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Post by Sonya on Feb 11, 2008 7:37:19 GMT
I have a substantial collection of blues and other music recorded on cassette tapes. I understand there are devices to enable these recordings to be transferred to CD or other more up to date media.
Does anyone have any experience of this, or equipment advice or recommendations please?
Many thanks
Sonya
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Post by Michael Messer on Feb 11, 2008 9:38:46 GMT
Hi Sonya,
Cassettes have to be recorded on to the hard drive in real time and then put on CD. For this you need a recording & mastering programme; something like Sound Forge or Wavelab. But more importantly you need a high quality sound card or it will not sound very good. Unless you have a MAC, then all the audio stuff & sound card are already there.
I have done loads of them; cassettes/records/tapes/minidiscs/dats...etc...all transferred to CD perfectly. I always tweak them, clean up the sound and get rid of the tape hiss.
It is well worth doing.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2008 9:40:48 GMT
Hi Sonya, If you have a stereo system, I've found the easiest way is to have a CD burner hi-fi unit instead of a CD player. The CD unit then becomes a "record/play" device on the amp in place of the cassette recorder. The cassette recorder can be plugged into an empty input and then recorded to CD in real time (this is the real time consuming bit!, but track markings tend to have to be inserted at appropriate moments due to the fact that there is a lot of noise on blank/unrecorded tape and no CD burner can do this automatically). It also gives you a chance to listen to all those recordings. The alternative is to have a midi-device attached to your computer & connect the cassette player to that - but again, it's all REAL time! I've done this to a lot of my old tapes with great results, strangely enough though the most expensive tape in the 1970's (Chrome Diox) seems to have fared less well than the cheap tapes & most of these I've had to chuck out due to horrific squealing noises. Good luck.  |
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Post by maxxengland on Feb 11, 2008 11:17:37 GMT
I have to do this too at some point in the future before they degrade.
Sonya, are you doing Swanage in March? Look out for an old bald short bloke with a slide fetish at the open mic stage at the Red Lion.
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Post by Michael Messer on Feb 11, 2008 12:20:05 GMT
This subject of cassettes degrading is interesting; I have hundreds of cassettes that date back to the early 70s and they all still play perfectly. Most of my cassettes are decent quality TDKs, Sony, etc, and most are chrome or metal. Back in 2001 Catfish Records released a Ted Hawkins CD called 'The Unstoppable Ted Hawkins'. The master recording was made by me in 1988 on a Sony normal bias cassette from a concert. The tape was never recorded to be released as an album, it was just a reference tape for me to learn Ted's songs. The cassette spent a couple of years in my car being played on various car cassette players. It then spent a decade or so in a drawer in my house. When we finally decided to release this rare recording as an album, there was very little tape hiss or degraded sound. In fact when we remastered it for release, we did as little as we possibly could to retain the quality of the cassette recording. I have three generations of Sony Walkman high quality recorders - 1988 Sony Walkman Professional cassette recorder, 1995 Sony Walkman DAT recorder, and a Sony minidisc from a few years ago. Using the same microphone I have tested all three and easily the best recordings are from the Walkman Professional cassette recorder using metal tape. Food for thought  Shine On Michael |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2008 12:45:05 GMT
Most of my cassettes still play perfectly too, although the odd one sticks. But one of the problems with tape is that it is being dragged across another surface & over time that is bound to cause some loss. Strong magnetic fields can also cause problems. I see my Video cassettes as needing more urgent backup but again very time consuming! Video machines are very hard to find nowadays - as are cassette decks and soon unless you have a new machine packed away, you won't be able to play cassettes & videos at all. Mind you CDs seem to be going the same way. C'est la vie. ;D
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Post by Michael Messer on Feb 11, 2008 12:56:48 GMT
Video tape is a problem. In the early days of digital recording (1980s), I mastered my first album, Diving Duck, on to Betamax tape. This was quite normal back then! A few years later when the album was reissued I went back to the Betamax tapes to hear the original masters, but sadly lots of it had just disappeared from the tape. I also have VHS video tapes from the 90s that have dropped out and lost some great TV shows. I have always stored tapes, casettes & videos correctly. Having been around recording studios for most of my life I know not to store tape near magnetic fields or extreme temperatures. So much for video tape!
Finding machines that play cassettes, records, tape, VHS, Betamax, DAT tape,....etc....is getting more difficult as time goes by.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by Sonya on Feb 11, 2008 19:48:15 GMT
Hi Michael & Charlie Many thanks for your helpful replies. To do the job properly sounds like it's a fairly time-consuming operation, but I'll certainly have a go at it now that I know the theory of how it's done. Most of our cassettes are in quite good condition although one or two have stretched or been creased due to snagging in tape machines. The main reason for transferring to other media was partly to preserve the recordings, and also (as you say) because cassette players will become increasingly rare in the near future! They don't even put them in cars any more.....  Sonya |
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Post by Michael Messer on Feb 12, 2008 0:00:26 GMT
Hi Sonya,
The easiest way is to do what Charlie has suggested. Then you can record anything on to CD. The downside for me would be that you can't edit or improve the sound, they are just straight copies. That is why I prefer to use a computer.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by sid on Feb 14, 2008 9:28:03 GMT
Have a look in todays "Times" newspaper (Thur 14th Feb), their 'readers offers' is selling a cassette deck with USB connection and all the necessary software to digitalise all your cassette tapes. have fun ;D
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Post by maxxengland on Feb 15, 2008 13:07:32 GMT
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Post by Sonya on Feb 20, 2008 16:26:33 GMT
Thanks to everyone for the input and advice. I've gone for the option of tape converter with USB which I think will give the greatest flexibility. It'll keep us busy for quite a while - and I expect we'll discover some forgotten gems on cassette, lurking on the bottom shelf of the unit...  Sonya |
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