Converting directly from tape to CD?
DVD-Software.info Forum Index DVD-Software.info
Your one stop source for DVD Software
 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 
 
Converting directly from tape to CD?
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    DVD-Software.info Forum Index -> Audio Technology
Author Message
Ketan
Guest





Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:32 pm    Post subject: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

Hi,

I have a 1000+ audio tapes and I would like to convert them all into CD format.
I have been using the usual method of a "line-in" from tape deck onto my PC
sound card, and then burning it. However the process is cumbersome and takes way
too long because I have to stop after every track/song etc.

I came across this product from Tascam. Has anyone heard about it? Is it worth
the price? More importantly, are there any drawbacks to converting from a tape
to CD in this manner?

The product is called Cassette and CD recorder Tascam CC 222 and costs around
$799

http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=TscmCc222&preadd=action


Any feedback appreciated

Thanks

Ketan

Back to top
Steven Sullivan
Guest





Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:32 pm    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

Ketan <Ketan_member@newsguy.com> wrote:

Quote:
Hi,

I have a 1000+ audio tapes and I would like to convert them all into CD format.
I have been using the usual method of a "line-in" from tape deck onto my PC
sound card, and then burning it. However the process is cumbersome and takes way
too long because I have to stop after every track/song etc.


Quote:
I came across this product from Tascam. Has anyone heard about it? Is it worth
the price? More importantly, are there any drawbacks to converting from a tape
to CD in this manner?

The product is called Cassette and CD recorder Tascam CC 222 and costs around
$799

http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=TscmCc222&preadd=action


Rather pricey, though for 1000+ tapes it might be worth it. But I don't see
anything in the features table that detects track start/stops on tape,
so how does this help you?

Why not just digitize and entire side of an audio tape (or an entire tape)
using your current setup and then split the big .wav fil up into indvidual tracks
later? It's easy to do with most audio file editing software. Some will even locate
track start/stop automatically though you may have to tweak that
function so it doesn't place a track mark at a silence *inside* a track.



--

-S
Back to top
Tomi Holger Engdahl
Guest





Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:13 pm    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

Ketan <Ketan_member@newsguy.com> writes:

Quote:
Hi,

I have a 1000+ audio tapes and I would like to convert them all into CD format.
I have been using the usual method of a "line-in" from tape deck onto my PC
sound card, and then burning it. However the process is cumbersome and takes way
too long because I have to stop after every track/song etc.

If there are pauses between the tracks/songs, then you can eeasily
record the whole tape to one file, and then let some sutiable software
to split it to parts. One sofware I have used for this has beeb CDwave
from http://www.milosoftware.com/cdwave/

Just let the tapes play, record them to files.
Then just split them and burn them CD as you want.

--
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at
http://www.epanorama.net/
Back to top
Arny Krueger
Guest





Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

"Ketan" <Ketan_member@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:di3jj90los@drn.newsguy.com
Quote:
Hi,

I have a 1000+ audio tapes and I would like to convert
them all into CD format. I have been using the usual
method of a "line-in" from tape deck onto my PC sound
card, and then burning it. However the process is
cumbersome and takes way too long because I have to stop
after every track/song etc.

I came across this product from Tascam. Has anyone heard
about it? Is it worth the price? More importantly, are
there any drawbacks to converting from a tape to CD in
this manner?

The product is called Cassette and CD recorder Tascam CC
222 and costs around $799

http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=TscmCc222&preadd=action

I suspect this device works fairly well, all things
considered. Since you have a cassette machine, you can save
yourself quite a bit of money by just getting a stand-alone
CD recorder, which will work about as well with your
existing tape player.

While they are getting to be like hen's teeth, consumer CD
recorders run around 1/3 the price, and so-called
professional CD recorders run about 2/3 the price.

The bottom line is that you have to accept some slop if you
go with automatic conversion from tape to CD.

Because of the noise between tracks on a cassette tape,
automatic splitting of tapes into into CD tracks is flakey.

Because of the varying levels that cassettes are recorded
at, levels on the resulting CDs will wander around.

It's really all about sound quality and how much of you
that you want to put into getting it.
Back to top
Geoff Wood
Guest





Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:20 am    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

"Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote in message
Quote:

http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=TscmCc222&preadd=action

I suspect this device works fairly well, all things considered. Since you
have a cassette machine, you can save yourself quite a bit of money by
just getting a stand-alone CD recorder, which will work about as well with
your existing tape player.

That device probably does the job excellently for you in your
circumstances, with minimal user input required.

Or you could scour the bargain bins and used CD shops, and replace the
tapes with real CDs. Start with the titles you have an immediate hankering
to hear.

geoff

PS I have a similar 'problem' with thousands of 35mm transparencies to
transcribe to CD-ROm and paper. Unfortunately I have to do it the hard way,
although I'm sure slide scanner/tweaker/printer product is nearly affordable
in the near future.
Back to top
Pat Farrell
Guest





Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 4:13 am    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

Geoff Wood wrote:
Quote:
PS I have a similar 'problem' with thousands of 35mm transparencies to
transcribe to CD-ROm and paper. Unfortunately I have to do it the hard
way, although I'm sure slide scanner/tweaker/printer product is nearly
affordable in the near future.

Depends on what you call nearly affordable. I picked up a Nikon slide
scanner a while ago. It was a few hundred bucks.

