[dabigkahuna]

Actually, it can be cassettes, reel-to-reel tapes, and mini-disks.

These are recordings of my school bands from the past 30 years. I have a new Macbook to transfer them to. Oh, and a friend wants to do the same but he has a PC so if anyone has insight into that, I'll pass it on.

I'd like as much quality as possible. Tapes, especially cassettes, will have the issue of hiss so ideally I'd like to reduce that while not losing an accurate recording.

I know Roxio has filter stuff, but didn't know if I really needed to go that route for something which I'll only use long enough to transfer what I have and then I don't know if I'd ever need it again.

Anyway, what do I need to get good transfers and what are things I need to watch out for? I may be in music, but never been into this particular area.

Will garage band do this well? Audacity? Does it matter whether pre or post processing is used when moving to the computer? I was thinking that, if it didn't matter, it could be a plus to get everything transferred and then alway be able to go back to those copies if a better option for cleaning them up is available later (or I get more money to buy something better).

[Rommel]

I have made a few copies of cassette tapes and LPs and converted to digital.
The software I prefer is Roxio Easy Creator 5 Platinum. I know it's an older version but I prefer it over Roxio Creator 9 which I also own but don't care for to much.

Creator 5 requires a patch or else the program wont see your drives when installed and the program is no longer supported.( I do have the patch)

Anyway, I see no way around getting such a program. Besides, if these memories are worth your while to save and relect to later, may as well get something that will do a good job.

My sterio is close to my PC and it is simply go from strerio headphone out to line in on your pc.

Choose line in, in your software options. The advantage of Roxio 9 gives better volume recording control. These programs offer auto track after a preset amount of silance or else you will need to manually start/stop for each track. I would, even if I have to manually, make tracks so if burned onto a CD you can jump around as you wish.

A lot of this is trial and error. Don't put the volume to loud coming out of your sterio.

I like to save it as a wave file first because that is the only format the wave editor feature recognizes. This feature will allow you to cross fad several different ways and be creative with your recordings. Not to brag but I've used this feature and pple can't tell unless I tell them I did that not the studio.

Once you have what you want then you can convert to a smaller file like MP3 if needed.

Perhaps someone can offer abetter way but this is my preferred way.

Good luck!

[smax013]

Basically, you will hook up the stereo (or tape player) to the computer through the mic in port. Then, you need some recording software.

Free options should be Audacity or GarageBand (I believe GarageBand will do this, but never tried). If you want a paid for option then Roxio Toast (Easy Creator that the other poster mentioned is a Windoze program...Toast is the Mac "version").

As to post or pre processing, I would say in general you should try to get it in with as much quality as possible, but you can "fix" stuff with various programs to a degree as I understand it.

[dabigkahuna]

Yeah, one of my concerns is what I use to play the cassettes into the computer. I don't have a stereo system. I do have a desktop cassette player (something that requires plugging into a sound system to actually hear anything, but I don't think it is anything of high quality. Maybe I can borrow something better.

If the silence doesn't create a track, can you just add them in manually after saving to the computer? I certainly would want them broken into tracks.

I do know about recording too loud. If the software has something like the old recorders have - dials or something that shows if a recording is going "into the red" - I can handle that.

While I don't know about cross-fading, etc, other than having heard the terms, I do note the advantage of a wave file.

Thanks.

[dabigkahuna]

From what little I know from here and talking to people, I guess a big question would be whether garage band or Audacity will do as good a job for my limited needs as Roxio's software would.

If it would, then I can then start checking out getting the hardware to play things into the computer and how the heck the software works (maybe leading to more questions). If the sound quality and filtering from Roxio is definitely better, well, then it's time to save money!

[Rommel]

HI,

If the silence doesn't create a track, can you just add them in manually after saving to the computer?

You will need to manually start/stop using the pause button and stopping it on your PC in a coordinated manner.

I use this method anyway.

All is in my arms reach so its no problem. Saving as a wave file you can clean anything that is undesireable. It figuar it would be easier to make tracks the first time or else you'll need to search for your spots you want to break them. That sounds like more work than the first option of doing as you go and clean latter.

Cleaning later you can start saved track via use of a slider and clean the end of a track immediatly.

[dabigkahuna]

That seems odd (that you have to create them manually, as you play the file in, if the silence doesn't create the track. I say that because you could load in an entire recording only to find out no tracks were made and have to start over with the only other choice being to assume it won't work automatically and just do it the other way to start with.

Even my portable mini-disk player gives more options than that. I can find a spot in the recording where I want a mark placed at the end of a song and press a key. I can then move to where I want to start the new track and place another mark. Then I play the section between the marks (typically long gaps between songs or announcements of the next song, etc, and press a key combination to delete it. Not super easy, but better than having to record all over again.

I'm completely unfamiliar even with garage band, but I have used iMovie a little bit. It lets you select portions as you see fit. I was kinda thinking music software would let you do the same.

I kinda picture software that would lay out the entire recording in a horizontal line (maybe more than one if it is really long. Then you can click any place on the line to jump the playback to that spot. When you find the spot you want to end one track, you would stop it and click something to insert a track mark. Doing it this way should be pretty quick and if there is dead stuff between you want eliminated, they would each be their own track and easily deleted.

Doesn't the software work something like that? I realize that we all get into certain habits and don't always know what else is possible because we personally are satisfied with whatever method we adopted.

If anyone can tell me for sure if this is or is not possible, I'd appreciate it.

[Rommel]

You are right, if you placed the cassette in and let it play in its entirity it could be one continuos wave form where you can click anywhere to play.
If the music recording you are wanting to do has clear breaks then the auto tracking between silence is the way to go.

My only beef with auto tracking is that some songs have breaks by design or fade out than fad ins, for example Led Zeppelins "Thank You" off their second LP.

That song fads out than back in and would be a one track song but auto recorded as 2. So when burned to a CD it have a break onless you tried to put it back together.

But as I said, If your recorded cassette music has clearly defind breaks only at the end of the songs. Go the auto route.

On another thought, if you didn't auto track and it was one continous recording, you would know the breaks because they will show as a flat line not a wave form.

So the question is are your song breaks clearly gapped at only the end? If so auto track.

[dabigkahuna]

Since these are live recordings, there is a good chance crowd noise would prevent clear breaks - and I'd still want to cut out announcements and such.

So, if I can click anyplace to start playing, can I click any place and have it insert a track mark?

[Rommel]

I can't say I am aware of the feature.

It would be nice. Perhaps someone has a program that will.

How many minutes/hours of music do you have?

If you find a program that will do that, that sounds like a nice thing.

But if you can't find one I'd do it the way I am comfortable and familiar. Break it during original recording to your mac,

Title everything to keep order as you go. When done use the cross fad feature to rejoin during applause or just fad out then in the next track so it will sound cleaner instead of abrubt endings. I personally would try and rejoin them. If successful it will sound continous but you will see where you joined them when your CD player announces the next track.

[smax013]

dabigkahuna said:

That seems odd (that you have to create them manually, as you play the file in, if the silence doesn't create the track. I say that because you could load in an entire recording only to find out no tracks were made and have to start over with the only other choice being to assume it won't work automatically and just do it the other way to start with.

Even my portable mini-disk player gives more options than that. I can find a spot in the recording where I want a mark placed at the end of a song and press a key. I can then move to where I want to start the new track and place another mark. Then I play the section between the marks (typically long gaps between songs or announcements of the next song, etc, and press a key combination to delete it. Not super easy, but better than having to record all over again.

I'm completely unfamiliar even with garage band, but I have used iMovie a little bit. It lets you select portions as you see fit. I was kinda thinking music software would let you do the same.

I kinda picture software that would lay out the entire recording in a horizontal line (maybe more than one if it is really long. Then you can click any place on the line to jump the playback to that spot. When you find the spot you want to end one track, you would stop it and click something to insert a track mark. Doing it this way should be pretty quick and if there is dead stuff between you want eliminated, they would each be their own track and easily deleted.

Doesn't the software work something like that? I realize that we all get into certain habits and don't always know what else is possible because we personally are satisfied with whatever method we adopted.

If anyone can tell me for sure if this is or is not possible, I'd appreciate it.

Keep in mind that a Mini Disc has everything on the disc and you are merely putting in a "marker".

MP3s (and other sound files) generally don't have a "chapter" (aka marker) type function...to get the function you have seperate sound files.

The end result is it will depend on the software you use to get the "sound" into the computer. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that Toast will have the ability to "automatically" detect the gaps between songs and split the files. You would have to peruse through the features to see if they say anything.

I suspect that Audacity and GarageBand will NOT have such a feature and you will be force to "manually" split the songs. This can be done during the transfer...or you can record the whole thing and then split the songs later (both are first and foremost sound editors).

[dabigkahuna]

Not sure how much music total. The maximum number of performances for concert band each year would probably be 4, but usually 3. Time for actual music may be as little as 12 minutes to maybe 20, I guess. I started teaching in 1975, but many concerts never were recorded.

So, if EVERYTHING was recorded, there would be 33 years with something like an hour of music a year, maybe. That's my best guesstimate. Probably don't have recordings from the first 4 years. Oh, wait, some years I did just one level or band, but other years I may have concerts where I did beginning band, middle school, and high school so those concerts would be longer for the portions I'd want.

Normally I won't need them at all - it isn't like I go back and listen to very old recordings and, being a school band, you aren't going to have the quality of a professional recording. Heck, even though there were usually good bands, you can easily find clear flaws.

But these were my bands and someday when I old and completely retired, I may want to go back and remember the good old days! Now, my friends bands were exceptional and worth listening too just for enjoyment of the performance. And he has other recordings of bands he'd probably want to save too.

[dabigkahuna]

I understand that with the mini disk, everything is on the disk. I guess the marker is put in it's own spot on the disk, thus not directly affecting the music.

Doing that in a file would require splicing in the mark in the file, I suppose. Still, it seems like it should be something that could be done, much like I can mark sections of music in garage band and save just that part.

I guess ultimately I'm just going to have to do some with the free stuff I can find, even if the quality isn't good, just for hands on experience. It's like when trying to learn about the mac - I had to ask questions and then the things I didn't quite understand I took with me to the Apple store and tried to figure it out on their machines.

Nothing quite beats actually doing.

When school is done in a few weeks, I'll start with garage band just to see what I get. Then move to Audacity. Hopefully that will give me enough experience to decide about Roxio or something.

[smax013]

dabigkahuna said:

Doing that in a file would require splicing in the mark in the file, I suppose. Still, it seems like it should be something that could be done, much like I can mark sections of music in garage band and save just that part.

Both the file format and the program that you use to listen would have to be "setup" to deal with the "marks"...and generic file formats like MP3, etc just don't support that function...and neither do programs that play them.