copy audiocassette to computer or PPC

[urologyhealth]

Is there equipment to copy an audiobook on cassettes to computer to burn CD or transfer to PPC??

Thanks

[Darius Wey]

All you really need is something that connects your cassette player to your PC. This will most likely be via an analog method so it would use your standard audio cable. Your PC most likely has a line-in port, depending on its specifications. A lot of sound cards come equipped with your standard 3.5mm audio input port whereby you can connect a two-way cable so that one end connects to your computer, and the other end to your cassette player (only if it has some sort of line-out feature). From there, all you need is some audio recording application (there are many out there, even Microsoft's Audio Recorder in Windows will do the trick, although if you're looking to recording for a long time, this may not be a good option, and you should try some other application that has better management of long recordings).

The key point here is your cassette player needs to have a line out port of some sort (even a headphone jack if that is the last resort). Also ensure that you have adequate hard disk space to store the audio file. In most cases, you will get it stored in uncompressed WAV which is very large, although some applications can record it in MP3 on-the-fly. From there, you can burn the files to a CD, or encode it to a manageable file to the Pocket PC.

[szamot]

there is but why on earth or anywhere else for that matter would you want to do that, unless you are an analog junkie. Anyway, it's your choice, you can do it in style with one of these.... here (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/6908/)

[Darius Wey]

there is but why on earth or anywhere else for that matter would you want to do that, unless you are an analog junkie. Anyway, it's your choice, you can do it in style with one of these.... here (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/6908/)

It's like asking the question, "Why convert vinyl to CD?". It's pretty much the same principle. :P

Anyway, while the cassette deck looks nice and does the job well, if you do already have some sort of cassette deck with an output port, you don't need to spend $150 for this...instead it's probably best to head down to your nearest electronic store and pick up a standard audio cable for a few dollars.

[szamot]

there is but why on earth or anywhere else for that matter would you want to do that, unless you are an analog junkie. Anyway, it's your choice, you can do it in style with one of these.... here (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/6908/)

It's like asking the question, "Why convert vinyl to CD?". It's pretty much the same principle. :P

Anyway, while the cassette deck looks nice and does the job well, if you do already have some sort of cassette deck with an output port, you don't need to spend $150 for this...instead it's probably best to head down to your nearest electronic store and pick up a standard audio cable for a few dollars.

oh but that's like saying who needs style, fashion and design? $150 is a small price to pay to be a stylish geek. :lol:

[Darius Wey]

oh but that's like saying who needs style, fashion and design? $150 is a small price to pay to be a stylish geek. :lol:

Now you know where I've blown all my money over the years. It's got to the stage when I now consider functionality vs geek-ality (is that even a word?). :p

[maximus]

Now you know where I've blown all my money over the years. It's got to the stage when I now consider functionality vs geek-ality (is that even a word?). :p

Couldn't agree more with you. Especially now that I am married. Married folks got more expense than I can imagine. Life was so simple back then, only has 2 types of expenses : mortgage and food/etc. Now we have so many other expenses, have to save for our future kids, etc. Plus, now I only have one job, *sigh*

[szamot]

well the beauty of marriage is that there is two incomes....twice as money to spend, mind you though you have to be considerate and sell the idea to your wife, but that's usually the easy part. Trying to hang on to the toys that come in is the hard part. Then there is kids and all so don't even get me started on that.

A good friend of mine bought himself a 4155 on my good advice with a 1 gig SD card. A month later he got a second 4155 with a 1gig SD card. To this day he still misses half the appointments but both of his sons, 7 and 3, who have "inherited" the devices have never been happier. PPCs are not just for big boys, little ones like to play games on them as well, and watch lots of Spider Man and Piglet's Big Movie.

[maximus]

When you have 2 kids, sure you have twice the income, but 4 times the expense :) To make thing worse, sometimes kids generate more expense than the adults.

[ChristopherTD]

I do this every now and then to convert audio-books on cassette to MP3 so that I can listen to them on my iPod.

If you have Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition they have a small tool called "Plus! Analog Recorder" which does a pretty good job of capturing the input. Most usefully it detects the end of the cassette when there has been 2 minutes of silence and it stops recording. You can then easily chop off the last 2 minutes of silence.

You then have the option of letting it reduce the hiss/pops, but that takes about 25 minutes to save a 45 minute side of an audiobook. Without post-processing it takes only 3 minutes.

It does insist on saving the file as WMA (naturally) but iTunes can import that and for voice it doesn't really matter the re-compression to AAC.

One final tip for iPod users that may be doing this. When the file is imported into iTunes it has an M4A extension and your audiobook is treated as music, and your place in each file is lost when you play something else. If you remove the files from iTunes (but not your disk) rename them to M4B and re-add them to iTunes it treats them as bookmarkable files and iPod will remember your place. Sadly, when you sync with your PC it loses the bookmark, but it is better than nothing!

[urologyhealth]

what equipment do you use between cassette player and your computer?

Do you plug it into eaphone jack of cassette player and where on notebook computer?

Thank you

[Darius Wey]

Your cassette player will need a line out port which probably exists as a headphone port. I suspect it would be a 3.5mm port.

If it is, you will then need a 3.5mm male/male stereo cable like this:

http://img97.exs.cx/img97/391/buyextras_1816_9204723.jpg

You should plug one end of this audio cable into the line out / headphone port on the cassette player, and the other end to the line in / microphone port of your notebook.

You should then ensure that your microphone audio input system of your sound card is enabled.

From then on, all you require is any good audio recording program (for your notebook) to do the job. Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is always a good program and runs on Windows / MacOS X / Linux / Unix.

Give that a go. Hope it all works well. :way to go:

[ChristopherTD]

I have an old Sony Walkman Pro that has a Line-Out and my Thinkpad has a Line-In. So I can make a line-level connection which offers the best results.

Otherwise I think you would have to go from Headphone output to Mic and that might add distortion?

[Darius Wey]

I have an old Sony Walkman Pro that has a Line-Out and my Thinkpad has a Line-In. So I can make a line-level connection which offers the best results.

Otherwise I think you would have to go from Headphone output to Mic and that might add distortion?

It depends on how new (old? :P) the cassette player is. Some devices out there have an integrated line out / headphone port, so distortion may not always result. ;)