Do you still have audio cassettes?

[yoda313]

I just thought I'd ask. I'm currently in the process of dubbing some old audio cassettes I still have. I still have my settop Sony tape deck for dubbing.

I'm still surprised that many of the tapes are in good shape. Many of the batch I'm doing now are second hand used from garage sales and stuff like that.

What I'm doing is using an older payware program called cakewalk pyro 2003. It does everything I need. The best thing I like is the easy splitting I can do after I record the tape. Especially on studio albums. Live albums are trickier to cut tracks out of but usually the dip in sound between songs is a good clue.

Plus it has easy fade in and out for live tracks but I don't have very many live cassettes any more.

I'm dubbing these to wav - the default input - but I am outputting to 320kpbs mp3 for my zune. I love the album tagging in Zune too. I can get the album art and publishing info to make it look the same on my zune as if I had ripped a cd. Plus I have taken to using amazon to find album cover art if zune doesn't do it automatically - only had to do that a few times.

This will be nice to finally archive the rest of my cassettes. I only have a small stash left to do.

So do any of you still have cassettes?

[bendixG15]

My wife has her tapes, and she won't let me put them on disks.
"I like them just the way they are" she tells me.

The music is burned into her brain and she doesn't want the slightest change.

[lordsmurf]

Yes.

[yoda313]

The music is burned into her brain

Then why does she still have them at all? That must be better than a photographic memory - its a phonographic memory

@lordsmurf - nice - straight and to the point

[deadrats]

So do any of you still have cassettes?

i have a butt load of them but i haven't listened to them in years, at least since the napster days. i've got so much music in digital format that i don't even remember all the songs i have, all legally purchased, of course, at 99 cents per song, for an expenditure in the tens of thousands of dollars, because i really have this over whelming desire to see some douche that couldn't care less whether or not i can pay the rent this month, driving another ferrari, because his/her first 2 got lonely and needed some company.

[El Heggunte]

Q.: Do you still have audio cassettes?

A.: Not anymore.

[JudgeGarth]

I did all of mine with Cakewalk Pyro 2003 couple of years ago. I liked that program, too, but it suddenly stopped working! Fortunately, I'd already completed converting all my old tapes.

[yoda313]

I did all of mine with Cakewalk Pyro 2003 couple of years ago.

It is nice. Surprising to find somebody with exactly the same version.

but it suddenly stopped working! Fortunately, I'd already completed converting all my old tapes.

Did you install it in on a new OS? I am using it on my pc that is still running XP. I haven't tried on my Vista pc nor do I own a copy of win 7 yet.

I think if you reinstall it you have to reenter the code your supposed to have on the disc for mp3 output to work. Of course thats no biggie since you can use any program to convert the original wavs to mp3.

[JudgeGarth]

No, it was the same OS (XP SP2). Maybe it was an update that killed it, or something else I installed.

First it stopped recording after 30 minutes, then it just wouldn't burn. It also generated a lot of superfluous files on the desktop. Their user forum is pretty worthless. I don't think they support the product any more.

[yoda313]

Maybe it was an update that killed it

Probably not. As far as I know I have all the updates on my xp computer.

something else I installed.

Possible I suppose.

I don't think they support the product any more.

Not a surprise. As long as you got all your stuff done it doesn't really matter. Besides you can always use freeware audacity if something came up again

[JudgeGarth]

Yep, I was bragging to my friends that I could convert tapes to CD easily, so they sent me tapes to do it for them. After doing a few for them it stopped working, so I had to revert to Audacity. It was much more tedious, so needless to say, I'm not doing it any more.

[PuzZLeR]

Still have several from over the years that I'd like to trash of once digitized (some music, lecture recordings, an old band that I was a part of, etc).

I would assume the best format to capture to is WAV, then archive as FLAC for size advantage without loss (before feeling safe to dispose of tape). From thereon it's easy to convert to MP3, AAC, AC3 for any video projects, WAV again, CD or even, shall I say, Audio Cassette if needed again. However, keeping the FLAC as permanent Source would suffice IMO if not keeping the tape.

Converting to digital makes easy management, classification and editing. It's worth the tiny, tiny loss to capture to WAV first instead of clunky outdated cassettes.

There are higher resolution audio formats today, but converting cassettes to these would be like converting VHS to 1080i/p blu-ray - not worth it.

So speaking of, we hear lots here about proper VHS->Digital regarding a proper deck, TBC, proc amp, capture card, software, video formats, etc.

Is there any similar such info for Audio Cassette -> Digital? Would be interesting.

[yoda313]

As far as permanent archiving without the original cassettes I would of course recommend dvdrs and multiple harddrive copies for redundancy.

I think as far as consumer products go capping to red book audio wav is the highest you can go. Or the equivalent with a standalone cd recorder.

