Best Results Cassette Audio to Digital Format

I have a 15 year old cassette tape of a discontinued album that I would like to rip to a digital format. I have searched everywhere for a CD but none is available. I'm not expecting great results but would like any recommendations on Software, Format (wav,flac,mp3) and Bitrate settings to try. This is an audio cassette recording of a vinyl album of pop-music so I just want to boost everything so that it sounds good in the car.

I don't do any audio ripping, so all suggestions are appreciated.

 

www.audacity.sourceforge.net

 

I used Audacity for such a project. I recorded from my tape player to audacity and I had reservations about the sound quality, but the play back sounded just as good (I think better actually) then the actual tape itself.

download Audacity Here

 

Thanks, md2lgyk and dyamond

I've seen Audacity mentioned here in the past, I'll give it a shot. Now, to find the best sounding tape player to use for the dubbing.

 

I didnt use anything fancy, I used a store brand regular tape player and used my microphone to record the sound. The end product was really good.

 

Well, if he wants to get stereo sound transferred over to his digital format, he'll have to connect the tape player or amplifier to which the tape player is connected, to the Line In port on his sound card. And, he'll need a cables with stereo type plugs on the ends.

 

Im sorry, that doesnt make sense to me.

What do you mean stereo sound?

 

Dyamond,

As opposed to monaural sound. If the poster had been using a microphone to record the music then it sounds like he/she used only 1 microphone, therefore monaural sound.

 

You're kidding, right? You don't know what I mean my stereo sound? rolleyes

A simple definition: Stereo means hearing different sounds from different speakers. This would have involved using two or more mics during the original recording.

If he uses a single mic, as you suggested, he may get fairly good sound - from a general-quality viewpoint - from the digital file created from the conversion, but it won't be stereo sound.

Ah, I see Puppywunder58 beat me to it.

Edit: Now, if the original source was not stereo, i.e. was monaural, or sach2 doesn't care about this, then it's a moot point.

 

Thanks puppywunder when I recorded mine using only 1 mic, burned it to a cd and played it back it sounded perfectly fine.. maybe I just cant tell the differenceLOL

 

There's definitely a difference. Why do think stereo was developed? If you can't hear the difference, either you don't really have your music system working right to play stereo, or your hearing is not normal.

 

It's probably most prominent when listening with headphones.. you won't get a left and right channel, they'll just be merged together, both sides will play the identical sound.

 

My recording sounded exactly as the tape did (if not a bit better quality) and I actually have exceptional hearing

 

Dual speaker sound, like you find in head phones. If you use a mic, you get single channel sound.

You can spend three dollars on the cable, or cut the buds off of two 97 cent headphones.

 

OK, are really admitting you don't know the difference between stereo and monaural sound? Here's the dictionary definition:

• designating sound transmission from two sources through two channels
• reproducer in which two microphones feed two or more loudspeakers to give a three-dimensional effect to the sound

As I and other have said, you can't get stereo sound by recording with a single mic. Period.

 

Calm down guys! :wave

I have a patch cord that will do the job. I just have never been happy with my last cassette deck and can't justify replacing it these days. I'm sure it will be fine. Thanks again for steering me to Audacity.