Tape Cassette Player/bought through Magazine/Audacity Format

Audacity Help Forum Windows
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:question: Hello, and new to ‘Audacity’ forum, so bear with me please! As I’m not entirely sure, this is where-I need be. (?) As I’d like to bring attention to the user-group, that I had recently purchased one ‘Cassette Player’, through a popular magazine, often used because of it’s selling of many useful and everyday things. Now, this ‘CP’ was purchased by me, in hopes of downloading certain old ‘Cassette’ tapes, I had had before in the past, with older music on it! This particular tape player, was expressed in a way, that it in fact-could do the job for me. There of which, I could ‘Load’ all my older favorite tunes, and change them over to an ‘MP3’ mode, for storage on my ‘PC’. (Windows 7/Windows Media Player!)

Now, I had figured out by the instructions, given in the player itself, just how to do; but, player instructions mentioned, that I must first ‘Load’ a ‘dll’ download first before I could in fact, convert my recordings (Old Songs), over to the MP3 mode, so that it may be accepted and stored in my ‘WMP’, or ‘WMA’, I’m not sure of that latter terminology, but… assume that it’s the mode format; as apposed to: ‘WMP’ (Windows Media Player)

Was wondering if someone in here (In Forum) could help me with this? If not, just to understand more clearly, what it is I must do, and where I must go to, achieve this undertaking! (?) The name of the dll download would be: lame_enc.dll
If this is clear enough, to understand, …then, I await a timely reply! Oh, and must emphasis that the tape deck, is of a ‘Audacity’ formatting, itself! Or is there a ‘Audacity’ downloading of a segment or program itself from: ‘Audacity’, that I can download, with this certain ‘dll’ download, on it? Thank you, DEREK
P.S.: Do not want to have to admit to myself, that I’ve wasted 40 some odd dollars, to do this… And, cannot follow through with entirety! Please, Please… Help, me out! And, if possible-in layman terms too! :slight_smile:

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They probably will have supplied you with an older version of Audacity so do yourself a favour and download the latest 2.0.3 version of Audacity: http://audacityteam.org/download/

Yes, if you want to export MP3s you will need to download LAME as well - see this page in teh manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame

This set of tutorials from the Audacity MAnual should help you a lot: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_copying_tapes_lps_or_minidiscs_to_cd.html

WC

PS I moved your post to a more suitable part of the forum for you.

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Derek2012, I have converted well over 500 “old” tunes from Vinal, to cassette, to 8 track and found that first Audacity is the greatest program to do this with. If yoy follow the procedures outlied with the tutorial you should have no problem, Now i am not an engeneer like the moderators on this forum is, and by the way they are the best but i can hep you in layman terms if you need that. But also if you are looking for the purest of sound from the cassette then to need a great deck to work with, but if you are like me and don’t have the “TUNED” ear like a lot of people do then the little $40.00 deck will work just fine.


Any layman terms that you might need let me know

Marty

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Yikes! I feel so out of my league here. Like Derek, I too purchased a USB Cassette Player for the purpose of recording old music and books on tape to the computer. I would like to get them into i-Tunes to play on an i-Pod and also to transfer to CDs. I quickly found that the software CD that was provided with the player was an old version of Audacity, so I uninstalled it and then downloaded the current version from the .exe installer as well as the LAME program onto my Windows 7 laptop. I have read the what I believe are the appropriate tutorials but, alas, I too, am overly confused. How about some help for a layman (or woman)? I am by no means technologically challenged but I seriously need some assistance. I plug the cassette player into my USB port. I Hit play on the player and record in Audacity. The file records. I can play it back in Audacity. Now what? I know I need to save it, but where and how? Does i-Tunes require an .mp3 or .wav file? I see and understand that Audacity is saving 2 files a data file and an .aup file. Should I also be saving this as an .mp3 file in i-Tunes?? Really I just want to get it into i-Tunes and also to a CD. I don’t want to mix, or edit, or anything fancy, shnazzy stuff. PLEASE HELP ME! (in plain english…as though you’re talking to you’re next door neighbor, not your techno-buddies). Thanx :confused: Gram-I-Am

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Have a read of this workflow tutorial from the manual, it should help you: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/sample_workflow_for_exporting_to_itunes.html

Also be aware that by default iTune does not copy audio files into its own filespace, rather it makes a link to where you currently have it stored. To change this in iTunes go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced and check the tickbox that says “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library”.

WC

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This set of tutorials shold be a big help to you: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_copying_tapes_lps_or_minidiscs_to_cd.html

these two will be especially useful
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/splitting_a_recording_into_separate_tracks.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/burning_music_files_to_a_cd.html

WC

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Thanx so much for your help. You are a gentleman and a scholar! I have bookmarked the links you provided so I will be able to find them easily. I have read them and they make sense to me. Ishould have no problems now.

Gram-I-Am :smiley:

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Will the Tutorial, allow me to upload the cassette recording (Per Song), through tape player, to the PC/MP, anyway… Without having to download the ‘dll’ file afterall? You sounded as if it would walk me right through! (?) Whether, I did or not! In actuality, when I tried transferring the song over to PC (MPlayer), it had said, "I’d have to download the dll file-in order to do this! (?) dll file, in question: ‘lame_enc.dll’

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Waxycylinder,
Thank you so much; but, am having nothing to do with ‘itunes’, as recording old ‘English Rock Hits’, and am wanting them transferred to my ‘Windows Media Player’ only! So, am I correct in assuming, the second ‘Tutorial’ you’d sent, would still help me with this? Again, having nothing to do with: “itunes”… (?)

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If you want to just use WMP (and not iTunes) then you will probably have to export MP3s from Audacity for use there - unless you have massive storage space and want to use uncompressed WAVs.

WC

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Waxycylinder, hi… And thank you… Understand this last post of yours; but, need to know how to download this one ‘dll’, in question? Do I reinstall the original ‘Audacity’ to obtain this ‘dll’; or is there another newer download for Audacity? That would be better? Can you advise, or give me a link on this particular ‘dll’. As the ‘Error’ message said, that this in fact, is all I need to download (Transfer) these ‘Taped’ segments, over to an ‘MP3’ format, to be accepted by ‘WMP’. Thanks, Derek

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Look in the Audacity “Help menu > About Audacity”. If your version is not Audacity 2.0.3, uninstall it and install Audacity 2.0.3 which you can get here: http://audacityteam.org/download/windows (use the recommended installer).

For exporting in MP3 format, see here for instructions to download and install LAME: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame