Valerie is a 42-year-old, single, Reformed Christian lady who lives in Baltimore. She doesn't remember a time
before she knew and loved Jesus, but she does remember accepting John Calvin into her heart in March of 2000.
Valerie is a member of Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis.
Though her career aspiration is to be a housewife, Valerie has not yet found anyone suitable who wishes to hire
her for employment in that field (or, more properly, anyone suitable has not found her), so in the meantime she
earns her daily bread working in communications -- editing, writing, print design and website management.
Converting Cassettes to MP3s
This is one of those "If I post it here, I might be able to find it a little easier than if I depend on the scrap of paper where it's written" posts.
Needs:
3.5 mm wire to connect from tape player to computer mic in-line (check)
That extra thingummy that allows you to convert Audacity files to MP3s (check)
Instructions:
Connect the wire at both ends.
Start audacity and click record.
Turn on tape player and press play.
Edit to your heart's content.
Export to MP3.
Extra note: Set bit rate: File > Preferences
I don't remember where I found these instructions...somewhere online, I suppose. And I haven't tried them out yet, but someday, someday when I have oodles of time, I'll make it happen!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 11:34 PM
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4 comments
4 Comments:
On March 4, 2009 9:30 AMSheilawrote... This sounds like a wonderful idea and your step-by-step instructions seem easy enough, but I am super technically challenged. Though, I would love to transfer my cassettes!
On March 5, 2009 12:15 PMTom Jacksonwrote... I've done that, with good results. The only thing you need to add to the list is to make a few test runs, with the loudest part of your tape, so you can make sure you're not overdriving the computer audio input. After you have a good feel for the volume settings, it's easy.
On March 5, 2009 12:24 PMValerie (Kyriosity)wrote... Thanks for the tip, Tom. May I ask a bit more from your experience? Is this going to be super time-intensive? Also, the only cassette player I have is an old walkman. Do you think that will be sufficient, or should I find something better-quality?
On March 5, 2009 12:31 PMTom Jacksonwrote... You'll probably need fifteen minutes of experiments, to get the volume right, then you'll have to play the tape at normal speed. That'll give you two large files, each containing one side. If you want to split each side into individual songs, add a few minutes for that; it won't take the full play time, as you can very easily move around in the Audacity data file on the screen.
I used an ordinary boombox; it worked fine. If you're satisfied with the quality of your Walkman played directly through headphones, then that's about the quality you'll get when you convert to MP3; you'll have to decide if that's good enough, or you want to borrow a better tape player for a little while.
