How to Copy Music From a Cassette to a CD

The cassette tape is a type of analog sound recording that was popular before the digital recording of today. Many people still have an old cassette with their favorite music on it, and wish to transfer its contents to CD. The process is easy and straightforward, if you follow the steps outlined below.

Things You'll Need

• Cassette player that has an output or headphone jack
• Computer that has an audio input or microphone jack
• Computer that has a write-capable CD (CD-W or CD-RW) drive
• Stereo cord to connect the cassette player to the computer
• Sound recording software
• CD writing software
• Blank, writable CD

Instructions

Uploading the Cassette onto Your Computer

1. Make sure that the cassette player and the computer are both turned off.

2. Hook up the cassette player to the computer by placing one end of the connector cord to the output or headphone jack of the cassette player, and the other end to the input or microphone jack of the computer. Depending upon your equipment, you'll either have single 1/8-inch jacks or dual RCA audio jacks available. You might even need a cord that goes from dual RCA jacks on one end to a single 1/8-inch jack on the other. More advanced equipment will offer you both options. If this is the case, using the RCA jacks will provide you with a higher quality of sound transfer.

3. Place your cassette in the cassette player and turn the machine on.

4. Turn on your computer.

5. Open up your sound recording software once your computer has finished booting up. There are many excellent products available, and some of the more popular packages include Soundforge, Soundtrack, Garage Band and Cakewalk.

6. Follow the software's directions for importing music from an analog source.

7. Save the imported music as either an MP3 or .wav file, depending upon how you plan to use the recording later. If you want to play your CD in your car stereo, for instance, save the imported track(s) as a .wav file. If you will only be playing the CD in your computer, you can save the tracks as MP3 files.

8. Make note of the name you used for saving the file and also its location where you saved it on your computer. You will need to retrieve the file when you write it to a CD.

Writing a CD

1. Place a blank writable CD into your computer's CD drive. In most systems, a dialogue box will pop up automatically and ask you if you would like to open a writable CD folder. If you click that option, your computer's default CD writing software will launch.

2. Follow directions on screen for writing the CD. All CD writing programs will ask you to add the files you want to write to the CD, so you will need to retrieve the MP3 or .wav files you just made from your cassette.

3. Test the CD once it has finished writing to make sure that the transfer was successful.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are recording multiple tracks from your cassette, consider saving them as separate files rather than one long, continuous file. Otherwise, your CD will have only one track listed, even if it is made up of numerous individual songs. Analog sound is never as clear as digital sound, so don't expect the sound quality of your CD to equal that of commercial CDs. There are some things you can do, however, to improve the cassette's sound quality. If your cassette player is old or has not had its tape heads cleaned in a long time, clean the tape heads using a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. Make sure that the heads dry before inserting your cassette tape. If the sound transferred to your CD has crackles and/or hisses, it is a sign that the tape has started to decay. Many sound recording software packages have special filters available to remove these noises.

• The most common mistake in transferring analog tape to CD is making the digital file too loud to the point where the sound distorts. Analog sound is much "hotter" than its digital counterpart. The are a couple of ways to counteract this possible distortion. Most better cassette players have an output volume control, so you can lower the output signal before it is transferred to your computer. Similarly, most sound recording software packages have an input volume control, so you can lower the signal before it is written to digital memory in the computer. You might have to experiment with both switches before you hit upon the right combination of settings for your final transfer. If you are using 1/8-inch plugs, make sure that they are stereo. Stereo plugs are slightly longer than mono ones, and have an extra ridge indented into the plugs' shaft.