Cassette to MP3

[Joanne Curme]

There are many methods and products, but this setup works well for me for
converting records to wav and MP3. You need:

- Cassette (record) player with standard L/R speaker output jacks. Can be a
component (no speakers) or portable (with speakers).
- Griffin iMic USB Microphone Audio Adapter, $35ish online (works for Mac
and PC). Good printed doc.
- Y Audio Cable: one end is 2 standard L/R audio jacks, the other end is a
single audio jack. Must be long enough to reach from the cassette player to
the computer. Radio Shack, Fry's, etc.
- Goldwave audio software (free trial, $50 http://www.goldwave.com/ ), PC
only. Buy it, it's worth it.

Plug the L and R jacks of the Y audio cable into the L and R speaker jacks
on the cassette player. Plug the single jack on the other end of the Y cable
into the iMic. Plug the USB connector of the iMic into a USB port on your
computer. Make sure the switch on the iMic is set to 'speaker'. 

Read Goldwave's built-in help about getting set up and started -- the
interface is daunting at first but easy to understand with a bit of reading.
Start a cassette so there is sound coming in. You should hear it through
your computer speaker (don't worry about poor sound quality from the
computer speakers). In Goldwave, you should see the L and R channel readouts
indicating that Goldwave is getting audio input. If not, adjust the input
settings until it does.

Adjust the Goldwave recording options to the ones your project requires. You
can set these as the default, but I prefer to save and post-process files at
a higher quality, then do a batch conversion to the lower quality. 

To record, create a new Goldwave file and make sure the recording options
are correct and the empty file is long enough (30 min, 60 min, etc.). Click
Start, then start playing the cassette. You'll see the L and R channels
indicating input and hear the sound. It records in real time. Stop recording
by clicking Stop, then Save the file. Do some short test recordings and
playbacks before recording an entire tape.

Goldwave can automatically split files or stop recording when the sound
falls below a certain level. I suggest you not use these options for your
cassettes, but record each one in completion and do all splitting, deleting,
concatenating, etc. in post-processing. You can cut out the beginning and
ending silences, combine several files into one, take out pops, hisses,
crackles, etc., and probably do a bunch of other fancy editing I've never
needed to get into. 

Goldwave does not burn CDs. For that, I just use the built-in drag-and-drop
app included with XP, but there are numerous other apps for this too.

Joanne 


-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+joanne=exeros.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+joanne=exeros.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
Rick Quatro
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 12:00 PM
To: framers at FrameUsers.com; framers at omsys.com
Subject: OT: Cassette to MP3

Hello Framers,

Excuse the off-topic request, but I have a series of cassette tapes that I
want to convert to MP3 with these specs:

Format: mp3PRO
Preset: 32 Kbps for Voice
Constant Bitrate
32 Kbps
44100 Hz
Mono
Compression rate: 22.1:1

I need to know what I need (hardware and software) to accomplish this. Any
recommendations would be appreciated.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com

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