This is probably outside of the normal questions for recording, but do any of you have a decent option for converting cassette tapes to digital files? I have a bunch of old band tapes and such that I want to get uploaded.
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Best Cassette to digital option?
- Thread starter deff
- Start date
I don't but having to run your cassettes at real time to transfer to digital would be a time consuming process.
Right, but I'm not talking about converting other people's records to digital, just a few bands where there was never a conversion to cd or whatever. There have to be some older people here that have run into this issue. While I'm not condoning this sort of thing, I bet there are some people who bootlegged concerts with a cassette recorder that have since moved that stuff to digital. Amazon sells a bunch of inexpensive little cassette boxes, but I'm a little reticent to use that sort of thing, should it destroy the tapes.
do you have a tape deck? do you have an audio interface and a DAW? do you have an RCA cable and couple of RCA to 1/4" adapters? then you're all set. plug the tape deck into the audio interface, hit record on the DAW and play on the cassette deck. once you get things into your DAW, you can use a noise-reduction plugin to shave off some of the tape hiss.
there is no other way to transfer analog to digital than by playing it in real-time through A/D converters like those in your audio interface.
there is no other way to transfer analog to digital than by playing it in real-time through A/D converters like those in your audio interface.
I have a DAW, no deck, or adaptors. I assume this would be the most simple way to do this, but alas, no deck. I probably ought to just find a decent used deck on clist or marketplace and buy the adaptors. I simply thought there might just be a quick fix all in one that would work. I see you're in Salem. Not far from you and spend a lot of time there.
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
From low to high price there's palm sized cassette to USB converters for around $40.00 A pawn shop cassette deck to your computer. The Marantz PMD-300 for 200.00 and Tascam's CD-A850 & 202mk-VII @ 500.00 each.
I've rented Tascam's cassette to cd burners many times without any quality issues or tape eating but that was a while ago and they aren't that common anymore.
I've rented Tascam's cassette to cd burners many times without any quality issues or tape eating but that was a while ago and they aren't that common anymore.
i mean it is 2021 afterall, perhaps someone has invented some extremely sensitive magnetic device that can read an entire cassette tape and convert it to digital audio but... i don't think that exists.
yeah you do need a tape deck to digitize cassette tapes... i don't have one anymore either... probably cheaper to get a used deck and the rca to quarter inch adapter needed to hook it up to your audio interface than it would be to have someone else do it for you. if you do get a used deck, be sure to clean and demagnitize the heads, rollers, and capstan before you put a tape in it...
oh hey! i have a lot of musical friends in Gloucester...
yeah you do need a tape deck to digitize cassette tapes... i don't have one anymore either... probably cheaper to get a used deck and the rca to quarter inch adapter needed to hook it up to your audio interface than it would be to have someone else do it for you. if you do get a used deck, be sure to clean and demagnitize the heads, rollers, and capstan before you put a tape in it...
Oddly enough most of my musical friends are from Salem. I wasn't really asking about it in reference to timing. They have a number of these little mini tape decks all over amazing that you can just plug a thumb drive in and it will record all of the tracks. These seem incredibly easy yet there's likely no level setting or anything like that. I wasn't sure if anyone here had any ideas on how well those worked or any other ideas. Speaking of local concerns, TJ Welch from the Welch Boys (Danvers or Salem), seems to have cornered the market on all used stereo equipment. It's tough to find stuff for cheap because he snatches it all up to resell.i mean it is 2021 afterall, perhaps someone has invented some extremely sensitive magnetic device that can read an entire cassette tape and convert it to digital audio but... i don't think that exists.
oh hey! i have a lot of musical friends in Gloucester...
yeah you do need a tape deck to digitize cassette tapes... i don't have one anymore either... probably cheaper to get a used deck and the rca to quarter inch adapter needed to hook it up to your audio interface than it would be to have someone else do it for you. if you do get a used deck, be sure to clean and demagnitize the heads, rollers, and capstan before you put a tape in it...
As you’ve got a DAW, you could probably pick up a decent tape deck for not much money, then just run the phones out via a stereo cable.
EDIT i’ve done this a bunch of times for some of my teenage bedroom demos. It’s also really fun remastering old recordings with EQ, compression etc!
EDIT i’ve done this a bunch of times for some of my teenage bedroom demos. It’s also really fun remastering old recordings with EQ, compression etc!
Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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That's fine if you're digitizing 4-track tapes at the same speed. But the other side will bleed through on regular tapes. IMO, get a standard deck with RCA outs and a cheap stereo interface if that is the case.
Boombox, held over your head in the rain, while someone records a video of you on their iPhone.
I started digitizing old LPs and cassettes in the mid-90's. I use DCArt. I just take the output from my Hi-Fi, smartphone, tape out (whatever) and feed it into my computer (1/8" jack) and capture away. I use it to digitize simple audio recordings from practices and gigs that I use a simple cassette recorder for (I have a Zoom recorder, but sometimes popping in a tape and hitting record is perfectly fine.
DCArt is old, but very powerful and easy to use. You can edit the waveforms in many ways. It has a lot of filters, speed controls, de-popping/de-clicking, EQ, etc. If I need to convert the WAV files to mp3 I use an old copy of iTunes (I generally hate all things Apple). Even thought there are other programs that have come out in the interim, but I still use DCArt.
DCArt is old, but very powerful and easy to use. You can edit the waveforms in many ways. It has a lot of filters, speed controls, de-popping/de-clicking, EQ, etc. If I need to convert the WAV files to mp3 I use an old copy of iTunes (I generally hate all things Apple). Even thought there are other programs that have come out in the interim, but I still use DCArt.
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No - and if I had a need to do it I probably wouldn't.
I'd probably borrow a cassette deck from a boomer and do the transfer through a daw.
How many cassettes are you talking? There are services where you mail it on and have someone do it for you.
