How easy/hard would it be to rip tape to digital?

Id like to rip 3 or 4 tapes to digital files. Lossless preferably but Id settle for 320 mp3s.

Would I need a load of hardware or what? I won't bother if I have to go off and buy a load of shit.

Cheers lads/ladies.

its a complex process that requires professional expertise and state if the art equipment

  On 12/7/2010 at 12:44 AM, chassis said:

Id like to rip 3 or 4 tapes to digital files. Lossless preferably but Id settle for 320 mp3s.

 

Would I need a load of hardware or what? I won't bother if I have to go off and buy a load of shit.

 

Cheers lads/ladies.

Ion Tape2PC USB Cassette Deck ($90)

http://www.amazon.com/Ion-Tape2PC-USB-Cassette-Deck/dp/B000VG802I

Or do it on the cheap by running from the headphone out of your cassette player (even Walkman) into a USB digital interface ($30). Then download something free like audacity and just record. You can do all the metatagging there as well I believe when you convert it from .wav to .mp3.

  Quote

its a complex process that requires professional expertise and state if the art equipment

lol

Fuck the 90 quid method.

Cheap analogue inputs it is.

sorry, that's $90 USD... but still cheaper to go usb interface

just don't bother buying that tape and go out and get pissed like you normally do, chassis, lol.

surely you have the MP3's already and the tape aint gonna be worth much more in 5-10 years...

Most of my cassette players have a line-out. That's always got the job done for me when I needed to do a transfer.

do you have a cassette player with line outs?

do you have a computer with a soundcard/interface with line ins?

that's all the hardware you would need. you can get recording software like the aforementioned Audacity for free.

if you don't have the hard ware you require, then find someone who does, or someone who specialises in analogue to digital transfers. it shouldn't cost too much to get a couple of cassettes transferred. i'd do it for you myself, but alas no tape deck these days. :(

  On 12/7/2010 at 1:22 AM, soundwave said:

its a complex process that requires professional expertise and state if the art equipment

awesome

On a more serious note, can anybody recommend a good tape deck?

anything second hand by nakamichi that has been well looked after will be a bargain at today's prices.

if i was to record digital files made on a laptop to tape and then back onto a computer and back on to tape and back (etc) would it add "warmth" to the sound quality? i'm curious about saturation and ways to add it to my music

try it and see? the more passes you make, the more distortion and noise you will add, but that might be just what you are looking for?

if i'm going for subtle warmth and harmonic distortion, i prefer to run things hot through transformers etc.

  On 12/7/2010 at 3:26 AM, vamos scorcho said:

if i was to record digital files made on a laptop to tape and then back onto a computer and back on to tape and back (etc) would it add "warmth" to the sound quality? i'm curious about saturation and ways to add it to my music

yes it would. or rather, it would add the intricacies of the analogue medium known as cassette tape.

I'd bounce that tape through hardware compression when digitalising, beefs up the sound...

i was told that a lot of trendy underground bands are releasing stuff on tape not to be retro cool but because it really costs fuck all to do these days and stops people easily ripping to mp3

loads of bands at ATP were at it last weekend

I'd buy into that

  On 12/7/2010 at 4:23 PM, soundwave said:

i was told that a lot of trendy underground bands are releasing stuff on tape not to be retro cool but because it really costs fuck all to do these days and stops people easily ripping to mp3

 

loads of bands at ATP were at it last weekend

Thats actually quite a good idea. But you limit your audience to people who've been to your gigs and people who have a tape player.

So maybe not so good if you want to get noticed by non fans.

  On 12/7/2010 at 12:44 AM, chassis said:

Id like to rip 3 or 4 tapes to digital files. Lossless preferably but Id settle for 320 mp3s.

 

Would I need a load of hardware or what? I won't bother if I have to go off and buy a load of shit.

 

Cheers lads/ladies.

if one of them is the mark fell/evol tape that was just released i wouldn't bother trying to rip it to digital. roc at alku will usually provide digital files if you paid for the tape, i'd just ask him.