Converting audio tapes into MP3s

[anotheoldgit]

I wish to transfer some cassette audio tapes onto my computer as MP3, can anyone please tell me if this is easy and what equipment do I need?

I have a cassette radio with an earphone socket, I also have a cable with a mini plug on both ends.

Can one buy a cable with a mini plug on one end (earphone socket) and a USB plug on the other end (Computer USB port)?

[rojash]

Nope. The output of your radio is analog; USB is digital. But you can plug the output from your radio into the pink socket onto your computer. You can then use Audacity or similar to record from the radio to the computer, and export the results as mp3. Audacity is free, and can be downloaded from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[ChuckFickens]

to make life easier for your self in the future make sure you record each track as an individual MP3, not the entire side of the tape in one go.

Bit more work to start with, but far easier to work with later on.

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks for those useful answers guys.

Chuck, does one have to stand hovering over the player with one finger on the stop button, and how does one know when a particular track comes to an end?

Does the sound come out of the computers speakers as you play it?

[ChuckFickens]

details here of how to make different tracks, although it can try and do it automatically it only makes the best guess on ttrack splits using silent gaps, so if theape either has short gaps for the track splits or if it has spaces of silence in the middle of tracks it can get it wrong, so the best way is to do it manually.

http://wiki.audacityt..._into_separate_tracks

and to monitor what is being recorded depending on your computer :-

to monitor your recording, open your computer's volume control panel. Turn up the playback volume and turn off the “mute” checkbox for your recording source (usually “microphone” or “line in”).

If this does not work, open the Audacity preferences. In the “Audio I/O” section, turn on the “Software Playthrough” option.