--
Pat
Back to top
Geoff Wood
Guest





Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 4:42 am    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

"Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:VeD1f.25901$GO4.6841@lakeread04...
Quote:
Geoff Wood wrote:
PS I have a similar 'problem' with thousands of 35mm transparencies to
transcribe to CD-ROm and paper. Unfortunately I have to do it the hard
way, although I'm sure slide scanner/tweaker/printer product is nearly
affordable in the near future.

Depends on what you call nearly affordable. I picked up a Nikon slide
scanner a while ago. It was a few hundred bucks.


I got a PrimeFilm one. I was thinking more like the 'all-in-one' paradigm
we are talking about here. Like the photo-printers you now stick and
ram-stick (or whatever) in to print photos directly, without piddling around
with scanner>computer>photo manip-soft>printer. Save that process for the
critical ones that warrant the special attention.

geoff
Back to top
Guest






Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 9:55 am    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

"Steven Sullivan" <ssully@panix.com> wrote in message
news:di3v7o$21j$2@reader1.panix.com...
Quote:
Ketan <Ketan_member@newsguy.com> wrote:

Hi,

I have a 1000+ audio tapes and I would like to convert them all into CD
format.
I have been using the usual method of a "line-in" from tape deck onto my
PC
sound card, and then burning it. However the process is cumbersome and
takes way
too long because I have to stop after every track/song etc.


I came across this product from Tascam. Has anyone heard about it? Is it
worth
the price? More importantly, are there any drawbacks to converting from a
tape
to CD in this manner?

The product is called Cassette and CD recorder Tascam CC 222 and costs
around
$799

http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=TscmCc222&preadd=action


Rather pricey, though for 1000+ tapes it might be worth it. But I don't
see
anything in the features table that detects track start/stops on tape,
so how does this help you?

Why not just digitize and entire side of an audio tape (or an entire tape)
using your current setup and then split the big .wav fil up into indvidual
tracks
later? It's easy to do with most audio file editing software. Some will
even locate
track start/stop automatically though you may have to tweak that
function so it doesn't place a track mark at a silence *inside* a track.

That's the way I do it. I use CDWave. It's not free, but it isn't
expensive either, and it will divide up the tracks. To make the original
recording, I use a program called WaveRepair. It's free. I could, of
course, use CDWave to do the recording as well as the track division, but I
prefer the look and feel of WaveRepair.

I hope you have a separate sound card, such as the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.
Integrated sound cards generally use much of the uP, making it difficult to
use the computer while recording. I got nowhere until I bought the Santa
Cruz.

Norm Strong
Back to top
Laurence Payne
Guest





Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:10 pm    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 08:18:26 -0400, "Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com>
wrote:

Quote:
While they are getting to be like hen's teeth, consumer CD
recorders run around 1/3 the price, and so-called
professional CD recorders run about 2/3 the price

They're like hens teeth because they're a clunky, overpriced way of
doing what your computer would do just as well.
Back to top
Arny Krueger
Guest





Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:50 pm    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

"Laurence Payne" <lpayne1NOSPAM@dsl.pipexSPAMTRAP.com>
wrote in message
news:4tbkk1tcce9arbtjbadblct4sh2nj65cro@4ax.com
Quote:
On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 08:18:26 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote:

While they are getting to be like hen's teeth, consumer
CD recorders run around 1/3 the price, and so-called
professional CD recorders run about 2/3 the price

They're like hens teeth because they're a clunky,
overpriced way of doing what your computer would do just
as well.

I have free access to both a professional CD recorder and
also a goodly number of PCs capable of recording audio and
burning CDs.

I completely agree that PCs are preferable for almost
everything.

OTOH, the CD recorder that I use to make "safety" recordings
of 75 minute live events has turned out to be invaluable.
Back to top
Pat Farrell
Guest





Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:41 am    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

Geoff Wood wrote:
Quote:
"Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@nospam.com> wrote in message
Depends on what you call nearly affordable. I picked up a Nikon slide
scanner a while ago. It was a few hundred bucks.

I got a PrimeFilm one. I was thinking more like the 'all-in-one' paradigm
we are talking about here. Like the photo-printers you now stick and
ram-stick (or whatever) in to print photos directly, without piddling
around with scanner>computer>photo manip-soft>printer. Save that
process for the critical ones that warrant the special attention.

There are probably labs that will do the transfer without looking at the
results. Since I have 15 or 20 computers laying about my house, I never
say any attraction to changing a setup from thing->computer->next-thing
to just thing->next-thing. Especially when 'next-thing' can and does
change with my mood. Sometimes print, sometimes burn to CD, sometimes
resample and put up on a website.

Then again, I have a fax machine, a slide scanner, a flatbed scanner, a
Laser printer and a ink-jet printer. Mostly because I don't like
the all-in-ones. I also prefer amps and tuners to receivers in hi-fi.

If I had a bunch of valuable (or priceless) tapes, I'd sure want to
put them onto a disk and use CoolEdit or Sonar to tweak them.

--
Pat
Back to top
Geoff Wood
Guest





Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:27 am    Post subject: Re: Converting directly from tape to CD? Reply with quote

"Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@nospam.com> wrote in message news:pG%3f.1803

Quote:
If I had a bunch of valuable (or priceless) tapes, I'd sure want to
put them onto a disk and use CoolEdit or Sonar to tweak them.


Yeah, but would you put th same effort into the priceless ones as the
'average' ones, or the ones you want to keep handy for completeness sake...

geoff
Back to top
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    DVD-Software.info Forum Index -> Audio Technology All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Office Forum Access Forum Exchange Server

Powered by phpBB