Tech: Tapes to CDs

Subject: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 04:16 PM

Much of my collection of folk music is on tape - can anyone tell me where I can get a programme to transfer these songs and this music to disc?

Tnanks,

Jacqued

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 04:28 PM

I believe most people plug a cable from their audio out on the tape dack to audio in on the computer sound card - then use a standard sound recorder programme to make wav files.

once you have wav files it's pretty easy to make cd's.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 04:32 PM

Has anyone got a good method of removing mains hum - 50hz in UK but 60 in USA (and harmonics) because on the equipent I had in the 60s it was not audible but now it sure is!

I'm about to spend a lot of money on a 1/60th (yes, one sixtieth) octave eq with 48 db cut available unless someone knows another way!

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From:
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 05:45 PM

Jacqued, there are a number of threads on the DT about the subject of recording something and then burning it to CD.

I would suggest putting "to CD" into the Lyric and Knowledge Search, and specifying just the Forum. It won't be in the DT database.

Richard, Looks like the suggestion on the net is Cool Edit.

Removing Hum From Recordings
Restoring Old Records

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 07:04 PM

Excellent george: I had googled "notch filter" and "band stop filter" but not found it. Now I'm off to find how costly it is!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 09:20 PM

Hmm.

Once was affordable. Now has been taken over and is $399! I can buy a hardware notch fiter for a third of that.

Any ideas for freeware or shareware clones, or a source of download for the obsolete (reasonably priced) Cool Edit 2000?

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 10:15 PM

Check Tucows for shareware and freeware software of many sorts. They sometimes have links to older copies of things.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Kudzuman
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 11:09 PM

Cool Edit is $399 but it does so much! Comes with all sorts of goodies for cleaning and editing plus has the capability of multitrack recording if you want to do your own. It's a powerful program.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From:
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 12:00 AM

Here's the older Cool Edit '96 available for download. It works quite well. You don't get more than TWO options at any given time. The demo of the newer version does NOT give Save as one of the options as far as I can see.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 12:32 AM

Using Kazaa Lite....(it might take a few days for it to come up) you might be able to get a "trial-copy" until you can test it out over a couple of years-period to see if it meets your needs. I picked up several Adobe-Add-Ons through the P2P.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 04:22 AM

George, thanks, downloading as I type. I hope to try it out this weekend.

Silly RIver Sage, yes I tried TUcows but could not find any explanation of which programs might have a hum filter, and emailed them asking, but no reply and downloading every prograom on TUcows to see which one does teh trick would keep me busy for a while!!

Guest, I have so far not risked installing even Kazaa lite, what with the writs flying at the moment. Of course Kazaa itself is NOT acceptable. Even tho' I keep my antivirus and firewall up to date, I'm nervous about p2p.

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: treewind
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 04:38 AM

Hum filtering can be doine VERY effectively by the noise removal algorithm that also gets rid of tape hiss, used by several programs. I recommend Audacity because it's totally free and works well for this type of job. It wll do recording, editing and noise removal and a number of other jobs, and it's multi platform - Windows, Linux or Macintosh.

The way the noise removal works is : you find a short section that has the background noise only, the progam samples the spectrum of that, then "subtracts" it from the rest of the track.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 11:34 AM

Tucows is good for shopping around, and if you already know more or less what you want you can usually give it a test spin. I find the reviews at ZDnet.com very helpful, though often overly positive. They generally tell you what a program is supposed to do. Last time I went looking for a program (in my never-ending search for the best way to back up my system) I started by reading some reviews there, then I did a google search on those programs. I think I landed at Amazon and read some of the customer evaluations of software sold there. Didn't buy either program after that. Instead, I'll buy a hard drive and use the Win2000 Pro backup or try out Norton Ghost (recommended by one of our library IT guys).

Good luck removing the hum. If you are successful, I hope you'll report back on what worked. I "trace" these tech threads that look like they'll help me solve problems later.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Tapes to CDs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Sep 03 - 06:11 AM

I'll try that too Treewind. I've seen comments about it affecting sound quality but the logic of it is inescapable.