Thank you Philip, for this wonderful video. I am working on restoring two digitized reel-to-reel tapes of organ music from my uncle's college recital in 1961. The music was sounding muffled, and the bottom had a rumble. The tips you showed here made all the difference. We will be using his music at his memorial service, and I can't thank you enough for helping me to make it sound great. You are my angel today!
I found my father old tapes recorded songs yesterday. Today I set up the equipment SW & HW and search from RUclips a tutorial that fits my needs and your video was the first I looked. I have a rule in case I need to learn some information. Check at least three sources. Your tutorial was quite enough to save my father songs. Thanks!
Thank you for posting this tutorial. I have been working on a lot of tape transfers recently. I bought a TsirTech little walkman looking tape player on Amazon that plugs in to the computer to do this, but it is pretty cheaply made and doesn't seem to be doing a very good job. It slows and speeds up and makes the sound record funny. grrr. After watching your tutorial I figured out #1 I could have saved the $20 and just used a cord I already owned and my old cassette player that is a good one, and hook it directly to the computer. #2 I learned how to use Audacity! Thank you Thank you! Bad news is after watching your tutorial I wanna do it all over again, now that I know what I'm doing!
I got tons of casettes in my car still working from 20+ years ago. For me the point of cassette is about having music on them not on some digital media. The lack of skipping tracks, repeat, shuffle, makes listening to music much more of a experience.
Still i would digitalize them. You can re-record them onto tape later, but when the orginal tape is destroyed, there is no easy way to get them back (except for the internet)...
Ok, but what if the cassettes that I have are becoming so damaged (from moisture???) that they are skipping, and losing their songs? :( I don't know how you were able to keep yours in such a perfect condition??
Cassette's plastic gets more fragile through time, their sound gets more muffled due to physics factors, tapes are vulnerable to temperature and humidity changes, while digitalized audio files could theoretically be preserved forever, especially when backed up to just more then one hard drive or CD ROM.
Thank you for the video. Being new to Audacity, I was mainly fighting the new User Interface which is bit different from the video editors I am used to. I take the actual audio "cleanup" as the "possibilities" and am not hung up on the actual changes you performed. Obviously tape hiss and mechanism rumble has to be removed carefully, not to remove the actual source spectrum. Kudos and thank you!
Thanks! I wasn't looking for cassette transfer, but your video was actually really good on navigating Audacity, and lots of helpful goodies that I didn't know were possible.
That Panasonic stereo system looks just like my old one (SA-AK230) that I donated because they are no longer read the disk. still, a very helpful video and it's should work the same on a dedicated cassette deck also.
+qwaqwa1960 ....depends on the original cassette. If it has a wide dynamic range , yes you can compress it. If it is already highly compressed.. don't. It's up to you. If you are a perfectionist, ok, figure it out. If it sounds good to you... what's the problem?
thanks for a new video! for information, they sell a new walkman type cassette player with a usb connector, its pretty cheap, if you find you dont have a player or a pc with the right connections, and using batteries will prevent a lot of hum noises
Look up a product called "ezcap". It's not much bigger than a usb drive. It has 2 RCA jacks and a 3.5mm headphone jack for input connections and a USB connector on the output side to plug directly into your computer. It comes with an easy to read instruction manual too. Connect it to any analogue output, casette, vinyl, cd, radio, tv, etc. Great connection tool for less than $20. ( comes with a copy of audacity on cd).
Ive been doing this with my old minidiscs,although it was at a reasonable level one recording was still sounding distorted but not crackly.I think its probably the recording was captured like that as opposed to audacity not capturing properly.
Your video seems so good, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have the earphone output of the cassette recorder connected to my stereo boxes that are connected to the one and only hole of my laptop for "loudspeakers" or "headset". The stereo boxes have an a audio/mic input which I normally use for the headset when Skyping etc. On the stereo boxes, there's another hole with a "musical note" - that is precisely where I've now put my cassette recorder output and I can hear it through my laptop-headphones! But it wouldn't record on audacity! I've also alternatively connected my cassette recorder output straight to that single laptop hole (it is a combined input, and not USB). Do you have any suggestions? I gave you a like anyway, because it's a great video.
Check in Audacity for which input it is using. There is a drop down window with a microphone icon for 'input devices' you may have more than one input and need to select the right one. Good luck.
Alternatively you can use Audacity to record anything and everything off of the internet by changing the way your computer sound system works. Simply set it up if your computer allows it and mine is an 4 year old laptop so nothing special, play ANY piece of music from any Website and it'll will record it perfectly. Obviously you want to get the best quality hd recording if possible. This means you can get a clean track of any song in your collection without having to do the restoration stuff. This is legal as far as I am aware so long as you already own the music and in any case it totally untraceable say like a torrent music download.
Yes max, Audacity is great. It does depend a lot on the sound card capabilities of your computer, but whatever your computer can configure Audacity will handle.
Hello Phillip - I am trying to record from a tape player similar to what you did. However I cannot control the volume input. In minute 3 you discussed this but I did not see how I was to keep the volume out of the red. Other videos show turning down the "microphone" volume but since I am not using a microphone that options does nothing to the volume. Actually the microphone can be set at zero and it does nothing. I understand if I was using a microphone I could use that standard tool to adjust the volume. Any tips?
The audio track from your video is noisy, which is ironic because you are making a video on how to handle that... However, thank you for the video. I'm restoring recorded lectures from the 50's and 60's and this tutorial is pure gold for that purpose!
I was excited to learn how to convert my cassettes....but this seems really complicated! I am not a tech-savvy person. Is there a company or someone I can pay to convert it for me properly?? Also why do the strips? in the cassettes become deactivated and lose their songs or skip the music?? Is there a way to restore that??
Check that the felt support on the metal springy thing is still intact. Sometimes the spring falls out of place and does not push the tape on the heads properly. That causes loss of definition and volume in the audio. Major deterioration results if the tapes have been stored close to any magnetic field over time, such as speakers. The magnets in the speakers can erase the tape. Storage in damp places can cause fungal growth on the tape which clogs heads or dirties them and reducing performance. Other than those, I do not know why your tapes might become deactivated in places. You may be able to find a company close to you which might be able to help you. Good luck to you.
I dont know if your doing videos of audio anymore . but i have many tapes that go loud and quite with different freckancys and it sounds horrable but i cant repalce then cause they are songs i did when it was a kit and old radio mixes i cant get anywhere. please help!!!! i have audacity.. diamond cut audio 10 and nero wave editor. can i do it with any of thosse? sorry for the bad spelling, i suck at spelling and my keyboard sticks and sucks
I have done all our historical VHS and digital 8 tapes...still a dribble of VHS tapes for other people to do. Whats concerning is that the electronics industry has decided to phase our optical disks also, so even DVDs are not safe any more and will all need transferring in a few years.
As long as your average Blueray Player can play CDs, DVDs and Bluerays they are pretty safe. They might have to be transferred, but for the moment they are rather save.
Hi, one question, when the mic setting has been selected on Audacity does any thing need to be changed on a laptop that uses the horrible combined mic /hp, port? I haven't got Audacity at the moment (have had in the past) so can't do the obvious and just try, and I don't like downloads , usually a last resort ,quite often seems to upset things, thanks ,Chris.
Your system will have its way of identifying what is connected to your laptop and register it on boot up. So, you may have more than one connection to choose from. In the drop down box with the mic icon in audacity interface choose which one it is likely to be. Try different ones until you get the right one.
You are welcome. It's not the best of tutorials and I am not an expert . I already see where I could improve this. .. but this is youtube, and I hope it can get you started.
![Audacity - Tutorial for Beginners in 11 MINUTES! [ UPDATED ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/l2hidKKWGPU/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you Philip, for this wonderful video. I am working on restoring two digitized reel-to-reel tapes of organ music from my uncle's college recital in 1961. The music was sounding muffled, and the bottom had a rumble. The tips you showed here made all the difference. We will be using his music at his memorial service, and I can't thank you enough for helping me to make it sound great. You are my angel today!
I found my father old tapes recorded songs yesterday. Today I set up the equipment SW & HW and search from RUclips a tutorial that fits my needs and your video was the first I looked. I have a rule in case I need to learn some information. Check at least three sources. Your tutorial was quite enough to save my father songs. Thanks!
I am very glad to be of some help. :)
Thank you Philip for your clear and relaxed instructions.
