December 1, 2004

11:44 AM

Has anyone used/known anyone who has used the PlusDeck? It's a device for putting sounds from cassette tapes onto your computer. I want to do this primarily as a sampling of sounds into a sound-editing program, and possibly as a way to record entire songs onto the computer. Any reviews? Any idea of the quality? I'm clueless here.
posted by agregoli to (10 comments total)

It seems very expensive. Do you already have a cassette player? If so, why not simply take a cable from the headphone socket/line out jacks and record into the computer's line in socket? Stereo jack-jack or phono-jack cables are only a couple of dollars.
posted by nylon at 11:54 AM on December 1, 2004

Would that be feasible? I mean, would the quality be ok doing that?
posted by agregoli at 11:59 AM on December 1, 2004

Also, if I went that route, what kind of program would allow me do receive the music info?
posted by agregoli at 12:05 PM on December 1, 2004

The quality would be essentially as good as this expensive device. You could record the audio in any program (if you're using Windows, for example, the Sound Recorder would work just fine). If you have a "sound-editing program," use that.
posted by rxrfrx at 12:14 PM on December 1, 2004

So why would anyone use this cassette thingy then? Is there a purpose I'm missing? Is it for people who no longer have cassette decks?

I guess I was just keen on the idea of a cassette deck in my computer, but not for that price.
posted by agregoli at 12:21 PM on December 1, 2004

What sound editing program do you have? Most of them can record directly from the line-in socket simply by selecting 'line-in' on the computer's volume control/audio panel utility [on Windows, open the Volume Control, then select Advanced to get to the recording controls - default Volume Control display is the playback option - this might be slightly different if you have OEM volume control software, like the stuff that comes bundled with Creative soundcards]. Even the basic Windows Sound Recorder can do this, but you're best off using something slightly more advanced that that. Sonic Foundry's SoundForge is excellent for recording and advanced processing, but it's not cheap. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of good freeware or shareware things like GoldWave or CoolEdit or whatever that will do just as well though.

In terms of the quality, recording from the cassette player's RCA jacks (the red and white line out jacks) to the computer's line-in should be fine, although the better sound card you have the better this will be. Bear in mind though you'll have tape hiss however you do it - there are shareware or trial versions of noise reduction programs out there that can deal with this to a certain extent though - try Magix Audio Cleaner.

[on preview - rxrfrx beat me to it, and in fewer words. Also, I suspect that the PlusDeck is a bit gimmicky, and designed for people that can't be bothered to deal with cables. You really are paying for convenience.]
posted by nylon at 12:26 PM on December 1, 2004

Thanks - the longer reply was good, actually, I really am clueless.

I don't have a sound-editing program right now - if I get serious about this I will probably buy SoundForge.
posted by agregoli at 12:32 PM on December 1, 2004

Admittedly though, an internal cassette player on a PC tower would be fucking awesome.
It would go with that cup holder thing that shoots out when you click that small button.
posted by Peter H at 12:47 PM on December 1, 2004

While no Sound Forge, Audacity is a sound editing app that's pretty decent and free.
posted by zsazsa at 12:48 PM on December 1, 2004

I've been told that MusicMatch Jukebox (the pay version, if I recall correctly) is the most user friendly software for this task.
posted by Clay201 at 2:33 PM on December 1, 2004