ripping music cassettes to disk (1 Viewer)

[Gorlash]

I just came across a box of old music cassettes, that have been in storage for years now... many of them are obscure artists who never ended up on more modern media.
I would like to get a cassette player which will play to usb, so I can record them on computer.

I've been looking around Amazon, but most of those (even the ones that *have* usb interfaces; most don't) appear to only use usb for power, and play back over headphones...
Does anyone here know of any devices which do what I want? Or do I need to stick with audio transfer?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

This one appears to connect via usb to a computer: See on Amazon

 

[Lord Dalek]

Honestly I'd just run the line output of your commercial tape deck into a Sony Tascam recorder but that's probably too expensive.

 

[JohnRice]

Do you really want the audio quality you'd get from an extremely cheap cassette player with an internal USB interface? I'd use a better player and an external ADC with a USB output.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Do you really want the audio quality you'd get from an extremely cheap cassette player with an internal USB interface? I'd use a better player and an external ADC with a USB output.

I agree with this.

 

[Gorlash]

Do you really want the audio quality you'd get from an extremely cheap cassette player with an internal USB interface? I'd use a better player and an external ADC with a USB output.

Well, that *is* a dilemma... but reality is, these cassettes have been sitting in that storage box in the living room for all the 26 years that we've lived here - so we aren't talking master quality here...

Also, we will never again be recording any more cassettes after this set (there are about 20 or 30 cassettes in the box), so it really doesn't make sense to spend a great deal of money on this device, which will probably be given away on craigslist once we are done with this conversion...

So a reasonable balance is called for...

 

[JohnRice]

Well, that *is* a dilemma... but reality is, these cassettes have been sitting in that storage box in the living room for all the 26 years that we've lived here - so we aren't talking master quality here...

Also, we will never again be recording any more cassettes after this set (there are about 20 or 30 cassettes in the box), so it really doesn't make sense to spend a great deal of money on this device, which will probably be given away on craigslist once we are done with this conversion...

So a reasonable balance is called for...

The type of ADC I'm referring to probably costs $30-40. If you have a better cassette deck, or can borrow one, then it's rather cheap. But do what you want.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Unfortunately, there is no “ripping” from cassettes. Each one will have to be recorded in real time, one at a time, the same way we used to record LPs to tape.

I’m guessing you have so-called “factory” pre-recorded cassettes, which were not the best sound quality to begin with. However, as John indicated, you certainly don’t want the sound degraded even more.

What’s going to make or break your efforts is the quality of the A/D converters. As such, don’t waste your time on anything that’s dirt cheap, like this. Devices like this not only convert analog to digital, but also perform the .mp3 compression. That’s a lot to ask for something that only cost $20-30. I guess at that price can’t hurt to try. Maybe it’ll get good results, maybe it won’t.

Better options are going to be more expensive, but also not unreasonably-priced. One option is to get a vintage CD recorder like the Pioneer PDR-509 et al., record the tapes to music-specific CD-RW discs (which can be re-used for additional recordings), then rip them to your computer. This was the method I used to record some LPs to home-made CDs. This method would get you “ready to use” WAV files that you could convert to .mp3 if desired. The files could also be dumped to a music editing program like Audacity for some touch-up, like additional background noise reduction.

Another option is to get a good-quality stereo audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett or M-Audio Track Duo. Good working legacy models of these (and other brands) can be found used at good prices. This would allow you to record from your cassette deck direct to your computer, although it will require Audacity or similar.

Another option I came across, closer to your original request of a single-component option, Marantz Professional and TASCAM make decks with USB. These would likely require use of an editing program. However, these units only have 16-bit converters, where as the abovementioned interfaces are 24-bit. Given the sound quality of the original cassettes, this may or may not matter.

As mentioned, there is no “quick and easy” way to accomplish this. If you have a lot of tapes, it probably makes more sense to just connect a cassette deck to your audio system and listen to them the same way you used to.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JohnRice]

Unfortunately, there is no “ripping” from cassettes. Each one will have to be recorded in real time, one at a time, the same way we used to record LPs to tape.

I admit, I was assuming this was understood.

I've done what you want to do many times, many years ago. It is extremely time consuming. Just so you know. there are no short cuts.

 

[Gorlash]

Okay, thanks for these inputs, I will sit back and consider options now...

One note, for what it's worth, I am familiar with Audacity, having used it for a variety of audio-manipulation tasks... I've also used it in the past to "rip" vinyl to disk; in that case, we plugged turntable into an inexpensive amp (to boost the very low turntable signal level), then plugged the amp into audio input on the microphone input on the computer; used Audacity to handle recording the input, splitting up the recordings into tracks, storing to disk...

So I'll probably be doing the same thing here; the audio chip on my motherboard is Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec, supposedly 7.1CH HD Audio output, but don't know anything about the input quality... I'll still need to choose a cassette player, but I'll have more options if I'm using audio out instead of usb out (where I'm dependent upon what audio converter they are using...)

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I use Audacity, too, to record the audio from concert Blu-ray discs. That will give you one long file, though (I usually record as a WAV file). You will then want to break up that file into individual song tracks. I use a freeware app called Wave Editor to do that. I then encode as a high bit rate MP3 and create the proper tag meta data.

One other comment. When you are done, you may be disappointed in the results. Cassettes were not the greatest format. Many years ago I tried a similar project, in my case recording some old 8 track tapes. When I was done, I ended up dumping everything I had recorded. It sounded so poor that I knew I would never want to listen to the music.

Good luck.

 

[JohnRice]

I used Audacity as well, then used an app in the Toast collection to turn the WAV file into a CD burnable iso file. Then, of course, it could be converted to mp3.