Thank you for posting this tutorial. I have been working on a lot of tape transfers recently. I bought a TsirTech little walkman looking tape player on Amazon that plugs in to the computer to do this, but it is pretty cheaply made and doesn't seem to be doing a very good job. It slows and speeds up and makes the sound record funny. grrr. After watching your tutorial I figured out #1 I could have saved the $20 and just used a cord I already owned and my old cassette player that is a good one, and hook it directly to the computer. #2 I learned how to use Audacity! Thank you Thank you! Bad news is after watching your tutorial I wanna do it all over again, now that I know what I'm doing!
4 year old video but still very relevant!!! Thank you!!!
Chewbacca ikr
I got tons of casettes in my car still working from 20+ years ago. For me the point of cassette is about having music on them not on some digital media. The lack of skipping tracks, repeat, shuffle, makes listening to music much more of a experience.
Still i would digitalize them. You can re-record them onto tape later, but when the orginal tape is destroyed, there is no easy way to get them back (except for the internet)...
Ok, but what if the cassettes that I have are becoming so damaged (from moisture???) that they are skipping, and losing their songs? :( I don't know how you were able to keep yours in such a perfect condition??
Cassette's plastic gets more fragile through time, their sound gets more muffled due to physics factors, tapes are vulnerable to temperature and humidity changes, while digitalized audio files could theoretically be preserved forever, especially when backed up to just more then one hard drive or CD ROM.
Thank you for the video. Being new to Audacity, I was mainly fighting the new User Interface which is bit different from the video editors I am used to. I take the actual audio "cleanup" as the "possibilities" and am not hung up on the actual changes you performed. Obviously tape hiss and mechanism rumble has to be removed carefully, not to remove the actual source spectrum. Kudos and thank you!
Thanks! I wasn't looking for cassette transfer, but your video was actually really good on navigating Audacity, and lots of helpful goodies that I didn't know were possible.
excellent :)
That Panasonic stereo system looks just like my old one (SA-AK230) that I donated because they are no longer read the disk. still, a very helpful video and it's should work the same on a dedicated cassette deck also.
Oyyy, *compressing* a cassette track even further?!?! Nuts...
+qwaqwa1960 ....depends on the original cassette. If it has a wide dynamic range , yes you can compress it. If it is already highly compressed.. don't. It's up to you. If you are a perfectionist, ok, figure it out. If it sounds good to you... what's the problem?
thanks for a new video! for information, they sell a new walkman type cassette player with a usb connector, its pretty cheap, if you find you dont have a player or a pc with the right connections, and using batteries will prevent a lot of hum noises
Yes, I have heard there are those players out there, but I have not seen one. It will be a good way to get audio into your computer.
Look up a product called "ezcap". It's not much bigger than a usb drive. It has 2 RCA jacks and a 3.5mm headphone jack for input connections and a USB connector on the output side to plug directly into your computer. It comes with an easy to read instruction manual too. Connect it to any analogue output, casette, vinyl, cd, radio, tv, etc. Great connection tool for less than $20. ( comes with a copy of audacity on cd).
Excellent vid
Thanks :) , you may like to try an updated version of Audacity. The same principles apply. The latest version is free and even more capable .
Ive been doing this with my old minidiscs,although it was at a reasonable level one recording was still sounding distorted but not crackly.I think its probably the recording was captured like that as opposed to audacity not capturing properly.
Thanks, just what I was looking for
This is incredibly helpful! Thank you very much!
A really useful video with great info. Thank you.
How are you Real Mythril?
that 0.1 V information saved me. thanks!
Your video seems so good, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have the earphone output of the cassette recorder connected to my stereo boxes that are connected to the one and only hole of my laptop for "loudspeakers" or "headset". The stereo boxes have an a audio/mic input which I normally use for the headset when Skyping etc. On the stereo boxes, there's another hole with a "musical note" - that is precisely where I've now put my cassette recorder output and I can hear it through my laptop-headphones! But it wouldn't record on audacity! I've also alternatively connected my cassette recorder output straight to that single laptop hole (it is a combined input, and not USB). Do you have any suggestions? I gave you a like anyway, because it's a great video.
Check in Audacity for which input it is using. There is a drop down window with a microphone icon for 'input devices' you may have more than one input and need to select the right one. Good luck.
Alternatively you can use Audacity to record anything and everything off of the internet by changing the way your computer sound system works. Simply set it up if your computer allows it and mine is an 4 year old laptop so nothing special, play ANY piece of music from any Website and it'll will record it perfectly.
Obviously you want to get the best quality hd recording if possible.
