Converting cassettes to CD

[Narnia]

Can anyone advise if there is an inexpensive way of doing this and if the quality of the copy is ok? I've got a lot of tapes I'd like to add to my Ipod library but don't want to end up rebuying every album I ever had.

Thanks.

[Roll Deep]

Getting those Frank Zappa hit's off the 8-track is gonna be a real bitch, Declan.

[Narnia]

I'm still peed off that I didn't get my Velvet Underground tape back after loaning it out circa 12 years ago. It was old then. I was never really into Zappa.

[david_carnell]

If you own the originals you can download the albums from bit-torrent websites without doing anything illegal. It'll be quicker and the quality much better than any tape-CD-ipod converter unit you can find.

[Roll Deep]

Or get in touch with Time Team.

[HAL9000]

Declan - if one has a computer with an audio input socket and an application like, say, Audacity then it is reasonably easy to convert audio from a tape recorder to a digital file format that can be burnt on to CD media.

[Narnia]

David........what that and where is it?

[KidKruger]

Would second what HAL9000 advised. I have done the same from mini-discs.

Depends whether you want that actual 'tape' sound.

Audacity is free to download from t'internet.

[Narnia]

Hal/Kid, what sort of lead is required to connect one to the other?

[SeanMacGabhann]

Declan

one of these should be the fellow

basically it's going from the headphone socket in your tape player to the audio in socket on the laptop/pc - they are usually 3,5 but if you are going from a big deck you might have a bigger headphone socket

But I would suggest the Carnell method as a better bet quality wise

If you say what albums you are after people on here may already have them as well..

[KidKruger]

Declan - it's a very basic lead. Sorry I am not an expert on the terminolgy, but for converting form mini-disc I just took the MD recorder into Maplins and said I wanted to connect it to a laptop, I spent under a ?5er.

It's gonna be something like 'micro-jack', '3.5mm jack'.

If you have a stereo (like a component system) then yo may need to come out of the rear with a L/R channel (like what goes to the amp) then connect it with a '2 to 1' connector to a single lead which goes to the laptop.

Maplins get these questions every day, do some measurements, take some pics and take what you can to that shop or similar and they willsort you out - or someone on here clever than me can advise the names of this stuff !

I have to do the same with my tapes soon (and vinyl..) so would be interested how you get on.

[*Bob*]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> If you own the originals you can download the

> albums from bit-torrent websites without doing

> anything illegal.

'Fraid not, DC.

This is copyright infringement = illegal.

[Roll Deep]

Shiver me timbers Dave, remember what happened to those Swedish privateers?

[david_carnell]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> 'Fraid not, DC.

>

> This is copyright infringement = illegal.

Really? How so? Surely if I own a legally bought copy of that album (on any format) all I am doing by downloading it is obtaining a duplicate. As long as I then don't attempt to distribute or sell that copy I have done nothing wrong.

Surely that was the loophole that would allow you to make compilation albums on cassettes.

Edit: As usual on such matters, Bob, you are correct. Well, that's me with a criminal record then.....(*insert Gary Glitter joke here*)

[????]

DC= the Raffles of the Internet

[david_carnell]

Whilst ensuring the correctness of his Bobship I've now discovered that even copying a CD onto your computer and onto your ipod is technically illegal. This is a nonsense.

Whilst I'm not proud of having thieved music from the net before, the vast majority of my collection is legally purchased CDs or itunes albums. To then not be allowed to make duplciates of those for private use seems ridiculous.

[*Bob*]

The license you own is bound in the physical format you bought it in (vinyl, tape.. now digital too), not in the song itself, in whatever format you like. And bound to that specific item too. So if you lose your Nana Mouskouri tape, you have to buy it all over again.

[*Bob*]

I don't know the current technicalities of rights to transfer from the format you bought it in.. I suspect this area will be 'copyright law on the move' over the next decade or so - as encoding and copy-protection becomes built-into digital formats.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Isn't encoding and copy protection being removed from digital formats? Apple had it and then removed it from their iTunes tracks didn't they?

[bignumber5]

This thing claims to do the job, don't know if you class that as a reasonable expense - depends how many you have to do, i guess.

[*Bob*]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> Isn't encoding and copy protection being removed

> from digital formats? Apple had it and then

> removed it from their iTunes tracks didn't they?

I'm not familiar with how the compressed digital formats work (I've never bought one!) - but that does ring a bell. As I say, I think this area will be on the move over the next few years.

How copyright law used to be applied was on a commonsense basis (number of people prosecuted for making a mix tape from their vinyl.. zero..? Probably?).

Now I think they're struggling for how commonsense stuff like 'people owning more than one computer at a time, changing their computer every few years so not wanting a track to be tied to that machine' can be balanced against the ease with which people can share at the drop of a hat - machine to machine or P2P or whatever.

Part of the problem is that the physical item itself is no longer an object of desire, like vinyl was.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Thank heavens my Nana Miskouri tape is safe.

[Jah Lush]

Pah! This all bollocks. It's been going on for decades but people still copy stuff and why not. Do you remember the slogan on inner record sleeves? "Home taping is killing music." Didn't stop anyone did it? Oh and by the way - did you tape the music on your tapes from records?

[????]

Or off the Radio- I've still got some Greg Edwards/Robbie Vincent tapes from way back

[KidKruger]

So as a 7 year old when I plonked my tape recorder next to the speaker of the telly to record Top Of The Pops every week I was breaking the law ?? Yikes !