which is more professional but not as common, is going Firewire into the Mac (or if the PC has FireWire–I dunno). Most MacBooks from 2005 on have Firewire. Regardless, this is the method I use for ProTools, however, my interface is back in a storage space in the U.S. and of no use to anyone at the moment.

The third and less technical and some say ‘arcahic’ way to do this is by running the cassette player into a PC’s audio card, which 99% of the time have a 3.5mm headphone input for audio. It’s been a decade since I’ve seen anybody do this, but you could simply run RCA cables to a 3.5mm adapter, and there you go, you’re in. The problem at this point will be how you do the audio adjustments.

No matter what you do, you’re going to need at least one of the following:

RCA cable (from OUTPUT of cassette player)
google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt … CCwQ9QEwAQ

RCA to XLR adapter (to INPUT of USB interface)
google.com/products/catalog? … B8Q8wIwAw#

RCA to 1/4" adapter (if necessary)
google.com/products/catalog? … CQQ8gIwAg#

Now, having said all that, mabagal is right on the money that Garageband would be suitable for your needs, but in terms of shaping frequencies (EQ) it’s marginal at best. If you really want to so this right, you need ProTools. And guess who has ProTools? That’s right, moi. I’m currently using the Mbox Micro for mixing and editing – I don’t have an input interface in Taiwan since all I’m doing is post-production. At any rate, if one of two things happens, I would be more than happy to make sound-worthy reproductions for you at the low cost of getting me drunk one night. (1) Some gracious Forumosan steps up and let’s us borrow a USB interface. Any will do. From there I can jerk around with the adapters. (2) One of us buys a cheapy USB interface (I’ve considered it but haven’t had a reason.)

Sorry if this is exhausting but for the sake of archiving Mr. Jimi’s material once and for all, I figured it would be worth a chat.

PM me if you want to make this happen.

5

If jimi has a Walkman with a clean head and good output, we’re done, using the dirt-simple “archaic” method. 3.5mm to 3.5mm to get it into the machine. Then manipulate from there.

Not sure how good quality jimi is looking for, but if the tapes are reasonably old anyway, this might suffice.

If the recordings are mono, heck we could even do this at the bar using an iPhone with an EQ app or an iPad and this easy to understand gem that even looks like something from the 70s. :slight_smile:

6

Just did this with some language tapes for books that are out of print. Perhaps the machine was awful, but the results were worse than the original tapes: too much warble. It wasn’t really worth doing quality-wise. But if your tapes are in good condition, it might work. Ours weren’t.

Kenneth

7

Thank you all, generous folk, for your kind responses. :bow: A most dear forumosan has offered to help old Jimi out in this matter. What I need, though, is a decent cassette player. Does anyone know where I can hire/borrow such an animal?

Thanks in advance, O worthy friends. :notworthy: