Posted on 01/09/2002 5:46:06 PM PST by Delta-Boudreaux
WE have a computer question - How Do We Transfer Audio Cassettes onto CDs?
This question evolved from another thread "I have a Computer Question.... How can I Transfer my VCR tapes to DVD?"
----- Post #100 from previous thread----
Excellent suggestions in this thread. As always, Freepers come through with some great advice. If you don't mind, I'd like to expand the scope of this thread to include the transfer of audiotapes to CD-R.
I have a very large base of tape cassettes (over 1400 hours) that I taped off the radio. For example, I have taped many Christmas shows over the years and much special programming off the radio.
I have experimented converting these tapes with mixed results. Basically I run a portable cassette player through the sound card. But the sound is kind of crappy. The original tapes sound better. There must be a better way.
My biggest problem is getting a "pause" made between tracks so that the CD will have track numbers. Yet many times, the songs flow uninterrupted on the original tape. I can manually pause the input between tracks but it's sort of a clunky way to do it. I'd like to get the entire tape on my hard drive as one large .wav file and then have the ability to separate them into smaller .wav files for track separation. Also, I can delete the commercials this way. If I cut the commercials, I should be able to fit most of my 90-minute tapes onto a 74 minute CD. Also there is DJ chatter in between the tracks but I'd like to keep it as they are discussing the music and that was part of the appeal of making all these tapes in the first place.
SamAdams76
----- Post #69 from previous thread ----
I have a similar question. I have been using creative labs to record tapes of my pastor's sermons and making cd's for friends. Its a great service but I would like to be more efficient. The size of the audio files are about 10 times as large as other audio files I download from the net. Am I doing something wrong? I've look through the software for such things as compression level settings ... etc to no avail. Any suggestions would be welcome. By the way, the resulting file would still need to be able to be played in a standard audio cd device. Ideally, I would like to be able to fit 3 or 4 sermons on a single cd.
Also, I would like recommendations for a tool that would let me edit the audio file into different tracks. (something like 10 minutes each). For now, I get one track (40 minutes long) that makes it rather inconvenient when its desired to start in the middle of the sermon. I don't need a real sophisticated studio environment too, just something with some minor utility.
Thanks.
tang-soo
--------- New Question --------
I also have a tape library (500 cassettes) that I would like to be able to download to cd.
I would like to be able to put multiple tapes on each cd, as much as possible.
I do not have to be able to play mine on a CD player, so I guess MP3 files would be the best for my application.
How do I capture the audio cassettes into the computer.
Delta-Boudreaux
One thing perhaps being overlooked is the sampling rate during recording. The de facto standard for "hi-fi" quality stereo and subsequent transfer to standard CD audio format is 16-bit, 44.1Khz.
If one side of a tape is recorded as a single wav file, it will need to be separated into individual files if you wish to have locatable "tracks" on the final CD. You need a wav editing program for this. I use Cool Edit 2000, a wonderful tool well worth the $69 price. Simply select the portion of the wav that you would like to be a CD track, and write it to a file. Then select the next portion of the wav, write it to a file, etc.
If you're using Adaptec/Roxio's EZ CD Creator to burn your CDs, select "Disc at Once" mode to eliminate the 2-second gap between tracks. The result will be a a CD which plays continuously as if it were one big wav, or will allow you to jump to a track, if you so desire.
I've done a lot of audio work through the PC as well as transferring irreplacable radio programs onto CD-R like old episodes of "The Shadow" and the complete 12 episodes of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". It's a b@llbreaking process sometimes but it's worth it.
A big conference call would be cool.
First, you need a good soundcard with a sterio input. The microphone input that all cards have is MONO so you won't get a sterio digitization of your music using that.
