Cassette Tape to MP3

Also, even if it costs a lot, you have an excellent cassette deck after that. If you don't want it after having done the job you could sell it to me. (I have two low-grade Nakamichi)

Don't tell me you still have tapes? Tisk. They need to die.

I haven't read the other post, nor do I have time right now.

What you can do is use a tape player, and the headphone port you can plug in a mini jack cable with RCA ends on it. Then plug it into your computer's input. you may need a new sound card ($30). Then with the software others have recommed (assuming) you have a tape mp3.

What about iPods? Sounds worse! (Than tapes on a good cassette deck, even CD is worse. Nakamichis are used for masters sometimes, even the top models beat a lot of reel to reels, which are often used as master tapes even today.)

Yep, i guessed you've missed a bit.. headphone jack aint the best form of transfer, since its not the original signal but usualy an amped signal.. what dragon's doing is trying to find a decent casset deck for max..

At least ipods, if given the correct AAC media and encodeing gives much better audio than cds.. and heck better than mp3 or minidiscs...

although one would miss the joys of true analogue.. if only it could be played accurately and clearly..

Ok, here's the low down...

Yes, you were definitely right when you said time would be the biggest investment of the job.

I decided to go ahead and use audacity. Mainly because its free and easy to use. I have also been recommended to use Freecorder. I haven't heard much about it but for now I'll stick to audacity.

Everything is ready and setup except for the deck. I'll be purchasing a new deck during the week. (Thank you for all of your input, it has helped immensely.)

Is there any advice on bitrates, or recording settings? If you couldn't tell, I'm not an audio guru. Any help on this topic would be wonderfull!

Well you all have been more than helpful, and until next time

peace...
maX

So do I say to the guy that you don't want his no service requiered Nak CR-5?

24bit recording, at 96KHz if possible.. but if you're pressed for space, or your soundcard cant handle it then 24bit +44.1KHz or 44.8KHz is still good.

save it at least a 128kbps .mp3 or.aac file.. but the higher the bit rate the better, although it will take more space on the hdd. Wav files or AIFF are raw audio..

It would be good to save the original WAV recordings if possible. And then use them when editing, when burning to CD, mixing, running filters on, etc... Then just save the MP3 version for its portability. Keep the WAV as your "master".

Note that Audacity doesn't export to MP3 without installing the LAME plugin (http://lame.sourceforge.net/).
So you want to export WAV first, then MP3 the mixdown after editing. If indeed there is any editing or filters you need to run.

Good luck

He has a Audigy 2 ZS, 24/96 is possible. If saving to MP3, 16/48 can be used.

Or FLAC. (OpenSource Lossless format, Audacity is probably able to handle it.)

Thanks for mentioning FLAC, I haven't heard of it, sounds good.

I just tried it and it does make files nearly twice as big as MP3. But that's to be expected when creating lossless files. And yet, it's still 2.5 times smaller then WAV. So it will save some space.
Good find. I just don't know how well audio-editing apps can work on them directly, even IF they can to begin with.

There are about 8 different FLAC types tho.

Just found that Audacity still doesn't support FLAC(No lossless formats at all either) every files will have to be saved to WAV and converted to an other format.

There are a lot of lossless formats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_data_compression#Audio_compression

Some comparisons here : http://losslessaudio.blogspot.com/

That's true there are lots. But FLAC has better features then most, is more "open" in terms of source code and license etc...
And because you can get the source, there is much better chance of seeing support for it in more places, like the Java port for example, which wouldn't happen if you only get proprietary binaries. Plus FLAC apparently has support even in hardware devices. Streaming, putting a CD album into one file with a cue sheet. And more stuff.
Heck, looked real good to me. Except for the file size changes. But I've been having so much trouble lately just trying to convert WAVs to MP3s that I'm actually looking for another format to use.

Try AAC instead of MP3.. If you got a keen ear you can hear the difference is much better than the equivilant MP3 encoding.. and i think the file size is about the same, just better compression algorithem

Yeah, but still sounds like it's compression algorithm is coming from MP3. (Sounds baaaaaaad)

The compression algorithm is totaly different from MP3. Although they both cut data out on what we can't hear with our ears (perceptual coding), the actual maths is totaly different.

Mp3 = Mpeg Audio Layer 3 = 112-128kbps, stereo, ratio of 1:12
AAC = Mpeg Audio Layer 2 = 256-192kbps, stereo, ratio of 1:6

The better the ratio, the better the sound/wave trueness. AAC being the sucessor of MP3 has a ton more features etc. Of course, thats probably a realy cut down version of what is to be explained but you get the drift.

Try it for yourself: get a wave file, say for the original, then encode it into MP3 and the wave again to AAC. Compare. You'd aggree that AAC sounds more fuller in the frequency response..

Few articles for you..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

That's what I meant, they produce the same artefact sound that I HATE TO HEAR... Scrapping the whole song!

You must have some cranking speakers Dragon! If you can detect a little annoyance like that.
My speakers are so so, but I don't have problems listening to most any format.

yeh true, but you gotta remember what bitrate you encode them into.. its no use encoding 64kbps (real bad artefacts.. cringe..) and then listening it through some JBL monitors... even 128's not deemed worthy of the file for me nowadays.. i'm gone to 192kbps+.. it just pays off to have a 200gb sata hdd purely for audio . Gotta love Protools' lossless recordings...

lol.. yeh.. curious. What is your setup? do you listen through monitors through a pro soundcard, or consumer based stuff? and how loud do you set it to lol...

You can even hear them with the cheap white speakers that come with your computer.

But it's true that with good speakers and a good amp you hear more.