Replies

It's cool to move audio from tape/records to CD (or to share on the internet with friends), but in most cases it's not worth the time and effort it requires. We've been allotted a certain number of days here, and your time may be better spent doing something else....

Thanks. Normally I would agree, but I didn't give all the facts. I have about a dozen cassettes tapes (both music and talking) that are of historical significance regarding genealogy matters that I want to preserve to pass on to my kids. Their deceased grandfather was an amateur musician and one day they will probably want to hear his work. So yes, this is important enough to spend the required time doing.

Another thing I didn't mention: I also have a dozen old reel-to-reel tapes of music (his & mine) that I'd like to transfer to digital format. Some of them were created on a early '80s-era Teac 4-channel recorder with mixer, and some on a Foster 8-channel recorder with mixer. Is there any way to preserve those without going out and buying the equipment? Everything is probably digital now, anyway. I have the old Teac reel-to-reel in the attic, but it's broken, plus I no longer have a mixer. Any help would be appreciated. I'll come back tonight. Thanks!

One additional suggestion: first, burn a raw copy (i.e. before doing anything other than checking the peak level to make sure that it is in a good range -- preferably at least 25%, and NOT 100%, if it's outside that range, adjust the recording level and try again) to CD and put it aside. Then, try various tweaks (noise cleanup, etc). If you get a good result, burn that to CD, but keep the raw copy so that you can try to make it better as the technology and your understanding of how to use it improves.