Once you have that, it is fairly simple to get a cable that plugs into the soundcard and into the headphone jack of a quality tape player and record the audio. Make sure the recording software is set to record from the line-in jack you are using, not from another jack. (I use Creative Recorder, it came with my soundcard)
Some things to watch out for: 1) CD audio tracks are basicly .wav files that are 16 bit sterio, 44.1 KHz, so you want your recording software to record using that format for the best results. This means that your .wav files will be very large. 74 min of audio will take up 650M of disk space. 2) if the volume on the tape player is too loud, then you will wind up with a poor sounding recording. Some trial and error will be needed to find the right setting. If you record it a bit soft, you can normalize the audio up to a louder volume without harming the quality, but if you record it too loud you can't fix it after. Be carefull not to adjust the volume while recording is taking place.
I've never trusted software to figure out where the tracks go, it's better IMHO to manually cut each track off of the big .wav file into it's own .wav file. If you really want software to do this for you, I think EZ CD Creator will do this for you, even record and de-noise in realtime too. When you have a lot to do, it can at least be a good first step.
If you are going to take the time to cut and edit it yourself before burning, be sure to apply some noise reduction and normalization tools. Normalizing it means to adjust the volume of the whole track so the loudest part of the track is at some limit. You want to do this (using the same limit) to each track so that you don't have one song play real quiet (causing you to turn up the volume) and then have the next song blast your ears off.
If the songs crossfade into eachother, or if it's a concert where you get lots of applause between songs, you can use CD burning software like Nero that lets you adjust the pause length between tracks. A pause of zero seconds is allowed so you can still jump ahead to the next track, but there is no gap in the audio when played straight through.
Syntrillium Software: COOL EDIT 2000
Here's some more information about it from Harmony-Central.com, a well-known and respected site for reviews. Syntrillium Releases ProEQ Plug-In for Cool Edit 2000
I can't believe I'm lucky enough to find this thread. I signed on to check breaking news before going to bed and this thread popped up. Cool! Since I have tons of homemade cassettes that I'd like to convert to CD's, I will be bookmarking this thread to read later.
I found that I could use the cassette headphone jack as my output and run RCA plugs to the recorders Line-In inputs in the back.
As you said the recorder has trouble seperating tracks.
So I take my CD over to my computer and run a program called Audio Cleaning Lab. It's made by a company called Magix. It's on the web www.magix.com.
It allows me to seperate tracks, boost the sound, dehiss, and de-click the recordings (if scratched), and cut and paste songs.
I bought it at Best Buy for 40 Bucks. Then it allows my to burn it back on a cd or convert it to an MP3 file.
I usually make it an MP3 file and store it on the computer.
With NERO I convert it into a data file and store it on a CD.
You can get up to 200 songs on a CD this way. And anytime you want that song you can bring the CD back and with NERO drag and drop any songs from the CD to make an Audio CD.
I'm sure I'll get better with practice, but the first experience was fairly painless. The resulting MP3 file is here. Not perfect, but I've heard worse...
Though, truth to tell, for the amount of tape that y'all want to transfer to digital, I'm thinking there must be a better way. I'd be interested in hearing it myself.
= )
Good idea - you can really clean up the tape hiss these days, too - it will bring you back to the days when you had short nails on your left hand ;)
If I remember correctly the average song takes up about 3 to 3.5 MB. This is equivalent to about 3.5 mins. Each disk holds about 700 MBs.
In addition to recording vinyl and cassette, I've also managed to capture DirectTV music channels, Digital Cable Music Channels, CDR's and reel-to-reel to CD. As well during the holidays I accidently recorded DTV channel 819 on my TiVo and managed to move music from the TiVo to CD burner. This actually has some interesting applications in combination with DirectTV.
I plan to record on the TiVo a 4-6 hours of Ch819 on DirectTV and then review the what's been recorded via fastforwarding the TiVo at 25x. Since the music is played on Ch.819 with the artist, album, song name displayed on the TV, I'll just record what I want on CD, then torch the rest. As well, since Ch.819 plays a fairly diverse selection of tunes, I'm bound to run into something I don't have already in one format or another sooner or later.
---max
I'll second that recommendation of Audio Cleaning Lab. I really like it for making the recording off the line input on my Soundblaster Live 5.1 card, and removing noise, hiss, clicks, and suchlike from cassettes and LPs. I don't like it as much for actually burning the CD, though. I usually export the cleaned up audio, and burn the CD with Nero 5.5.
AB
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.