My Grandma's audio interview recordings

[MEE627]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask... My grandma has an old Optimus Voice recorder - it says it is a 2 speed micro-37 microcassette recorder that she used to interview her grandma and great aunts and uncles. I want to a) get a transcription of the interview and ideally b) transfer the audio to my mac as an audio file. Based on research it seems I need a cable to connect either the "ear" or "mic" port to my mac (macbook pro 2023)... and possibly garageband or audacity. Help on the cable? do I need to buy an audio converter?

 

[BrianBaughn]

Have you verified that the old recorder still works properly? How about testing the earphone jack…have you done that?

I think that earphone jack (⅛ inch, same as 3.5mm) is a mono one and that may wonk things up when trying to get the audio into a Mac.

To get the audio into the Mac you need a USB audio device. There are simple ones with USB on one end and stereo IN and OUT (⅛"/3.5mm) on the other end. The wonky part is what might happen when you plug a mono 1/8" into that stereo IN port. Might work but might not. You may have to get an adapter cable with a 1/8" stereo male plug (to go into your USB audio cable) on one end and two mono male 1/8" jacks on the other end and then plug one of those monos into the microcassette's headphone out.