Hi
Sorry to ask such a basic question but I want to do it anyway to prevent any
possible damage to my equipment.
I have an old JVC boom box. On the back are “Line out” (R and L). They are
not color coded. The cables that one purchases seem to all be color coded
(red and white for the line out, and then black for the single one that goes into the
blue coloured connection at the back of my computer. So, my question is, are
the red and white specifically designed for newer machines that are color coded,
or, can I use these type of cables with my machine?
I want to transfer my cassettes to MP3.
Thanks for your help.
Jarred
So you have an adapter cable that looks like this?
If you have a blue Stereo Line-In on your computer, then that’s all you need.
Yes the Red is almost always Right and the White or Black is Left.
I would probably not go directly to MP3. I would make archive copies in perfect WAV (Microsoft) format and then burn the lesser quality MP3s from that for your Personal Music Player. It’s hard to change an MP3 into anything else without sound damage.
Which Windows does the machine have? Have you ever recorded anything like this before?
Note almost all newer computer don’t have good Stereo Line-In any more.
Koz
Thanks very much Koz. Yes, the three-pronged cable is correct, but wanted to know
for sure from someone that it would work with my old machine before I buy it; otherwise I would
buy a Pyle dual cassette deck with USB transfer using Audacity.
I have Windows 7 Premium, 64 bit. Good processor, intel i7.
I have had issues with Microsoft in poor quality for video but I will try the
WAV for audio as you suggest. For video, I find microsoft movie maker
and DVD maker to be very poor. I use VSDC which is free and very easy and was one
of the only video editors that would install nicely on my computer. With that I use
DVD flick and CDburnerxp to make DVDs.
I have not done this before with cassettes. I have some cassette tapes that are very
important to me because there are songs on them which have been cut-out
in the more recent CD version and that are “lost” besides those who have the old
version on cassette.
I want to be sure that I do this right the first time
I appreciate your recommendations
Jarred
Pyle dual cassette deck with USB transfer
Maybe none of those.
Nobody is throwing awards at your built-in soundcard for sound quality. It’s got sensitive analog electronics in the same box with the noisy video card and hard drive electronics. If you buy a new internal soundcard to manually install, they warn you to install it as far from the video card as you can get.
Is your current cassette deck good for your use? Does it have Dolby B/C, Metal, CRO2, etc, etc, settings and sound OK? If so, I would keep it and get a better interface. I use a Behringer UCA202 interface.
Even that’s not the absolutely best you can do, but it took flynwill and heavy test equipment to find the errors, and the price skyrockets after this.
Koz
Thanks Koz,
My boombox is an oldie but was the best in its class back then.
JVC (pc-150) with Dolby and takes metal and all cassettes. Speakers 10 W (20 max).
Sound is fantastic! Then they just kept making them cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.
So, are you saying to hook-up the boombox with the two line-outs, connect
them to the Behringer UCA202, and then the Behringer UCA202 to my computer–and not use Audacity at all, or, still use Audacity?
Sorry, I am not educated on audio, excuse my ignorance.
Thanks a lot
Jarred
The UCA202 digitizes the sound and delivers it as a digital bitstream to Windows. Windows makes it available to Audacity which can, among other things, turn a real time performance into a sound file. That’s the recorder.
Audacity is also a post-production editor and can be used to break up the performance into individual sound files suitable for creating an Audio CD, etc. That can let you skip forward and backwards and select individual songs, something you couldn’t easily do with tape.
This is the lead page of the on-line manual. Scroll down to the tutorials.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/
There are instructions for copying tapes, splitting up songs, burning CDs, etc.
Koz
Thanks a lot Koz! I saw that unit on Amazon and will likely go ahead with it.
Take Care!
Your soundcard may be perfectly adequate. Try it!* If there’s a problem it will be noise.** If you’re getting excessive noise (hiss or hum that’s over-and-above the noise coming from the tape) then you may benefit from the Behringer or something similar. Frequency response and distortion almost never a problem (they are usually better than human hearing) so the only thing to worry about is noise. Well almost… The clock in some “cheap” soundcards can be off a bit, and that will throw-off the speed & pitch.
But the bottom line is, unless you’ve got a problem your soundcard is probably OK.
Oh… Of course, you CAN get distortion if you try to go over 0dB. This is one area where digital is WORSE than tape… Tape can go over 0dB where it tends to “soft clip”, and it was common practice to record “hot” to overcome the tape noise. An analog-to-digital converter is hard-limited to 0dB and it will hard-clip if you try to go over. But, there is no tape noise to worry about so you can record a lot lower and leave lots of headroom. It’s OK to record digitally at -6dB (or even lower). You can boost the levels digitally after recording. Nothing bad happens if you get close to 0dB, but you are more certain to avoid clipping if you leave some headroom.
I have had issues with Microsoft in poor quality for video but I will try the
WAV for audio as you suggest. For video, I find microsoft movie maker
and DVD maker to be very poor. I use VSDC which is free and very easy and was one
of the only video editors that would install nicely on my computer. With that I use
DVD flick and CDburnerxp to make DVDs.
The soundcard/audio interface might make a difference in quality. But once the audio is digitized your choice of recording software won’t affect quality (assuming no “glitches” or “problems”)… It’s just digital-data like a text file or spreadsheet, etc., and there’s no reason for the “numbers” to get corrupted.
When it comes to effects like EQ or Noise Reduction, then different software will give you different results. (Audacity is pretty good at everything it does, but when there are differences there can be preferences.) But basic editing like cutting/splicing or even volume adjustment is very straightforward and any software can do it without “damage”.
\
- I’m talking about the line input. The microphone input on a regular soundcard or laptop is useless for quality recording, and it’s incompatible with stage/studio mics.
** This is pretty obvious, but when comparing the digital recording to the original tape, use the same system/speakers and listen at the same volume. Your computer speakers will sound different from the boombox speakers. And, don’t drive yourself crazy listening for subtle differences… If there’s a noise problem it should be obvious, and you can easily fool yourself with when “listening carefully” (in a non-blind A/B test).
you CAN get distortion if you try to go over 0dB.
And some soundcards sooner than that. This is one of the errors that can cause flat-topping at 50%. The Stereo/Mono cross isn’t the only one.
Consult your instructions.
Koz