Hi all I’m newbie on here and just hope you’s out there might be able to help me… It’s recording alright but when to replay it either from what I just done on Audacity, from my music library or burned to a CD, it’s all static, muffled and fades in out. Could it be the tape (which sounds alright when playing it) or our tape deck or any other ideas. My friends mum wants them done before going away as they want to play them while on their travels. [The Oak Ridge Boys]
Thanks in-advance.
Start from the basics by reading http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_copying_tapes_lps_or_minidiscs_to_cd.html .
If you need help after that please tell us exactly what tape deck you have (make and model number) and exactly how you are connecting it to your computer. Tell us what version of Windows and what version of Audacity (see the pink panel at the top of this page).
If you are connecting the tape deck to microphone in of your computer it is a bad idea because you may get mono, distortion or both, but if that is your only input you should turn off Windows Sound Enhancements .
Gale
Wouldn’t it be easier just to buy the CD(s) - Amazon appears to have a great pile ?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_18?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=the%20oak%20ridge%20boys%20cd&sprefix=The+Oak+Ridge+Boys%2Caps%2C316
When I converted my vinyl and tapes I never bothered with those that had good (and reasonably priced) CD versions commercially available.
WC
Yes it would be easier to buy in the long run WC, but I notice they are in £’s as I live in NZ and our currency rate it wouldn’t be worth it by the time we add on the difference.
Thanks for the thought.
Lorraine.
Thank you Gale, I will try what you have mentioned with the help of the link you’ve posted.
Lorraine.
WC-
“Wouldn’t it be easier just to buy the CD(s) - Amazon appears to have a great pile ?”
I would note in passing that many CD’s are re-engineered and re-engineered poorly. Sometimes the actual mix changes, and sometimes the track cuts have been made very poorly. On live concerts, you will often hear “thank you thank you, that was xx on the xxx and now for our next number we’re going to play…” between the songs. Except, on a CD those credits for the past song sometimes appear as the lead-in on the next track. Or the “for the next” is appended to the previous track, where it does no good if you’re randomly playing cuts.
CD’s to replace older music aren’t a panacea, although I’d agree with you that they often an be worth buying. They’re more like Forest Gump’s box of cherries.
(And this is major labels, major artists, not oddball self-produced stuff.)
points all well made (and agreed with) hellosailor.
It is possible to use CDex or EAC to extract tracks the way you like 'em with the front announce or back announce pegged to the right track - but it’s awful hard work. I did something similar when I ripped my Classical CDs making the “track” a whole work/symphony so the shuffle improved.
And indeed some re-masters are awful - one Emmylou Harris CD I rebought had me scuttling back to the vinyl copy I still had - the engineers had brought all the backing to the fore pushing Emmy back in the sound-stage where she got lost in the mush - that’s the “loudness wars” for you. And the latest reissue of the Beatles remastered CDs are just as bad for the same reason imvho - the earlier CD release being much to ne preferred.
But coming from a commercial tape as the source, as the poster is doing I assume, you may be better off with a CD remaster.
WC
Oh, yes commercial tapes. If the originals are commercial tapes, the fade and other distortion could be caused by simple tape degradation. They always were horrible quality, both physically and audio. And CD sound quality would totally improve that. Good point.