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Resolved Question

Putting cassette tapes on hard drive.

Jun 30, 2011 6:21AM PDT
I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron 560 computer. I've got about 200 old cassette tapes that I want to import to my computer so I don't have to try and buy them from iTunes or buy CD's which might be difficult to find as some of the tapes are 25 years old.
Thanks

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bobbyc_dba has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Re: cassette tapes
Jun 30, 2011 7:40AM PDT

That's a time-consuming thing, but it's quite well possible.

1. Download and install Audacity (free)
2. Connect the audio out of your cassette player to the audio in of your sound card
3. Play and record.
4. Save as wav or mp3

That's real-time: 200 cassettes of 30 minutes = 100 hours.
Splitting into individual tracks, saving them and naming them is another 100 hours.
That's 200 hours combined.

Kees

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Cassette tapes
Jun 30, 2011 10:17AM PDT

The time involved really isn't that much of a problem since I'm retired and don't work anymore. But I will have to find a cassette tape deck, I threw mine out in 1998 when I got a Dodge Durango with a CD player, and bought one for the house.
I do thank you though for the answer, I figured it would be a royal pain to do anything with the tapes but thought I ask anyway.

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Search the web...
Jun 30, 2011 5:54PM PDT

... for 'cassette to mp3 converter.' Since you will need to buy a cassette deck anyway, you may as well look for one that will directly connect to a USB port on your computer. Most of them also come with software that you can use to help remove the tape hiss inherent in the format. Prices seem to run anywhere from $30 to $100 or more. The Grace Digital Audio tape2usb device has produced good results for a few of my friends, but it is one of the higher-end devices.

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That's a great idea.
Jun 30, 2011 6:20PM PDT

I assumed he still had a player. But if he hasn't this is much better.

Kees

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Cassette tape deck
Jul 1, 2011 12:25AM PDT

I searched the web for the Grace tape deck and found a refurbished one for $70 from Grace Tape. I told my wife about it and she said to get one. Thank you for the idea, it was extremely helpful.

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Dubbing cassette
Jul 1, 2011 9:08AM PDT

ION has a great simple machine that you can plug into a USB and will convert to MP3 and WAV, then you can keep it on a hard drive, burn a CD and or Flash Drive.

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Putting cassette tapes on hard drive.
Dec 6, 2011 6:25AM PST

I have a ThinkPad. Is 'Audio In' the same as the microphone input on the front on the laptop?

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Answer
Re: Cassette tapes
Jul 1, 2011 9:32AM PDT

I also have hundreds of tapes to convert to digital format. I got the Ion Tape Express, which looks and works just like a small tape recorder. The review I wrote for Viewpoins can be found here: http://www.viewpoints.com/ION-Audio-ION-Tape-Express-Cassette-to-USB-Audio-Interface-with-Headphones-Earphone-Headphone-reviews?b=1
It looks sort of cheap, but it works fine. I use it with Free Audio Editor software, NOT the software that comes with it. Others recommend Audacity, but I had trouble figuring out how to use it. I had some problems getting the sound to come through, especially since my tapes are very old and the sound quality is not good, but eventually got it going. I was able to record the tape (I've copied two 90-minute tapes so far), amplify the sound, and split them into separate tracks. I even made YouTube "videos" with two of the songs by adding still photos. Now only about 298 more tapes to go...

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Answer
found 2 websites (one might be questionable)
Jul 2, 2011 5:35PM PDT