I have some old tapes of my father's playing from the 1970's. They are simple rough and ready home recordings which are special to me. These tapes are getting a bit fragile and I'm worried about the tape mangling up in the machine. What would be a good way to transfer these recordings into digital files before it's too late? Are there places that do this? Or is there a simple DIY method?
Could do with more info - are the tapes mono or stereo, and are they 1/4" tape, casette, or some other form.
Assuming you have something that you can play them on, the DIY approach is easy enough. Probably the only extra hardware you'll need is a cable. Look at the outputs from the tape player - has it got line output sockets? if so use these, otherwise you can use a headphone socket. You need a cable to connect whatever output you are using to the line input socket of your PC - if it's a standard PC that's the light blue 3.5mm jack next to the speaker socket.
Once you've got it connected, there are plenty of free recording programs available - Audacity is very popular (and would be my recommendation for a first attempt), Krystal is better for more complicated jobs, But for a quick simple recording, if you don't want to do anything fancy, you can just use the recorder in Windows Media Center.
Once you have everything recorded to your hard disk, you can use WMC, Nero or any other burning software to transfer it to disk.
If you don't want to do it yourself, or don't have a machine to play the tapes on, there are plenty of places that will do it for you, just google. Expect to pay about £20 for each hour of tape for a straight transfer, if you want the recordings cleaned up and remastered, the price will depend on what needs doing.
I have a cheapo version of the one Jack mentions - it's ok but it would have been worth getting a nice one. These devices work fine so if your tapes are cassettes buy one of those things.
If we are talking about cassettes. Any cassette player will allow recording to hard drive. Even with a basic unit you can record to hdd via the earphone jack - volume adjustment is important as it won't auto level. An older boombox with RCA plugs is better.
As for a fear of damaging tapes that is realistic. Any recording of an old poor quality cassette will be at least as good or better than the original after digitising and working on it.
- Then you download this (free) software: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
In the "optional downloads" section, you'll probable want the LameMP3 encoder if you want to export to mp3s
Set up Audacity to record from the microphone and get to work. The downside is that you have to record in real time.
Old Tapes
Old Tapes
I have some old tapes of my father's playing from the 1970's. They are simple rough and ready home recordings which are special to me. These tapes are getting a bit fragile and I'm worried about the tape mangling up in the machine. What would be a good way to transfer these recordings into digital files before it's too late? Are there places that do this? Or is there a simple DIY method?
# Posted on August 5th 2011 by Rathawaun
Re: Old Tapes
Could do with more info - are the tapes mono or stereo, and are they 1/4" tape, casette, or some other form.
Assuming you have something that you can play them on, the DIY approach is easy enough. Probably the only extra hardware you'll need is a cable. Look at the outputs from the tape player - has it got line output sockets? if so use these, otherwise you can use a headphone socket. You need a cable to connect whatever output you are using to the line input socket of your PC - if it's a standard PC that's the light blue 3.5mm jack next to the speaker socket.
Once you've got it connected, there are plenty of free recording programs available - Audacity is very popular (and would be my recommendation for a first attempt), Krystal is better for more complicated jobs, But for a quick simple recording, if you don't want to do anything fancy, you can just use the recorder in Windows Media Center.
Once you have everything recorded to your hard disk, you can use WMC, Nero or any other burning software to transfer it to disk.
If you don't want to do it yourself, or don't have a machine to play the tapes on, there are plenty of places that will do it for you, just google. Expect to pay about £20 for each hour of tape for a straight transfer, if you want the recordings cleaned up and remastered, the price will depend on what needs doing.
# Posted on August 5th 2011 by skreech
Re: Old Tapes
You can get a tape player with a USB output that you could capture on your computer. I've never used one. This sort of thing:
http://www.whybuynew.co.uk/usb/usb-audio-products/ion-tape2pc-usb-cassette-archiver.htm
# Posted on August 5th 2011 by Jack Campin
Re: Old Tapes
I have a cheapo version of the one Jack mentions - it's ok but it would have been worth getting a nice one. These devices work fine so if your tapes are cassettes buy one of those things.
# Posted on August 5th 2011 by Rudall the time
Re: Old Tapes
If we are talking about cassettes. Any cassette player will allow recording to hard drive. Even with a basic unit you can record to hdd via the earphone jack - volume adjustment is important as it won't auto level. An older boombox with RCA plugs is better.
As for a fear of damaging tapes that is realistic. Any recording of an old poor quality cassette will be at least as good or better than the original after digitising and working on it.
Audacity is all you will need.
# Posted on August 5th 2011 by bigyabby
Re: Old Tapes
Thanks for all the advice. Lots there to keep me occupied. Think I'll begin with the DIY approach and see how I get on. Cheers.
# Posted on August 6th 2011 by Rathawaun
Re: Old Tapes
Failing all else, do the obvious. Use a wee digital voice/music recorder and a quiet room. Play the tape, record onto device, transfer to PC..
# Posted on August 7th 2011 by the wounded hussar
Re: Old Tapes
Here's the cheapest way to do it:
- Assuming you have a tape recorder with a headphone jack, buy something like this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2944877&numProdsPerPage=60
One end plugs into the headphone jacks, the other plugs into your microphone input on your pc.
- Then you download this (free) software:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
In the "optional downloads" section, you'll probable want the LameMP3 encoder if you want to export to mp3s
Set up Audacity to record from the microphone and get to work. The downside is that you have to record in real time.
# Posted on August 11th 2011 by hotsauce