How Would One Digitize Cassettes?

[Tom Scharpling]

Hello Americans.

I have a ton of old cassettes of stuff that is not available anywhere else - lotta old pre-Best Show radio shows for example.

I also own a Mac Pro.

How would I use one to convert the other to the digital age without spending a lot of moolah? I am on strike, after all.

All advice appreciated! Thanks!

Tom.

[yesno]

According to here-- http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html-- you already have an analog audio input.  So you'd just need to attach a high quality tape deck to the computer.  Step one.

Step two is probably use to Final Vinyl, which is freeware.  I think it should work without actually using the Griffin iMic.

http://osx.iusethis.com/search?q=final+vinyl

Converting from cassette is really conceptually not different than converting from vinyl.  The advantage of Final Vinyl is that it's specialized.  I'm sure you could accomplish the same kinds of things with more professional software, as well.

[A.M. Thomas]

As yesno said, it is fairly easy.  Here is a guide with Mac instructions included:
http://www.zisman.ca/Recording/

[God Stewart]

I've been using Final Vinyl to evacuate some cassettes myself. It can be glitchy, which gets frustrating. You'll be 90% through whatever you're recording and the program will pop or misfeed or something and you have to start all over. I'm guessing particularly with long playing Best Show material this could get very frustrating very quickly. Your computer is faster (and not so old) as mine so you may not have the same problems. Definitely a project for a day when you have some time on your hands.

[jane]

Tom, on the higher end, if you really value those cassettes, you may want to consider investing a bit of money in an Mbox
Here's a link:
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=29&langid=100&itemid=4893
There may be a bit of a learning curve and it could be interpreted as overkill, but soundqualitywise it's pretty amazing and plugs into your USB.

On the other end, you might want to try Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
It's freeware and it uses the sound input on your computer (works on Mac and PC).  It's very basic and essentially all you really need.
good luck

[TL]

I also like Wire Tap: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/ , which someone on this board tipped me off to a while ago.  You can record from any audio source, internal or external, and do some (admittedly minimal, but...) file scrubbing and editing if you want to.
For the tape deck, you just need a Radio Shack RCA input to 1/8" output adapter, then you go RCAs out of your tape deck into your adapter, then plub the adapter into your 1/8" input on your Mac, make sure your System Preferences/Sound/Input is set to "Line in," and you should be good to go.  If worse comes to worse, or you don't wanna mess around with third-party software, you can always just play the cassettes and record them in Garage Band, but I wouldn't recommend that - big files, annoying interface, etc.

[buffcoat]

Tom,

I believe famous documentarian Terry Fritch ("Weapons of Mass Distraction") had a similar set of questions.  I think the answer had something to do with putting the tape on top of a CD.

Hope that helps!

buffcoat