This means you can get a clean track of any song in your collection without having to do the restoration stuff.
This is legal as far as I am aware so long as you already own the music and in any case it totally untraceable say like a torrent music download.
Yes max, Audacity is great. It does depend a lot on the sound card capabilities of your computer, but whatever your computer can configure Audacity will handle.
Great knowledge shared on working with Audacity! Keep up with the good work and make more great videos like this :)
Hello Phillip - I am trying to record from a tape player similar to what you did. However I cannot control the volume input. In minute 3 you discussed this but I did not see how I was to keep the volume out of the red. Other videos show turning down the "microphone" volume but since I am not using a microphone that options does nothing to the volume. Actually the microphone can be set at zero and it does nothing. I understand if I was using a microphone I could use that standard tool to adjust the volume. Any tips?
Thank you this helped me a lot
Great, good to hear that. :)
The audio track from your video is noisy, which is ironic because you are making a video on how to handle that... However, thank you for the video. I'm restoring recorded lectures from the 50's and 60's and this tutorial is pure gold for that purpose!
Any ideas on how to clean up pitch drift?
I have a super bad wave to the cassettes. How do I fix it?
plz share software link name
I was excited to learn how to convert my cassettes....but this seems really complicated! I am not a tech-savvy person. Is there a company or someone I can pay to convert it for me properly?? Also why do the strips? in the cassettes become deactivated and lose their songs or skip the music?? Is there a way to restore that??
Check that the felt support on the metal springy thing is still intact. Sometimes the spring falls out of place and does not push the tape on the heads properly. That causes loss of definition and volume in the audio. Major deterioration results if the tapes have been stored close to any magnetic field over time, such as speakers. The magnets in the speakers can erase the tape. Storage in damp places can cause fungal growth on the tape which clogs heads or dirties them and reducing performance. Other than those, I do not know why your tapes might become deactivated in places. You may be able to find a company close to you which might be able to help you. Good luck to you.
Can I inquire as to what is the name of your piano audio your playing?
I dont know if your doing videos of audio anymore . but i have many tapes that go loud and quite with different freckancys and it sounds horrable but i cant repalce then cause they are songs i did when it was a kit and old radio mixes i cant get anywhere. please help!!!! i have audacity.. diamond cut audio 10 and nero wave editor. can i do it with any of thosse? sorry for the bad spelling, i suck at spelling and my keyboard sticks and sucks
I've a bunch of cassette
tapes in my collection.
Toney T. Isaiah.
We have a lot of VHS tapes to transfer also.
I have done all our historical VHS and digital 8 tapes...still a dribble of VHS tapes for other people to do. Whats concerning is that the electronics industry has decided to phase our optical disks also, so even DVDs are not safe any more and will all need transferring in a few years.
As long as your average Blueray Player can play CDs, DVDs and Bluerays they are pretty safe. They might have to be transferred, but for the moment they are rather save.
i have have a bad popping / bopping sound coming through my recording and having a lot of trouble removing it
I like this sound
Hi, one question, when the mic setting has been selected on Audacity does any thing need to be changed on a laptop that uses the horrible combined mic /hp, port? I haven't got Audacity at the moment (have had in the past) so can't do the obvious and just try, and I don't like downloads , usually a last resort ,quite often seems to upset things, thanks ,Chris.
Your system will have its way of identifying what is connected to your laptop and register it on boot up. So, you may have more than one connection to choose from. In the drop down box with the mic icon in audacity interface choose which one it is likely to be. Try different ones until you get the right one.
Thanks for that quick reply, I will give AD a try again then, I hate technology (when it freezes/locks the screen!!) Chris.
thumbs up!
Does this work with death metal? I'm going to try
Give it a go and you will find out.
So where the hell was Biggles, when you needed him last Saturday....
G'day Philip, thank-you very much for this video tutorial. I'll put it to use very soon. Cheers, b.
You are welcome. It's not the best of tutorials and I am not an expert . I already see where I could improve this. .. but this is youtube, and I hope it can get you started.
*****
i actually didnt know how to much more easily separate the tracks, you showed my how, my way was much harder and convoluted
jusb1066
Cool. Yes, it's a very handy function.
My God! Guess you don't care about quality. Jeez... A Boom Box? Really!? Ya know there are still in 2020 some very nice cassette deck available. WOW!
Very interesting explanation but your recording is too noisy
Thx
yr welcome