How do I convert from cassette tape to CD (or mp3)?

December 3, 2009 4:46 PM

For a memorial service on Saturday, I need to convert audio from cassette tape to CD. I'm fairly geeky, and used to rip vinyl to mp3, but that was five years ago. I have several modern Macs and a Windows Vista machine at my disposal. I have a standard mid-1990s component stereo system with tape deck and/or an old portable cassette player. Assorted cables. An 8-10 year old copy of CoolEdit somewhere. What's the easiest way for me to get from cassette to CD? I have plenty of money to throw at the problem, so that's not an issue. Time is the issue. (Which means that I'd rather download software than go out and buy it at Fry's.)
posted by jdroth to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Get any audio recording program and a cable that goes from your tape recorder's output jacks to whatever kind of input your system has (possibly like this), play your tape through it to the recording program, and burn the result.
posted by tellumo at 4:56 PM on December 3, 2009

This is what I do. Then just burn your mp3s to a CD.
posted by katillathehun at 4:56 PM on December 3, 2009

I've just grabbed cassettes to a track in GarageBand and burned it to a CD. It's overkill, but it was already on my Mac.

http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/FAQPages/RecordCassette.html
posted by advicepig at 5:00 PM on December 3, 2009

I've used audiograbber with a plain jane line-in cable.

but if, as you say, time is more important than money, you should just buy all the tracks you need/can get from itunes. unless the cassette you're ripping is original music.
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:03 PM on December 3, 2009

I use Audacity to do this on a fairly regular basis. Connect the line out/headphone out on your stereo to the line in/mic jack on your computer, press play on the tape deck and hit record in Audacity. Easy.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:17 PM on December 3, 2009

Get Audacity for your Mac. Get an RCA (from tape deck) to line-in cable (into your Mac). You can follow the steps I laid out in this other thread for personal recordng EXCEPT make sure you set the monitor in Audacity to "on" otherwise you will get no sound from your speakers, you will think your setup is broken, you will spend HOURS trying to figure out what you did. I've been doing this sort of tape-to-MP3 recording for hte past few months, let me know if I can help more.
posted by jessamyn at 5:20 PM on December 3, 2009

I use Audacity to do this on a fairly regular basis. Connect the line out/headphone out on your stereo to the line in/mic jack on your computer, press play on the tape deck and hit record in Audacity. Easy.

This has always worked for me.
posted by Atreides at 5:20 PM on December 3, 2009

One caveat about Audacity, in my experience, was that it set the audio output frequency to something nonstandard, which caused a few random apps to no longer play audio. (You had to open Audio MIDI setup and change the output frequency back to 44.1kHz.) Hopefully they've fixed this by now.
posted by serathen at 5:36 PM on December 3, 2009

I had a similar question...
http://ask.metafilter.com/91634/Cassette-to-iPod
posted by dawson at 5:45 PM on December 3, 2009

Thanks, everyone. Sounds like Audacity on a Mac should do the trick as long as I double-check all of my settings before I rip. I'll give it a try tonight with a test tape, and then come back to this thread if I still have questions.
posted by jdroth at 6:04 PM on December 3, 2009

You said you have money to throw at the problem. Take a look at the Behringer USB Audio Interface, does noise reduction and has appropiate jacks for everything, including LPs. Comes with bundled software too. All that for $30!
posted by jgwong at 4:26 PM on December 4, 2009

There are couple of more options,
Plusdeck and Xitel INport

The main issue here is, which one performs best job. I have collection from last 40 years. I don't want to mess up with these recordings so I want to the best possible solution in my budget. I have been looking at this stuff for more than a year now but yet to find any conclusive comparison to make my purchase.
posted by zaxour at 10:05 PM on December 4, 2009