I am trying to make simple audio recordings made on my microcassette recorder. Can someone please tell me what is the best software and formate (.wav, etc.) to use for this? They are all 60 minutes long and there are four of them. I want to get each 60 minute recording in one file and then burn them onto CD's for my family. Thanks very much for the advice.
JPF

7/27/2006 1:13:14 PM

bttt

7/27/2006 3:07:21 PM

does it have a connection to a computer? USB?

7/27/2006 3:08:20 PM

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity, it's free, and will do what you want.

You'll need to get an 1/8 male to 1/8 male audio cable (I'm assuming your cassette recorder has a standard headphone jack). Then you'll need to plug that into the audio in jack on your soundcard. Then just adjust your levels, hit record on the computer, hit play on the cassette player, and when you're done just export it to wav and burn it on a cd.

7/27/2006 3:21:09 PM

Programs -> Accesories -> Entertainment -> Sound Recorder
I don't understand the need for audacity

7/27/2006 6:24:05 PM

i'm pretty sure sound recorder can't record for more than 60 seconds, let alone 60 minutes

7/27/2006 6:27:36 PM

Hey, I really like that software package but is there any way to save the audio file as anything other than an .aud file?
Thanks very much!
JPF

7/27/2006 6:28:25 PM

Yeah, that's the problem I had. I couldn't figure out a way to make window's sound recorder record anything longer than sixty seconds. Does anybody know how?
Thanks!

7/27/2006 6:31:00 PM

Hey That was a stupid question about creating a wave file, it's obvious. Thanks!

7/27/2006 6:40:49 PM

you just did export>wave right?

7/27/2006 6:42:26 PM

Yeah, I got it. Hey, Is it better to export as a wav file or to export as a mp3? Also, do you have any tips on how to get the best sound quality with this thing? So far I'm just adjusting the microphone volume and it seems like as long as it doesn't exceed -6 it's ok, but not great. Of course, I'm working with a microcassette so I guess it's never going to get real great.
Thanks again for telling me about this!

7/27/2006 6:56:55 PM

The mp3 file will take up a lot less room.

7/27/2006 7:51:47 PM

But if you're going to burn it to a CD you might as well just go to .wav instead.

7/27/2006 8:31:28 PM

^ 99% of CD burning will auto convert the mp3 files and quality isn't really an issue with a handheld voice recorder.

7/27/2006 8:49:33 PM

wav will take up more room, but it's not an issue if you're simply buring it onto cd right after recording the audio, doesn't seem like much of a point to compress the audio just to decompress it a few seconds later. 60 minutes of audio in wav isn't going to be that big, I've recorded several of my dj mixes to wav and they weren't that big.

Basically, there's no point in bothering to convert and lowering the audio quality.

Quote :

"o far I'm just adjusting the microphone volume and it seems like as long as it doesn't exceed -6 it's ok, but not great."

What you want to do is adjust the gain on your sound card and the cassette player to about half volume, it should be really quiet. Then record everything. Then when you're finished, hit control+a. Go to effect. Go to normalize. both checkboxes should be checked, hit ok. now go to effect agian. go to amplify. Amplification should be 3.0. new peak amplitude should be 0.0. don't allow clipping should be checked. click ok.
This leveled out the volume of your track, and then amplified it to the proper levels (so it doesn't play too quiet)
It's kind of a pain, but it should make your track sound about as good as it's going to get.

[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 1:03 AM. Reason : ]

7/28/2006 12:53:28 AM

microphone volume?? don't plug it into Mic-In.. that'll really sound distorted.. look for Line-In.. if all you have is mic-in, then find the option to turn off mic boost

7/28/2006 1:52:18 AM