Cassette tapes to CD

[Audio1950]

I hope this is in the right section, it seemed the most appropriate place.

I have some cassette tapes of sentimental value, but nothing to play them on.
Please could someone transfer them to CD formula? All costs met, of course.

Barry

[Dickie]

I'd be happy to do this for you, but I wouldn't trust anything like that to the Royal Mail, so getting them to/from me might be difficult.
I couldn't do pukka printed CD labels either.

[Audio1950]

Richard, I could bring them to you, and collect. PM sent.

Barry

[paulsherwin]

Royal Mail Special Delivery is fully tracked and usually reliable. It's not cheap, but I often use it for things like critical documents. Nothing has ever been lost.

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/uk...guaranteed-1pm

[Dickie]

No PM received yet? (My mailbox has plenty of room).

[Audio1950]

Originally Posted by Dickie

No PM received yet? (My mailbox has plenty of room).

My fault, sorry! One on it's way in a minute.

Barry

[Lancs Lad]

Just a suggestion, if you haven't got fixed up yet. Something like this might be another option.

I don't think TEAC make this model any more, but I'm sure other manufacturers make similar products (or you could probably track down a NOS or second-hand TEAC)

[paulsherwin]

If you just want to digitise a few cassettes, buying a deck to do it yourself is unlikely to be the best solution. It's a specialised job, even at the amateur level.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

It's a specialised job, even at the amateur level.

To do the job properly requires a bit of knowledge about the cassette medium. Things like checking pressure pads and aligning the playback head to match the tape are important. You also need to select the right playback equalisation to match the tape type. In the old days you would have to also choose the right noise reduction settings but fortunately these days there are software alternatives which means that you can do the transfer with no noise reduction and then adjust the settings in software.

[Ted Kendall]

Software noise reduction? No, thanks. No imitation works as well as the original hardware in good shape (he said, patting his pampered A301s). There is nothing to stop you doing an initial digital transfer for preservation and doing the NR subsequently in an analogue processing loop. If your convertors are up to it, the double conversion is not an issue.

Incidentally, there are no decent cassette machines being made now. The only mechanisms are Chinese, of poor speed stability, and Dolby stopped licensing chips around 2014. With care, however, you can acquire and recondition suitable hardware, but, as Paul says, for small quantities it is more cost-effective to farm transfer out, especially when the learning curve is taken into account.

[Dickie]

In discussion with the OP we are talking about nostalgia here, not high quality transcription. Which is a relief! Hopefully my Aiwa AD-F660 with its newly-fitted "play" pushbutton (https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=190268) will make a decent job. Nothing to lose by trying, anyway.

[Lancs Lad]

Yes, Richard! That's precisely what I was assuming when I suggested the TEAC unit.

There seems to be such a tendency to over-complicate things these days.

[Audio1950]

Originally Posted by Dickie

In discussion with the OP we are talking about nostalgia here, not high quality transcription.

Just to clarify the situation, the cassettes are all American pop music programmes taken from the radio whilst we were on holiday years ago. The person who recorded them for us is now deceased, hence the sentimental attachment. I am not expecting anything near perfect, as the tapes are now old and probably fragile, so anything that can be done to make the CDs listenable will be most appreciated.

Barry

[paulsherwin]

The AD-F660 will make a good job of playing the tapes, assuming everything is working properly. It's a good quality 3 head consumer deck - not absolutely top drawer, but very decent.

[Superscope]

One thing nobody has mentioned yet, is the choice of Transfer medium.

I wouldn't recommend having anything important transferred only to a CD.
CD-R's are notoriously unreliable. and not always long lived.

If the decision to use a CD-R is for convenience so it can be played easily,
that's fine, but make sure it is backed up digitally to say a Hard Drive as well.



Ian

[knobtwiddler]

>It's a good quality 3 head consumer deck - not absolutely top drawer, but very decent.

And in 2022, a mid-range deck that's in good condition will absolutely trounce a top drawer deck that's not been looked after correctly. They are highly specialist machines to keep anywhere near factory spec and few have the skill, knowledge or resources (read belts and various rubber parts) to do so.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

Software noise reduction? No, thanks. No imitation works as well as the original hardware in good shape (he said, patting his pampered A301s).

Well I wouldn't suggest software for Dolby A but I've used the Anaxwaves software for DBX and I've heard good things about their software for Dolby B and C.

[Ted Kendall]

dbX is, to all intents and purposes, 2:1 compansion, so shouldn't be a huge task for software, I suppose. The inherent side effects would obscure most rough edges, anyway. For Dolby of any stripe, I'd have hardware.

[Audio1950]

The cassettes have now been delivered to Dickie, so this thread can now be closed.

Barry