-=PCTechTalk=- Re: help w/recording from cassette player to computer pls
- From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 17:39:08 -0400
Cristy,
This is in reply to both of your posts. Set the Sound Schemes in
Control Panel to "No Sounds" to eliminate those sounds from your recordings
and mute your microphone, too.
You're opening up a very LARGE can of worms here. The stuff that can be
done with audio (& video) are enough to fill an encyclopedia's worth of
volumes. So, let's take this one step at a time.
First up is getting them onto your hard drive. You've already learned
at least one way to do that using apps you already have on your system.
Still, it's best that you really understand the difference between some of
the formats that can be used. WAV is to audio what BMP is to images. That
is, both are not compressed at all and every bit of data that could be read
from the original is included in the file. MP3, on the other hand, is a
compression scheme that tosses out certain types of data that the MP3
algorithm deems unnecessary. Since some of the original data is lost
forever, MP3 is considered a "Lossy" format. Of course, the loss of this
data results in an MP3 file that is only about 10% of the size of the
original. There are other popular and not so popular formats that can be
used as well and some of them are "Lossless", which means that all of the
original data remains intact. However, that is a discussion for another
time. The main point of this paragraph is that you want to keep your audio
in WAV (or some other 'lossless') format throughout the entire time you're
working with (ripping, editing, burning) these files. Once you have the
tunes on CD (without pops and cracks), you can THEN make MP3's out of them
to keep on your hard drive (for listening while you work on other things).
Of course, you could also convert them to any other format (including
'lossless' ones) that your favorite player supports (again, further info on
this idea warrants a separate discussion). If all of that makes sense,
you're ready to begin your journey towards becoming a pro.
Once the WAV files are on your hard drive, you should spend some time
editing them. This means you'll need a good editing program (there are many
of them and one of the best is the open source "Audacity") and you'll need
to spend some time learning how to best use it. Since you don't want to
ruin a perfectly good rip, locate one of your ripped files and make a copy
of it first. You can then experiment with the copy without fear of harming
the original. These apps can help you easily break up an entire cassette
tape's contents into individual songs, remove empty space at the beginning
and end of each song (leave a small gap of between 1-2 seconds so songs
don't run into each other later on the CD), remove tape hiss & other
background noise, etc.. It will take some time to master the editing
controls, but this time is WELL worth the results you'll get on the CDs you
make.
After your tunes are 'mastered', they will be ready for burning onto
whatever optical medium your players support. It won't matter for playing
them on the computer, but it will matter to standalone players. Another
thing to keep in mind is that there are fundamental differences between
commercial disks (these are stamped by machine), CD-R (these are made by
melting different areas of a thin metal foil) and CD-RWs (similar to CD-R,
but with a different type of metal foil that can be remelted to hold
different data numerous times). Many older players don't support burned
disks (the pits and hills are not as deep or tall on burned medium), while
some support most CD-Rs, but not CD-RWs. It already sounds like your player
doesn't like the CD-RW disks you're using. It MIGHT work with a different
brand, but I'd hate to recommend something only to find out later that it
was a waste of your money. A regular CD-R also might work, but the ability
varies depending on brand of both player (and possibly the quality of the
disks themselves). You'll probably want to have a separate discussion on
ways to get around this limitation, too. I have thoughts to share, but will
only bring them to your attention if you're actually interested in perusing
them. I'm looking out for my fingers here. lol
I'll let you digest what I've already included here and then let your
questions guide the next part of this discussion. :O)
Peace,
G
"The only dumb questions are the ones that are never asked"
----- Original Message -----
From: "cristy" <poppy0206@xxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 4:40 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: help w/recording from cassette player to
computer pls
> HI Gman,
>
> I was able to figure it out before I read your email but do have some
> questions. I made a recording of one of my songs that was on my cassette
> tape onto my hard drive.
>
> I had figured out where to put the red and white plugs and the 1/8" one
> into
> the sound card line in. I used my Goldwave program I already had on the
> computer to record. This created a .wav file. It played back fine, I had
> my headset on listening as it was recording and playing back. I played
> around with the volume setting on the "line in" in my controls to see if
> that made a difference too. I then named and saved it. I then opened my
> razor lame program and encolded it to an mp3 file and burned it to a CD
> using the windows media player I think. It recorded to the CD-RW disk but
> saved as a cda file (was it supposed to?). Anyhow it would play back on
> my
> computer (the cda file on the disk) but had background pops and noises.
> It
> would not however play back on my CD player that is separate from my
> computer even though it is supposed to play CD-RW disks. But it says it
> wont play computer disks or mp3's so I am confused. How do I get it to
> play
> back on a CD player separate from my computer and how do I rid of the
> background noise. I just now did mute the mic like you said. On the
> control panel, I went under sounds, and audio sounds and the sound scheme
> was just set on a blank space nothing written there, the drop down offered
> no sounds and default. Should I choose the "no sounds"?
>
> Thanks for any tips. I would like to be able to play them on CD players,
> once successful at that I want to play with some digital enhancement to
> try
> to improve the quality as most of these were recorded when I was singing
> live in bands in clubs and we used an old tapeplayer boom box type thing,
> may not be much I can do with that!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Please remember to trim your replies (including this sentence and everything
below it) and adjust the subject line as necessary.
To unsubscribe or change your email settings:
//www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk
To access our Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/
//www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/
To contact only the PCTT Mod Squad, write to:
pctechtalk-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
---------------------------------------------------------------
Other related posts:
