The Curse of the Cassette

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 09:49 AM

Yeah, but what comes off the read head needs to be converted to something lossless as early as possible. Is there a device that outputs FLAC or WAV directly?

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 11:55 AM

TEAC do a converter that records LP's or cassettes, straight to CD it's a TEAC LP-R500

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 12:27 PM

Right then, keep it simple...

Record from the line out or headphone socket of a cassette player
directly into the line in inputs of a portable digital recorder,
like the very good and affordable Zooms...

You then have WAV file recordings of at least 'CD quality' 16/44,
which can be transferred to computer for conversion to smaller lossless flac files,
or lossy mp3.

It's 2019, there are no serious reasons why folks involved in music
should not already own at least one portable digital recorder.
They are now basic essential equipment.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 04:07 PM

"I'm not sure the easily available converters do FLAC. Ones I've seen seem to be MP3-only."

Let me suggest "Traders Little Helper" and "Foobar2000" for starters which are both freeware and will batch convert.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: Tony Rees
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 04:36 PM

I too have some drawers of cassettes (several hundred), most home recorded e.g. albums, broadcasts, live shows also some commercial releases. Busy triageing them at the moment into "really would like to save", "some interest" and "zero to little future value". "Really would like to save" is mainly unique live recordings of artists I respect - I have slowly been "leaking" these out to youtube e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDTbEhCWD2s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW7tF_hvUz8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qskuAEG2MPk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqtVm_PryQo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zSq2UTkiSI

- also a few radio broadcasts that nobody else seems to have (e.g. Fairport at Cropredy 1984, Mark O'Connor at Cambridge 1986, and so on...).

"Some interest" is mainly commercial things that were released only in the cassette format and/or odd tracks that would be tedious or expensive to re-purchase on CD, or now out-of-print LPs never reissued; "zero to little future value" are mostly dubs of commercially available LPs that I *could* re-purchase on CD if I really want to (but probably don't).

The "Really would like to save" batch is gradually being transferred to CD and/or wav format for safe keeping, but it is a slow task and may take the rest of a lifetime - depending on how short or long that is!! Then there are all the video tapes, which is another story for another time, most likely.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 05:47 PM

Most of my cassettes have held up better than my cassette players.

A few years ago I was able to output from the cassette player directly into a computer with a Line In socket. I even have an older laptop which has a dedicated Line-In and using the program Audacity will capture and store various rates of WAV for later processing into cuts and formats.

Newer laptops may be a bit trickier but if they have even one socket they may allow you to turn it into a Line-Input.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 12:26 PM

The resulting sound quality of recording into the line input of a computer
depends on if it's analogue to digital converters are better or worse than mediocre;
and overall system stability.

Lo-fi noisy converters, audio glitches and dropouts,
being the motivating reasons for the development of dedicated sound cards and drivers,
and USB audio interfaces...

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 12:36 PM

Do some modern PCs still have digital Coax or Optical audio inputs
that can be connected to the digital outputs
of Hi fi gear...???

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 02:31 PM

Found a sale on this TEAK 660. It can hook directly to a computer as well as make a CD.

My cassettes are almost all things I recorded live years ago for learning and memories... I do not expect super quality, and my ears no longer hear some frequencies, anyway. Some of my old LPs 'may' come out pretty well... enough for putting them in survival mode.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Dec 19 - 05:10 AM

Yes Bill that's almost the same as the model I have just purchased, and that I mentioned above, the TEAC LP-R500

I will update when it arrives, but as I see it, I can record onto a rewrite CD, then edit it on my PC using Audacity, and hopefully come up with something good enough for my needs.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 06 Dec 19 - 12:05 PM

My first car had NO player so a cassette portable sat on the front seat.
So called 8 track cassettes were to be the big thing for cars but went the same way as Citizens Band.
Then there were those radios where pushing the station button pulled the string along and moved the dial.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Dec 19 - 01:11 PM

Well my TEAC LP-R500 turned up, and it's grand. I have been transcribing tapes onto a CD-RW, and ripping them into my PC. When I have a few done, then I shall run them through Audacity to clean them up, and then transcribe onto CD-R. At the moment I'm working on a load of old Charlie Poole tapes, kindly sent to me by Severn,thanks friend.
Soon be no more cassettes, only about 300 to go now ;)

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 11:28 AM

I just received my TEAK 660, and have done one LP onto a CD and one tape directly onto an offline computer and saved it in Audacity format.

It require carefully following procedures for defining tracks and volume levels, but it seems as if it will work ok.

"...only about 300 to go now.." About 150 cassettes for me, and as many of several hundred LPs as I don't already have as MP3s. (In usenet, I have found quite a few of my collection ripped and posted by others, but I have no exact count.)

Since the copying must be done in real time, it will take umpty-'leven months.

Subject: RE: The Curse of the Cassette
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Dec 19 - 06:52 PM

I successfully transferred 2 hour long folk radio programs from about 1978 using Audacity.... so I am pleased with the system so far.