Please Help! Transferring Cassette Tapes to the Computer?

[JonUrban]

I agree with Circular Vibes. DO NOT buy one of those USB Cassette players. They are crap.

Find the best cassette player you can to play back your tape, after you clean the heads. I still have a high end Sansui dual deck that I used a few years ago to play in a few cassettes of stuff I did a long time ago. Recorded them to PC just as I did/do with quad 8s and quad reels, through the Motu. Recorded at 24/96 and the files sound fine. These tapes had no Dolby or other NR in them, since they were home created.

 

[Quad Linda]

IMHO, nearly all prerecorded tapes sound poor. Although I have over 1500 cassettes, all but a couple dozen are home brew projects.

I agree with Jon about all those cheap USB cassette machines (and turntables, too.) Forget them.

Perhaps I'm getting "out too far" here: you may want to run each cassette through the play mode prior to transferring them to digital. Tapes stored after rewinding or fast forwarding can have some scalloping or bending at the edges. If you run them through in the play mode, you'll minimize audio anomalies from the tape's edge damage. Listening is optional.

 

[atrocity]

IMHO, nearly all prerecorded tapes sound poor.

They got pretty good (well, much better) right before CDs made them totally irrelevant.

Decades on, my biggest complaint with pre-recordeds is their tendency to squeal and drag. I've never had a good home-recorded Maxell or TDK do that with age.

 

[Quad Linda]

I agree that there were some good sounding prerecorded cassettes in the later years. Yet, a good CD or a "Noiseless LP" transfer on good tape stock, and a quality cassette deck still beat those later tapes.

dbx II knocked it out of the park w/ 110 db dynamic range and s/n ratio. Admittedly, dbx II won't add dynamic range or eliminate source noise.

They got pretty good (well, much better) right before CDs made them totally irrelevant.

Decades on, my biggest complaint with pre-recordeds is their tendency to squeal and drag. I've never had a good home-recorded Maxell or TDK do that with age.

 

[fredblue]

Thank you so much everyone for all your help, I'm very grateful

So far I haven't done much but I guess I have "Step 1" covered now, seeing as I didn't have a decent cassette deck anymore, that was first thing on the to-do list

I was looking into getting an old Nakamichi or something similar to try and get the best out of these tapes.. but I'm very short of space and can't justify squeezing another component into this place for something I only plan on using to transfer these tapes and that's it, so I thought of a slightly leftfield alternative..

..I've wanted one of these http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/wm-d6c for years.. so I picked up one on eBay the other day (apparently recently serviced etc.).. afaik it has a Line out (3.5mm).. I've got an M-Audio USB Interface somewhere (that accepts 3.5mm input and can do 24/96 stereo iirc) so when the tape machine turns up I'll try hooking it all up, pray it's working and doesn't chew the tapes up.. and we'll see how I get on..!

 

[fredblue]

I know this may sound quite dumb, but i had the best A/D transfer from analog cassette to digital spdif using a Philips DCC deck. It does gives you only redbook quality (44100 16bit 2 channel) but for commercially prerecorded tapes it's ok. Ok, i didn't have a Naka Dragon but there's not too much you can recover from cassette that a DCC deck couldn't handle.

BTW, are you 101% sure the stuff you want to transfer has not made the digital world at all? You don't have an idea how much music Japan put out on CD in small number....

Very good question about being 101% sure! Truth be told I'm not sure at all but I have looked and couldn't find any of them!

I omitted to mention I also have bootlegs on cassette of things that I acquired some years ago (approx 20) that I'm pretty sure have never made it out in any other fashion (a few EJ things like Wembley 75 complete, not the edited version on CD2 of the Captain Fantastic Deluxe but the whole show).. and I'd love to hear them again after all these years.

As for the pre-recorded things, I tried ripping the LPs of some of these albums several years ago but was never totally satisfied with the results.. they weren't terrible at all and I doubt the cassettes will be a patch on the vinyl.. it's just I want to give it a try and see how it sounds, it might be a disaster! :yikes

 

[timbre4]

Just start the process with your least important tape!


From QQ Happy New Year

 

[Franklin]

Just a quick word back on Dolby. It is a frequency banded compressor/expander. Compresses on recording, and expands on playback if engaged. If your encoded tapes don't sound great with the correct setting then I would suggest head alignment, or using a different deck. I used a 2nd hand Aiwa auto reverse twin deck, which on paper isn't ideal, but it basically gave me four head alignment options, and despite being having a fairly noisy motor at times made good enough transfers. It also had a trim setting, which I can't be bothered to look up, but it tweaked the sound some more. IIRC I took the output straight out of the back into the PC I was using at the time.

