How to Convert Cassette Tapes to MP3 Files

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Cassette tapes are becoming less and less popular, as CDs and MP3 players are becoming more and more popular. If you have music or some other kind of content on cassette tapes that you want to keep, however, it is easy to transfer the content to MP3 files.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

A playback device--such as a cassette recorder
An audio jack pigtail
Open source software, such as Audacity
The cassette tapes you want to transfer

Step1

Purchase an audio jack pigtail at an electronic store and software needed for the conversion process, such as Audacity.

Step2

Adjust the equipment and volume controls by first determining if your computer has an in jack and not just a microphone jack (That will be good if it does, because a microphone jack will provided more amplification than necessary). Look for the output jack on your tape recorder. If you are using a stand alone cassette recorder, just plug the pigtail jack into the headphone jack. Adjust the volume to just below maximum level on both the input and output devices.

Step3

Playback the audio cassette tape while recording through Audacity. If you do that, you can listen to the input while recording, if you put the software in loopback mode.

Step4

Use Audacity to edit dead space, clicks from the tape recorder and any other distractions once you are done recording.

Tips & Warnings

One exception to adjusting volume to almost the maximum level is if you use a computer when recording that allows you only to use a microphone jack, instead of an in jack--in that case adjust the volume to the lowest level on your cassette recorder.
To make certain you can expert your files to MP3 once they are on your computer, download the LAME recorder from the Audacity website.