[peel] New Member - Not The First Time This Has Been Asked?

[Stuart]

Hi Paul

 

Welcome to the group!

 

Starting with the source end of the conversion chain..

 

I assume you still have a decent Cassette Recorder! If not, then there are
plenty available on eBay, I got a great condition Nakamichi which has pitch
control and easily adjustable azimuth.

If you are still using your original machine which you used to record your
tapes then there is every likelihood that they will play back OK without
fiddling with anything. 

If playing back on a different machine then there are certain things you
need to do to ensure good sound quality.

By far the most important is to make sure the playback azimuth is spot on,
or the sound will be shushy and mufffly. For this you will need to be able
to access the azimuth control. Some decks have an azimuth knob but for most
it involves removing the cassette door and using a small screwdriver to
adjust the head angle until the treble content sounds clearest. Do a Google
search for further info and pictures.

 

I also tend to keep Dolby off on playback, there is nothing worse than a
mistracking Dolby. This is very important as it is exceptionally difficult
to compensate for digitally.

Pitch control is useful on a deck though rare, though at least this can also
be altered in software afterwards. There are quite a few shared tapes out
there where JP's voice is audibly fast or slow!

 

Now that the most important bit is sorted, you will then need a twin phono
to 3.5mm stereo jack to connect the cassette recorder to your sound card on
a PC or Mac. Best results will be gained if you have a proper sound card,
though for cassette recordings then most onboard motherboard sound will also
be fine.

I use Audacity software (the latest beta) to record with. This allows you to
choose which audio channels on your PC will be recorded, you want Line In if
available, or What You Hear making sure that any microphones and other
Windows sound schemes are disabled. A test recording should be made making
sure that the sound level meters on Audacity don't rise into the clipping
zone (0dB on the bar meters or +/-1 on the trace).

 

Then just press play on the tape player and record on the Audacity software.

 

Audacity will record in its own lossless format and these recordings can be
edited, cut and pasted etc. You can also export to mp3 (you will need to
download the mp3 dll separately to enable this) and I suggest a minimum of
192kbps recording quality. It will also encode into flac which is another
lossless format, though iPods will not be able to play these files back.

 

Then, should you wish to share the results then you can upload the files to
a site such as Mediafire, let us know through the Mailing List and update
the pages on the Wiki if you can date the show.

 

I know I've not gone into any great detail in any of the above steps but
just do a Google Search for anything you're stuck on or get back to the
group!

 

Stuart 

 

 

  _____  

From: peel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:peel@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
isector100
Sent: 06 July 2010 19:44
To: peel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [peel] New Member - Not The First Time This Has Been Asked?

 

  

Hi All,

 

Just joined the group. I've started to listen again to my J P Show cassette
tapes and found you via the John Peel Wiki. 

 

I'm sure this is not the first time this has been asked, but can someone
point me in the direction of help / guidance on making digital copies of my
tapes. I'm aware that cassette tape recordings don't last forever and I
would like to be able to help preserve what I've got if possible. 

 

Paul