[PuzZLeR]

As far as permanent archiving without the original cassettes I would of course recommend dvdrs and multiple harddrive copies for redundancy.

I think as far as consumer products go capping to red book audio wav is the highest you can go. Or the equivalent with a standalone cd recorder.

Yes I agree WAV is the best to capture to, but once captured and edited, I love the FLAC option for archiving since it's popular, smaller in file size and WAV->FLAC is lossless (and vice versa).

My concern is that alot of "quality" info is available for VHS->Digital, especially with many consumer products around, but none is near as good as the info available in Forums like this, which can be a very different setup.

I'm just wondering if I follow "conventional wisdom" around the 'Net for my cassettes I'd end up with a final project similarly as bad the one someone would get with their VHS->DvD transfer who bought some fraud EZCap or DvD/VHS combo unit.

[yoda313]

I wouldn't worry too much. I've done it many times with a pc and consumer software with good results.

If you are this concerned perhaps you could research if there are "professional" shops like there are for video transfers?

For your band stuff especially that would be more of a concern. Any other stuff I wouldn't put this much concern into it. If you are still concerned than just keep the tapes and a tape deck and you can always redo it as long as they are stored in a controlled envrionment - for as long as that physical medium is projected to survive of course.

[PuzZLeR]

Certainly Yoda - didn't mean to hijack your thread.

I guess it's not that big a deal in quality as it would be for video, especially since much of it is speech anyway, and the music is mostly replaceable. The band stuff, I will take my own advice to someone with a few VHS tapes - I will get it done professionally to raw unedited WAV since it's only a handful of cassettes. Makes sense to me.

Editing is easier in WAV I imagine. But the problem with editing audio compared to video is that its not visual where you can scrub through easier for parts you want. There's always a wave graph but it won't be helpful for a majority of situations. Oh well.

Good thread by the way.

[yoda313]

Certainly Yoda - didn't mean to hijack your thread.

Hijack away. Offtopic has been slow for a long time so this is something to keep it going.

The band stuff, I will take my own advice to someone with a few VHS tapes - I will get it done professionally to raw unedited WAV since it's only a handful of cassettes. Makes sense to me.

Yep for the important stuff top quality is worth the price.

Good thread by the way.

Thanks. This reminds me I still have some tapes to finish eventually. I have even have one half capped - I got to finish the other side.

Most of my stuff is destined for my zune. I need to eventually archive my mp3s to dvdr again. I have some from a few years ago but not recently. I have over 10gbs to do. A lot was captured over the radio and stuff like that - a good chunck of that isn't even labeled - captured directly as mp3s - internet radio that is.

[jbd5010]

I've been capturing some old recorded teachings on cassette from the mid 70's for my church. Needless to say these are irreplaceable so I'm trying to get them off the tapes before they deteriorate. I've had good results with my Sony TC-WE475 deck. It was the nicest one you could get at Circuit City before they went out of business a few years ago. Not a pro deck, but definitely a higher end consumer-grade. You can relay play 2 tapes in a row, so it's a good set-and-forget if you're not worried about chewing up hard drive space with blank audio if you forget to come back to your computer after 2 hours.

I use Audacity to capture and then I use GoldWave to filter. You can click-and-drag custom points to shape your filter, and if you scroll to a "blank" part of the audio you can see the noise profile at that instant in time to guide how you shape the filter. Pretty slick. Also a higher learning curve than some other software where all you can set is "filter more hiss" "filter less hiss" presets, etc.

I'm just wondering if I follow "conventional wisdom" around the 'Net for my cassettes I'd end up with a final project similarly as bad the one someone would get with their VHS->DvD transfer who bought some fraud EZCap or DvD/VHS combo unit.

... also curious about that question! I'd love to know if I can squeeze more fidelity out of those tapes. Even though they're just speech, it's hard to get the right compromise between noise filtering and making the voice sound flat and non-lifelike.

[lordsmurf]

Also:
LPs
records off cereal boxes
8-tracks.

Not everything is on CD or MP3 yet.

[SquirrelDip]

... Not everything is on CD or MP3 yet.

Well then - get on it!

Oh, no tapes left... Still have a few hundred CDs but haven't played one since I converted all to MP3. And all the MP3s are on a NAS which streams to my PS3 and home strereo (or from iTunes when on the PC at home or work).

[zzyzzx]

Yes. I don't use them though. Mostly I just use my MP3 player in my car's cassette player:

[technogeek]

hi all,
remember old is gold, i also have quite a lot of tapes. most times tapes live longer than DVD or CD.when i hear them in deck system, sony/onkyo sound is very good , however when input to computer to hear, audio is not grt. i know professional studios have equipment which converts audio tapes to PCM high quality audio, however i am yet to find excellent quality software /hardware for consumers/prosumer.

[Zapages]

Yes we do at home we have a couple

[tgpo]

Nope, but I do collect and play vinyl.