How To: Convert Audio Cd's to Tapes

I Love How To's, lists, that can tell you how to achieve something, or do something. A question I was asked again and again, and a list of other questions, prompted me to speak to my ed, to start a How To Column. This is the first in the many to come.

As technology rushes up the evolutionary ladder, it’s leaving behind fossilised gadgets and mounts of regret. For with no option of upgrading the obsolete products, people are often forced to discard them. Such seems to be the case with audio tapes. As the music world hurtled from LPs to cassettes to CDs and MP3s, the simplest—but expensive—option seemed to be to buy the same music in a new format. But as people are beginning to realise, there is a cheaper way: converting old LPs or tapes to CDs and MP3s. But how does one go about rendering the conversion? Here’s how.

Things that you need
An LP or cassette player, depending on what you are trying to convert.
A computer with Windows/Linux or Mac operating system and a sound card with a line in input or a microphone input.

An audio cable with an earphone pin at one end that goes into the headphone output of the old cassette or LP player. You will need to buy an EP-to-EP stereo cable, which is available at all electronic stores, and should not cost you more than Rs 50.
A software called Audacity (www.audacity.sourceforge.net).

Once you have the material, it’s time to start the conversion

Set up the player and load the cassette you want to convert. Rewind it and stop the player. Link the EP cable from headphone output to microphone input of the PC. Fire up Audacity.

Set the volume of the player (cassette or LP) to midway, then open the dialog box on your computer to set up the microphone level. Set this to 50 per cent and make sure anything that looks like ‘Mic Boost’ is switched off.

The first run of the record will be a trial record to ensure that you get the correct levels (a bit difficult and not attainable the first time round. Let’s do the first cut, or what is called, scratch.

In Audacity, press the record button and then the play button on your LP/cassette player. You will see a level meter; make sure the level does not cross into the ‘red’ mark. Stop the recording in a minute and then reverse and listen. If you can hear the tones and not a lot of noise, it means the scratch is working fine. If not, then adjust the levels on either the microphone input or the volume output on your player.

Now start a new file in Audacity, rewind the casette to the original position where you want to start recording, hit the record button and then the play button on the casette player. Record the entire song. Your screen will show a wave form, so keep listening to the music and once the song is done, press the stop button on Audacity and then the stop button in the player.
Save the file as a WAV/MP3 file (WAV file is needed if you are making a regular audio CD, and the MP3 if you are going to burn these files to an iPod or make an MP3 CD).

To generate an audio CD that to play in an audio CD player, make sure you have a CD recorder in PC and the CD recorder software. Most CD recorder software (Nero in Windows) comes with an audio CD create button. Press this, select the WAV files you would like to burn to your CD, and wait for about 10 minutes. Your CD is created.
If you want to create an MP3 CD, select a data CD project in your CD recorder software, and then select the MP3 files you want to burn to the CD.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 6th January 2007, read on how to convert your Audio Tapes to CD's.