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Hi! can anyone recoemmend any good software to record from cassette to PC so I can burn it on CD.
Also do you just need a standard phono cable Red/white to the Hifi and the other end to the line in on the sound card?
I am using the SB Live palyer 1024 for your information.
You need one of these!! jk
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/6908/
I can't personally refer you to a particular software package for recording cassettes, I do know there are a bunch out there. Check out download.com and put in cassette recording, it comes up with a bunch.
As far as the cable goes, yes, that's all you need.
Is there any free software out there that can do the job?
if you look through the list on download.com, there is bound to be some freeware there. If not, do you have the software that came with your SB live....it has an audio recording program called recorder (or something like that) that I've used to record cassettes before.
Vakas,
For cassettes I use a Sony Walkman plugged into the line in socket with a simple 3.5mm stereo jack patch lead - works really well. If connecting to a hifi, I suggest that you connect to the headphone socket, and turn off any EQ/tone controls. The voltage fron the speaker outputs will be far too high for the inputs on your soundcard (these normally max at about 0.2volts) and will cause distortion at the very least if not damage...
I save the files as wav's, as individual tracks then edit out hiss/noise as necessary. I then record them onto a CDRW, then back onto the computer as mp3's (at 320kbps), using the Cyberlink Media Player plug-in (about $30 online). This produces better results than just converting from wav to mp3.
A simple phono female - 3.5mm adapter works for the turntable and I've found that the best results are obtained with a ceramic cartridge connected into the mic in socket (no pre-amp).
I invested in a copy of Dart Pro and have recently upgraded to the XP version. At just under £100 (UK) it might seem a bit expensive but I have used it extensively over the last few years to electronically copy most of my (3000+) vinyl collection so for me it is well worth it.
I haven't tried any of the free utilities so cannot advise there...
John
Audacity is a decent free audio application. A google search will also quickly find the free version of Cool Edit (now Adobe Audition). The free CE is restricted by only having two capabilities (one being save) enabled at one time, so you need to close it and run it again to use a different feature, otherwise it is a full Non-Pro Cool Edit.
The best recording results will come from a line-level output, so if your sound system has Line Out or Rec Out sockets, use those. As Atodini says, next choice is headphone out, which will have a little more noise in the signal. For this type of connection, an audio/electronics store should be able to supply an attenuator matching lead to reduce the higher output to line level so you don't have to have the volume level very low to avoid overloading the sound card input.
Well what a coincidence, I recently did this for a school over here ;) They wanted a load of tapes converted to Audio CD.
I simply used a cassette player, the line out ---> line in of my pc's sound card. Audacity was the app I used, and it did the job perfectly, Click Record, and then Save As Wav. Burn to CD as an Audio CD, done :) Of course using more professional tools and cables as mentioned in other posts are going to give you much better quality, the school in question just had some stories needing conversion, and they were plenty satisfied with the work.
Actually i think because its a casette the quality is gonna be hard to improve with anything.
Audacity helped me remove some of the background noise and hiss, it had a few more useful features, but I didnt go too deep into it. For a Freeware application, I'd definately recommend it.
Audacity rocks
I will give that a try thanks for all the info. The other thing I would like to ask is when I connect to the cassette player and to the line in on my sound card should hear the tap playin from PC?
I can't hear nothing thats eh I am a bit confused All the settings in Windows seem to be correct.
Make sure the line in on your audio settings isn't muted and the volume is up high enough.
Audacity is very good, but I like Polderbits shareware better. Just seemed a little more capable for noise removal. I also use Nero Wave Editor some, and have played with the bundled software for my Audigy 2 ZS some, but wasn't overwhelmed by it.
Sounds like you mean you have a signal coming in (get a level meter indication and makes a recording) but you don't hear it while you're recording, you only hear the result when you play it back?Quote:
Originally Posted by Vakas
To hear the sound while you're recording, your sound card must be Full Duplex capable (most are), and the recording application needs to be set to Monitor during Recording. I don't have Audacity loaded at the moment, but check menus for an option to Monitor whilst recording eg Monitor On, Rec Thru ...
When you open Audacity there is a button to the top-left for Audio source I believe its called, I set it to "What you hear" and was able to get audio.
I cannot even get a dihnal coming in and cannot hear anythng while recording as well. Is the SB live 1024 a full duplex sound card or can there be somthing wrong with it?
Yes, the Live is Full Duplex (I think it uses a time-sliced single DAC, but that's another matter :) ).
When you say you can't even get a signal coming in, do you mean nothing on the level meters and you record silence?
If the card is set up for 5.1 sound, I think you'll need to go to the control centre and change back to stereo, in 5.1 mode the Line In socket becomes Rear Out.
It is a 4.1 sound card and I have 4.1 speakers connected to it so do I still have to change it?