Converting cassettes to .mp3

[Frank Freniere]

Can anyone recommend a good rig? I'm running Windows 7, am fairly comfortable w/ Audacity.

[Jack Stoner]

Exactly what do you need?

You need a cassette player, a "Line In" on the PC to allow stereo (uses 1/8" stereo plug), a program, such as Audacity, to "record them to the PC". Save them as MP3 song files (you may need a MP3 encoder program such as "Lame"). You then burn the CD's as "data" CD's, if you want MP3 CD's.

If you want to make standard Audio CD's at some point, you need save the files as wav files instead of MP3. wav is full fidelity and needed to create standard audio CD's. If you save as MP3, that is "something less than full fidelity" and if you convert the MP3 to wav you do not recover the lost fidelity.

[Frank Freniere]

Thanks for the reply, Jack.

But I want to skip the CD part, just go tape to computer (iTunes player).

I've seen some gear on-line that looks like an old Sony WalkMan with a USB cord attached and was looking for a product recommendation or review.

[Tony Prior]

try this "freecorder" its a simple app on your desktop...

http://freecorder.soft32.com/free-downl ... 7AodTxMAIA

[Frank Freniere]

Can't open the link right now, Tony, but I will later.

I'll try to be clearer about my situation: my desktop PC which runs Windows 7 and iTunes is located in a room way across the house from my old cassette player console, so it's a physical/hardware problem more than a software/conversion problem. Moving the cassette player is not really an option, nor is moving the PC.

I want to bring a portable/WalkMan-type cassette conversion device into the computer room and plug into the computer via a normal-length USB cable.

Does anyone know of a such a device, and make a recommendation?

[Gary Shepherd]

Plus Deck 2c