Copy cassettes to CDs before the tape becomes too brittle.
Tape decks in cars are becoming a thing of the past, while cassette tapes themselves begin to lose audio quality and wear out over time, increasing the risk of snagging inside the machine while playing. If you have a lot of musical memories on cassette and want to enjoy more life from them, transferring the analog signals on tape to a CD is one answer. Use a computer with a sound card and CD burner for the transfer and an amplifier to boost the tape deck's signal for recording to the PC.
Instructions
1. Connect one set of audio cables from the tape deck's Line Out or Playback jacks to a set of audio input jacks on the amplifier.
2. Hook up the second set of cables from the Line Out jacks on the amplifier, such as the Tape Monitor jacks, to the Line In jacks on the sound card on the back of the computer tower.
3. Open the audio-recording software on the computer by double clicking the program name.
4. Load an audio cassette in the tape deck and cue the tape to the desired position, then press "Play."
5. Click the "Record" button on the computer software to capture the audio-tape analog signal and convert it into a digital format. Click "Stop" when finished.
6. Click the "File" tab and select "Save As" to save the new recording as a .WAV file, which is a suitable format for burning to CD. Click "Save" again to store the file on the computer.
7. Load a blank CD in the computer's media tray, then open the software that manages the CD burner, such as Windows Media Player or iTunes on a Mac.
8. Click the "Burn" tab and select "Library" on Windows Media Player to open a folder containing audio files on the computer, then select the files for burning to a CD by clicking and holding the mouse button on each file. Drag the file to the Burn list and release the mouse button. In iTunes, click "New Playlist" and select "Import Files" to select audio files for burning to CD.
9. Click the "Start Burn" button at the bottom of the software screen to record the CD.
Tags: tape deck, audio files, burning Click, cables from, files burning, jacks amplifier, Line jacks
