Tech Question: I Need Help Digitizing These Cassettes!

[Tom Scharpling]

Hello everybody -

I'm currently trying to digitize my old cassettes and I've hit a bit of a snag. If you know about this kind of thing and can weigh in on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Basically, as I digitize these cassettes, at some point there's this unrelenting wave of crackle and static that rises up and doesn't go away. It's not there at the beginning, then suddenly it's there.

I have a USB turntable with an 1/8" stereo input jack. I have plugged my cassette deck into it from the Tape Out channels, which are in stereo. The cable I have is a Y cable going from RCA (that's the classic red and white L and R cable, right? RCA?) to a single 1/8" jack.

I am using Amadeus on my Mac to record the stuff.

Does anybody have any insight into why this might be happening? The cassettes themselves are not crackly; they play fine. It's just at some point these things go bananas.

Things I could think of that I can't address tonight:

1) the cable isn't so hot. It's a basic cable though and it's barely been used. But it's not some high grade cable or anything.

2) the cassette deck needs to be cleaned. I don't have the stuff for that here tonight to check if that's the case.

Thanks for the help if you've got it!

Tom.

[snogrog]

Tom I sent you a PM with a possible solution/answer as to why this may be happening.

[fletcher munson]

Tom, what file format are you saving the audio as? 
Also, could you upload some samples of the noise you're hearing - it could give some indication as to the source of the problem.

[Bryan]

2) the cassette deck needs to be cleaned. I don't have the stuff for that here tonight to check if that's the case.

From what you're saying here, my guess is that this is the problem.

[fonpr]

I got a "Light Snake" for about $40 and have had no hiss or crackle problems.  1/4' plug into earphone jack USB other end.  I put it into GarageBand, mix/cut then send to Itunes.   That's how I made "Judo Chop".


Analogue Rules.

[Tom Scharpling]

Man, the best advice I took was to remove the USB turntable from the equation. I hooked a tape deck directly into my computer, configured Amadeus for a line out signal and I've been off to the races ever since.

Thanks to everybody who weighed in. We're all learning in this life of ours.

Tom.