How to Transfer Old Cassette Tape Music to a PC

Audio technology, like video technology, has gone primarily digital. As a result, cassette tapes and cassette players are becoming things of the past. You might have a few cassettes that have music you haven't been able to locate on CD, have gotten a newer car that has a CD drive instead of a tape deck, or you might want to preserve the cassettes you have so you don't wear out the tape. You can transfer the audio on your cassette tape by hooking up a cassette tape deck to your computer.

Things You'll Need

• Audio cassettes
• Recording software such as Audacity
• Cassette tape deck with output jacks
• Audio cable with mini jack connection
• Computer with sound card

Instructions

Setup

1. Put the male ends of the audio cable into the audio (line) out connections on the tape deck. Match white to white and red to red when connecting.

2. If your audio cable has two female connections, put the female connections into a mini jack converter.

3. Plug the female end(s) of the audio cable the audio (line) in jack on the sound card.

4. Insert the tape you want to transfer to your computer into the tape deck. Make sure both the tape deck and your computer are plugged in and turned on.

5. Insert the tape you want to transfer to your computer into the tape deck.

Transferring/Recording

1. Open your recording software program.

2. Locate the audio preferences setting in your software program and set them to use "audio in" as the recording device.

3. Use your software's record button or menu to begin recording. Start the tape playing in the tape deck. If you see the volume indicators are putting your recording into the "red" zone too much, turn down the volume to prevent overburning and try again until the audio has a good volume setting for the recording.

4. Stop the recording at whatever point on the cassette you like using the software's stop menu or button.

5. Save your work directly to your computer or to a removable flash drive. Depending on your software, you may need to edit the file and export a final .mp3 or .wav version.

Tips & Warnings

• The audio settings in your software can be tricky to get right. If in doubt whether you've set them correctly, just keep selecting until you find the one that works. Usually there are only two or three from which you might choose. Play with the editing settings to eliminate crackles, hissing, or other "noise" prior to burning the files to a CD to which you'll listen often.

References

• How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC