3/8/2020 How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC/Computer

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How to Record Cassette Tapes to

PC/Computer
Transfer that mixtape you made for your gf in 1999

Written by: Aseem Kishore, Twitter: @akishore

Posted on: December 1st, 2014 in: Computer Tips

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So you have a bunch of old audio cassettes that
you want to copy or transfer to your computer?
There are many gadgets and programs out
there that you can buy which will make the
process as simple as possible, however, since
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3/8/2020 How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC/Computer

I’m a techie and my blog is all about easy to

understand computer tips, I’m going to try and
teach you how you can transfer audio
cassettes to your computer for free!

I’ll also mention a couple of those gadgets at

the end for those of you who don’t have the
time or patience do follow the instructions
below.

Using Audacity to for

Audio Transfer
What you’ll need before you can copy cassettes to your computer or PC:

1. Audacity – Free recording and editing software

2. Cassette Tape Deck with RCA output jacks or tape player with 3.5mm mini-plug (hopefully
you already have this if you own a lot of cassettes)

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3/8/2020 How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC/Computer

3. Stereo RCA cable with mini-jack connector or mini-male to stereo mini-male cable

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3/8/2020 How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC/Computer

4. Sound card with line-in jack (usually in blue)

Step 1: Connect tape deck to computer

The rst thing you’ll need to do in order to record the audio from a cassette tape is to connect
the tape deck or tap player to the computer itself. You’re going to need the Stereo RCA cable
with mini-jack or the mini-male to mini-male cable for this step.

Go ahead and connect the male RCA side of the cable (red and white) into the female RCA
connectors on the tape deck. Make sure that the RCA jacks on the tape deck say “Line Out” or
“Audio Out“.

Now it’s time to connect the other end of the cable to your computer. If you’re using the RCA
cable with mini-jack connector on the other end, then simply plug it into the female Line-In

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3/8/2020 How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC/Computer

jack on the back of your computer (the blue one out of the three). However, if you have an RCA
cable that has red and white RCA connectors on both ends, you’ll need to buy a mini-male to 2
RCA female adapter as shown below.

However, if you’re going to be buying this, you may as well buy a cable with the mini-jack
already on the other end! Using an adapter may cause a loss of audio quality.

If you’re using a desktop PC, it should be color coded, which makes it much easier to gure out
where to connect it to. Basically, it’s the blue colored jack that is your Line In.

Step 2: Record audio from cassette tape using Audacity

Now that you have your cassette tape deck connected to the computer, we can use the open-
source audio recording and editing software Audacity to capture the audio.

Firstly, open Audacity and click on Edit and then Preferences way at the bottom. If it’s not
already there, click on Audio I/O in the left hand menu. This is where you can select the Input
Source that you want to record sound from. You should see a section heading called
Recording and under that a drop down menu called Device.

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Make sure that you do NOT pick Microsoft SoundMapper if you’re on a Windows machine. It
should be something similar to what you see above or something like “Line-In:Realtek HD
Device“, etc. You can try all of the options in the drop down until you actually get the sound to
record, one of them will work.

Now you simply need to adjust the volume for your recording by clicking on the downward
pointing arrow on the right hand (red) VU recording level meters.

Now click on Monitor Input or Start Monitoring. Now when you begin recording by clicking
the Record button, if you see the sound is going too far to the right (red bars), then you can
adjust the input volume level by dragging the slider to the left in the Mixer Toolbar (which is
slightly lower and to the left of the recording levels meters.

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When you are nished recording, go ahead and click the Stop button (yellow color) and go to
File and choose Save Project As. This is will save it as a Audacity project so that you can come
back and edit it later.

To export the nal edited version of your recording to MP3 or WAV format, click on File and
choose Export As. You can then take these MP3s and burn them to CD or import then into
iTunes. You can choose between WAV, AIFF, OGG, FLAC, and MP2 format for exporting.

Remember you can always pause the recording at any time if there are parts of the cassette
tape you don’t want transferred to your computer. Otherwise, you should now a digital version
of your audio cassettes!

Other Methods to Transfer Audio Cassettes

If you don’t mind throwing down some cash, there are a couple of handy gadgets you can
purchase to make the transfer process a lot easier.

USB Cassette Player

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My favorite and your cheapest option is the USB Cassette Player like the one from Amazon
shown below for $22. You just plug the thing into your computer’s USB port and use the
accompanying software to record the audio into MP3 format.

Tape Deck with CD Recorder

The more expensive option is to purchase a tape deck like I have shown in the tutorial above,
but instead buy one that includes a built-in CD recorder. A normal tape deck will cost you
anywhere from $50 to $150 whereas the tape deck with CD recorder option will set you back
anywhere from $200 to $350.

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Teac is a popular brand and has one model that lets you play and record directory on the
device itself. It’s a bit expensive at $335, but possibly worth it if you have hundreds of
cassettes you want to convert to digital format.

Hopefully, this is enough information to get your cassettes into digital format without a lot of
trouble. If you have a question, post a comment! Enjoy!

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© 2020 Best Buy

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3/8/2020 How to Record Cassette Tapes to PC/Computer

Founder of Online Tech Tips and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job
in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several
technical certi cations. Read Aseem's Full Bio

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Welcome to Online Tech Tips – A blog that provide readers with daily computer tutorials, technology news, software reviews, and
personal computing tips. My name is Aseem Kishore and I am a full-time professional blogger. I graduated from Emory University with a
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