There are many methods and products, but this setup works well for me for converting records to wav and MP3. You need:
- Cassette (record) player with standard L/R speaker output jacks. Can be a component (no speakers) or portable (with speakers). - Griffin iMic USB Microphone Audio Adapter, $35ish online (works for Mac and PC). Good printed doc. - Y Audio Cable: one end is 2 standard L/R audio jacks, the other end is a single audio jack. Must be long enough to reach from the cassette player to the computer. Radio Shack, Fry's, etc. - Goldwave audio software (free trial, $50 http://www.goldwave.com/ ), PC only. Buy it, it's worth it. Plug the L and R jacks of the Y audio cable into the L and R speaker jacks on the cassette player. Plug the single jack on the other end of the Y cable into the iMic. Plug the USB connector of the iMic into a USB port on your computer. Make sure the switch on the iMic is set to 'speaker'. Read Goldwave's built-in help about getting set up and started -- the interface is daunting at first but easy to understand with a bit of reading. Start a cassette so there is sound coming in. You should hear it through your computer speaker (don't worry about poor sound quality from the computer speakers). In Goldwave, you should see the L and R channel readouts indicating that Goldwave is getting audio input. If not, adjust the input settings until it does. Adjust the Goldwave recording options to the ones your project requires. You can set these as the default, but I prefer to save and post-process files at a higher quality, then do a batch conversion to the lower quality. To record, create a new Goldwave file and make sure the recording options are correct and the empty file is long enough (30 min, 60 min, etc.). Click Start, then start playing the cassette. You'll see the L and R channels indicating input and hear the sound. It records in real time. Stop recording by clicking Stop, then Save the file. Do some short test recordings and playbacks before recording an entire tape. Goldwave can automatically split files or stop recording when the sound falls below a certain level. I suggest you not use these options for your cassettes, but record each one in completion and do all splitting, deleting, concatenating, etc. in post-processing. You can cut out the beginning and ending silences, combine several files into one, take out pops, hisses, crackles, etc., and probably do a bunch of other fancy editing I've never needed to get into. Goldwave does not burn CDs. For that, I just use the built-in drag-and-drop app included with XP, but there are numerous other apps for this too. Joanne -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:framers-bounces+joanne=exeros.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Rick Quatro Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 12:00 PM To: framers at FrameUsers.com; framers at omsys.com Subject: OT: Cassette to MP3 Hello Framers, Excuse the off-topic request, but I have a series of cassette tapes that I want to convert to MP3 with these specs: Format: mp3PRO Preset: 32 Kbps for Voice Constant Bitrate 32 Kbps 44100 Hz Mono Compression rate: 22.1:1 I need to know what I need (hardware and software) to accomplish this. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Rick Quatro Carmen Publishing 585-659-8267 www.frameexpert.com _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as joanne at exeros.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/joanne%40exeros.com Send administrative questions to lisa at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
