And Now For Something Completely Different

[D. J.]

Hi all, stumbling in after a long spell of navel-gazing.

 

For various reasons I am completely dependant on a rather extensive music collection for entertainment (I'm way out in the boonies, reception sucks out loud, and I'm too cheap and disinterested to buy a dish).

 

Long ago, I converted all my LP albums (yes, I'm THAT OLD) and reel to reel tapes into cassette format. I did this when my players went to their final reward and I discovered almost no one was making turntables and reel to reel players anymore. The ones who did were really proud of their products too!

 

I have a dual head reciever/tape deck that allows me to keep back up tapes for general listening while saving the originals in their pristine condition. The unit also has a CD player, and I've discovered that I can make a back up cassette of CDs with it. This too is great, as it allows me to listen to the material while working outside or driving.

 

My questions for the great minds here at the TCH forum are these:

 

I'm sure that it must be possible to do the opposite - make a CD copy of a cassette - but how? I've considered using my comp's burner, but I can't figure out what to do. Would I have to convert the music to MP3 format? Is that even legal?

 

Barring that, what sort of device would I need? More importantly, how many arms and legs does it cost?

 

Speak to me, oh great and wise citizens of Technolia! Speak!

[TCH-Bruce]

I did a search and came across a program called RipVinyl.

 

Maybe you can use that.

 

Or you can try this link which should help.

[Pendragon]

I did a search and came across a program called RipVinyl.

 

Maybe you can use that.

 

Or you can try this link which should help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As long as you have a line out on the machine and a line in on the computer, you can copy it to the computer, and then burn it back on to a cd.

OR, you can get a philips cd recorder, and copy it directly to a cd. If you have a lot to do, this would be the best/fastest/easist method. The burners are fairly cheap now, probably around $250 or less.

 

Then once on CD, you can 'rip' it to your computer directly to MP3 format.

A few years ago I converted my entire collection of CDs and some tapes to MP3. I keep them on a USB drive, and it's about 22gb worth of files. I have instant access to any song, and if an original CD goes bad, gets a bad scratch, etc, I can make a new one.

[D. J.]

Thanks!

 

That RipVinyl sounds interesting (and cheaper)

 

So you're saying I don't need to do anything to the music to copy it to the comp?

[TCH-Bruce]

If you have line-in jacks on your computer and can connect your cassette player to it that's it.

[D. J.]

Thanks Bruce. I'm looking at the comp, and it looks like this is a go.

 

Appreciate the advice from all, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Patricia]

I hope it works out for you DJ. and if those old records have blips, i'm sure you can check download.com for some deblipping and scratch removal software making them just like new again. good luck!

[ztrauq]

If you're on a Mac, I know you can get some programs that can apply DSP effects to the signal as you import it (there might be something equivalent for windows as well). With that, you can de-noise, apply EQ, and even compression if you like, as you're importing the audio.