I know how to do it myself (well read about it), but I’d first like to see if there’s someone or somewhere that can do it for me (for money of course, or an exchange of services).
Thanks
i am also interested in this service, i accidently ordered a book with audio cassettes instead of CDs from Amazon. in the words of homer simpson, “doh”!
If I don’t find someone, I may end up being the service, but I’d really rather someone else do it. Even if they didn’t split the tracks up, just getting it into a format I can work with would be a wonderful thing. Maybe I should ask the WWRN guys 
I’d say it’s very easy to do this, as long as you have some software that can record from line-in. How many cassettes are we talking about here?
Like 12 for me. It seems pretty easy, but I don’t even have a tape player that I can use. Maybe I’ll just pick up the tools and give it a shot. I’d just rather pay this time around (someone else is paying for it).
I think the software to use is: audacity.sourceforge.net/ and there’s a lot of how-to’s online (even a thread on Forumosa, if I looked for it).
I’m lucky enough to have the pro version of Musicmatch Jukebox. It’ll record from line-in (the standard free version doesn’t). I’ve used it to convert some MiniDiscs to mp3. Tapes would be the same. I’ve only got a Walkman as a tape player though (although the sound quality is good).
It depends how urgently you want those CDs, but my studio is currently in a port waiting to be shipped to Taiwan. FWIW, I’m a professional studio engineer but you don’t need that to convert a few tapes. We’re talking maybe 6 weeks or more here but I’ll happily lend you a pro tape deck, unbalancer and USB audio interface if you buy me a beer 
[quote=“miltownkid”]I know how to do it myself (well read about it), but I’d first like to see if there’s someone or somewhere that can do it for me (for money of course, or an exchange of services).
Thanks[/quote]
[quote=“llary”]It depends how urgently you want those CDs, but my studio is currently in a port waiting to be shipped to Taiwan. FWIW, I’m a professional studio engineer but you don’t need that to convert a few tapes. We’re talking maybe 6 weeks or more here but I’ll happily lend you a pro tape deck, unbalancer and USB audio interface if you buy me a beer
[quote=“miltownkid”]I know how to do it myself (well read about it), but I’d first like to see if there’s someone or somewhere that can do it for me (for money of course, or an exchange of services).
Thanks[/quote][/quote]
Sweetness! That being the case I’ll do the ones I need now myself (with what I got) and maybe you’ll be here when I need the next batch.
It’s for someone else which is why I’d pay (because they’re going to pay), otherwise I’d probably do it myself for myself. Either way, a beer would definitely go your way. 
[quote=“miltownkid”]I know how to do it myself (well read about it), but I’d first like to see if there’s someone or somewhere that can do it for me (for money of course, or an exchange of services).
Thanks[/quote]
Its so easy to do it yourself… just get a software like goldwave or other similar wave editor, and record your stuff real time using the line in jack of your sound card, use the editor to record and edit (remove scratches and pops and stuff like that) then burn to a CD.
Like 12 for me. It seems pretty easy, but I don’t even have a tape player that I can use. Maybe I’ll just pick up the tools and give it a shot. I’d just rather pay this time around (someone else is paying for it).
[/quote]
So… we’re talking about a 13-14 hours recording session, and maybe 20 or so hours of cutting/cleaning/converting the tracks… if you pay me enough, I’m ready to quit my job… hehe… just kidding.
For language courses and stuff like that (speech only), you only need a 500NT player, a cheap cable and a lot of patience.
For music… well, you need a good cassette player, a good cable, a very good low-noise soundcard (or a professional deck with integrated ADC and digital output) and some decent audio editing software, like Cool Edit Pro. And even more patience.
A few years ago I was planning to convert my 200+ tapes into mp3s 
. I stopped after two tapes, which took me about six hours. The results were pretty good, though.
Whenever I was asked to do tape conversions I wouldn’t take on anything major, but to make a little extra money I would just pop a tape in overnight or during lunch and let it sort itself out. My Tascam deck sends track skip / stop messages over the digital out and reverses the tape for me so all I have to do is start recording and forget about it. I use Spark XL on the Mac which has a great FX unit to set up effect chains and one setup can handle 99.9% of tapes. Job done 
You’re right about spoken word cassettes; I doubt you would garner much benefit from a US$1000 tape deck over a NT$500 walkman/tape player.
[quote=“Andre”]So… we’re talking about a 13-14 hours recording session, and maybe 20 or so hours of cutting/cleaning/converting the tracks… if you pay me enough, I’m ready to quit my job… hehe… just kidding.
For language courses and stuff like that (speech only), you only need a 500NT player, a cheap cable and a lot of patience.
For music… well, you need a good cassette player, a good cable, a very good low-noise soundcard (or a professional deck with integrated ADC and digital output) and some decent audio editing software, like Cool Edit Pro. And even more patience.
A few years ago I was planning to convert my 200+ tapes into mp3s . I stopped after two tapes, which took me about six hours. The results were pretty good, though.[/quote]
Just let me know if you still need to do some in a few weeks. At any rate I will probably have one of the USB interfaces (Griffin Powerwave - basic but works great for this kind of thing) and a few cables with me when I get back to Taiwan next week.
[quote=“miltownkid”]
Sweetness! That being the case I’ll do the ones I need now myself (with what I got) and maybe you’ll be here when I need the next batch.
It’s for someone else which is why I’d pay (because they’re going to pay), otherwise I’d probably do it myself for myself. Either way, a beer would definitely go your way. [/quote]
What about Mini-DV to DVD? Any such services around?
Have you tried asking in any of those photo processing shops? Their back rooms certainly seem to be full of more than enough kit to do the job.