Converted
I finally did it... I converted some of my cassette tapes to MP3. Mostly music that could never be reproduced if the tapes were ever destroyed... like a collection of Okanagan songs by my grandma and some of her friends back in the day. They were originally recorded on wax cylinders. Thank god someone went through the pain of converting to tape in the 50's or else I would have been lost.
I also converted some of my Uncle Roy's music to digital. He likes to sing old country music like my dad used to, except he sings in Okanagan and then translates back to English. Kinda cool. Probably the only time you will catch me listening to country.
Converting to MP3 is actually a pretty easy process, except it is time consuming. It's done in real time, so you pretty much have to be in the mood to listen to everything as you are recording.
If you are considering doing this, I recommend Audacity. This is an easy to use sound editor, and the price is right - FREE. Other than that, you will need a cassette player (I used a walkman), a 1/8 inch line-in jack (bought mine cheap at Radio Shack), some headphones, and a PC with a sound card. If you need step by step instructions, there are lots of websites out there.... here is a simplified version. I thought it was helpful.
Anyways.... now that I have the important tapes out of the way, maybe I will dig out that Michael Jackson Thriller tape and preserve Billie Jean forever... LOL! j/k! Considering I have a habit of listening to the same songs over and over, won't everyone love me for that!
I also converted some of my Uncle Roy's music to digital. He likes to sing old country music like my dad used to, except he sings in Okanagan and then translates back to English. Kinda cool. Probably the only time you will catch me listening to country.
Converting to MP3 is actually a pretty easy process, except it is time consuming. It's done in real time, so you pretty much have to be in the mood to listen to everything as you are recording.
If you are considering doing this, I recommend Audacity. This is an easy to use sound editor, and the price is right - FREE. Other than that, you will need a cassette player (I used a walkman), a 1/8 inch line-in jack (bought mine cheap at Radio Shack), some headphones, and a PC with a sound card. If you need step by step instructions, there are lots of websites out there.... here is a simplified version. I thought it was helpful.
Anyways.... now that I have the important tapes out of the way, maybe I will dig out that Michael Jackson Thriller tape and preserve Billie Jean forever... LOL! j/k! Considering I have a habit of listening to the same songs over and over, won't everyone love me for that!
posted by Rezilla | 9:59 PM
3 Comments:
But the question is.... did you get a new kink in your brain when you learned this???? LOL j/k!!!
Hi, I came across your blog from the link at Vernon's. How was the quality of your converted to digital music? I've thought about doing some converting from tape myself but didn't know if it would come out good.
The tapes I started out with had a lot of noise to begin with.... I think this is due to them being converted originally from wax cylinders. Audacity has an option that lets you sample the unwanted noise and then edit it out... I haven't done it yet, so can't say how easy it is. Maybe when I get to that point I will blog about it..... Good luck with your project, and thanks for checking out my site!
:)
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