SR4 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I currently have a huge stack of tapes that need to be digitized, and I was hoping to find freeware that anyone could use (im talking close to no computer experience)..... I didn't know if any Watmmers here have used this kind of thing extensively (Margaret Thatcher?)....any help would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCM Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 you just need a tape player with an audio output and a cable going from that to the audio input on your computer. download adobe audition, set it up properly so it is using your computer's audio in as it's input device (not the built in microphone which will probably be the default setting), press record on adobe audition and press play on your tape player - voila. you don't need any kind of special software just because it's a cassette tape or anything, it's just a source of audio and is recorded like any other audio source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SR4 Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 ah thanks man, i figured it would be that easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCM Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Audition should give you the option of recording as a .wav or AIFF or whatever, you can then convert that to MP3 if you desire, but you might need a different program for that - can't remember if Audition does MP3 conversion or not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psn Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Download Audacity, it's free. Make sure you don't overdrive the signal into the computer, you'll get digital distortion. After the recording, you can "normalize" the whole waveform to get the correct level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babar Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 soundbooth (from adobe) is a good piece of software as well. Comes with a set of noise reducing/audio cleaning algorithms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCM Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I think adobe audition is free these days...maybe I meant audacity in the first place...hell, I don't know what I'm saying any more.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ezkerraldean Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Audacity. Plus some kind of line-out from the cassette deck to the computer. i'm doing precisely that today, in fact. recording some ancient audiobooks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdamAnchorman Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i use goldwave to do this. just run into the audio in on my comp like bcm said. i have an old pirated copy so i have no idea if goldwave is free or not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaosmachine Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 also, you'll probably want to do noise removal to get rid of tape hiss. if you're careful, you can do it without affecting the quality of the music. http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Noise_Removal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 yep, I use audacity to this (like ezkerraldean, i got a stack of audiobooks i'm sifting through). it's about as simple as it gets... and psn made a good point, keep the signal relatively low in case there are spikes of audio on the tape (not so common on tapes that were professionally dubbed but you never know) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macca Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Audacity, it's free and does the job well :D http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Do you get the "digital birds" a lot with Audacity noise removal? I've been using WavePad Sound Editor, also free, has the same subtractive method for removal. It works well when there's little noise to be removed, but as soon as there's slightly more than your usual hiss, you always get those glitchy twitch-effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGQpoyyo8pg tutorial/comparison - maybe the dude doesn't set up Audacity right, but it sounds like WavePad does a much better job. I never used the 2nd noise remove filter the video-guy uses, just gave it a go and got rid of the birds. Result sounds VERY convincing and I used a pretty noisy source too! So I say, get the free version of WavePad, it doesn't create mp3's but lots of other freeware does, and the noise removal is included. Of course you can also use it to rip your tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaosmachine Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i've actually never used the one in audacity. i like sony's: comes with soundforge. also, i remember DART being pretty good: http://www.dartpro.com/index.html (wow that's an ugly site) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 listening to that tutorial while staring at your avatar is pretty fucked up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Almost all mic/line ins on computers (unless you have a good dedicated soundcard) sound like complete shit. If at all possible I personally recommend recording to a source that isn't your computer, and then ripping from there. If you have a sampler, or a CD recorder, it'd be best. Personally, I record absolutely everything I do into an SP-404 with an 8 gig SD card, and then put the card in my computer and take the wav files right off, and it sounds perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscillik Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Almost all mic/line ins on computers (unless you have a good dedicated soundcard) sound like complete shit. If at all possible I personally recommend recording to a source that isn't your computer, and then ripping from there. If you have a sampler, or a CD recorder, it'd be best. Personally, I record absolutely everything I do into an SP-404 with an 8 gig SD card, and then put the card in my computer and take the wav files right off, and it sounds perfect. funny, my computer inputs are just fine. have actually been praised on the clarity of my vinyl rips by many people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 if you're into gadgets: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 funny, my computer inputs are just fine. have actually been praised on the clarity of my vinyl rips by many people. Well color me jealous. I've never had a computer with good inputs, even when i used to have a good soundcard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i'd guess most people here have some sort of audio interface for recording... we are the music makers, after all edit: except for smettingham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 funny, my computer inputs are just fine. have actually been praised on the clarity of my vinyl rips by many people. Well color me jealous. I've never had a computer with good inputs, even when i used to have a good soundcard. i don't know but, aren't you being a bit too picky, i mean, it's a cassette ffs, a poor line input wouldn't be that significant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCM Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 ^ this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i've never used digital noise reduction on a tape after ripping it into the computer, i feel as though it has an effect on the more higher end transients of the material. It seems that the built in dolby NR filters on tape players work better than software methods, but i'm willing to be convinced otherwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i don't know but, aren't you being a bit too picky, i mean, it's a cassette ffs, a poor line input wouldn't be that significant. Trust me, my current soundcard input hums more than the chorus on my JX-3P. It's fucking horrible. Besides, some cassette tapes sound quite clean with a proper player & recorder. Not to say that lofi cassettes aren't charming though, as I did grow up loving cassettes and all their quirks. Sometimes I just want a clean sound off of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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