Hello, I’m attempting to digitise some old audio cassettes of my mother singing, A task I have had no problem achieving on my old laptop which runs Windows 7 (sadly this laptop is not readily available to be used right now) I’m currently using my dad’s HP laptop which uses Windows 10. (Note: The other day this laptop was given a fresh install of Windows 10) Anyway something is not working, I haven’t a clue what I’m doing wrong, I am recording from an old cassette stereo system using an RCA out cable to 3.5mm jack in the laptop. my own laptop has 2, 3.5mm jack imputs, 1 for the headphones and 1 for the mic, I plugged into the mic jack and everything worked fine. My Dads laptop has 1, 3.5mm jack-in imput, …I plug in there but no joy!
It must be an audio setting I need to change or something.
Please help kind regards gin
Problem with digitising old audio cassettes
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This forum is for Audacity on Windows.Please state which version of Windows you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Help menu > About Audacity".
Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
Problem with digitising old audio cassettes
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- Cassette system
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- Back of cassette player
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- My Dads 1 hole Jack input Laptop
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- My 2 hole Jack input Laptop
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Re: Problem with digitising old audio cassettes
An extra photo of my current Audacity Settings
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- My current settings in Audacity
- 1 (5).jpg (53.69 KiB) Viewed 124 times
Re: Problem with digitising old audio cassettes
3 issues...Anyway something is not working, I haven’t a clue what I’m doing wrong, I am recording from an old cassette stereo system using an RCA out cable to 3.5mm jack in the laptop. my own laptop has 2, 3.5mm jack imputs, 1 for the headphones and 1 for the mic, I plugged into the mic jack and everything worked fine. My Dads laptop has 1, 3.5mm jack-in imput, …I plug in there but no joy!
1 - The headphone/microphone combo-jack needs a 4-conductor TRRS plug to make the microphone connection. (A regular 3-conductor 3.5mm TRS plug will work for headphones.)
2 - A line-level signal is about 100 to 1000 stronger than a microphone signal so the mic input is not "correct" (on either computer) and you won't get the best quality. Plus, the preamp on a laptop or "regular soundcard" is often low quality (noisy).
The soundcard in a desktop/tower computer will have a line input. That will work much better and you'll usually get excellent quality (probably indistinguishable from the original tape).
Or, you can get an audio interface with line inputs. The Behringer UCA202 is popular and inexpensive, or there are higher-end audio interfaces, often with switchable mic*/line inputs. Do NOT get a regular "USB soundcard" because they are like laptops with only mic-in and headphone-out.
3 - The mic input on the combo jack is always mono and it's usually mono if you have separate mic & headphone jacks. No-good if you are digitizing stereo tapes.
* Audio interfaces usually have balanced XLR microphone inputs for stage/studio mics and are not compatible with "computer microphones".