Transferring tapes to computer with no Line-Out

[smp]

I'm a bit baffled by all of this...

My non-techie, "computers are for playing Mahjong and Solitaire" parents have decided that they want to transfer a bunch of their old tapes onto CD. They heard on the radio one morning that apparently it was dead easy to do. Guess who got lined up to do it for them?

Ordinarily, I wouldn't think it was a problem (apart from the fact that I live 1500km away from them and will have to do it over Christmas - or at least show them how to do it before I go back home). The problem I have is that their consumer stereo is getting on in years and the amplifier has no line out that I can see.

Is there still a way to get a decent signal without a line out? I was thinking perhaps running a cable from the headphone into the line-in on my sister's computer. Of course, there's the other issue that this computer only has onboard sound. I have no idea if this will work though, and I don't particularly want to spend my Christmas holidays cursing the stereo's amp, the tape deck, my sister's computer and my parents when I could instead be sitting around, eating BBQs and drinking my old man's beer

Has anyone done anything similar? My parents are so naively hopeful that this will be a complete doddle

-s

[austere]

if you got a stereo cable running from the headphone socket of your parents’ amplifier to the line-in of the computer it should be no problem.

The quality will not be stunning but it can be recorded, yes. The quality will depend on how good or bad the sound quality from the headphone socket is, the quality of the cable and the okay or terribleness of the line-in of the onboard soundcard.

Problems to keep an eye out for:
• Use a program that allows you to record of indefinite amount of time. Do NOT use the onboard Sound Recorder device of Window$.
• Make sure you’ve selected the “line-in” under the recording tap of the Volume Control of windows.
• Listen how it sounds and adjust the volume slider accordingly. Also bare in mind to pay attention to the output level of the amplifier.
• You can expect a DC Offset when using the onboard soundcard to record. It would be recommendable to fix this.
• If you have the opportunity experimenting with a noise reduction would be beneficial for the “final product”
• Also beware of the possible available hard disk space limitations.

Lots of obvious stuff but well oh well. Hope it's a bit useful to you.

[bluelife]

Buy them the CDS for christmas, then you're done:)

[cron]

if you got a stereo cable running from the headphone socket of your parents’ amplifier to the line-in of the computer it should be no problem.

The quality will not be stunning but it can be recorded, yes. The quality will depend on how good or bad the sound quality from the headphone socket is, the quality of the cable and the okay or terribleness of the line-in of the onboard soundcard.

Wouldn't worry about that. If they're anything like my parents, chances are they'll be using shitty little speakers built into the monitor.

[opiadream]

tell them you can do it
but first you'll need them to buy you a copy of
sonar 4...


I had to do the same thing once for my parents with some beat-up old polka records (yes,polka..it was awful I tell ya)
I used magix audio cleaning lab for the job
it's a relativiely cheap piece of software that was made for such occasions.
I connected to the line in of the soundcard using this jobbie on an rca patch-cord

they're real cheap and come in 1/4 and 1/8 versions

[InfiNeat]

This is the program that saved my life when I had to transfer my tapes to my hard drive a few years ago: dBpowerAMP Music Converter. You also need the auxilary input add-on and the right codec for your output files.

This thing is free and you can record straight to MP3 or Ogg (which I much prefer myself). If I remember correctly you can prepare your song list in advance and just pause the program at the end of each song while the tape is playing. The files get the right name instantly.

I quickly gave up the idea of de-noising and any other kind of sound fixing. It's just insanely time consuming if you have more than a couple of tapes to do. I would have thrown all my tapes in the bin (and cry...) if it weren't for dBpowerAMP. Bypassing the wave file step altogether is also a great time-saver.

My setup was different, though. I ran the signal from my tape deck through my mixer, so I actually did a bit of EQing to remove some hiss, but that's it. Then you play the tape and pause at every song. Couldn't be simpler, especially if you want them to be able to do it themselves while you eat BBQ and drink their beer

[egbert]

If the tape player is a deck it will have line level outputs - forget the amp and plug them into a sound card. If it is an "all in one" job the headphone out is your only option.

If the soundcard is cheap and crappy the result will be pretty nasty. If the tapes are at all old and have been played across heads last demagnetised in the 80's then there will be no top end whatsoever.

Eg

[smp]

Buy them the CDS for christmas, then you're done:)

I would but the ones they want to transfer have yet to be released on CD, or are out of print or even may never be released on CD. So my parents tell me anyway.

Oh the joy of it all - should be a fun way to spend Christmas...

[smp]

If the tape player is a deck it will have line level outputs - forget the amp and plug them into a sound card. If it is an "all in one" job the headphone out is your only option.

If the soundcard is cheap and crappy the result will be pretty nasty. If the tapes are at all old and have been played across heads last demagnetised in the 80's then there will be no top end whatsoever.

Eg

Tape deck is part of an "all in one" consumer stereo. Also, from my parents description of the sound coming out from the tape player, it seems like time has caught up with it and the tape belts are now stretched and warbly (which is why they want to transfer to CD). Depending on the condition of the tape deck, I may even be forced to use my sister's portable CD/Tape player, use the headphone socket from that and pump it into the onboard sound

The potential sound quality of this makes me cringe just thinking about it.

Going on from some other useful suggestions here, I know the cables won't be hard to find and I'll pop into a local home electronics store around Christmas and pick up something like Audio Cleaning Lab (or equivalent).

Woo. There better be a lot of beer in my old man's fridge

-s