[Shotimes] OT copying cassettes to CDs

[George Fourchy]

On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 15:30:51 -0500, Mike Wojton wrote:

>Is there some way to get the recordings into my computer so I can burn them
>to a CD?  I don't have a real trick audio card.  Do you
>have to have a card with RCA inputs in order to do this kind of thing?  I'm
>cheap.  I don't want to have to spend a whole bunch of
>money just to do it.

There are several programs out there to convert analog music (records and tapes) to
allow digital storage on a hard disc, so that they can be burned to a CD.  I also
have Roxio Media Creator 7.5...I've been using Roxio/Adaptec software since it came
out in the mid '90s.  A friend at work uses Nero Software.

Basically for it and for most other programs I am aware of, you need a stereo
amplifier (like a receiver, which includes the radio and the amps) to get the signal
into the computer.  Most computer sound cards don't need RCA inputs...they use a
single mini-plug for stereo input and output.  You connect the computer to the
stereo system as if it was a tape deck...with a "record out" line (RCA cable that
connects to the computer cable), that goes into the "line in" port on the sound
card, and another one that goes from "line out" on the computer to the adjacent
"tape in" on the receiver.  You need a receiver because the input from the turntable
is much lower than that from a component tape deck or CD player.  

If you are making WAV files, which is what CDs you buy at the store are burned as,
you can adjust the tone and work on the pops and hisses with any CD Creator
program...the later the version, the more improvements you can make.  For MP3 files,
Media Creator 7.5 is the first one that allows working on that format.  The sound
recorder function of windows will only adjust volume and edit lengths (among
others...those are what I use it for) on WAV files.  

There are literally pages and pages of comments I can make about CD Creator....it's
a "love-hate" relationship that I have with it.  This latest version has several
bugs, but I can work around them, and all the new cars here have MP3 changers in
them, so I am changing my (almost) hundreds of WAV CDs to MP3.  I can go from 20-25
songs on a CD to between 150 and 175.  Definitely an improvement.

Let me know if you have more questions.....music (for the cars) is what I have my
computers for, and I work with them ALL the time, at work and at home.  Email,
browsing, pictures, web pages....those are all peripheral compared to working with
music.

Someday I will start video, including that long lost suspension DVD.

George