Best Way Music Cassette -> PC Burner-> CD?

[Toad]

Hi guys!

My father has some old cassette music he wants to burn on to a CD.

He's got the cassettes, I've got the PC with the Burner. I've got a SB Live card and lots of HD space.

So what's the quick and easy way to get the music off the cassette and burned on to a CD?

Thanks in advance!

[Skuzzy]

Well Toad...here ya go

1)  Setup an amp/cassette player near your computer
2)  Take the line outs from the amp to the line in of the sound card
3)  Set Windows sound panel to record from the line inputs.
4)  You will need some type of sound capture software.  I recommend using CoolEdit 2000.  It's inexpensive, but does a very nice job.
5)  Set your sound software to record at 44.1Khz, 16bit, stereo and press the record button
6)  Start the tape
7)  Save the recorded music as a PCM WAV file.
8)  Use you CD Burner software to burn the CD.

Any questions?

[Staga]

Originally posted by Toad
So what's the quick and easy way to get the music off the cassette and burned on to a CD?

Let a pro do it for you

I've done it couple times though not from cassettes but from LPs. Takes time, beer and good nerves

[Toad]

Well, it doesn't sound all THAT difficult Skuzzy, so what did I miss?

A 60 minute CD should take up about how much disk? I've got 20 spare Gig and maybe even double that.

Anyway, thanks! I'll give it a try. I'm sure Dad will be thrilled if it works out.

This place is the absolute best for quick answers to computer questions!

[Skuzzy]

Figure roughly 10MB's of storage per minute of music.

Oh,..the smiley

Well, when you do the transfer from your amp/cassette deck, you are going to notice a lot of hiss and hum.  Like any good son, you'll want to clean it up.
You can do that with CoolEdit 2000, but then you will notice the dynamic range could be better.  Your SBLive card has lower S/N ratios than a CD,..much lower.  So you might think you need a better sound card..

Ever here of the blackhole of calcutta?

[Staga]

Some Easy CD-Creator programs had a proggie "SpinDoctor" recorder with an automatic active and tunable noise/hiss/pop filter for old tapes and records.

"Nero burning rom" program has also a built in sound editor with some capabilities to do this job.