how do I record a tape to a cd?

4 Comments

1. KC says:

   November 5, 2009 at 2:32 am

   Hi!
   There are 2 ways to convert your cassette to CD.

   You can either buy a stand-alone audio CD recorder, from companies such as Sony or Teac. (Search on http://www.ebay.com/ )Connect you tape deck directly to the audio CD recorder, hit ‘Play’, and record directly onto blank CD’s .Some say they offer automatic track detection, which creates a new track on the CD each time it hears an interval of silence; in practice, this technology can be flaky. If you want the CD to recognize each song as a separate track, you’ll usually wind up baby-sitting the entire process and hitting a ‘New Track’ button at the end of each song.

   (If you do decide to buy a separte recorder, here’s an article on how to use a Teac. turnatable
   http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/technology/17pogue.html?ex=1313467200&en=c2750ad818bbd966&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)

   If you have computer, you can connect your tape deck directly to it. The cable you need has stereo RCA jacks (round red and white) that plug into the tape deck’s stereo output, and a headphone style mini-plug for the audio input jack for your Mac or PC.

   Next, equip your computer with some recording software. Free programs abound, like MusicMatch or Audacity .
   Download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?lang=en
   Visit your computer’s sound control panels or the options screen in you recoding software, to make sure that it is ‘listening’ to the correct audio input (and not, for example, it’s microphone jack). Once you’ve set the volume levels, press ‘Play’ on you tape deck and ‘Record’ in the recording software. If you save each song as separate file on your hard drive, you’ll be all set to turn them into traditional tracks on the finished CD. This entails stopping the tape after every song and exporting the file before continuing.

   Once a song has safely arrived on your hard drive, you can export it – in AIFF or WAV format, for example – and then import it into a program like iTunes or Windows Media Player for burning to a blank CD.

   If you want more step-by-step details on this process , browse through the following links. You may find them useful.

   http://www.andybrain.com/archive/convert-cassette-to-cd-digital.htm
   http://web.singnet.com.sg/~lion4/articles/diy/cassette.html
   http://www.webtechgeek.com/How-to-Burn-Copy-a-Cassette-or-LP-to-CDR.htm
   http://www.infopackets.com/channels/en/windows/gazette/2005/20050519_convert_mp3_audio_cd_to_cassette.htm

   I hope that I have been helpful. Best of luck
2. Green Monkey says:

   November 5, 2009 at 2:32 am

   i think the only way to do it would be to connect your tape player to a computer and transferr tape that way and then burn a cd…..i dont’ think you can just connect a stereo to a cassette player especially if you can’t burn a cd
3. defyinggravity11 says:

   November 5, 2009 at 2:32 am

   They make special software and pieces of equipment that allow a person to connect a special tape deck to their computer and upload the songs on the cassette as an mp3 files and then you can burn it onto cds. If you just go to a search engine and type in "cassette transfer to computer" or something along those lines you should get the results that I am referring to. I think it is pretty much just a tape deck that plugs into a usb port or something. But I that is really the only way I know of to accomplish the tape to cd transformation, I don’t think it is possible to do it with just a stereo or something like that. Hope that helps and hope you find what you are looking for!
4. rotcivm2000 says:

   November 5, 2009 at 2:32 am

   Don’t be cheap, go and buy the CD since its a old tape you should be able to find a used CD in the used section, or buy it online.
   it will be cool to have booth. just the other day i found a box of old tapes like NWA and other one like The Anthrax mode with case cover and the cassette I put them out kind of like deco, my little brother in law came over and was tripping out on the small little package he had just bought the same NWA CD he thought it was so cool man i feel old