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04/02/2011 01:56:28 PM · #1 |
I know the basics of all this, so I'm looking for some techie answers. I have a boxful of cassettes that I'd like to digitize. Very little of it is music; they're mostly recordings of family, radio airchecks, and the like.
I can buy something like this for around a hundred dollars (in case you don't care to click, it's a dedicated tape-to-USB cassette player). But I'm wondering if such an appliance offers any real benefit. The alternative is that I just wire a boombox or regular cassette deck straight into my sound card, pull up Audactiy, and away I go. I'd like to think that the appliance has some built in electronics to better handle the analog-to-digital transfer, but I can't really tell. It might just be a run-of-the-mill cassette player with a USB cord attached.
I'm mostly concerned about sound quality. Some of the tapes are very old, and I only want to have to do this once.
So what do you think? Does the appliance offer any benefit? Also, would running a cassette player through a mixing board offer any benefit? (My son has a cheap one that he uses to record his friend's band.) I'm looking for good fidelity and low noise (as much as I can get from old cassettes, anyway).
Thanks. |
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04/02/2011 02:21:42 PM · #2 |
If you have a cassette recorder already then just use that. Running it through the equalizer on the mixer should allow you to bring out/enhance the desired audio and reduce any background hiss/noise.
I'm supposed to be doing this as well (mostly for music though), and I'm trying to decide whether or not to use the original Dolby settings or to use a better recorder without Dolby and trying to compensate with equalization.
If a lot of your material is speech, you can save file space by recording in mono mode.
If you don't already have a decent-quality cassette deck, $100 seems like a reasonable price for a new one, especially with the built-in conveniece factor. The same company makes a dedicated Turntable-to-digital unit for transferring records, which I'm considering getting since I don't have a functioning turntable right now. |
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04/02/2011 02:32:41 PM · #3 |
Nope, I don't think the appliance offers any benefit at all if you've got a decent sound card... and anything that's not built into the motherboard probably falls into that category.
IMO, the only possible advantage of running the signal through a mixing board would be control of the level being fed to the computer. Cassette tapes have rather limited dynamic range, so I don't think that's really a big deal. The computer software should be able to deal with setting levels correctly.
The most important thing for getting the most out of the old recordings is a good tape drive, properly configured for the specific type of tape used. Are the tapes normal bias (Type I), high bias (type II), or metal? You'll need to match the tape type to the playback device. If the recordings were made with NR such as DOlby, make sure they are played back with the same NR settings. Some unusual NR processes like DBX can be hard to find these days.
Once you've captured the recordings, you will still have work to do. You may well want to run additional clean-up on them. Your results should capture all that there is to get out of this format. Cassette tapes were not all that high in dynamic range, though well-recorded samples made on high-quality tape and equipment did have decent frequency response on the high end, so keep your sampling up to at least 44.1kHz (CD sampling rate) |
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04/02/2011 02:41:57 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by kirbic:
You'll need to match the tape type to the playback device. If the recordings were made with NR such as DOlby, make sure they are played back with the same NR settings. Some unusual NR processes like DBX can be hard to find these days. |
Thanks -- that answers my question. I have a two-track dubbing deck with Dolby B/C, and a Tascam 4-track with DBX, though I don't think I ever used that setting. FWIW I still use this for live analog recording ... |
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04/02/2011 02:47:07 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Originally posted by kirbic:
You'll need to match the tape type to the playback device. If the recordings were made with NR such as DOlby, make sure they are played back with the same NR settings. Some unusual NR processes like DBX can be hard to find these days. |
Thanks -- that answers my question. I have a two-track dubbing deck with Dolby B/C, and a Tascam 4-track with DBX, though I don't think I ever used that setting. FWIW I still use this for live analog recording ... |
Yep, I actually didn't see your post until after I hit "Post." I'll bet that Tascam, with good tape, still makes a great-sounding master.
ETA: NR is almost impossible to equalize out later; some types are worse than others.
Message edited by author 2011-04-02 14:48:52. |
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04/02/2011 02:52:55 PM · #6 |
Thanks a bunch. This helps a lot. I can tell you that most of these were recorded under the most casual circumstances imaginable. Some of the tapes are very lo-fi. Most of it was recorded on very cheap equipment.
One tape, though, recorded in 1979 has my father's voice on it (he died a year later). It's this that I want to preserve most. Fortunately it looks to be on a higher quality cassette. Still, tape doesn't last forever. |
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04/02/2011 03:07:14 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by bvy:
Still, tape doesn't last forever. |
No, but neither does any of this other media. I'm not throwing out my tapes after digitizing them. |
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04/02/2011 04:13:36 PM · #8 |
I think all the appliance does is to offer convenience. Running a boombox into Audacity should work just fine.
On a related note, I was in Fry's last night and they actually had Discwasher D4 fluid! I looked for some several years ago and came up empty. Even ordered some from a vendor on Amazon and it never shipped. Now I need to figure out where I put my discwasher kit and I can start digitizing my LP collection.
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04/02/2011 04:20:48 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:
I think all the appliance does is to offer convenience. Running a boombox into Audacity should work just fine.
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Thanks. Do you think a boombox is as good as a stereo component player? |
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04/02/2011 06:18:07 PM · #10 |
| I recorded some records for my dad and we just hooked into the speaker connection on the record player and plugged it into the computer. |
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04/03/2011 08:02:30 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by bvy:
Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:
I think all the appliance does is to offer convenience. Running a boombox into Audacity should work just fine.
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Thanks. Do you think a boombox is as good as a stereo component player? |
Horrible, in fact.
Bottom line, if you don't have access to a good cassette tape machine, it's going to be damn hard to find one without doing research and going to the use3d market.
If what you have to digitize is not of great quality, then perhaps it's of little concern, but if you are trying to preserve a quality recording as best you can, then using a high-quality transport will be worth the effort.
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04/03/2011 08:37:58 PM · #12 |
| Fair enough. I'm thinking an upgraded sound card might be needed too, but I have no idea what criteria to look for. Guess I'll be researching that too. |
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