Mp3 faq - How do you record MP3 from Cassette Tapes

How do you record MP3 from Cassette Tapes?

Just plug the output from your tape player into the "Line In" socket on your sound card... I use a Sony Walkman with Dolby to do cassettes myself, and then all you need is a cable with 1/8" stereo miniplugs on each end - plug one end into the earphone socket of the Walkman, and the other into the sound card line in. Then turn the volume on the Walkman all the way down, fire up your system volume control and choose Options / Properties / Recording and select the the "Line" source. Then press play on the Walkman, and gently turn up the volume until you get a level which registers well but doesn't clip (shown by the red "lights" in the volume control level indicator) during the loudest parts. To record the WAV files you'll need a program capable of recording large files... GoldWave (available from www.goldwave.com) is a good program which will also allow you to edit your WAV files. If you want "CD Quality" be sure to set the controls in your WAV recording program to 44.1 kbs, s
tereo, 16 bit. Be warned that you'll need about 10Mb of hard-disk space for each minute recorded. Once you've recorded the file, use the WAV recording /editing program's "cut" function to trim off any extra stuff before the beginning or after the end of the song. If you just want to put it onto an audio CD, you can do that directly from the WAV file. If you want an MP3 file, you'll have to use an MP3 encoder to process your WAV file. BladeEnc is quite a good one, and is entirely free, or download CDEX from www.cdex.n3.net - it includes the Blade and LAME encoders.

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