tape to laptop

Pedroski · 02-24-2010, 10:18 PM

I have eight tape cassettes that I want to get onto my laptop, or write to CD. How can I do this? What software can I use? I am running Fed 12.

jschiwal · 02-24-2010, 10:31 PM

If you have a line-in on your soundcard, you can record the analog audio using audacity. Then trim any excess audio from the front or back or when you flipped the cassette over, before exporting it to an ogg file or whatever format you want. A non-lossy format would be better if you are going to produce an audio CD rather than files to play on your computer.

To produce an Audio CD, look at using a CD burning program such as K3b.

Pedroski · 02-24-2010, 11:12 PM

Thanks!
I only have a microphone input jack socket. Will that do??

dive · 02-24-2010, 11:32 PM

Unlikely but you can try.

Joe of Loath · 02-25-2010, 04:46 AM

I've done this a few times. Do this:

Tape deck -> phono to 3.5mm cable -> mic socket -> audacity -> export as .wav or .flac -> k3b or brasero onto a CD.

Then use ffmpeg or rip the CD's as .ogg or .mp3 so you can listen on the PC too.

You might have to fiddle with the input volume on the pc and the output volume on the tape deck, but you will get sound through.