Can't Record Tapes

[tryingtorecord]

Hi. This is the second time in a few years that I've tried to record some spoken language cassette tapes using Audacity. I was unsuccessful the first time and I failed again on the second try. I have a large old portable cassette player and a Dell Dimension 8300 PC with a SB Creative!!! sound card with red and white heads. After reading a web site, I went to Radio Shack and bought a Y shaped cable connector cord. Upon my return I realized that my cassette player didn't have a line out port, so I took the cable from my Bose noise-cancelling headphones and connected the earphone port on the cassette player to the back of the computer. (I wasn't sure which port to use, but I tried a couple. I looked on the web a little bit to see if I could find out what color usually is assigned to the line in jack.) I set Audacity to line in, turned on my cassette player, hit the record button in Audacity, but I got a flat line.

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot. It's extremely frustrating to go through all those steps and end up with nothing.

[tryingtorecord]

My original message should have read as follows. Sorry, last minute editing change that screwed-up the meaning.

Hi. This is the second time in a few years that I've tried to record some spoken language cassette tapes using Audacity. I was unsuccessful the first time and I failed again on the second try. I have a large old portable cassette player and a Dell Dimension 8300 PC with a SB Creative!!! sound card. After reading a web site, I went to Radio Shack and bought a Y shaped cable connector cord with red and white heads. Upon my return I realized that my cassette player didn't have a line out port, so I took the cable from my Bose noise-cancelling headphones and connected the earphone port on the cassette player to the back of the computer. (I wasn't sure which port to use, but I tried a couple. I looked on the web a little bit to see if I could find out what color usually is assigned to the line in jack.) I set Audacity to line in, turned on my cassette player, hit the record button in Audacity, but I got a flat line.

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot. It's extremely frustrating to go through all those steps and end up with nothing.

[alatham]

You've either got the recording level turned all the way down (the slider is in Audacity, next to the meters usually), the volume on the tape deck turned down (set it to 70% to start with, headphone outputs are sometimes too high for the Line In), or you aren't plugged into the Line In port in back.

It wouldn't hurt to update your soundcard drivers if you're using Vista either.

I think the blue plug is the Line In on a Creative card, but I haven't owned one in 6 years, so I might be wrong.

[tryingtorecord]

Dear alatham,

Don't know if you got my earlier private message saying that I'd tried to post a thank you for your response, but I just tried your suggestions, including using the blue port and I did get it to record. It's a rough job with a lot of empty space from recording after the tape stopped (I left the room), but fine for now. When I have time I'll try to learn the functions for snipping tape segments, etc.

The sound is mono, I suppose that's because I used a headphone cord to record.

After the recording was finished I tried to export it as an MP3 but the plug-in wouldn't open so I exported it as a WAV file. After opening it in iTunes I converted it into an AAC file.

Thanks so much. Hopefully the refinements will come in time.

BTW, I was recording a language pronunciation cassette from a very expensive set I bought years ago and which still has not been produced on CD-rom. In addition to the fact that I wanted to carry just one listening device, it's easier to pause the iPod than to stop the cassette player if there's something I want to practice or hear again.

[alatham]

If you're getting a mono recording when it should be stereo, you have to check (at least) two things:

1) Audacity's Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O menu has a drop down menu labeled Channels. This should be set to 2.

2) The cable you're plugging in should have 3 conductors to carry a stereo signal (2 channels and 1 ground). If it doesn't you will still be able to record 2 tracks using Audacity, but they will be identical and technically mono.

[tryingtorecord]

Thanks again. Audacity is (was) set for two channel-recording. Maybe I need to find a cassette player that has two output jacks so I don't have to use the headphone jack I'm now using with the headphone cord I have from my Bose earphones. I bought a Y-shaped cord from Radio Shack.

I also noticed that I couldn't hear the recording very well after transferring it to my iPod nano. I'm going to try doing it again. I've turned up the volume control on the line-in slider to high. Hope it doesn't blow out my sound card.

Does setting Audacity so one can listen to the recording as it's being created affect anything? I tried that the second time.

I really appreciate your suggestions.

[tryingtorecord]

I just tried again for a few seconds with volume turned up. It was a horrifying noise. Scared everyone.

[alatham]

You were probably clipping the input signal. While the sound is recording, take a look at the red meters in Audacity, These should NEVER reach all the way to the top or you'll have to start over with the recording. If they do, the end of the meter will light up with a red bar (hard to describe, but you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it).

Also, you'll have to try much hard to "blow out" your soundcard. Unless you plug your input directly into your mains supply or something equally stupid, it will be fine.

[tryingtorecord]

Is it possible to ruin one's tapes in trying to convert to digital? I'm playing a tape that I tried to convert and now there are pauses.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[kozikowski]

<<<Is it possible to ruin one's tapes in trying to convert to digital? >>>

To answer a question you didn't ask; is it possible to ruin tapes by playing them multiple times on a fifteen year old tape player. Oh, yes, certainly. Cassette players have all the belts, braking tensioners and rubber pucks that the grown-up audio tape machines did, they're just much smaller. We threw out four middle quality cassette machines when I looked inside and all the rubber parts had turned to oily sludge in the bottom of the cabinet. We're using a portable to transfer old tapes. Those machines had fewer thin belts and the transport was much more robust.

When was the last time you cleaned your tape pathway? A little rubbing alcohol and a Q-Tip might work wonders by getting years of dried-up tape binder and oxide off the heads, tape guides, and more importantly, the capstan and pinch roller. That may be why there are "holes" in the tape now. The tape progress is failing when it gets to a shiny spot on one of the rubber rollers.

Playing a tape is a three-way juggling act. The capstan pulls the tape past the heads in order to play the music. That's all it does. There is another system to carefully wind the already played tape on the takeup reel inside the cassette. There is a third system that drags the feed reel just slightly to keep the tape tight against the heads. If any of those system get old or out of adjustment, the tape stops playing--or much worse, the tape stretches or acquires edge damage causing warbling sounds on playback.

Everything changes when you fast forward or rewind. Then the capstan goes out for a sandwich and the takeup and feed systems (sometimes individual motors--more usually belts and pucks) take turns pulling and dragging the tape back and forth.


I'd probably get your capture chops on that old Neil Diamond cassette you found in the back of the garage, and then, when you're really good at it and you have the bugs worked out, then go for the valuable tapes.

I'm trying to think of a good way to dub the tapes to Something Else as a protection. That's not easy. I'm sure you noticed that there is, up until a handful of years ago, no good high quality way to record music. That's not accidental. That's the music people doing everything in their power to keep you from making good copies.

You can use a MinDV Camcorder to record sound and you can use a VHS-HiFi machine to do it, too. but in both cases, you need a video generator to give the machine something to chew on while you're messing with the sound tracks. MiniDV has slightly better digital sound than a music CD.

Koz