Cassette to CD

[donsor]

I'm new in the recording business. I can rip and burn CDs but I have never done anything else. Now I have some vintage cassettes and 36 speed records I wish to convert to CDs. I think I have the necessary basic equipment, a boom box with cassette, and cd player and a powerful PC with good sound card. I printed everything in the "help" section of the Audacity software but what I need is a simple explanation of how to record from a cassette to my PC Music Library. From there I can burn it to an audio CD.

[kozikowski]

If you have a good deskside PC, this isn't too hard. Hopefully, there's a Line-Out on the tape machine and you connect that to the Line-In on your sound card. I think my connecor is blue. Your mileage may vary.
That's usually, what, Stereo RCA to stereo 1/8" plug. Length to suit. You may not go across the house. HiFi connections are for short runs only.

Getting the right sound channels open on a Windows machine can be an adventure. You basically turn on "Line-In" in the recording section of the Windows Sound panels, or if yours doesn't fall out that way, consult here...

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel

It's good to know that if you launch Audacity and click once inside the red record meters, they will wake up and meter the incoming signal without you going into full record.

Lets start there.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

Also see this article in teh Audacity Wiki: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... uter_or_CD

WC

[manwiddeplan]

Vista has a program called SOUND RECORDER in the "accessories " section on the program list. It will allow you to record from external sources. It saves the sound as a .wma file. I use "switch" to convert it to an mp3. I had to use the headphone jack on my cassette player because the line out jacks were too weak. You'll need a stereo headphone to RCA jack adapter.

You can't edit the sound with "sound recorder"... import it to Audacity and complete your task.

[donsor]

Thanks for the advice. After reviewing the tutorials in Audacity Help, I managed to successfully copied a cassette tape to CD. I first copied it to an Audacity file in my PC, did some editing, and then exported it to a WAV file. I thenn burned it to a CD using the Microsoft Media Player. Somehow I am unable to export it to an MP# file.

[kozikowski]

<<<Somehow I am unable to export it to an MP# file.>>>

Audacity doesn't come with MP3 software, it has to be downloaded and installed separately.

http://audacityteam.org/help/faq?s=inst ... m=lame-mp3

Koz