tape to Cd's

[Jack Mattison]

Hey guys...... Is there any machine or unit that can convert track tapes to cd's??? If so what is it called, where can I buy one, and about how much are they. I have a buntch of vocal back-up tracks I need done into cd's to perform. Thanks

[Eddie Cunningham]

I think if you just input "recording from tapes to C.D." in the search box you will get a bunch of responses . I've looked them up and I don't think some are that expensive !! I think Radio Shack has one plus other Cos. The better ones cost more !!! Check it out and good luck !! olde geeze - AKA Eddie "C"

[Lane Gray]

You'll need a recording program like Audacity or Reaper.
But it's not that hard to do

[Jack Stoner]

There are a few standalone units that will take a tape and burn a CD. Most of these require the higher priced "Music" CD-R's.

Otherwise it can be done on a PC, but its not a "5 minute" process.

(1) You have to have a cassette player.
(2) An audio recording program, such as the free Audacity.
(3) You "record" the cassettes and save the song files as "wav" files on the PC's hard drive (needed for making audio CD's). If you don't record and save each song individually, you will need to separate them and save each song separately.
(4) A CD burning program is needed. If you don't have one (forget Windows Media Player's capability), the free CDburnerXP will work nicely.
(5) Burn audio CD-R's with the PC CD/DVD burner. Keep the burn speed to the lowest the burner is capable of. High speed burning can result in the audio CD not playing in many Audio CD players.

[Frank Welsh]

There are a few standalone units that will take a tape and burn a CD. Most of these require the higher priced "Music" CD-R's.

Otherwise it can be done on a PC, but its not a "5 minute" process.

(1) You have to have a cassette player.
(2) An audio recording program, such as the free Audacity.
(3) You "record" the cassettes and save the song files as "wav" files on the PC's hard drive (needed for making audio CD's). If you don't record and save each song individually, you will need to separate them and save each song separately.
(4) A CD burning program is needed. If you don't have one (forget Windows Media Player's capability), the free CDburnerXP will work nicely.
(5) Burn audio CD-R's with the PC CD/DVD burner. Keep the burn speed to the lowest the burner is capable of. High speed burning can result in the audio CD not playing in many Audio CD players.

I used the above method to "rescue" over a hundred albums that I had copied from records to cassette tapes over the years (for playing in my car during long commutes). It was an incredibly lengthy and boring process...recording each tune individually, labeling each one on the computer, and then creating CD labels/song lists with the names of the tunes and artists on them and finally, burning each album to a CD-R along with a printed CD label insert with the tunes' names and track numbers. The system worked perfectly but I would not want to do it again, at least not for that many tapes. It took me months of effort during my "disposable" time. I forget the name of the software I used but it worked well and was free.

[Paul Awalt]

Tascam makes some good units about $500.00, works for me.

[Eddie Thomas]

I have a Teac AD-RW900, and it works great for transferring tapes to CD or vice-versa. You have to use the "Music CD-R's/CD-RW's, but the unit works great and you can get one of them for about $300. if you search the net for them. Very easy to operate and really no-hassle. Great unit for the price.

[Lane Gray]

Why do they require "music CDs", whose only difference, AFAIK, is that they have an RIAA surcharge, so you pay royalties, but to a pop-weighted formula so that the writers of the stuff we're likely to burn get nothing.
Do those CDs actually have something in the formatting that the aforementioned burners look for?

[Mike Wheeler]

Yes. There is a track on the innermost track of the disc that identifies it as an audio disc, as opposed to a data disc. The 2 formats use different standards for recording information that has nothing to do with performance credits. Commercial music discs you'd buy at the store have copy protection hard coded on them. The blank audio discs you buy at the computer store do not.

[b0b]

I have a Tascam CC-222mkII. It works well and does not require "music CDs".

[Mike Wheeler]

Yes, b0b, there are many recorders that will record music to data discs...maybe that's what yours does...but the disc may not play in all audio cd players.
A data cd is recorded with a file system, much like a hard disc, but an audio cd is recorded as one long "spiral" track. Older cd players can't handle the file system on data cds...that's a newer development. Those older players require the audio format.

The music cds you buy at the store are all recorded with the "spiral" format to make them compatible with all music players.

The bottom line...an audio cd will play in practically any cd player...car, home, computer, etc. A data cd needs a player that can handle a file system like is used for mp3 files.

[b0b]

I've never had a problem playing CDs recorded on my Tascam on any other player. They are playable on any CD player. They are not data file system CDs. They are not MP3 recordings.

[Lane Gray]

Mike, a PC can burn audio CDs on regular data CDs, and CD players can read them as long as you burn them slow.
Faster than 12X and they'll fail.

[Jack Stoner]

The ONLY difference between a "Data" and "Music" CD-R blank is the extra encoded track on the Disc that identifies it as a "music" CD-R. All older standalone music CD burners required them. It was a concession that the manufacturers made to the music industry. The extra cost of "music" CD-R blanks is a royalty that is paid to the music industry.

Music CD's (not MP3 CD's) that are burned on a PC are identical, in tracks to a commercial audio CD. There is no difference in the format on the disc.

