Audio tapes

[DAVID BLAIN]

How can i transfer audio tapes to C.D's

[alunrw]

You would probably need software to do so - and a "line in" to your Computer from your Music Centre/Cassette deck.I use a programme called Magix Audio cleaning lab,which I found excellent

http://www.pcw.co.uk/products/software/1140140

[dodgyshirt]

You will need to connect the line out from your tape player to the in sockets of your amplifier and the tape out sockets from your amplifier to the sound card of your PC. For this connection you will need a 2 phono to 3.5mm jack plug converter from somewhere such as Maplins.

On the software side you will need a programme such as Audacity which is available as a free download from:-http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

This programme will record in real time through the line in setting via your soundcard and will export the recording as mp3 or WAV files

As alunrw said though the sound will need to be cleaned up, for this I use Terratec`s Sound Laundry and again can only be done in real time so you would initially have to export as a WAV file to the cleaning programme of your choice which is also the form you will presumably using  to burn to CD`s

I personally then import them back into Audacity and convert to mp3 format for use on my mp3 player.

It`s a time-consuming affair but the end result canbe worthwhile if you have some treasured recordings on tape.

[romko]

if you just want a straight transfer cass to cd, without the hassle of a pc, then get a philips cd audio recorder (i use a cdr 770 ). wire it up to your tape deck's line-out phono jacks. that will give hi- fi results (obviously depends on how good quality the tape recordings are!).

you will have to pause the cd-r after each song or press track increment on the remote - or you'll have a whole album of songs  ending up on 1 cd track.

[DAVID BLAIN]

Thanks to everybody.I now have the software and will try for a result.

[stevie21]

Or you could just go to the USA and "acquire" copies of the albums on CDR from someone else who has the original CD. No such "fair use" laws exists here, and to be honest, I'm not even sure that this would be permitted under such US laws.

Alternatively, become a fugitive from the law and download them (if they're music rather than spoken word or something).