How can I convert my dad's old cassette tapes and Vinyls into mp3's for him?

Question

I want to be able to get the vinyl's and cassettes onto tape so that he can listen to all his favorite songs on his laptop and also on CD's. Thanks for all the help and input.

Answer 1

I've been doing the same thing for myself for awhile now.

The tapes are the easist, you probabally have cassette palyer already.

For the vinyl LP's, of course you need a Record Player.



For software, download Audacity (free at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

You'll use this for both.



1) cassette, you'll want to connect your player output or headphone to the audio-in on your PC.

2) You might have to enable or turn up that input from the control-panel, sound controls

3) In Audacity, choose the correct input from the drop-down list.

After adjusting volume levels of your output and input levels you'll simply click the record-button to start recording. (adjust inputs to just below the red-line mark for best volumn/clarity)



You'll have to decide whether you want to record each song seperately (more work at the computer), or record the whole side as 1 and then mark where each song begins (a bit less work IMO). You'll have to follow the audacity directions to download the "lame.dll" (the mp3 encoder plug-in). Then you'll export the project, and you'll get .mp3's.



For a Record, the only issue you might run into is A) You need an AMP to connect the record player to, B) you can't just plug it into the PC like the tape player. Use the Amp's output (or headphone if necessary)



I got a record-player that has a USB output connection that plugs right into the PC usb jack. That makes it a little easier to connect, but otherwise it's the same process.



Once you get used to the Audacity software, the process goes pretty quickly after the 1st couple of tapes/LP's.



I hope that helps explain what you'll need to do.



Good Luck.

Answer 2

its been many years that i listened to a cassette tape..i had an whole assortment whilst i used to be more youthful (in tuition)..i nonetheless have the ones cassettes however have not performed any considering the fact that CDs and MP3s got here out.. i must check out it someday regardless that.. simply to get the sensation of well ol' days :)

Answer 3

Put simply, you will need to connect your cassette player to your PC soundcard, then play the cassette whilst recording on your PC. A step-by-step guide is available at:

http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/DIY/index.php

(follow the link to ‘Cassette to CD‘)

The recording software is the key, there are some free software downloads available at:

http://www.cassette2cd.co.uk/downloads.php

I have used ‘Magix Audio Cleaning Lab’ and ‘Audacity’ – Audacity is particularly popular since it is free!

If you record to WAV format, expect file sizes of around 10MB per minute, or 1MB per minute for MP3 (at 128kbps).

Once you have your digital versions of the recording on your PC, simply burn them on to a CD (Nero burning software or similar..). If you use Magix Audio Cleaning, the software will burn an audio CD for you without needing additional software (assuming you have a CD writing drive of course!)

You will need the additional 'lame_enc.dll' file to export into MP3 - this can also be downloaded from the free software page.

You can also download a free PDF version of the step-by–step guide from the download page mentioned above, the guide is complete with diagrams and screen-shots.