 

[fredblue]

Just a quick update, since everyone here has been so very helpful, the WMD6C I bought arrived (it is in amazing condition, it must be a later model.. afaik Sony continued to make this Pro Walkman right up until about 10-15 years ago.. although it could be one from the 80's/90's I guess? Whatever, the condition is just superb and the seller wasn't fibbing when they said they'd had it serviced and overhauled, I could do with such a good service its spanky fresh!) anyway.. Looks aren't everything.. how does it sound!?

Well I'm extreemely chuffed to report, I've only had a chance to play a couple of pre-recorded tapes I had lying around (one was a George Benson tape with Never Give Up On A Good Thing.. that took me back) and oh my word for such a diddy little machine its just wonderful! I can't recall the last deck I had sounding this good with shop bought tapes (Denon DRM-10. I got rid since the door broke off and I couldn't be arsed fixing something I never used.. onto the tip!).. I've no time to try hooking it up to the Mac now til Sunday.. but fingers crossed I can extract some goodness out of those babies with this lovely little (but heavy.. sheesh!) bit of kit! Thanks everyone!

 

[fredblue]

Here's some of the pre-recorded tapes that really started this tape transfer folly..



My Dad is a huge JJ fan.. Jack owns his RCA masters (I've had a whole back and forth with him and his (now ex) wife via email years ago.. for whatever he reason he has never put these 70's LPs out on CD.. Dad's 78 in May and as I don't see these coming to iTunes anytime soon, baby here goes!

Also, since winopener asked previously about the availability of the stuff I want to transfer, one or two of these were released in Japan on CD but track order screwed up and mastering not great.. also, I have 8 tracks of some (the Bread one literally is "Coming Apart"..!!) and I did try to transfer these for Dad before, from vinyl as well, around 10 years ago.. mixed results.. I even found a few duplicates of these LPs new & sealed but still wasn't fully satisfied with the results.. he loved it!

I was sitting in church a few weeks ago and I thought.. I wonder what would be a nice unique/personal gift to Dad for his birthday.. Hey presto, another mad idea!

I will keep you guys posted on progress (if any) but straight off, to say I'm greatly encouraged, shocked even, by the performance of this little tape machine.. cassette was always to me often the worst sounding thing I ever heard pre-recorded music on but maybe I just never had a decent enough deck! If I get anywhere with these, onto the precious bootlegs!! Ah ha!

 

[Circular Vibes]

Good luck with your project Fred. I like your mad ideas.

 

[fredblue]

Good luck with your project Fred. I like your mad ideas.

Haha! Thanks matey! You know what they say about MadDogs and Englishmen..?

 

[DuncanS]

When my parents down sized to a smaller house my Dad said can you look after all my vinyl - as Mum wanted him to get rid of it. So I sat on it for a while, and I'd just got round to starting to transfer his 78s to CD when he died. I'd only done a couple of records so he never heard them, lots of Fats Waller etc. So that was 5 years ago, and I wished I'd done it sooner. I'm a 70s-Prog-Blues-Rock-Folk fan, when I was about 14 Dad came in to my room and listened to some Hawkwind I was playing, said it was interesting and could see why I liked it but he wouldn't buy it! But it was my Dad (who was an incredible musician himself) who got me listening to people like Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald et al, and lots of classical, so he opened my ears to music for music's sake, not because its in vogue!

So it will be a really good birthday present for your Dad Adam. He'll love it.

 

[fredblue]

When my parents down sized to a smaller house my Dad said can you look after all my vinyl - as Mum wanted him to get rid of it. So I sat on it for a while, and I'd just got round to starting to transfer his 78s to CD when he died. I'd only done a couple of records so he never heard them, lots of Fats Waller etc. So that was 5 years ago, and I wished I'd done it sooner. I'm a 70s-Prog-Blues-Rock-Folk fan, when I was about 14 Dad came in to my room and listened to some Hawkwind I was playing, said it was interesting and could see why I liked it but he wouldn't buy it! But it was my Dad (who was an incredible musician himself) who got me listening to people like Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald et al, and lots of classical, so he opened my ears to music for music's sake, not because its in vogue!

So it will be a really good birthday present for your Dad Adam. He'll love it.

Thank you Duncan and thanks for such a lovely post. I'm sure Dad's enjoying Brubeck, Ella, Grappelli up there, legends in concert, get your tickets at St.Peter's gates!