Converting cassette tapes to audio CD

[J Bruce]

All I want to do is convert all my good old cassette tapes to audio CDs. Nothing fancy. I need a simple cookbook for step-by step instructions. So far I've connected my cassette player thru a small amplifier/mixer and thence to the Mic input to my computer (Win XP), and Audacity takes over. I understand I can just leave the cassette running for its entire 90 minutes, so I did so as a first trial.
Now I see Audacity has created 463 files, each lasting about 12 seconds. How do I tell it to join these end to end (I guess) to make one big file?
Could I have told it to make one big file at the beginning?
If it's necessary to break it up, is there an optimum file size for each section?
I can, if necessary, just record each song/orchestral piece one at a time and create a track for each, but this means I'd have to sit at the console and listen and watch closely, starting and stopping, and naming each track. Rather not. Rather let the whole thing run for the 90 minutes. Don't need track titles.
How should I put it into a format that can be used to burn a CD?
Do I need to convert the files to MP3? As an intermediate step? As a final step? A friend told me I needed to convert the file(s) to MP3, so I downloaded LAME but haven't used it yet.
My requirement must surely be duplicated by thousands of your other customers/downloaders, so if you could provide such a cookbook, it would be worth money to me, as I'm sure it would to many others in the same situation.
Thanks
J Bruce

[kozikowski]

thence to the Mic input to my computer (Win XP)

There are tutorials about how to do this, but that's the first problem. You can't do that on many Windows laptops. The Microphone Input on many if not most Windows laptops is first, mono, not stereo, and it's expecting a tiny delicate microphone signal, not the robust powerful stereo signal from the mixer. If you don't have a (usually blue) Stereo Line-In connection, you may be stuck with buying one of these.

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx

You get a Stereo Line-In connection on many if not all Windows Deskside machines and Macs, but not the Windows laptops.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Trans ... uter_or_CD

Koz

[kozikowski]

Oh, and forget MP3 unless you want the work on your iPod or other music player. Audacity capture at 44100, 16-bit, stereo is directly compatible with Music CDs. MP3 creates permanent compression sound damage.

Koz

[J Bruce]

I never said I have a laptop. I have a pretty standard desktop with Windows XP.
The problem is not with handling the signal - that part is fine. I see the tracks on the screen as it is recording.
The problem is how to handle the 463 files that Audacity makes, each one about 12 seconds.
Please re-read the rest of my original posting
J Bruce

[kozikowski]

Did you read the tutorial?

Audacity will not "Save" a sound file. You have to Export one. There's a number of steps to this, configuring Audacity, Splitting up the sound files into songs, etc. It's all covered.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

... The problem is how to handle the 463 files that Audacity makes, each one about 12 seconds.

JB

you don't handle all thos itty bitty files they're there for Audacity to manage...

When you save an Audacity project as <project_name> it creates a number of things

1. a top level master project file called <project_name>.aup
2. a folder at the same filing level called <project_name>_data
3. and within the folder a sub-folder structure with lots of little .au files - segments of the recording (mainly audio clips - but a couple of them are graphics files)

When you re-open a project with Audacity you should always open the <project_name>.aup top level file. This tells Audacity how to thread together all the little .au files. It is deliberately designed this way so that Audacity doesn't have to open and work with a single humungously large file, which would hamper performance. You should not be attempting to open or manipulate any individual .au files.

When you have finished editing your Audacity project you can Export it from Audacity as a WAV file or MP3 file depending what sound quality you wish to achieve. WAV files are around ten times larger than the equivalent MP3 files but are uncompressed and thus the audio quality is higher.

WC

[waxcylinder]

Oh, and you would be much better off upgrading to the latest Audacity 1.3.12 which you can get from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

And here are the set of Tutorials from the 1.3 manual - they are similar to the ones in the Wiki that Koz pointed you at, but better structured: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tuto ... iscs_to_CD

WC

[J Bruce]

Thank you, Wax Cylinder. We're getting somewhere.
By the way - first job I had after getting out of college in 1949 was in the Westinghouse office, and I had to write letters by dictation, using a Dictaphone. And what did the Dictaphone have as recording media? You guessed it - a wax cylinder . . .
But I digress.
Koz asked if I'd read the tutorial. Which tutorial? Presumably this will be clear to me after I download them using the link you provided, which I'll be doing soon. Thanks for this in advance.
I've downloaded and printed out the manuals, but they dwell too much on what one CAN do, not HOW to do it.
You make a good point about not asking the system to handle one humungously large file, 90 minutes long.
OK OK so be it. I've opened my first project, which I called Xmas-1.aup, and there was all the music. Running for 90 minutes.
I realize I must now decide on end points for each reasonable length part. Obviously it could be at the end of each song, but there are quite a number of songs in the 90 minutes. Is it OK to put an end point at the end of a group of songs, say around ten minutes worth?
Presumably the tutorial will deal with further basic points such as how to create the 9 or 10 files (or tracks) in the .wav format and store them and later feed them to Nero for burning the music CD.
J Bruce

[kozikowski]

I've opened my first project, which I called Xmas-1.aup

Points for not calling it a show file. A project is a whole ton of files and it's all managed by the AUP file. That makes Projects very difficult to move.

You can open the whole 90 minute show and break it up into songs from there. Place a Label (Control-B, I think) at the Beginning of each song. Then File > Export Multiple. Export Multiple will provide a single, simple sound file starting at each label.

Pull each sound file into your Music CD authoring program and burn. No, Music CDs do not carry song titles.

There is a trick here. You can put a label at the beginning of the capture session and then another one at the beginning of the first song. Put a label at the end of the last song. Then just ignore the first and last files when Export Multiple provides the pile of sound files.

Koz

[kozikowski]

A quick note, you don't have to build in the 2-second gap between songs. The CD authoring program will do that automatically.

Koz