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Macman45

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
Been meaning to get my collection of audio tapes into my Itunes library for a while now but hadn't got around to it...found this on Amazon so I'll be good to go. I already have Audacity installed so the "hiss" can easily be removed from the final recordings.
 

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Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,635
4,528
New Jersey Pine Barrens
Don't you have a decent quality tape deck already? That looks like a cheap-o recorder with an interface, so I suspect the quality will be questionable. If you have better tape deck you could just get a USB interface and use it.

I have been using my old deck that used to be connected to my stereo along with a USB interface. It works fine, but after becoming accustomed to digital quality music a 25 year old cassette doesn't sound quite as good as I thought it did back in the day. :D
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
Nope....Not a tape deck in the house....haven't owned one in years apart from an old hi fi system that has been passed over to a friend.....This was the cheapest option I could find, and it's only 20 or so tapes. Thing is they have stuff on them from years back that I worked on etc. so getting them into iTunes before the tape degrades completely seems like a plan.
 

Julien

macrumors G4
Jun 30, 2007
11,835
5,430
Atlanta
Nope....Not a tape deck in the house....haven't owned one in years apart from an old hi fi system that has been passed over to a friend.....This was the cheapest option I could find, and it's only 20 or so tapes. Thing is they have stuff on them from years back that I worked on etc. so getting them into iTunes before the tape degrades completely seems like a plan.

You statement/objective is contradictory. You want to use the cheapest (poorest quality) tape player possible to create an important archive before it degrades. :confused:

If this material is that important to you (you worked on as in produced or engineered or...) then you really should go on eBay (or Audiogon, AVS...) and buy quality cassette deck. On eBay many quality vintage decks can be had for well under $100 (here). You could then sell it after you are through and re-coupe your costs.
 

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,541
1,653
Redondo Beach, California
Nope....Not a tape deck in the house....haven't owned one in years apart from an old hi fi system that has been passed over to a friend.....This was the cheapest option I could find, and it's only 20 or so tapes. Thing is they have stuff on them from years back that I worked on etc. so getting them into iTunes before the tape degrades completely seems like a plan.

I've found some good tape machines for sale in thrift stores for about $30. Ones by Teac and the like that where built in the 70's and 80's. Then when you are done sell the thing for 2/3 what you paid.

If good quality were expensive you might have to think if it was worth spending the money. But it's not They made so many home Hi Fi tape decks that there are still many of them around on the used market
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
I'm not too worried about quality...It's just for archival purposes....Want to do it before the tapes are so bad they won't turn at all....All in all it's around 20 and I won't be using that format again....Just need to stash them away.
 

spoonie1972

macrumors 6502a
Aug 17, 2012
573
153
i bought a Luxman tape deck for $20 on craigslist - man, were those things expensive back in the day.
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
The cheap unit did a really good job...way better than I expected...I ran the final files through the Apple filter in Audacity and the quality is superb...good enough for me to add them to my ITunes library...for a cheap little USB machine I'd highly recommend it.
 

mahmudd29

macrumors newbie
Jul 26, 2013
17
1
I have still 200+ Audio cassette. But don't know what to do with these. I haven't found a direct converter yet. Need to record. but noise comes there in this method !!
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
I have still 200+ Audio cassette. But don't know what to do with these. I haven't found a direct converter yet. Need to record. but noise comes there in this method !!

Noise removal is easy and is software based....Audacity is darned good at this now....it comes with a lot of filters which are easy to apply and the results are great.
 

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,541
1,653
Redondo Beach, California
Noise removal is easy and is software based....Audacity is darned good at this now....it comes with a lot of filters which are easy to apply and the results are great.

In theory complete noise removal is impossible. I know you can make it sound like there is less noise but you have removed the music too. You can EQ out hiss and ride the filters based on the overall volume. But nothing can make up for a bad capture or poor quality tapes.

OK some times you know there is no useful information in a certain frequency band. For example if the tape is just speech then you can QE out everything outside of the speaker's vocal range and what's left will have better signal to noise ratio and sound better. But you will never completely remove the noise.
 
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