Bill the Annoying

Copy Cassette Tape to MP3

March 8th, 2010 at 10:59 am (Linkety Goodness, New)

I have lots of Russian Learning tapes, but they are getting old, and tapes degrade overtime, even if not being used, so it is time to copy them over to MP3, so I can make CDs of them for the car, or for a music player or phone.

Also cars no longer come with a tape player standard, you have to ask for the special, and soon if not already they will no longer come with a tape player.

I used to have a tape player walkman but after a few hours of looking, I decided to just get a new one. Turns out Walmart only has MP3 players, and CD players, the only Tape Player they had was an older desk top model that comes with a microphone, then I just needed a cable to connect the the “phone” out on the tape player to the “mic” in on my laptop.

My laptop prompts me when I connect at cable to the mic, if it is a “microphone” or “inline” connection. For my purposes I select “inline”.

Originally I tried using Microsoft’s Media Player, to make the MP3s but since I am still on XP (not wanting to go to Vista), the “Plus!” addon that I would need was discontinued, though Microsoft did suggest that I update to “Windows 7″ which they claimed had many fun solutions for me, but was not more specific.

Instead I downloaded a free audio program “Audacity”
Below is the source

Free, open-source audio recorder and editor for Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and VST plug-ins. … Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. …
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Then I need an other program to save the files as MP3s called “Lame” with is an add in for “Audacity”
I did need to link these together, but only the first time I used it.

http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php

To start open Audacity, click “Record”, the press “Play” on the tape player.
To stop press “Stop” on the tape player, and “Stop” on Audacity.

Audacity’s Noise Removal Effect is ideal for removing constant background noise such as tape hiss, electric fans or hums. It will not work very well for removing talking or music in the background.

It relies on your being able to provide Audacity with an audio sample containing only the noise you want to remove, not one containing music or speech mixed in with the noise.

Select an section of the recording that contains just the hiss noise, using the mouse.
Under the “Effect” menu, select “Noise Removal”.
Click the “Get Noise Profile” button.
Select the entire audio file under “Edit” > “Select” > “All” (or you can press “Ctrl + A”).
Under the “Effect” menu, select “Noise Removal”.
Click the “Remove Noise” button.

I trim up the beginning and end of the file by deleting all extra dead air, I only leave about one to a half second of dead air at the beginning and end of the recording.

After that just export the file as an MP3, under the “File” menu, and give it a good name.

There is also a wiki page for Audacity
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audacity_Wiki_Home_Page