There can be an issue of playability of computer burned music discs if they are burned at a high burn speed. Many older audio CD players will either not play them or will skip because of the burn speed. For that reason my "burn standard" is 8X. I burn a lot of audio CD's for my recording studio clients and for others and have yet to have any customer report a non playable. I have a bank of 5 USB connected burners (and can burn 5 at a time) and a Primera Bravo disc printer to print the labels on the discs. I use JVC/Taiyo Yuden CD-R blanks, which are considered the best.

[b0b]

The Tascam records to the CD in real time from the cassette. You could say it's 1x.

When home CD duplicators first came out, I bought a Sony that required the "Audio CDs". It never worked well, even with the proper discs.

[George Kimery]

I have done it real simple with things I already had. First, I use a Zoom H-2 portable digital recorder ($139.00 last time I priced them at B & H Photo in NYC)

2nd, a cassette deck or player.

I just plug the stereo cord that comes with the recorder into the RCA outputs of the cassette deck. The cord is a 1/8" phone plug to two RCA male plugs. Run the cord from the RCA line out's on the cassette deck to the 1/8" stereo line in on the recorder.

I set the recorder on MP 3, either 128 or 256 bps. Once the transfer is complete from the cassette deck to the recorder, I do a little editing on the recorder and then just hooked up the recorder to the computer. I download the MP3 files from the recorder onto the computer. Then all I have to do is go to iTunes song list and put the songs in the order that I want them. Now, I am ready to burn a CD from the computer.

I save it all so I can burn more later if need be and even with more or less songs or I could add other songs or change the play order, since I had edited all the songs so that each song is on it's own track. You don't have to edit the songs. If you want to record a whole show, uncut, you can do that. You just have an 80 minute maximum time that you can put on one CD.

I used Sony Music CD's because they have been the most reliable for me over the years and they are white so I can write on them easily.

The big plus with this method, is you have one heck of a digital recorder for other uses. I record every single gig with it and the quality of the recording is nothing short of amazing. The H-2 is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and runs 6 hours on two AA batteries (I use rechargable) One 8 GB SD card ($10.00 or less) will hold a couple hundred hours of recording at 128 bps mp3.I can easily make CD's of our shows.

Best investment I have ever made is the Zoom H2. Easy to use, comes with a clearly written manual. I use earbuds to listen to it in bed at night.For better quality of listening, I use Audio Technica ATH M-50 full size headphones to listen other times and to let others listen. ($119.00 from B & H)

[b0b]

The Zoom H-2 is real good for that, as you described, and it has lots of other uses. Also, it doesn't have to record MP3. I set it to 44.1k WAV format to get real CD quality files.

[Kevin Raymer]

A buddy of mine had a Harmon "CD Recorder".
It would only record to CDes that were "Music CDes".

I never understood how it knew, but you put a regular CD-r in there and it's spit it back out atcha. Maybe he had a defective unit.

I have converted a number of LPes of pedal steel artist and older Gospel Quartets using Audacity. It even has a "de-click" feature to take the worst of the POPS out.

If you use Audacity you can let the recording run from track to track and record the whole side of an album.
I the case of 8 tracks you could do the whole tape.
Then you can re-size the waveform on the screen to a size that is comfortable and you can scroll along and find the breaks between songs and insert break points in the tracks.
Then just export multiple from the file menu and viola you have each sone in it's own .WAV file.
Then you do need to rename them so they make sense to you.

As Frank said, it does take a lot of time, but rescuing that classic music is worth it.

At least IMHO it is...

[Jack Stoner]

Kevin, there is a special coded track on "music" CD-R's. Recorders that require that will check for that track.

[Jack Mattison]

Thanks guys for all the info.... I am going yo try what Jack Stoner said to try. I downloaded the XP cd burner, instead of using win.media. I just need to figure out the phone jacks from the tape deck to my computer. They do not read out or in on either my tape deck or computer. They read phones or mic. Don't know if these will work???? Have not checked the back of computer yet. What do you think Jack???

[Lane Gray]

The mic jack will take the line in. Radio Shack sells both cables and adapters that go from 2 RCA to 3.5mm TRS

[Earnest Bovine]

from obsolete to obsoescent

[Lane Gray]

Perhaps, Earnest. But at least a CD is relatively persistent. And less likely to corrupt over time.

[Kevin Raymer]

I've seen studies where the life of un recorded CD media is only 20 years.

Never seen one on how long after they are burned.

I'm trying to get all my content into a digital file format that can live on a hard drive.

Then when best buy runs them on sale I'm buying terabyte sized usb drives and backing all my stuff up to them.

Yea, it's probably overkill, but it's just a little insurance.

[Jack Stoner]

The Mic jack on a PC is only MONO. If you have a stereo input you must use the Line In, which is stereo.

There are exceptions on SOME but not all laptops where the Mic jack is also a Line In by internal sensing.

On a PC Mic Jack, the Tip is the hot (signal). The Ring is Plus 5VDC to run computer (condenser) microphones.

I haven't seen anything about the life of an unburned disc. However, there are reports on how long a burned CD-R will last. The lifespan of a burned CD-R mainly depends on the actual CD-R media. I've seen reports of problems with burned media, on PC help forums, any where from a couple of years up to 10 years.

A hard disk drive is no safer than a burned CD-R. The potential for a hard drive failure is actually more than the burned CD media. Its not "IF" a hard drive will fail - whether the operational or backup drive - but "WHEN" it will fail.