Lee Chadeayne

Hello,

(Not sure if I'm in the right forum, but if not, please let me know!)

I'm a retired classical musician and have some 300+ cassette tapes to convert to wav files.

This is a big project, and it would help a lot to use a tape recorder with auto-reverse so as not to have to stop each time and flip the tapes.

BUT, the problem with my cassette deck is that it doesn't stop after side B, but goes back to side A again and goes on and on in a continuous loop.

Is there a solution to that in order to make this huge job a little easier?

One idea I have is to put the cassette deck on a timer and switch off the power after a certain number of minutes. But would this damage the player? Is there a more elegant way?

Or is there perhaps another tape deck out there somewhere that stops by itself after playing 2 sides?

Thank you very much

Lee Chadeayne

koala

See if this thread helps. It is for the Plusdeck tape converter ($130)

You say you want to save your tape recordings as WAV files. This will take a lot of storage space. If you save the files as 256kb MP3s the quality will be the same as for WAV but the filesize will be about 10 times smaller.

Lee Chadeayne

Thanks for the reply.

I am a musician, as I said before, and I can hear the difference between those compressed mp3 files and wav files, and I prefer the latter. But you mention that there is a 256kb compression. What is that? If there are different types of mp3 files maybe I haven't chosen the right setting?

Another issue: if I make mp3 files, will they play on a home stereo? That's what I'm trying to do.

The last stumbling block for me is the tape player. It won't stop after playing the entire tape, but goes into a continuous loop. If I could fix that, the process would be neat.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Lee Chadeayne

koala

When you record an MP3 you can set it to 128 (tape quality), 192, 256 or 320 (CD quality). I'm also a musician and can't tell the difference between a WAV and a 320 MP3, but if you prefer to use WAVs that will be ok.

You can burn music files (either WAV or MP3) to CD and they will play on your home stereo. Just remember to 'finalize' the CD in the burning software settings otherwise it won't work.

I haven't used the Plusdeck, but I imagine it will stop after autoreversing, or there will be options to set how it behaves. You could also use an ordinary tape deck with auto-reverse and stop, connected to the line-in on your sound card, and record the tapes into Audacity as WAV, MP3 or OGG.

Lee Chadeayne

Thanks very much for the information! I didn't have a clue about various qualities of mp3 files. I should certainly try the 320!

The tape deck I have is a SONY and it is beautiful. But it goes into continuous loop, so that you can Beethoven's 5th five times, and then you have to go to your recording software and edit out all the repetitions.

An alternative might be to put a timer on the tape deck that would turn off the power at some specified length of time. Would that damage the tape? Or the player?

Thank you very much!

Lee Chadeayne

koala

Do you know which software you will be using to record from the tapes? If it's Audacity, you can set it to record for a set time and then stop. I don't know how useful this would be for you though, the tape would still carry on switching from side A to side B, but at least you would only record A and B once.

http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.p...TimedRecording
A timer that cuts off power to the tape deck while it's operating could possibly damage the heads or the tape if you do it too often, but it's worth a try.

Lee Chadeayne

Hello!

Thanks very much for this!

Actually, I have just been talking with a friend about this same thing. He probably doesn't know as much about this as you, but he suggested I just put the cassette deck on a cut-off switch, so that, say, after 60 or 70 minutes the power is cut off.

I do have audacity, but what I am using here is DAK. And it has a timer, so it will stop recording at a pre-set time. Also, I went to the configuration tab in the software and switched to 320kb. It was set at 128kb. I gather you would think this would give a much better recording?

Many thanks again,

Lee Chadeayne

koala

Yes, 320 will retain all the sound frequencies, the same as a CD. 128 will filter some frequencies out, supposedly the ones we can't hear. But, as you've discovered, the sound quality is noticeably lower at 128.

Lee Chadeayne

Thanks again. I guess I'm all set. The only question I have now is if the switch that cuts off the power from the cassette deck will do any harm or damage to the deck, or to the cassette inside it.

koala

If you cut off the power to the deck while it is playing, the heads might get damaged, but I don't know how many cut-offs it would take for any real permanent damage to occur.

If it's a cherished, expensive tape deck, you might be better getting a cheap one with the autoreverse and autostop features and a line-out connector.

Let us know how you get on with your project

Lee Chadeayne

Hi, I guess the thing to do is one side at a time. Then there will be two sound files (one for each side), but it must be possible to paste the two together when I'm all done? (I've never tried that).

koala

Yes, you can import the second file into the first file in your audio editor. It will be placed at the end of the timeline.

Then you can zoom in on any area where there are gaps you want to remove, highlight the gap and click delete. When this is complete you can also use the graphic equalizer or built-in filters to clean the sound of any tape hiss or clicks.

The finished result will be saved as one long file (remember to make a backup save at this point), but you can split it into individual songs if you like and save each as a separate file.

I've never used DAK, but it should have all the features you need.

Lee Chadeayne

Many thanks. I'm working on it now.
Lee dot Chadeayne at verizon dot net