Trying to rip cassettes to digital - only getting odd hum out of cassette deck

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by atoxique, Sep 12, 2018.

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  1. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    You can connect the tape deck's line out directly to the sound card input for purest quality.

    The amplifier would only be necessary if you want to listen to to tape along with other things and not have to switch cables, but a receiver must also have separate tape 2 out, record out, or preamp out RCAs which do not turn off when you select the tape deck input, which on newer receivers is uncommon.
     
  2. showtaper

    showtaper Concert Hoarding Bastard

    I would go directly from the line out on your cassette deck into the line input on your sound card. The least amount of components, cables and connectors in the signal path the better. You should be able to monitor what you are doing from the headphone jack on your computer (or the one on your cassette deck if available).
     
  3. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    Either would work. I would do the second, so I could listen to the tape on the hi-fi while I recorded it on the computer. There are different ways you could lash this all up. I would connect the tape deck's output to the Aux input on the amp, and confirm it is working by selecting Aux and hearing music play. I would then run your new wire from the jacks marked Rec Out below the words Tape 1 on the back of the amp to the blue mini-jack input on the computer, and expect to find the same tape signal there. I would not be concerned about any theoretical degradation in the sound quality of a cassette tape caused by running the signal through the ampifier.
     
  4. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Have you tried another Cassette player? Your go-to?? Sorry, didn't read both pages...
     
  5. Tauren04

    Tauren04 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Florida
    If you don’t mind my asking, why are you digitizing cassettes? It is a flawed medium just like vinyl, where the source can be affected by dirt, dust, or anomalies from the factory. The magnetic tape degrades over time the same way VHS or Betamax does, resulting in poor sound. I’d suggest buying some CDs or downloading them somewhere in lossless.
     
    JimmyCool likes this.
  6. old45s

    old45s MP3 FREE ZONE

    Location:
    SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
    All of the above.....

    I go from Cassette Player through a mixer to a blank CDR in a CD RECORDER. (I use the mixer for a bit of EQ on crappier quality cassettes).
    I take the newly recorded blank out of CD RECORDER and download songs into Computer.
    I use my NCH Wavepad software to clean up the intro's and outro's. Give them a number and a title.
    Burn the newly numbered and titled tracks to a new CDR.
    (I do similar for vinyl and audio from DVD's).
    Check out a (standalone) CD RECORDER. It'll give you PLENTY OF OPTIONS! Tascam is a good example.
     
  7. atoxique

    atoxique Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Why not? It's a fun project to me!
     
  8. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    Another reason is that some albums/audiobooks released on cassette haven't been released on CD, so digitizing it might be the only option to keep the music since cassette eventually will wear out. As an example, I have an audio play of the graphic novel Kingdom Come on cassette that as far as I know has never been released in any other format (I could be wrong but I haven't come across it).
     
  9. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    I don't use an equalizer when I record since I prefer the recording to be raw (exactly as it comes off of the cassettes). I do any audio manipulation with the recorded WAV file, making an altered duplicate.
     
  10. atoxique

    atoxique Forum Resident Thread Starter

    So I got my cable and recorded my Madonna - Ray of Light cassette (it's one of my favourite albums, don't judge!! :winkgrin:) directly out from my Yamaha K-M77 directly into my computer and it worked! Yay!! :D
    I don't think I can upload an audio sample because of copyright reasons but I did split them up and measure them with the TT DR dynamic range meter, and here are the results:

    Album details - Dynamic Range Database

    More dynamic than the CD and less dynamic than the LP version of the album! Of course it still sounds like a cassette though.


    While I was at it I also decided to transfer an LP to my computer too! I transferred Lorde's album Melodrama (another favourite of mine :winkgrin:), and here were the dynamic range results:

    Album details - Dynamic Range Database

    Much better than the CD but still a little less than I'd like!
     
    timind likes this.
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