ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Convert a Cassette Recording to a Digital Audio File

Updated on December 7, 2009
Aya Katz profile image

Aya Katz has a PhD in linguistics from Rice University. She is an ape language researcher and the author of Vacuum County and other novels.

I have a house full of dusty old books that nobody reads and cassette tapes that nobody listens to. The tapes are everywhere, and the last time I even noticed them was when my nephews came over and the little one began to play with some of the tapes that were lying around.

What do I have on the tapes? Some are just data files. I used to have an apple computer that stored data on a radio shack cassette recorder. I actually still have that apple computer. I just haven't used it in years.

Others are tapes of songs. Songs off the radio. Songs that people I know sang at filksings. Songs that I wrote the words to and then got somebody else to sing. Should all that go to waste? Can't any of it be salvaged?

Cassette Recorder

Image Credit: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Wikipedia

Conversion Experiences

Any bit of information stored in one way can theoretically be converted to a virtually identical bit of information stored in a different way. The different methods of conveying information are functionally equivalent. The only question is how.

I've read up on this issue, and here is a digest of what I've gathered. You can convert from analog to digital using equipment you already own. It isn't expensive, and it is not hard.

How to find your "Line-In" Jack

The experts advise not to plug your cassette recorder directly into your microphone jack on your computer, because it might damage your sound card. Instead, they say that you should plug into your "Line-In" jack. But what is a Line-In jack, and how do we recognize it?

Typically, there are three 3.5 mm jacks all in a row. One is for the mike, and it is sometimes color-coded red. One is for the line-in, and it is sometimes color-coded blue. The third is for the earphones, and it can sometimes be color-coded in green. In addition to color coding, there are also symbols to identify which jack is which. The mike symbol looks like a mike. The earphone symbol looks like earphones. The line-in symbol looks like... well, a line coming in. It's hard to describe, so I'm posting pictures.

How to Find the Line-In Jack

The red jack is for the mike. The blue jack is the line-in. The green jack is for the earphones.
The red jack is for the mike. The blue jack is the line-in. The green jack is for the earphones.

A sound card with more than three jacks

Image Credit:http://www.fvdes.com/knowledgeroot/uploads/image/sound_card.jpg
Image Credit:http://www.fvdes.com/knowledgeroot/uploads/image/sound_card.jpg

A Laptop Often has no Line-IN

Image Credit: Polderbits.com
Image Credit: Polderbits.com

Laptops with no Line-Line

Typically, today's laptops come with no Line-In jack. My newest laptop clearly has a soundcard that would have accomodated a Line-In, because there are three little circular holes in a row, at the front of it just right for 3.5 mm jack plugs to fit into. But while two of them are marked with the symbols for mike and earphones, the third is unmarked and plugged in with plastic so that nobody can use it. I think that was mean spirited of the manufacturer.

Luckily, one of my older laptops -- one I hardly ever use -- does have a Line-In.

What To Do

If you have a Line-In jack on your computer, you can turn your cassette recordings into digital recordings without any special hardware. All you need is:

  • your old cassette deck,
  • a stereo audio cable that ends on both sides with a 3.5 mm male connector,
  • your computer with its built in soundcard
  • the free audacity software that you can download here

Once you have assembled all of the above, here's what to do:

  1. connect one end of the audio cable to the headphone or line out  (AUX) jack on your cassette player .
  2. connect the other end of the audio cable to the line-in jack on your computer's soundcard.
  3. Open your Audacity window, click on "Edit" and then "Preferences". Use the device selector to choose the line-In as your input. Use "Channels" selector to pick from mono or stereo recording.
  4. Press "record" (a red circle) in your Audacity window.
  5. Press play on your cassette player. (if you reverse the order of these two steps, you might miss some of the tape's content, although typically there is a leader.)
  6. After your tape has ended, press stop (a yellow square) in Audacity.
  7. Select Export and save as a wav file.

How to Turn Cassette Tape into MP3 Using Windows Movie Maker

How To Convert Analog to Digital using an External Sound Card

If You Don't Have a Line-In Jack

If your computer does not have a Line-In Jack, and you don't want to take the risk of plugging directly to the mike jack,  then you might need to purchase some additional hardware to stand in for the Line-In Jack. You might want to get something like the Xitel INport Deluxe, which is basically something to plug your audio cable into as it comes out of your cassette player, and then get another cable to plug in from there to your mike jack. Or, you could use an external sound card, and follow the method outlined in the video I've embedded here.

Converting Is Familiar -- We've Done It Before

For most of us, the process of converting is a familiar one. We've seen the Line-In jack before. Line-In used to be called AUX IN and Line-Out used to be called AUX OUT. And we used them when we were converting our reel-to-reel tapes to cassette. Earlier still we used them when converting gramophone records to reel-to-reel.

The march of progress is unstoppable. However, the more things change, the more they remain essentially the same. If you don't allow yourself to be intimidated by the novel external appearance of things and the fancy new names that old familiar items have been given, you will manage to find your way back to familiar ground. Is it really necessary to change the method of storing data every ten years or so? No, I don't think it is. But even if we can't prevent it from happening, we can still manage to salvage most of our years of accumulated knowledge and experience.

Now, if I only knew how to convert ASCII files on cassette to text files on a present day PC!



(c) 2009 Aya Katz

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)