Recording to PC from Cassette (!)

[Bass Culture]

Can anyone tell me how I can interface an old cassette deck with my PC to enable me to preserve some (very!) band stuff?  My PC presently outputs to a Cambridge Audio amp and then into an old pair of Rega speakers.  I've tried connecting the tape deck to its usual input on the amp, which had a dedicated tape in/out section.  Obviously the Out would usually go back to the tape deck to use that for recording so I've instead connected that via a RCA - mini jack lead into the blue input on the sound card at the back of my PC.  I'm trying to record into Audacity.  I've got some sound but at too low a volume to be usable.  I've increased recording level into Audacity to only slightly below maximum and the quality is still poor.  Anyone got any ideas?  I've a Tascam Audio Interface too if that counts for anything.  Anyone got any ideas?  Thanks.

[Dad3353]

9 minutes ago, Bass Culture said:

...I've a Tascam Audio Interface too if that counts for anything....

I'd give the Tascam the first chance. Connect the cassette output to the Tascam Line input and record from there, without passing through the Cambridge. Start off with the cassette at maximum volume, and see how that goes. If it's still too low, it can be adjusted afterwards inside Audacity ('Effects/Normalise'...) which will bring the level up to 'optimum', including any tape hiss, of course.
I have ancient reel-to-reel tapes from the '60s that I put through my Tascam US144 MkII interface with good results. I treat the signal afterwards in my DAW (Reaper...), but Audacity would do the job, too...

Hope this helps. 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Dad3353

[Bass Culture]

2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

I'd give the Tascam the first chance. Connect the cassette output to the Tascam Line input and record from there, without passing through the Cambridge. Start off with the cassette at maximum volume, and see how that goes. If it's still too low, it can be adjusted afterwards inside Audacity ('Effects/Normalise'...) which will bring the level up to 'optimum', including any tape hiss, of course.
I have ancient reel-to-reel tapes from the '60s that I put through my Tascam US144 MkII interface with good results. I treat the signal afterwards in my DAW (Reaper...), but Audacity would do the job, too...

Hope this helps. 

It does - enormously, thank you.  Looks like I just need to buy an RCA-1/4" Jack lead then.  Or find that damn mini jack - 1/4" converter I had lying around somewhere. 😀

Edited February 6, 2021 by Bass Culture
typo

[NancyJohnson]

IF you're familiar with recording to a PC (ie plugging your bass into an audio interface), it's a piece of cake.

Cassette deck > Audio Interface > PC.  I tend to use Cakewalk (it's free), but any DAW will do the job.  You'll need to get RCA/Phono to 1/4" jack cables to connect the cassette recorder to the audio interface.

Just point your DAW to the audio interface and arm two tracks to pick up the mono left and mono right inputs, hit play on the cassette deck to determine input gain, adjust until you're happy and then hit play on the cassette deck and record on the DAW. 

To be honest, it's probably simpler to just let your cassettes run for the full side length (30/45 minutes), mix those to your requirements and then break up/split the recordings into single tracks thereafter.

 

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by NancyJohnson

[Bass Culture]

On 08/03/2021 at 15:25, NancyJohnson said:

IF you're familiar with recording to a PC (ie plugging your bass into an audio interface), it's a piece of cake.

Cassette deck > Audio Interface > PC.  I tend to use Cakewalk (it's free), but any DAW will do the job.  You'll need to get RCA/Phono to 1/4" jack cables to connect the cassette recorder to the audio interface.

Just point your DAW to the audio interface and arm two tracks to pick up the mono left and mono right inputs, hit play on the cassette deck to determine input gain, adjust until you're happy and then hit play on the cassette deck and record on the DAW. 

To be honest, it's probably simpler to just let your cassettes run for the full side length (30/45 minutes), mix those to your requirements and then break up/split the recordings into single tracks thereafter.

 

 

Cheers NJ.  I've actually finished the project the inquiry was made for now.  Did pretty much what you suggested but simply used Audacity as the host programme rather than a DAW (I've got about 4 or 5 between my PC and Macbook and can never really decide which one I find most usable or intuitive - because, you know, reading instructions is for lightweights, right?).

[NancyJohnson]

1 hour ago, Bass Culture said:

Cheers NJ.  I've actually finished the project the inquiry was made for now.  Did pretty much what you suggested but simply used Audacity as the host programme rather than a DAW (I've got about 4 or 5 between my PC and Macbook and can never really decide which one I find most usable or intuitive - because, you know, reading instructions is for lightweights, right?).

I was using Adobe Audition for years; the only thing that forced the change was a new audio interface that just didn't work with Audition.  I'm glad I moved to Cakewalk, it's free (yay!) and does a ton more than Audition ever did - as my recording prowess increased it was very much a case of formulating workarounds to achieve what I wanted; the only problem with moving DAW is this constant thing of having to unlearn how you've done stuff previously!