How To Copy Cassette Tape To CD

The Compact Cassette, better known as the audio cassette, cassette tape or just tape, was one of the most popular audio formats of the 1970s to the 1990's. Originally designed to take dictation, improvements in audio quality and portability lead to the medium becoming a very popular one.

While the audio quality of a CD is vastly superior in many ways, there are several reasons to transfer that dusty old collection of tapes onto CDs. Some of the information stored on your magnetic tapes may either be out of print, difficult to find or that "illegal" collection of concert bootlegs made in your youth. Saving that old collection for archival purposes is another. Keep in mind that transferring your old tapes to CD is not going to improve audio quality as the audio quality will only be as good as the source material; the information on cassette tapes, like that of VHS, degrades over time.

Bringing your old tapes to the digital age is a relatively simple process; far simpler than transferring VHS to DVD. In fact, you already have most of the needed equipment if you have a computer. You will need:

1. Cassette Player: This is, of course, to play the tapes.

2. Patch Cable: To connect your cassette player to your sound card. (Well, you may not already have this, but it will be the only thing you will need to buy.)

3. Audacity. An open-source program that allows you to record and edit audio. If you plan on storing your music as MP3 files, you will also need to install the LAME MP3 encoder.

Getting Started
You will first need to download and install the Audacity program. This program is free and is available across multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux, so the information covered in this article can be used by anyone on any platform. While the above operating systems have their own recording software, Audacity offers is more robust and offers far more recording and editing options.

After installing Audacity, you will need to adjust some of the settings in the program. Select the Preferences option under the Edit menu and set the number of channels to two. Even if your original recording was made on one channel (mono), you will be listening you your new CDs in stereo and need to record the sound to both channels. If you don't choose this option, the sound will only be heard through one channel (it will be heard in one ear).

Next, you will need to select the bit rate for your recording and that choice depends, not only, on what is being recorded but the quality of the recording on your tape. The bit rate determines how much data will be used to describe the information in your audio recording. The human voice covers a relatively narrow audible frequency range and in the case of a spoken word performance, which can be anything from a radio talk show or a lecture, 24kbps (kilobits per second) is more than adequate and will faithfully reproduce sound quality. Anything lower will result in a "thinny" rendition.

If the recording contains music, is a musical performance, you will need a higher bit rate. The frequency range of musical instruments covers ranges beyond the frequency range of human speech and thus needs to store and faithfully reproduce far more information. Given the fidelity of an audio tape, 128kbps is more than adequate.

The 256kbps bit rate is close to CD quality. While it may be tempting to encode at that rate, it won't improve sound quality and will only result in a larger file size without any benefits.

If your recording is of particularly poor quality, sometimes recording at a lower bit rate can help by "removing" some information during the recording process. This may help remove some background noise and static in your recordings to a degree and may make it easier to clean up audio during the editing phase.

Preparing to Record
The next step is to attach the cassette player to the sound card via the patch cord. Most, if not all, computers today have sound cards built into them. You will need to plug the cable into the "MIC" input of your sound-card, which typically is color-coded red or pink. If you are using your stereo, you probably have RCA audio plugs at the back of the unit and thus need a "Y" cable that goes from the RCA ports in your player to the stereo inputs in your sound card. If you happen to be using a walk-man or some other tape-player to play your tapes and are plugging in from the ear-phone jack, you will need a stereo to stereo patch cable.

Some computers also have a "Microphone" input on them. While this input can be used, most people have reported more favorable results when using the "Line In" input. Results may vary and it is best to experiment and determine what works best for you.

After you have connected your player to your computer, the next step takes a little trial and error. You will have to start Audacity, or whatever recording software you are using, and make a few test recordings to adjust the volume levels, either on your tape player or on your computer. If the volume is too loud, your computer's sound-card will "clip" the top parts of the sound wave and won't faithfully reproduce the audio from the tape player. Once you have adjusted the levels to your satisfaction, you can copy your tape to your computer.

Copying to your Computer
Once you have all the volume levels set up, you can begin the transfer process. Start recording on Audacity and then press "PLAY" on your tape player. Your computer will begin recording the audio that is being piped through the sound-card. When the tape has stopped, you can stop the recording process on your computer and save the audio file.

Next, you should listen to various parts of the audio file to hear how it sounds. Audacity, and many sound recording applications, will allow you to easily remove the silence at the beginning and end of your recording. At this point, you can also the various features to clean up the audio; remove noise, tape hiss, etc.

Special Tip
It is always advisable to keep an untouched original recording of your audio file and save any changes to a new file. Once changes are made it can be difficult, if not impossible, to undo. With an original, you will at least be able to go back to the beginning.

Burning the Edited Audio to CD
Once you have recorded and edited the file to your satisfaction, you can now burn the file to a CD. The good news is that you don't even need specialized software to do this. Windows Media Player and iTunes, the two most popular audio players on computers today, allow you to burn audio files to CDs. If these applications are not your players of choice, any CD/DVD burning program will have the option to burn audio CDs.

Enjoy
As you can see, burning tapes to CD is a bit of a "trial and error" process but is relatively pain free and not complex at all. Now that you have completed the process and burned your CDs, sit back, enjoy and take a trip down memory lane knowing that your collection will be available for a long time to come.