How do I transfer my old cassette tapes to MP3?

curt-kcurt-k
in Consumer Electronics

I have a bunch of old cassettes that I want to transfer to my MP3 player. I do not have the Red/White analog plugs on my computer otherwise it would be a snap. Does anyone know of an adapter that changes the Red/White plugs to USB?

Comments

  • anonymousanonymous

    i had this exact problem and found a cheap and easy way to fix this..first of all i found what i think is called a line jack cable.( sorry if its not the correct name but it has the same plugs on each end and it fits into the microphone socket on my laptop) plugged it into the headphone socket on the casssette player, then as i said plugged the other end into my microphone socket on my laptop. then i found in my Windows programs ACCESSORIES, then SOUND RECORDER. started the SOUND RECORDER program and pressed play on the cassette player and record on the SOUND RECORDER program, couldn't believe it worked a treat.

    i dont see why it wont work for anyone else as long as they have windows and SOUND RECORDER in their ACCESSORIES list.

    hope it helps.

    all the best.

  • livewyrelivewyre

    You don't really need to go the USB route if you have a soundcard on your PC. You get a cable with RCA (red and white plugs) on one end, and 1/8" stereo plug on the other (pic's on the link below)

    You connect to the blue (LINE IN) rather than the mic input (often mono and not the right level), and you should use AUDACITY software, (sound recorder is not a patch on this, and it's free) or one of the inexpensive purpose built software titles if you are doing a lot of tapes.

    One of the drawbacks of Audacity is that it does not burn files from within the software, so you have to save each track separately - some other programs will even auto-recognise tracks and then export the whole cassette as separate files using simple click-buttons.

    Check out the link below (follow the link to 'cassette to CD'), it includes photo's and screen shots with step-by-step instructions, also links to download software.

    You can export files in MP3 from Audacity if you also download an extra file 'lame.dll', other programs will usually offer an 'export to MP3' option as standard - otherwise the files tend to be large 'WAV' format files.

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