Thompson posted on

01 Jun 15 - 01:57 AM

"could I suggest that instructions be given for recording tapes to CD on Windows and Linux computers as well? "

It's more to do with the sound card or sound chip your system uses than the operating system. I don't know Macs much but I'm getting the impression that there is only one jack socket and it's function is set by software.

Most systems I have used have three sockets. If I recall correctly they are headphones, microphone and line out.

I'm currently using Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon. Nice system, free. the closest I found to my old XP.

For sound recording and editing I use Audacity. It's a straightforward program, also free, and you should be able to work out how to use it by experimenting.

The signal you get from a microphone and also in earphones is analogue. It is a fluctuating stream. For a computer to process this signal it has to be converted to a digital form. The digital form is organised numbers. In order for the digital signal to work in headphones or a line out it has to be converted back to analogue. Your sound card or sound chip has these analogue to digital and back converters built in, and these days they can be expected to work to CD quality and above. An MP3 file is a compressed, therefore smaller, file which for some people looses quality. For an awful lot of people today MP3 is good enough.

Macs are well known for hardware brevity. They were the first computer to come without floppy disk drives. Shocking when it first appeared but quickly became the norm. Only one jack socket seems a bit stingy, considering how expensive the machines are.